Taking Naltrexone at Any Stage of Alcoholism

Naltrexone medication isn’t for the early stages of alcohol use disorder or end-stage alcoholism. It can be used at any stage to help virtually anyone curb alcohol cravings and gain control over their drinking.

What You’ll Learn:

• What’s happening in the earliest stages of drinking and how naltrexone helps.

• When alcohol tolerance begins to form and why naltrexone is beneficial during that stage.

• How things progress to dependence and what naltrexone can do to correct it.

• How things shift to severe alcoholism and what makes treatments like naltrexone critical at that point.

• Why there’s still hope in end-stage alcoholism and why naltrexone is more beneficial than ever.

There’s something really important that we want anyone who’s struggling with alcohol addiction to understand. It’s never too late to get control over your drinking, get sober and get healthier. No matter what stage of alcohol addiction you’re in, there are treatments that can help.

Prescription naltrexone medication is one of the treatment options that can be used at any stage of alcohol addiction. It’s also an excellent treatment option for anyone who has tried to quit drinking in the past on their own without medication assistance. On top of that, you don’t have to stop drinking entirely. If you simply want to drink less so that alcohol use doesn’t become problematic, naltrexone can help with that too.

The Naltrexone Effect at Any Stage of Alcohol Addiction

Naltrexone can help at any stage because it’s an opioid receptor antagonist that prevents alcohol from causing a dopamine release that creates a sense of pleasure. Essentially, naltrexone takes away the buzzed feeling that makes people crave alcohol. This is also why naltrexone can be useful in breaking the addiction cycle.

Addictions form because the brain associates a substance or activity with pleasure. It activates the reward center of the brain, prompting us to seek out the substance or activity again. But there’s a two-fold problem. The dopamine hit won’t be as strong as before. You’ll crave the feeling more, which requires using a substance or doing an activity more.

By taking away the pleasure, naltrexone makes it so that you don’t associate alcohol with reward, and you’re much less likely to want to drink. This effect starts an hour after taking naltrexone whether it’s your first time drinking alcohol or you've been drinking heavily for years. And it becomes more pronounced over time.

In this breakdown, we’re going over the different stages of alcoholism and how naltrexone can be beneficial in each one.

Taking Naltrexone in the Early, Experimental Stage

At this initial stage, most people aren’t that concerned about their drinking. It likely hasn’t become habitual and is more social. Your reward pathways are just beginning to associate alcohol with pleasure.

But this is the time when habitual chronic drinking can start. Chronic drinking isn’t about how much you drink. It’s about how frequently you drink. So even if you only have one or two drinks, if you drink regularly it’s considered chronic.

Self-medicating with alcohol is also a serious issue. Many people begin drinking regularly as a way to cope with difficult life circumstances or mental health disorders. It’s a dangerous, slippery slope that will only make problems worse.

Why Taking Naltrexone Now is Recommended

Now is a good time to begin taking naltrexone to blunt the euphoric effects and keep the habit-forming reward loop from being established. This is especially true for anyone with a family history of alcohol use disorder.

This is the easiest time to get drinking under control and prevent serious problems. It’s best to take action now rather than let things progress.

Taking Naltrexone When Tolerance Increases

When you notice that you have to drink more to feel the same effects as before that means your tolerance is increasing. Your brain chemistry is adapting and downregulating the natural reward response.

Why Taking Naltrexone Now is Recommended

At this stage your body and brain are getting used to regular exposure to alcohol, which isn’t good. Naltrexone disrupts how your brain responds to alcohol so that instead of wanting to drink more to feel the same high, you want to drink less because it’s not there at all. Your brain can more easily break the association between alcohol and pleasure at this point.

If you’re already thinking “I should probably try to drink less” it’s a clear sign that you understand it’s easier to do now before things progress.

Taking Naltrexone When Dependence Begins

After prolonged, chronic drinking your body adapts so much it begins to need alcohol to function normally. When alcohol dependence forms you’ll feel off when you don’t have alcohol in your system, and it becomes another cue for drinking more. In this stage, withdrawal symptoms begin to be felt when you go a day or two without drinking alcohol.

For many people the solution is to drink to calm things down, when in reality it’s a sign that drinking needs to be dramatically reduced to correct the issue in a healthy way.

Why Taking Naltrexone Now is Recommended

Taking naltrexone now can be an effective way of preventing alcohol dependence before it really sets in and advances. If dependence has formed it’s even more useful because naltrexone can help reduce alcohol cravings that are felt when you stop drinking. It gives you an edge in helping you push past some of the uncomfortableness and constant thoughts about drinking.

Taking Naltrexone in Stage When Severe Addiction Forms

When alcohol addiction takes hold, many people simply can’t control their drinking on their own. The physical and psychological dependence is so great they prioritize alcohol use over everything else, even though it is having a negative effect on other areas of their life.

When people reach this stage they’ve usually tried quitting or cutting back alcohol use on their own a few times. This feeds into the false narrative that they can’t quit, which can cause them to simply give in to the addiction.

Why Taking Naltrexone Now is Recommended

Now is the time to get very intentional about quitting alcohol, and to get help. When addiction sets in it will only get worse and harder to break the cycle. Naltrexone is beneficial in reducing cravings, the quantity of alcohol that’s consumed and binge drinking so that the addiction doesn’t get more severe.

This is a slow pull back strategy to help you stop drinking safely rather than a sudden cessation that can be difficult to sustain and even dangerous due to withdrawal symptoms.

Taking Naltrexone During End-Stage Alcoholism

The name may sound dire, but there’s still hope for recovery during end-stage alcoholism. The major concern at this point is that your health is declining from alcohol use. Even if it’s not obvious, internally the liver has undergone a lot of damage. The production of blood is even being altered in a detrimental way, and you’re likely suffering from malnutrition.

Why Taking Naltrexone Now is Recommended

Ceasing alcohol is absolutely necessary for your physical health when you reach end-stage alcoholism. During this period is when you need to use all the resources at your disposal to break the cycle of alcohol addiction.

By now, drinking is totally habitual, and it’s prolonged enough that withdrawal can be dangerous. You’ll need assistance from specialists who can monitor you and provide support. Once you are past the initial withdrawal phase, medications like naltrexone can be a huge help in deconstructing dependence. However, it’s just one part of an overall treatment plan that needs to address the physical and neurological factors that are at play.

Once you are stabilized, taking naltrexone daily can help reduce the risk of relapse. For that reason, it’s recommended that people continue taking naltrexone for a year or more so that they reach stable sobriety.

Take action today to get drinking under control no matter what stage of alcoholism you’re in. Choose Your Horizon provides the support you need with online prescription naltrexone that makes it easy to start medication-assisted treatment.

Our highly qualified and compassionate clinicians will work with you to get the right dose and help you stay on track as you recover. Get started by taking the Alcohol Use Assessment to schedule a time to speak with us more about using naltrexone to control alcohol cravings.