Helloooo from Toronto!

[mopo89]

Hi, I've posted a couple of times but just realized I never properly introduced myself!

I'm Mopo - I have Hashimoto's disease and have always had a very tough time with my weight! I lost 60lbs in 2012-2013, but sadly with the pandemic + increased alcohol consumption + the unexpected passing of my dad over the past 4-5 years, I gained it all back.

Took a while but finally felt I was ready to commit to losing weight. Was prescribed Ozempic from July 2023-March 2024 and lost zero pounds! I definitely did not respond to it and when my insurance stopped covering it, I gave it up. But somehow I ended up one night down a rabbit hole of glp-1s and discovered this wonderful world. I found this forum in an effort to find a cheap Tirz source (Canadian suppliers are so hard to come by and soooo expensive) and am now reseaching Reta and down 12.4lbs!

Feeling so excited about this journey and this wonderful forum has already been such a great help in the month that I've been here mostly lurking.

I am also 17 days sober after battling an alcohol problem for the past 5 years and cannot stress enough how proud I am and how thankful I am that reta & tirz have helped me get to almost 3 weeks.

 

[PepOhio]

Really great to have you here.
I understand how frustrating the weight loss/gain yo-yo can be...Can't count the number of times/pounds I have lost and gained. These glp-1's finally give me the hope that we ALL have found something that might finally WORK for long term success.

Congrats on the success your having.

 

[brentm]

I am also 17 days sober after battling an alcohol problem for the past 5 years and cannot stress enough how proud I am and how thankful I am that reta & tirz have helped me get to almost 3 weeks.

Congratulations on your sobriety!

I'm 3 years 5 months and 4 days sober. I've been to many AA meetings and did the step work. Good stuff. I know these peptides really help with the alcohol cravings, but I hope you consider getting to meetings and finding a sponsor.

Sorry to sound like "one of those". It's actually been a while since I was at a meeting. But it can really help in early sobriety to talk about your alcoholism and help you manage your life as a sober person. If you were like me, when you hear GLP-1ers talk about "food noise" you remember and also think about "alcohol noise". If it wasn't drinking, I was thinking about drinking. And when I was drinking, I was thinking about drinking. It was an obsession.

Anyway, meetings are really great. There's lots of Zoom options now too.

Off my soapbox.

I gained weight in sobriety. I turned to food instead of a drink, which is how I wound up packing on some weight. Initially, I lost weight but eventually it came back.

Congratulations on 17 days of sobriety. Another 24 to you.

 

[PepOhio]

@brentm
Congrats to you also
I was just asking another member on here today about if the glp1 helped with their alcohol issue...I have a niece who needs alot of help with both (obesity and alcohol) and am hoping she will find her way to glp1's and it will help with both. Unfortunately she's not ready to seek help with the alcohol issue yet...So I hope she might try glp1's and it will be a "backdoor" to start helping her with alcohol also...

 

[brentm]

@PepOhio

Thank you!

It seems to me that the GLP1s definitely help with the alcohol cravings. I see that reported as a side effect quite frequently, and I think I saw a small study?

But yeah, overall, people with alcoholism really have to hit bottom. The upside is that you get to pick your bottom. The downside is, there's always another rung lower on the ladder even when you think it can't get any worse. It can get worse. I was quite functional until COVID and I found myself with all kinds of time on my hands. Pre-Covid my routine kept me in check. Sure I'd go to work with a serious hangover, but by the afternoon I was already thinking about drinking again when I'd swore to myself I wasn't going to drink that night in my hungover state.

As far as picking a bottom. Some people never come around. Some figure it out early. Luckily alcohol is a slow killer unlike what we're seeing with the fentanyl crisis.

Not the brightest picture to paint, but I hope your niece figures it out quick. Maybe a good DUI or two and that'll be it. That's a pretty common bottom to pick.

 

[PepOhio]

@brentm
Thanks for your insights.
I hope she finds her way out.
I know all the rest of us can do is be there with a hand if she ever decides to reach for it.
Just not easy to watch it happen. As I said in the other thread I had a friend that couldn't find his way out and ended up dead in his 40's from organ failure.

 

[mostlydamp]

Hi, I've posted a couple of times but just realized I never properly introduced myself!

I'm Mopo - I have Hashimoto's disease and have always had a very tough time with my weight! I lost 60lbs in 2012-2013, but sadly with the pandemic + increased alcohol consumption + the unexpected passing of my dad over the past 4-5 years, I gained it all back.

Took a while but finally felt I was ready to commit to losing weight. Was prescribed Ozempic from July 2023-March 2024 and lost zero pounds! I definitely did not respond to it and when my insurance stopped covering it, I gave it up. But somehow I ended up one night down a rabbit hole of glp-1s and discovered this wonderful world. I found this forum in an effort to find a cheap Tirz source (Canadian suppliers are so hard to come by and soooo expensive) and am now reseaching Reta and down 12.4lbs!

Feeling so excited about this journey and this wonderful forum has already been such a great help in the month that I've been here mostly lurking.

I am also 17 days sober after battling an alcohol problem for the past 5 years and cannot stress enough how proud I am and how thankful I am that reta & tirz have helped me get to almost 3 weeks.

Hello, I'm several years sober, congrats on your 17 days! I guess it's been 7 years for me. Glp1 meds and peptides weren't a thing back then but I'm the type that will always have intrusive thoughts about alcohol (like forever - I just got good at ignoring them) and at some point I noticed that tirz did make those less frequent.

Whether that happens or not, sobriety is a worthy journey and the decade or more that I spent blackout drunk almost every night is something that I don't plan to ever go back to. Having the pesky intrusive thoughts happens whether we drink or not, but over time there is freedom from it.

 

[brentm]

Hello, I'm several years sober, congrats on your 17 days! I guess it's been 7 years for me. Glp1 meds and peptides weren't a thing back then but I'm the type that will always have intrusive thoughts about alcohol (like forever - I just got good at ignoring them) and at some point I noticed that tirz did make those less frequent.

Whether that happens or not, sobriety is a worthy journey and the decade or more that I spent blackout drunk almost every night is something that I don't plan to ever go back to. Having the pesky intrusive thoughts happens whether we drink or not, but over time there is freedom from it.

Agree.

Although I don't think about alcohol very often, not nearly as much as I thought I would when I initially started on my journey.

I have more marijuana urges than alcohol. My last alcohol trigger was a time of high stress. We were in NYC catching a flight home at Newark Intl. A crew delay transitioned into a weather cancellation. Being stuck with no hotel and a long line of angry passengers was triggering. Especially when you look out the window and the weather looked fine to fly. But weed was my original addiction.

Your last comment reminded me of something Joe Walsh said. Something along the lines of "I only got drunk once and it was for 20 years".

Congrats on 7 years! That's great to hear.

 

[mopo89]

Congratulations on your sobriety!

I'm 3 years 5 months and 4 days sober. I've been to many AA meetings and did the step work. Good stuff. I know these peptides really help with the alcohol cravings, but I hope you consider getting to meetings and finding a sponsor.

Sorry to sound like "one of those". It's actually been a while since I was at a meeting. But it can really help in early sobriety to talk about your alcoholism and help you manage your life as a sober person. If you were like me, when you hear GLP-1ers talk about "food noise" you remember and also think about "alcohol noise". If it wasn't drinking, I was thinking about drinking. And when I was drinking, I was thinking about drinking. It was an obsession.

Anyway, meetings are really great. There's lots of Zoom options now too.

Off my soapbox.

I gained weight in sobriety. I turned to food instead of a drink, which is how I wound up packing on some weight. Initially, I lost weight but eventually it came back.

Congratulations on 17 days of sobriety. Another 24 to you.

Thank you! I think I'm a weird case because I was never somebody who obsessively thought about alcohol. I didn't drink everyday. I was someone who drank in response to stressful situations, whether it be work or personal. So I guess in that way it's been easier because I don't tend to have thoughts about alcohol outside of emotional situations. What glp-1 has done for me is completely removed those thoughts when I'm stressed out which is amazing! It almost feels like magic lol. I don't want to get cocky or anything because... who knows, but I have been in several social situations in the past (almost!) 19 days where alcohol was present and being consumed in large quantities and drinking never even entered my mind.

That being said, while meetings are not for me, I have great support from friends and some family. I also don't frequent it, but whenever I see posts from the subreddit stopdrinking pop up on my home page, I'll go and read stories and it's really affirming and motivating. I do think it's a place I'll go if those cravings ever come back.

Now all I ever think about is when I get to take my next reta dose haha. And I very much have lots of thoughts about how much I'm looking forward to drinking coffee in the morning every night when I go to bed lol.

 

[mopo89]

@brentm
Congrats to you also
I was just asking another member on here today about if the glp1 helped with their alcohol issue...I have a niece who needs alot of help with both (obesity and alcohol) and am hoping she will find her way to glp1's and it will help with both. Unfortunately she's not ready to seek help with the alcohol issue yet...So I hope she might try glp1's and it will be a "backdoor" to start helping her with alcohol also...

I'm sorry to hear about your niece. I hope she'll seek some help in the future, whether it be from these meds, or naltrexone, or detox/rehab. While you don't necessarily need to hit rock bottom to want to change, you do have to want to stop. For me, nothing bad really happened to make me want to change other than me being unhappy mentally, hating how it felt to be hungover, and wanting to change my body physically. For all intents and purposes my life is decent but I really felt no happiness from within and I realized I didn't want to live my life like that and I wanted to change. But you need that trigger, whatever it is, and if your niece isn't there... unfortunately I'm not sure there is too much you can do. But I do hope she gets help very soon! You and your family are in my thoughts.

 

[brentm]

Thank you! I think I'm a weird case because I was never somebody who obsessively thought about alcohol. I didn't drink everyday. I was someone who drank in response to stressful situations, whether it be work or personal. So I guess in that way it's been easier because I don't tend to have thoughts about alcohol outside of emotional situations. What glp-1 has done for me is completely removed those thoughts when I'm stressed out which is amazing! It almost feels like magic lol. I don't want to get cocky or anything because... who knows, but I have been in several social situations in the past (almost!) 19 days where alcohol was present and being consumed in large quantities and drinking never even entered my mind.

That being said, while meetings are not for me, I have great support from friends and some family. I also don't frequent it, but whenever I see posts from the subreddit stopdrinking pop up on my home page, I'll go and read stories and it's really affirming and motivating. I do think it's a place I'll go if those cravings ever come back.

Now all I ever think about is when I get to take my next reta dose haha. And I very much have lots of thoughts about how much I'm looking forward to drinking coffee in the morning every night when I go to bed lol.

I've been on a few of the alcoholism subs on Reddit. It's good to hear you have support from your friends and family.

On the meetings, I totally get it. There's no single solution to the problem. And I think recognizing that you have a problem with alcohol puts you ahead of most with the disease.

Congrats again on your success!!