How Katie Herzog drank her way to sobriety

  But for me, when I drink alcohol, I get high, like energized. For some people, there's a sedating effect. But for me it was very energetic, almost like doing a little bit of, having a little bit of caffeine. I didn't drink to chill out. I drank to get ramped up.

  Naltrexone dulls that. There are various different ways to prescribe it, but the Sinclair method, which is what I did, it's very specific.

  You take this drug naltrexone [then you wait at least an hour], which is how long it takes to metabolize and then you drink as normally. And when you do, and this doesn't work for --


  And this is a really key part of the Sinclair Method. You only take naltrexone in anticipation of drinking. So if you're not going to drink, you do not take naltrexone. And so on alcohol free days, that leaves your opioid receptors, which are integral to this endorphin dump, it leaves them open, unblocked.

  And you try to fill your days with things that will create a natural high, this natural endorphin rush. And this is a way of basically retraining your brain to not expect pleasure from alcohol and to expect pleasure from other things.

The interesting part is that abstinence might work for some but without removing the pleasure association it is doomed for some that are guaranteed to relapse

I think this falls within the more broad category of “elimination via substitution” techniques in breaking personal patterns.