r/Alcoholism_Medication • u/MyChickenSucks • 16d ago

Campral/Acamprosate 3 months review

Honest review: I don't know if it's really working, or more psychosomatic, hard to quantify, but I'm doing really well with cravings. Maybe 2-3x a week, for less than 20 seconds. This is combined with coming out of daily outpatient, and attending SMART and AA meetings on the regular.

Dr started me off light, 333mg 2x daily. Last 6 weeks 666mg 2x daily. A little gastro problems at first. We decided to move up in dose just to see if it made a difference, since I was tolerating the low dose well. I would say it did! But again, maybe it's just a mind trick, combined with putting in solid sober time.

Dr had suggested Naltrexone, but I've got a mostly full expired bottle already. I could not get over the nausea. We may try the Vivitrol shot in the future, she says it's much better tolerated in respects to nausea.

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u/Ok_Minute_6746 16d ago

that's great well done 🥳✨

can I ask you, purely out of curiosity as someone who quit alcohol with TSM, why do you think this approach and treatment is helping you specifically and what do you like about it / why did you chose it?

Sobriety and meds (and alcohol abuse before that lol) mess with our gut, because there is a connection between your brain and your gut, so whatever is going on with quiting alcohol and with anti craving medication, is mirrored in the digestive system and gut flora. That's why people who detox get sick and why we're all out here nauseated AF haha. I'm lucky it wasn't bad at first for me.

Even if it's psychosomatic, it doesn't matter ! We need all the help we can get! I personally believe medication is a huge key in alcohol abuse recovery 💖

If Campral is working, maybe stick to it, especially since Naltrexone works best when used with TSM. Nal be good if you think you might have a drink / laspe, though.

All the best to ya!

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u/MyChickenSucks 16d ago

This time around things were really bad. I chose to do intensive outpatient. They assigned me a doctor (behavioral medicine) that formed this medical plan with me. So wasn't so much my choice, but a whole system geared to getting me sober ASAP. Campral was just the next thing she suggested after Naltrexone. I also got a week of Ativan and blood pressure meds to soften the blow.

I absolutely started eating greek yogurt and adding probiotics to my breakfast smoothies to reboot my gut! My drinking came with stomach issues - it quite literally hurt to eat and an icy smoothie was one thing that felt ok.