Amber Hollingsworth breaks down how naltrexone blocks opioid receptors to treat addiction by preventing the high. The pill and monthly injection work differently, and stopping it carries overdose risk because tolerance drops. The Sinclair Method uses naltrexone before drinking to reduce alcohol cravings.
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Can naltrexone fix alcoholism? I mean, really a medication? Can you fix alcoholism with a pill? How about opiate addiction? Can you. Can you use naltrexone to fix opioid addiction? Well, the answer to that is maybe, sorta, kinda. And if you want to find out how all that works, then you're in the right place. Just keep watching this video. For those of you who are new here, welcome to Put the Shovel Down.
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Now, trexone, I'm going to tell you what it does in a second, but I do want you to know it comes in two forms. You can take it as like a medicine, like a pill, or you can take it in a once a month injection. And there are pros and cons of doing it either way. The pros of taking it in pill form, it's a lot easier to get that way and a lot less expensive. The pros of taking it in a once a month injection are kind of obvious, right? You only have to do it once a month. You don't have to remember to do it. You don't have to keep doing it over and over. You've done it, it's done, it's there for at least a month. But it is a little bit more difficult to get a hold of. You have to have a special prescription and they have to ship it from like this special pharmacy in Florida. But it's definitely doable. So let's talk about what it does, right? What naltrexone does is it binds. It's a medication. It binds to endorphin receptors in your brain, which essentially blocks those receptors. Now, these are the same receptors that an opioid acts on, you know, like a pain pill or heroin. So if you're taking naltrexone or if you are taking Vivitrol and you try to use pain pills or heroin, it's going to block the effects of that drug, meaning you can't get high from that drug when you're on naltrexone or vivitrol. So it's used sort of like as a deterrent. Because if you're not going to get high, it's not going to do anything to you, then you're not going to waste your money on it. Because anybody knows anything about opioid addiction, it is ridiculous expensive to get a hold of that stuff. So it can be very helpful. Here's how I think it helps. I think it helps because especially if you do the once a month injection, then you only have to make that decision once a month. You have to make the decision to be clean and sober once a month. You don't have to make it 450,000 times a day. So in my mind it can make staying sober from pain pills and heroin much easier. You don't have to do the will I won't. I. Well, I have some cash in my pocket. Well, I think I can get by with it. Or just this one time. It kind of, it can really go a long way to alleviate all of that internal dialogue that makes getting sober so doggone difficult. Now, there are some cons to taking naltrexone or vivitrol for opioid addiction. The cons are research does show that there's a slightly increased risk of overdose associated with this medicine. Before you freak out, let me tell you why. It's not because the medicine itself overdoses you. It is because a lot of people, when they finally come off of the medicine or they stop getting their vivitrol, Naltrexone or whatever, they go back out there and they use, but they use the same amount that they used before they ever started taking it. And they're not taking into consideration like their tolerance. And so because of that, it's kind of like they go back out there and they, they put a ton of opioid in their system and it overdoses them. That's where the increased risk comes from. And there's also sort of one other kind of version of that that can happen and that's somebody that's on this medication can be so desperate to get high that they take so much of the medicine. Just keep thinking if I take more it's going to work, that they can end themselves getting in trouble that way. All that being said, I'm not a doctor. I don't prescribe medicines. I can't tell you what to take and what not to take. I can tell. But What I can tell you is I have had many clients use this in opioid addiction pretty successfully. Now, you definitely got to be in a situation where you're really trying to fix this, right?
If you're in that situation, then talk.
To your doctor about it. It might be a good option for you. Now let's move on to using naltrexone to help with alcoholism. In the case of alcoholism, it is slightly more complicated. And the reason is, is because alcohol actually acts on five different neurotransmitters in your brain. Endorphins is only one of those neurotransmitters. So just like in the other it does is it blocks the endorphins. So if you are taking this medication and you drink alcohol with it, it will block partially the effects of the alcohol because it's blocking those endorphins. However, it doesn't block the entire effect of alcohol. So clients that I have had on this medication will say something like, well, it can kind of make it less fun than it used to be. Now, one of two things can happen if you're trying to go that route. You're either going to think, I'm just not trying hard enough and drink a lot more because you want to feel the way you want to feel. You want to get that buzz on. In that case, medication is not very helpful, or you're going to think, meh, this isn't that much fun anymore and you might drink less. So a lot of people use this medication to help prevent binge drinking. Now, when it comes to taking naltrexone for opioid use disorder, it's a pretty clear like, it blocks it. When it comes to taking it to help with alcoholism, it's like a partial thing, right? It can kind of. It blocks one of the things, but not all of the things, so it doesn't block all those effects. So you're going to see mixed results with this. There is actually a whole recovery model built around the idea of taking naltrexone for alcoholism. It is called the Sinclair method. And so in this method, people actually take the medicine before they drink. So they're not taking it trying not to drink. They're taking it trying not to drink as much. And I gotta say, I'm a little mixed on it. If you want to know how I feel about the Sinclair method, then I will link up my video on that for you at the end of this one. Now, as always, there are a ton of additional resources for you in the description, so don't forget to check those out and I'll catch you in the next video.
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