I am an alcoholic myself, sober for five months now after a long-term therapy. I am sceptical about taking meds for this desease. The change of life and coping with stress is the best way to avoid getting in relapse of use. The therapists said meds might be a help, but are not the solution. Its a trap for the dependant who might think now hes cured and does not find himself changing his life and solving problems which have caused the desease. I was working in IT and have now time to change, i will be working in a less stressful job and will undergo further treatment of depression and narcicisstic personalty disorder i suffer. In the long run, alcoholism can be avoided by selling it only in special stores, people need more knowledge about it and society itself must be more aware how dangerous alcohol is. I live in bavaria,germany. I can purchase hard liqour around the clock and in amounts with no limit. Its cheap and i have no problem with the people around me. The drinking culture makes it possible to be offerd a beer to almost every occasion. Sure the openly and public drinking in broad daylight is some kind of awkward, but people dont take it too serious. We have no laws exept driving cars or being drunk at the workplace. But well, meds can help a bit to get someone stable enough be treatabel for a long term therapy, but a cure, they are not. The nucleus accumbens has stored the associative information that drinking can help with insomnia, depression and makes live a bit easier. To get rid of this is a long and hard way, the most is done by undergo treatment, self help groups and finding new hobbies or something replacing the habits that led before to the addiction.