I'm an alcoholic and have undergone several detox treatments as well as rehabs in india. I also attend alcoholics anonymous meetings which is very inconvenient since it clashes with my workhours. I was told about naltrexone tablets that help reduce and eventually, eliminate the desire for alcohol. I'm not a daily drinker. Instead, I go on frequent binges, usually after 3-6 months of sobriety. Thankfully, I have no other medical conditions. Would taking naltrexone help me?

Dr. Saul PereiraPsychologist48yrs exp

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I suggest you meet with your doctor for actual prescription. It is true it is good for lowering the desire for the consumption of alcohol. It is however not a guarantee to totally eliminate the desire. For that I suggest that you do some counseling to deal with the desire and reduce it eventually. Whatever counseling you have done so far, including the twelve steps, may not have sufficed to include this element. There may be factors in your upbringing and genes that have made you vulnerable and that have been cultivated to this extent. There are certain approaches and skills to develop to manage the desire in relation to your background and that will ensure that it is permanent and there are no relapses. It does not matter when you feel like drinking, as long as you need your drink. This could lead to increased tolerance levels so that over time you will need to drink more to get the same or greater effect. You need to identify why you need to drink, and go back into your childhood to find out other influences on your personality that makes you prone to addiction. Meet with an addiction counselor and work with them to sort out this drive. Your already display the classic tendency to first obsess about it and then compulsively feel driven to meet that need, though in a binge fashion. The simplest thing to do is to do some other interesting activity during the evening times and months that the drive prevails. Meet your oral need with some other non-intoxicating drink like soups, juices, and sodas with lime, etc. If you think that you will find it very difficult, then admit yourself to a hospital and go for de-addiction: which normally lasts for about two weeks. Then follow that up with addiction counseling from a professional for at least three years to completely get rid of the habit. If this is also not enough, then admit yourself into a de-addiction center and stay there for at least 6 months and after that attend counseling with a professional. There are medicines, like the one you suggested, that help with the staving off of drinking just to ease the initial craving. Ultimately, it is your will power and the support that you receive from the medical fraternity and your close and dear ones. You must also learn to substitute and deal with the oral need, a rigid value system, the script issue, and of course look at all the genetic factors to plan a strategy not to get into what is called ?cross addictions? i.e. Another form of addiction that may appear alright but is in fact as bad as the primary addiction. The center or hospital and the counselor will advise and guide you on several measures and precautions you will need to take to stay with your resolve. Even after the rehabilitation you must attend meetings (which you are thankfully doing) and continue this support for a long time. Your family will also need to attend some sessions and go for l-anon meetings for their co-dependency issues. You cannot be treated in isolation because the family has gotten used to your drinking and has made some unhealthy adaptations to somehow cope. Make a serious plan with the family and whoever else?s support you can get and act on it fast. As a combination these two therapies (counseling and rehabilitation) will aid in dealing with the addiction. It will however take a long time to completely come off of the enslavement. Even if it is of the binge drinking kind.  

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