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yes, you can drink alcohol while taking antabuse without vomiting. it causes heart palpitations, drop in blood pressure and flush-ness (among other reactions). it is dangerous but it can be done...and often. it sounds like your BIL needs to be in a treatment facility to dry out. to be honest it sounds like he is going to kill himself or even someone else unless he gets professional help. even if he does get help he will need to do some self-exploration in order to stay sober. so sad. don't let him suck the life out of you...
Quote:
Originally Posted by germaine2626
My brother-in-law takes Antabuse (disulfiram) because he is an alcoholic. He claims that he takes the medicine everyday and my sister has ocassionally counted the pills & it appears that the correct number of pills are missing.
However, she has caught him with a drink a couple of times. He says that the Antabuse only gives him a mild headache & a funny taste in his mouth when he drinks. The doctor & all of the paperwork say that you are supposed to get violently ill if you drink.
He just went into the hospital to detox (blood alcohol more than twice the legal limit for driving) but still insists that he had been taking the Antabuse every day while he was drinking the past few days and never threw up.
So I'm asking my online friends. Have any of you ever experienced this or heard about it first hand (drinking while on Antabuse & not getting sick)? BIL was a heavy drinker for many years could they have just given him an incorrect dose? Or maybe he just lied about taking the medication? Or is he the one in a million/ten million who can take the medication, drink and not get sick?
Ideas?
My sister said that the doctor said that he must have lied about taking the medication. But BIL must have been pretty sneaky because he didn't know that she was counting his pills.
I would like to get a little more information that I may help my extended family. Thanks.
The morning he went to the hospital he was disoriented, not making sense and acting "really odd" not acting drunk. My sister thought that he may have had some type of stroke. The hospital found his blood alcohol was .2 and he had not had a stroke.
But something definetly was seriously wrong as he ending up in intensive care for 10 days in a medically induced coma (or something like that that). They said that he was "having a serious detox situation". But no other answers other than that.
BTW he came home from the hospital needing to (temporarily) use a walker, wasn't supposed to drive and snuck to (drove to) the liquor store when my sister fell asleep due to exhausion.
Needless to say she (and the rest of us) are not very happy with him.
Wondering if he has a degree of liver failure and this was an episode of acute failure on top of the chronic. This can cause agitation, confusion and eventual loss of consciousness (the brain swells - hepatic encephalitis). The liver has 100s of different functions and when it stops working it an affect blood clotting, kidneys etc etc.
You can lose 2/3 of functioning liver cells before there are any symptoms eg jaundice, itchy skin, red palms etc.
Once the liver starts to fail people will have a lower and lower tolerance for alcohol as the liver can't get rid of it efficiently. Has he seen a hepatologist or gastroenterologist who specializes in liver conditions?
I discovered this thread because I just tested drinking on Antabuse and am very surprised that it did not effect me at all. We're not talking a little beer, here. I drank easily 10 shots of Vodka today and it is having zero impact. I have gone all the way from strenuously objecting to taking it to being happy about it and was counting on it to keep me on the straight and narrow. I am not sneaking around. I am not spitting it out or palming it. I am on 500mg. It just doesn't work.
My brother-in-law takes Antabuse (disulfiram) because he is an alcoholic. He claims that he takes the medicine everyday and my sister has ocassionally counted the pills & it appears that the correct number of pills are missing.
However, she has caught him with a drink a couple of times. He says that the Antabuse only gives him a mild headache & a funny taste in his mouth when he drinks. The doctor & all of the paperwork say that you are supposed to get violently ill if you drink.
He just went into the hospital to detox (blood alcohol more than twice the legal limit for driving) but still insists that he had been taking the Antabuse every day while he was drinking the past few days and never threw up.
So I'm asking my online friends. Have any of you ever experienced this or heard about it first hand (drinking while on Antabuse & not getting sick)? BIL was a heavy drinker for many years could they have just given him an incorrect dose? Or maybe he just lied about taking the medication? Or is he the one in a million/ten million who can take the medication, drink and not get sick?
Ideas?
My sister said that the doctor said that he must have lied about taking the medication. But BIL must have been pretty sneaky because he didn't know that she was counting his pills.
I would like to get a little more information that I may help my extended family. Thanks.
I k we o e person who was talking this stuff, and he got blended, seriously, when he used mouthwash without thinking. From what I know, the stuff is bad news with even a tiny amount of alcohol ingestion. I would think, actually slugging down a drink on it would be quite unpleasant....
I've been on antabuse for 2 weeks. didn't touch a drop of alcohol for those 2 weeks. On day 15 I had 3 shooters and a half pint of vodka. I was very upset with myself but more upset that I didn't get Ill as I suspected I would. I got a red face and a fast heartbeat which was kinda nerve wrecking but it didn't do what I heard is supposed to. I feel like I've beat the system and there is no hope cuz now I know I won't get sick. Mind over matter but antabuse was the only thing I thought would work. I'm scared I'll relapse now knowing I'm not gonna get sick
I knew someone who drank while on it. He didn't get sick but got VERY red in the face. Don't know how long he was on it for but since it didn't stop him from drinking, he stopped taking it. (Two bouts in rehab didn't stop him, either.) A few months after that he literally drank himself to death!
My sister is almost a psych nurse practitioner. She helped me study for my psych nursing tests and actually acted out a reaction of mixing Antabuse with alcohol. It isn't pretty. While on Antabuse you're instructed to use absolutely nothing with alcohol in it including mouth washes and hand sanitizers. Nothing.
My sister is almost a psych nurse practitioner. She helped me study for my psych nursing tests and actually acted out a reaction of mixing Antabuse with alcohol. It isn't pretty. While on Antabuse you're instructed to use absolutely nothing with alcohol in it including mouth washes and hand sanitizers. Nothing.
The reaction I saw was brought on by Scope. And...it was ugly. Seems there are conflicting reports in how effective the stuff is across the board though. After seeing the reaction I saw, it made me quite glad I'm not a drinker and won't be using the stuff. But we are seeing quite a few people here who say it doesn't always work as advertised. At least not well enough to stop them from drinking.
I've been on antabuse for 2 weeks. didn't touch a drop of alcohol for those 2 weeks. On day 15 I had 3 shooters and a half pint of vodka. I was very upset with myself but more upset that I didn't get Ill as I suspected I would. I got a red face and a fast heartbeat which was kinda nerve wrecking but it didn't do what I heard is supposed to. I feel like I've beat the system and there is no hope cuz now I know I won't get sick. Mind over matter but antabuse was the only thing I thought would work. I'm scared I'll relapse now knowing I'm not gonna get sick
Find some ipecac and contract with your sponsor to make him pour it down your throat immediately after a relapse.
I take antabuse every Mon Wed and Fri supervised by my counsler. I can drink and nothing happens to me besides my skin turning red and getting short of breath. So yes it can be done I guess it just depends on your body.
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