The £3 ‘ozempic For Alcoholics’ Pill Stopped My Boozing In Just 4 Days – After Years Of Blackouts And Vomiting Over Pals

KATIE Lain’s alcohol addiction was so bad that she drove while drunk, stashed alcohol in her car, topped up her cups of tea with whisky and was once so hungover she projectile-vomited over a colleague.

But fast forward 10 years, and her life couldn’t be more different. She has said goodbye to out-of-control binges – and it’s all thanks to a £3 pill dubbed ‘Ozempic for alcoholics’. 

SuppliedKatie Lain spent years partying hard and boozing almost every night[/caption] SuppliedShe regularly drove drunk and even vomited over colleagues while disgustingly hangover[/caption]

Katie, 38, has been in recovery for an addiction to alcohol since 2017.

At its height, she says she could have lost her life multiple times.

Katie, from Monterey, California, United States, tells Sun Health: “I regularly drove drunk, and I’d keep alcohol in the car. 

“I was pulled over once for a broken brake light, and I was sure I was going to be arrested because I was drunk.

“I thought the policeman would smell the alcohol on my breath, but he didn’t. 

“I’d plan my whole day around drinking, and I projectile vomited over a colleague at work once because my hangover was that bad.”

While Katie, who founded her own alcohol and addiction recovery program, Thrive Alcohol Recovery, has been sober for seven years, she says her relationship with alcohol didn’t start badly. 

“I did what lots of teens do and had drinks with friends,” Katie says.

“But it was experimental, and I’d have a night of drinking, then be off it for weeks or months.

“On my 21st birthday, friends kept buying me shots, but I gave half of them away. 

“At the beginning, alcohol wasn’t an addiction for me, but then when I was 21 in 2008, I started dating a heavy drinker, and it spiralled. 

“I didn’t have a drink of choice either – wine, beer, vodka, whisky, I’d drink whatever.”

Katie admits that she used to polish off more than a bottle of wine every night – and she’s not alone.

Four in five adults in the UK drink alcohol, with 24 per cent of those consuming more than the recommended 14 units a week – equivalent to about seven glasses of wine. 

Six per cent of Brits admit to drinking daily, like Katie did – though the true number is likely far higher.

Katie says: “I realised around two years into my relationship that I hadn’t gone a day without drinking for a year.

“I decided to come off it for a week to see if I could, and while I made it, I white knuckled it. 

“I was going to bed at 7pm to avoid the temptation, and when day eight came, I got on it really hard.”

I’d always put my drunkenness down to forgetting to eat or I’d joke I was a lightweight when nothing could be further from the truth

Katie Lain

When her relationship ended in 2013, she was 26.

Rather than quit drinking, Katie found herself boozing more than ever. 

“It was a bad relationship,” she admits. “But I was still low when it ended, and I started going out to bars on my own, and I’d drink until I blacked out. 

“I’d accept drinks from strangers, get home without my keys, purse, or phone, and wake up still drunk. 

“I’d attract all the wrong types of people, and I even started taking drugs, buying them off strangers and not caring that I didn’t know what they were or where they came from.”

Katie tried and failed to quit drinking for yearsYVES GOYATTON SuppliedEventually, she said goodbye to out-of-control binges thanks to a £3 pill[/caption] SuppliedIt has been dubbed ‘Ozempic for alcoholics’ as it gets rid of cravings in a similar way[/caption] The 38-year-old has been in recovery for an addiction to alcohol since 2017Supplied

In 2015, Katie met a man who would change her life forever – her now-husband, Yves, 51. 

“It’s ironic that we met in a bar,” she laughs. “He’s French, and he had a totally different relationship to alcohol than mine. 

“I’d binge drink and if we went to bars I’d preload beforehand, but I’d always put my drunkenness down to forgetting to eat or I’d joke I was a lightweight when nothing could be further from the truth.”

While their relationship started to get serious, Katie continued to hide her drinking. 

“I realised I was envious of his relationship with alcohol,” says Katie. “But it didn’t change mine. 

“He had a full life – he surfed and was an artist – but I had nothing outside of alcohol.

“I’d suggest we have wine with lunch and he would say he never drank during the day. 

“He found it odd that I kept alcohol at home as for him it was a once or twice a week thing. 

“We’d go out for dinner and he’d have a glass or two. 

“If I had wine at home and cooked for him, I’d top us up from the kitchen but swig whisky while I filled our glasses. 

“I’d make myself a cup of tea in the day, but he’d have no idea it had whisky in it.”

I remember thinking ‘Great, I have an invitation to drink’ – but by day four I didn’t really want to drink 

Katie Lain

The couple married in 2016, but Yves, an artist and sculptor, was still unaware of the extent of the grip of Katie’s addiction. 

Only she knew she was a functioning alcoholic – one of millions across the globe.

About 209million people – or 3.7 per cent of the world’s population – are thought to be dependent on alcohol. 

Government statistics from last year reveal over 608,000 adults in the UK admit to being alcohol dependent, a figure that’s risen by more than 12,000 since 2015.

While Katie spent hours trawling the internet for ways to quit or get help, and watching YouTube videos from recovering alcoholics, it wasn’t until July 2017 that she found the solution. 

She saw a TedX talk, and it changed her life. 

“I heard about something called the Sinclair Method,” she says. “I didn’t know much about it but it really seemed like it could work for me.” 

Katie ironically met her now-husband in a barSupplied SuppliedShe found sobriety after embarking on the Sinclair Method[/caption] The Sinclair Method combines medication and therapySupplied SuppliedKatie found her cravings reduced within just four days[/caption]

Rather than promote abstinence or detoxing, the Sinclair Method (TSM) consists of using a pharmaceutical drug, naltrexone, taken before drinking, which inhibits the addiction cycle in people with alcohol dependency, coupled with therapy and personal development. 

The treatment is unique because it’s designed to help people drink less rather than quit cold turkey. 

Dubbed the ‘fat jab for alcoholics’, it eliminates cravings by blocking the brain’s opioid receptors, making alcohol less pleasurable and curbing the desire to drink – much like Ozempic or Mounjaro numbs food cravings by promoting feelings of fullness.

Katie saw it as a potential miracle cure, but she had trouble getting it prescribed. 

She says: “I spoke to five GPs and none of them would prescribe it to me.

“They all said I had to complete rehab and detox first, or they simply refused and wouldn’t give a reason. 

“I didn’t know then that’s not what’s supposed to happen, and by the fifth doctor, I was disheartened.”

Finally, a sixth doctor listened to Katie and less than 24 hours later, in July 2017, she took her first dose of the drug that would change her life. 

“The doctor suggested I drink every day on the medication for the first 30 days,” says Katie. “So that right there tells you how different it is as a treatment plan for alcoholics. 

“I remember thinking ‘Great, I have an invitation to drink’ – but by day four, I didn’t really want to drink. 

“And by day 14, I was confident that the treatment was working for me. 

“My cravings for alcohol were starting to calm down. I noticed I was drinking less and able to have some alcohol free days, which were usually very rare and only a result of being sick with a hangover. 

“Not only that, but I felt peace like I hadn’t felt in over a decade. 

“It took about eight to nine months for my cravings to go away completely, and as I gradually drank less.”

SuppliedKatie used to secretly add whisky to her cups of tea[/caption] After starting treatment, she says she ‘felt peace like I hadn’t felt in over a decade’Supplied SuppliedKatie now runs the Thrive Alcohol Recovery program[/caption] She has also quit alcohol for goodSupplied

While Katie continued drinking socially on occasion – enjoying a glass of wine with dinner or at a special event – around one year after starting treatment, she stopped completely. 

“It’s called ‘extinction’ on TSM,” she says. 

“That doesn’t mean abstinence; it means the alcohol addiction has been reversed in the brain. 

“This stage is marked by no more cravings, complete control over if and when you drink, and usually spending most of your time alcohol-free. 

“While a lot of naltrexone users enter extinction, lots still choose to drink occasionally.

“I reached extinction after about eight or nine months and continued to drink occasionally for a few more months before deciding to stop altogether. 

“One of the most empowering parts of this treatment is that the choice is entirely up to the individual. 

“Lots of people I work with have the goal to simply get their drinking under control and become a social, not a binge, drinker, but that’s what’s so unique about the treatment; it doesn’t need anyone to white knuckle or cold turkey it, it’s an entirely different approach.”

While her husband still enjoys an alcoholic drink occasionally, Katie doesn’t plan to start drinking again.

She says: “I like knowing the option is always there if I ever choose to.

“I would simply take naltrexone an hour beforehand and know I’d be satisfied with one or two drinks. It would be uneventful. 

“I love that alcohol is no longer a forbidden fruit for me. 

“I often tell people, ‘I can drink as much as I want to – the funny part is, I just don’t want to anymore’.”

Katie met Yves while she was an alcoholic, and he’s one of a few from her ‘old life’ who have embraced her new one. 

She added: “The friends I binge drank with aren’t on my scene anymore.

“I have some older friends who stuck with me and my family are incredibly proud of me. In fact, several have quit drinking  since they saw my success.”

Katie believes the lack of popularity is because other treatments are a multi billion pound industry globally. 

“The whole model of detoxing and rehab counts on repeat business,” she says. 

“I’ve spoken to so many addiction doctors who say abstinence is best, yet so many people who I end up working with have tried that over and over again and failed. 

“Naltrexone is a generic medication too, it’s not owned by a big pharmaceutical company who can make billions from it.”

Katie believes anyone who is struggling with their relationship with alcohol should speak to their GP and ask about naltrexone. 

“Alcohol is like weight loss,” she says. “Until you have the desire and motivation to do it yourself, no one else can make you. 

“Alcohol addiction is incredibly difficult to live with because for some, the desire to drink can be stronger than the will to live. 

“I had a bilateral pulmonary embolism in 2014 – where there were blood clots in both of my lungs – and was told by the doctors that alcohol contributed to it. 

“I was put on blood thinners and told not to drink and four days later, when I got out of hospital, I was in a bar. 

“I literally chose alcohol over my life.”

Supplied‘I love that alcohol is no longer a forbidden fruit for me,’ says Katie[/caption] SuppliedKatie has helped more than 1,000 people change their relationship with booze[/caption] ‘Alcohol could have killed me indirectly and directly so many times,’ she saysYVES GOYATTON

Having taken more than 1,000 people through her successful Thrive Alcohol Recovery program, Katie says society needs to change its relationship with alcohol. 

“We glorify it,” she says. “It’s all about telling friends you don’t remember getting home, or being the life and soul because you’re drunk.

“I don’t think alcohol itself is bad, just the overuse of it.

“When it starts to cause harm, that’s when there’s a problem. 

“People wait to hit a ‘rock bottom’ but they don’t need to – there are treatments that can help people cut back and regain control before that happens. 

“Alcohol could have killed me indirectly and directly so many times because of the situations I found myself in. 

“I often think about what would have happened if I’d run someone, or even a family down when I was drink-driving. 

“I’d be in prison and lives would have ended, yet at the time, my judgement was clouded by my addiction. 

“Not everyone can find sobriety when they’re dependent on alcohol but anyone reading this who has struggled to quit in the past, naltrexone and the Sinclair Method could save their life and return them to their loved ones.”