Antabuse/Drinking - not THAT sick

[Cinders]

Antabuse/Drinking - not THAT sick

I must plug in here because I did Antabuse for a while I had incredible hopes it would keep me from drinking. I really did.

I didn't.

I spent many a day in a bed screaming in agony. It is not worth it.

Not worth it.

His body will continue to get more and more averse to alcohol on the Antabuse. It coats the liver so that your body cannot metabolize the alcohol.

The damage he is doing to his liver and his body by drinking while taking Antabuse is immense. Immense.

I tried it, too.

I so wanted it to be my "silver bullet." It was not.

Please do not let him take Antabuse and drink. It will hurt him in ways you cannot see but it will do harm. Huge harm.

Love,
Cindi

[lindasant]

Antabuse/Drinking - not THAT sick

The antabuse was our "last hope" to help him stop drinking. So far, in the past few weeks he has drank three times (that I know of) while taking it. I can't stop him from drinking. For some reason he seems to think that he can overcome the sickness. The first two times he just got a "little" sick. The third time (yesterday) He DID get so sick after drinking 1/2 beer (at work) that he had to come home and go to bed.

I used to have to babysit a drunk....now I have to babysit a sick guy

[more2life]

Antabuse/Drinking - not THAT sick

That's a step in the right direction. Maybe he will get tired of feeling sick.

[mollyka]

Antabuse/Drinking - not THAT sick

I can't grasp why he would want to take antabuse and drink am I missing something? Why doesnt he just stop taking the antabuse ? At least then he'd just be a drunk, not a sick drunk - I dunno I don't get it at all

[drink2much]

Antabuse/Drinking - not THAT sick

the longer he takes antabuse the stronger his reaction will be - and hopefully it will be strong enough to stop him drinking while he's on it.

First time I took it I didn't find it stopped me drinking wine, but this time it definitely has stopped me.

I've been on 200 mg x 2 three times a day; and there is no way I'd manage more than half a glass of wine on that. I wouldn't even try.

I can't grasp why he would want to take antabuse and drink am I missing something?

I understand it. He takes antabuse cos he wants to stop drinking; and he drinks because he can't stop drinking. Eternal dilemma.

Hope things improve for him/you. I do believe if he continues the antab he won't be able to continue drinking.

I've researched quite a bit and not found anyone who has died from antab and AL, though the literature does say it is possible. You do feel like you are dying tho!

D2Mx

[lindasant]

Antabuse/Drinking - not THAT sick

yes that's it...he drinks cause he can't stop no matter how sick he gets. The antabuse is working now since he got REALLY sick last time. I was hoping he would get so sick the first time he tried to drink on antabuse that he would never do it again. It took three times for him to get REALLY sick.

He's been the AA route several times....worked for a couple of weeks, then he would buy a bottle and sit in the car and drink it in the AA parking lot and tell me he'd been to a meeting. (and then drive home, drunk, with no driver's license). It was scarier to know that he was out driving (to AA meetings supposedly) than to just have him stay home and get trashed. Right now all his DUIs have been taken care of and he will get his license back in another year. We just can't afford him going to jail again.

I'm not an alcoholic, so in my heart of hearts I just can't quite grasp WHY someone would want to drink so much no matter how much damage the drinking is doing to his life, bank account, and relationships....but I keep trying to understand. I have removed all alcohol from the house and have quit having my nightly wine and drinking socially to try to support him in his effort to not drink. Not really a problem for me to not drink, but I do miss it a bit lol. In a perfect world, he would be able to drink like a "normal" person and not become a raging a$$ every time. He still thinks he should be able to drink a "little bit" like "normal" people, but we all know that's not the case.

[Greg]

Antabuse/Drinking - not THAT sick

I don't know if there is any way to fully explain to a non-alcoholic what it is like to be an alcoholic or what goes on in an alcoholic's mind, but I'll try to explain my own case as one example.

To me, alcoholism has always felt like there are two sides to me and my personality. There is what I call the logical side, which knows full well the consequences of alcoholic drinking. I have always been aware that my alcoholism has been causing me grief in all areas of my life. I know that I have been throwing my life and health away over the years. I know that I can't get a job, a girlfriend, or a normal life while I drink. I have been hurting myself and my loved ones so much and blowing so much money and time on alcohol. My reputation is in tatters. Many former friends and associates have simply written me off as a loser with no life.

On the other hand there is the emotional or perhaps subconscious part of me that simply wants and needs to experience the feeling of being intoxicated with alcohol. That part of me wants the experience no matter what the consequences may be. To get drunk means having a couple of hours of "fun", escapism, and avoiding emotional pain. It means not having to experience depression, anxiety, loneliness, shyness, and other emotional crap that I have never been much good at coping with. Getting drunk is sort of like temporarily running away, with the knowledge that I can do it all over again the next night after getting through all the sickness as it wears off. This can hardly be called sane or rational thinking or behaviour, and is not a type of behaviour found in people who aren't addicted to alcohol or some other substance. I never want to drink just to have one drink, or for the taste of it, or to have a few drinks with mates. I drink purely to use alcohol as an intoxicating drug that will temporarily blot out all the problems...well, that's the idea anyway...after a while it can no longer blot everything out no matter how much I drink (due to having become extremely tolerant to it).

At the moment I am sober (3 weeks) and just trying to deal with life a day at a time with the help of baclofen and Antabuse, aswell as some AA meetings and trying to deal with underlying issues through therapy. Personally I'm too scared to drink on top of the Antabuse and in a way this is a relief, since I know that I'm no longer going to have stupid arguments inside my head about whether I should get drunk or not. I know I simply can't drink and get any sort of relief from it, since the Antabuse will kick in and make me sick, so there's no point in me trying to tell myself that I can benefit from a drink.

I hope your boyfriend can get this benefit from Antabuse and also start working out other issues he may have. As I said this is only my story of alcoholism, and others here will have stories that vary.

[lindasant]

Antabuse/Drinking - not THAT sick

he did it again....just came home wasted....and I've been watching him take his Antabuse pills. just don't understand WHY he is not getting extremely sick....I'm at my wit's end

[spedteach]

Antabuse/Drinking - not THAT sick

Maybe it's time for you to realize it's his problem. He's the only one who can make it work or not.
Take care of yourself. Seems to be all you can do right now.
Good luck.