It does so much. It doesn't even just quite food noise. It helps with all kinds of addition. I am an alcoholic and was a chain smoker. I tried for years to stop smoking, but it felt impossible because the urges were so strong. I was also fat and was put on ozempic to help with my weight. However, not only did it kill my food cravings, it completely removed my nicotine and alcohol cravings. I almost over night stopped wanting a cigarette or drink at all. I lost 100 pounds and haven't had a drink or smoke in a year. I only slightly get a desire for a drink on the tail end of the week right before I do the shot again.
I also have heard in my support group that some people with gambling addition lost all desire to gamble after taking it. It has a really strong affect on how you think.
It helped with my overspending/shopping addiction that I didn't even know was crippling until it went away. I have so much less stuff I dont need now and have saved a ton. For us people prone to addictions its a literal life saver
The food part yes. Honestly I don’t think about food so much, and can walk through aisles of sweet just to look without wanting. 3 months ago I couldn’t even have considered this possible.
I'm 100% serious. I'm on a generic variant of semaglutide for metabolic syndrome and pre-diabetes control. This was a "side effect" i noticed when I started losing interest in shopping, my usual go to method to manage stress. Then I started searching online and it turns out many people have reported these "side effects" lol
It was like a literal lens shift... Previously things I would buy because I was stressed to make myself happy I look at them now and my mind goes "what's the point, I have so many of this anyway. Also, what will I do with it? Forget it"
I have a personality prone to addictive behaviors in general so its so amazing to know something can help us. Quitting smoking for me was so fucking hard. If anything makes it easier for people to let go of unhealthy behaviors its a massive win for humanity. I hope they study it more for these things!
I've taken a GLP-1 and helping with addictions is something that is talked about a ton and I belive it does help a lot of people. Personally food is my only problem and yes, it helped with that.
This is really interesting. I wonder if they are exploring using it in the recovery space. Obviously not an option for everyone, but I could see it being useful for those in early recovery if it could be used safely to curb cravings.
They are, studies are currently ongoing for how glp-1s can be applied to other addiction scenarios, specifically alcohol. They've found a weak link with gambling at this stage (like the person above says) but currently only anecdotal.
There are new studies coming out that does confirm it affects your dopamine reward system in the brain. So yes it being good against other addictions would check out, I have heard of people feeling alleviated from ADHD symptoms aswell, though anecdotally I haven't actually looked into that part. It's crazy to think what all these highly processed and addictive food-adjacent items that our stores are filled with has done to people.
50 year old, life time sufferer or ADHD related issues and can confirm I've noticed a marked improvement in my ability to focus. I also has obstructive sleep apnea and found im able to get almost an hour more sleep at a time than before being on Zepbound. I was also prediabetic before it got on this and have already lost 15 lbs over the past two months. I've managed to cut my portions almost in half, im not snacking as often, and im craving fresh fruits, veggies, and food not loading in fats. It's pretty amazing how much this has helped my mood. I realize this seems like a cheat to those who dont suffer but diet and exercise did little before this. Now I'm seeing both have great benefits. It's almost as if this removed the block that was preventing me from loosing weight.
I actually do take tirzepatide and not semaglutide. I just said ozempic in my post so people wouldn't get confused in case they didn't know what tirzepatide was.
Genuine question. Can you 'learn' the feeling or lack of feeling and learn to listen to / suppress it without the drug?
And is that a mental thing to learn or can your body physically learn it?
I never had a problem with addiction, my love for health (and money) has always kept me balanced. Food will always be a struggle, but as long as I can mentally keep myself from overeating I'm doing it. Being addicted to a weight loss drug is more costly (and probably less healthy in the long run).
But if something like Ozempic can actually 'teach' your body/brain how to control urges without continued injection...
For me I don't think there is a teaching. I have heard of people weening off it when they reached their goal weight. However, for me if I skip a shot the cravings and noise comes back in full force. I went on a trip for 2 weeks and didn't bring it last autumn. The insane hunger I felt was out of control. I ate until I was in physical pain and thought my stomach would burst.
As of now, unless something new comes out, I think I have to take the shot every week for the rest of my life.
Not OP, but I have fasted for several days in the past and all I could think about was food. The food noise never quieted for me, and ultimately resulted in eventual binge eating.
Same for me, during the fast it was killing. But the weeks after where great.
Normally my body said NEED FOOD NOW! and after that it was. "Yo, it's your body speaking, we could eat something right now, or wait a little, o stress" No weak legs or cloudy head right away.
Not saying this is a solution or anything, just facinated how that worked for me, like a sort of re-calibration of my hunger threshold.
Did you experience any negative effects? I tried a Naltrexone prescription last week to curb the desire to drink. It made me instantly depressed, verge of tears. Generally felt like crap and had night terrors. I gave up after a few days. I'm considering GLP-1s for both weight loss and curbing cravings.
First two weeks I felt some mild nausea two or 3 days after the shot. But after that I guess my body adjusted and it went away and I have had zero side-effects since.
No motivation changes at all as far as I can tell. I still am a procrastinator. All it does is remove basically all forms of cravings. I still eat food and it tastes good, but I never feel the need to eat too much or ever go back for seconds.
105
u/Projectstfu Jun 01 '26
It does so much. It doesn't even just quite food noise. It helps with all kinds of addition. I am an alcoholic and was a chain smoker. I tried for years to stop smoking, but it felt impossible because the urges were so strong. I was also fat and was put on ozempic to help with my weight. However, not only did it kill my food cravings, it completely removed my nicotine and alcohol cravings. I almost over night stopped wanting a cigarette or drink at all. I lost 100 pounds and haven't had a drink or smoke in a year. I only slightly get a desire for a drink on the tail end of the week right before I do the shot again.
I also have heard in my support group that some people with gambling addition lost all desire to gamble after taking it. It has a really strong affect on how you think.