towaway (u/towaway) - Readit News

towaway commented on Ask HN: Alcoholism and Career in Software · Posted by u/gidor

towaway · 3 years ago

Delayed post from me - came back here to see if anyone had mentioned TSM and they hadn't so I'll do my infomercial thing.

I would highly encourage you look into The Sinclair Method. It's based on the work of Dr Roy Eskapa and a book called The Cure for Alcoholism.

I struggled with alcohol for all of my adult life. Trying every thing possible to moderate or stop - AA, hypnosis, strange chinese herbs, counselling until I was blue in the face but The Sinclair Method worked like magic. For years now I have been entirely indifferent to alchohol and and my life is so much better for it.

There's a subreddit with lots of info and support if you're interested. https://www.reddit.com/r/Alcoholism_Medication/

All the best.

towaway commented on Ask HN: How did you stop drinking? · Posted by u/chrisgd

lastofus · 3 years ago

Check out the Sinclair Method, which is basically taking Naltrexone before you drink. Also check out the book "The Cure for Alcoholism: The Medically Proven Way to Eliminate Alcohol Addiction" by Eskapa.

I used this method, along with keeping a log of drinks consumed, to eventually quite drinking over the course of a year. I went from having anywhere from 3-8 drinks a night, every night, to eventually stopping completely. In turn I've been sober 6 years now.

I found keeping the drink log useful both for charting my progress, and also just forcing me to be honest with myself about what I did and did not drink. It's too easy to skew ones memory in favor of having less of a problem if you feel like it.

towaway · 3 years ago

The Sinclair Method also changed my life. It seemed like I had tried every single thing possible, AA, hypnosis, strange chinese herbs. The Sinclair Method seemed too good to be true, but I can't believe how well it worked. I am not completely indifferent to alcohol. It seems strange to think that this same head of mine used to crave it so.

towaway commented on Ask HN: What weird or hard problems are you trying to solve? · Posted by u/rxsel

ddog78 · 5 years ago

Maybe a relevant personal anecdote might help you -

My grandfather used to sit with me for an hour every morning and used to teach me maths.

He would focus on basics first. He would make sure I had the basics drilled in to me. Not just understood them, but mastered them. Then we would move on to the next topic.

It was a bit slow at first. But after a while, once the basics were done, I finished the whole year's math book in 2-3 months.

I have seen this in software engineering too. Once I am good at basics, or once they're drilled in enough, I am faster and quicker.

Drilling basics is basically like having the basics in O(1) look up with very reduced space complexity too. It reduces the amount of overhead your brain utilises. This makes your brain free to think about the actual problem you are solving. Also, I think this is what allows your brain to work in the background, even when you aren't actively thinking about the problem.

towaway · 5 years ago

I've seen this with my youngest son too.

Lockdown has really shown up how my 7 year old struggles with his maths work set by school. I've gone back to basics with him and have been drilling him on simple numeracy until he can do it effortlessly using some flash cards I bought and some iPad apps (DoodleMaths, DoodleTables - can't recommend them enough).

Since then he has sailed through all of the new parts we're learning. I really expected it to be much harder than this, but it seems like not fully understanding some basic concepts and having confidence with basic numbers makes all the difference for really understanding the why of all the concepts that are build on top.

In about 6 weeks of me spending around 30 mins to an hour each weekday he has gone from refusing to look at a maths problem to being confident with it.

towaway commented on Alcoholics Anonymous vs. other approaches: the evidence is now in nytimes.com/2020/03/11/up... · Posted by u/pseudolus

towaway · 5 years ago

If you're one of those for whom AA didn't work I would encourage you to look at the The Sinclair Method. It has changed many lives for the better (including mine).

https://www.reddit.com/r/Alcoholism_Medication/https://cthreefoundation.org/

towaway commented on Some people who take psychedelics continue hallucinating indefinitely slatestarcodex.com/2019/0... · Posted by u/pelt

towaway · 6 years ago

Really interesting to see this on HN!

I got HPD from a fairly large dose of 4FA once. I had persisting light sparkles pretty much exactly like the first image in the article.

I researched online and discovered the term HPPD but information was extremely sparse then. I see there's a fair amount more now which is encouraging.

From the advice I found I got myself some Lion's Mane supplement, meditated and exercised a few times a week. A few weeks later I just kind of forgot about it and noticed one day that the HPPD had disappeared.

The effect wasn't hugely detrimental on a practical level, but it was very strange coming to terms with the fact that this may well be a permanent change.

towaway commented on Square Inc. Co-Founder Tristan O’Tierney Dies at 35 bloomberg.com/news/articl... · Posted by u/smaili

tippecanoe · 7 years ago

For those who have a problem with alcohol from being a bit of a drunk to an addict, there's a pill for that: Naltrexone, taken one hour before drinking, blocks positive reinforcement for drinking alcohol. This treatment is called the "Sinclair method."

Studies show Naltrexone and the Sinclair method prevents excessive consumption and over time can extinguish addiction. Over the course of a year alcoholics can basically totally lose interest in alcohol.

It's not a fringe treatment. It has been the standard of care in Finland for decades.

Here is a global listing of physicians familiar with the treatment: https://cthreefoundation.org/find-a-physician

These board certified physicians prescribe it in many states in the US via telemedicine consultations: https://www.mdproactive.com/what-we-treat/alcohol-use-disord...

(I'm suggesting this online practice because I understand it may be hard to find a physician familiar with this treatment in some areas in the United States.)

I went from being a bit of a drunk even by American standards to having no interest in alcohol after a couple pills.

The first time I took it, I knew it could have saved by grandfather's life.

It's really heartbreaking that so few people know about this treatment.

Anyone who likes alcohol would be amazed how useless it is without the opioid response (that Naltrexone blocks).

You can find papers about this on Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C14&q=sin...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naltrexone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53JObexh0w0 https://www.amazon.com/Cure-Alcoholism-Medically-Eliminate-A...https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdeh0LP6kuSQ9GsorQpVnUw

towaway · 7 years ago

Came to the comments to look for this post. I completed TSM myself not so long ago. It has been nothing short of life changing. Seemed too good to be true, but really doesn't seem like there's a catch.

There's a subreddit here too which is becoming more and more active. https://reddit.com/r/alcoholism_medication

towaway commented on Square Inc. Co-Founder Tristan O’Tierney Dies at 35 bloomberg.com/news/articl... · Posted by u/smaili

newprint · 7 years ago

Last year, at age 35, I started drinking heavily. I would buy a bottle of Absolute and would not stop till I see the bottom of it. 2 bottles a week at min. About 5-6 months, I've stopped drinking without anyone's help.

Yesterday and today, I'm having a strong urge to get completely wasted. Just go to the store around the block, buy bottle of Absolute.

Yesterday, while driving on I-695, I saw a guy with a child seat on the back seat and thought to myself: "I want that too".

Tristan O’Tierney dies at 35, survived by his three-old-year daughter.

towaway · 7 years ago

If you need help with the alcohol I can't recommend The Sinclair Method enough. Absolutely life changing for myself and many others. https://reddit.com/r/alcoholism_medication

towaway commented on ‘Moderate’ drinking guidelines are too loose, study says washingtonpost.com/nation... · Posted by u/georgecmu

ryanobjc · 7 years ago

I was always suspicious of the magical 'one glass of red a day is actually GOOD for you!' - seemed like a major case of wishful thinking and confirmation bias.

Alcohol is fun to many people - including researchers. This has driven an almost desperate attempt to legitimate drinking in nearly any context. Drinking daily? Good for you! While pregnant? Probably not bad! Breastfeeding? Sure! Just social drinking once a week, but a little bingey? Well that's like an average of 1 drink/day, so it's also good for you basically!

I quote a friend who is a psychiatrist: there is no known safe level of alcohol.

towaway · 7 years ago

I wonder if a glass of grape juice a day is even better for you.

towaway commented on We're learning more about the craving that fuels self-defeating habits nationalgeographic.com/ma... · Posted by u/pmcpinto

firethief · 8 years ago

Speculating about the drug's performance vs placebo is an argument from imagined evidence -- in this case contrafactual. As with most drugs, placebo is the benchmark naltrexone had to beat to demonstrate efficacy.

towaway · 8 years ago

Indeed. Some clinical studies are listed here - http://www.c3foundationeurope.org/clinical-trial-evidence/

Also note when researching - many people prescribe naltrexone to be taken every day along with abstinence, and infact when taken this way it's shown to be no better than a placebo. When taken as per The Sinclair Method it has been shown to be over 85% effective.

towaway commented on We're learning more about the craving that fuels self-defeating habits nationalgeographic.com/ma... · Posted by u/pmcpinto

jv22222 · 8 years ago

> I imagine if there was a diet that said "drink a cup of water before eating that cupcake" it might be equally as effective for compulsive eaters.

Having participated in a number of eating disorder groups and also having studied it, I feel sure that is not the case.

Edit: (Assuming that the prior commenters method _is_ effective)

towaway · 8 years ago

Indeed. And interestingly I believe naltrexone is sometimes used in the same way for eating disorders.