Naltrexone

Hey everyone,
I'm new here...
Here's a bit about me and what I've struggled with:
I'm a 23 year old female
- I've been biting my nails, cuticles, and skin around my fingers since around age 8.
- I've had Trichotillomania since the age of 11. It started with my eyebrows/eyelashes, then lead to compulsive experimental tweezing all over my body. I didn't pull from my head until around age 14-15.
Since then, trich got progressively worse. I now have such bad hair loss that I've resorted to getting a specially done partial sew-in weave to help my baby hairs grow back in, (I'm white, and yes, you can still get a successful weave with fine hair).
- I had an eating disorder (restrictive eating with occasional bulimic tendencies) from ages 13-20.
- After this, I developed Binge Eating Disorder from ages 20-22, which led to a 60lb weight gain.
- I would shoplift compulsively from ages 14-19.
- I was severely depressed for most of my teen years, and was suicidal around age 17.
- I've had anxiety for as long as I can remember
- I was diagnosed with ADHD (primarily inattentive type) at age 22! Looking back, I've ALWAYS had it.
- I'm diagnosed with OCD - primarily "Pure O" type, but also struggle with hoarding and hand washing.
- I've gone through masturbation, porn, and sex addiction briefly from ages 18-20.
- I was addicted to marijuana from ages 17-22. *Contrary to popular opinion, I was absolutely addicted to pot. When I tried to quit, I would lose my appetite, have trouble sleeping, and be extremely irritable for over a month after. I wanted desperately to stop, and several times would flush newly bought weed, break all paraphernalia, and then a few days later would go out and purchase more.*
- I also would binge-drink from age 20-21

OKAY. Now that that's out of the way...here's why all of that's important:

Obviously I have an extremely addictive personality. Both sides of my family have multiple cases of alcoholism, drug dependency, ADHD, and lots of mental illness.

For most of my life with Trichotillomania, I've been under the impression that there's no cure. I tried multiple medications to try to make it better, but those meds only treated the anxiety, and not the urges to pull. After a while, I gave up trying to treat it, and it began to consume me even more.

Finally, after reaching the worst point of my hair-loss a few months ago, I decided I had to try again. I began researching for hours on end, reading forums, scientific studies, books on Trich and other compulsive disorders.

In a book by John Stein (One of the leading researchers of Trich and BFRBs) called Trichotillomania, he talks about a medicine called Naltrexone.
This medicine is used to treat alcoholism and opioid addiction, and it works by blocking opioid receptors in the brain. The whole point of the medicine is to make addictive behaviors less pleasurable, essentially re-wiring the brain to abandon those previous comforting addictions.

Naltrexone has yet to be tested in a large setting, but it was tested on dogs that over-groomed themselves to the point of having sores and scabs, and it helped them significantly.
It has also been prescribed for people with kleptomania (that caught my attention), and gambling addiction. The med has side effects...for me, I had fatigue and nausea for about a week, and then it completely subsided.

Since taking Naltrexone, I not only have very little urge to pull, but when I do catch myself doing it, I can stop.

Before the medicine, when I would attempt to stop myself, I would have a physically painful tic/shaking type reaction. It was kind of like having a cold chill that made me make a weird face.
Now, I haven't experienced this at all when trying to stop. And pulling just doesn't feel all that great anymore. I don't feel the same relief like I used to, and I'm not dying to do it when I'm anxious.

I'm honestly still in shock that it's working so well. I've had Trich for far too long...This is making a huge difference!


Thanks for reading! Good luck, and don't stop fighting!

Hi,

Thanks so much for your post. I have a similar background to yours in terms of the hair pulling, skin picking, and binge eating. I also have a family history of several of the other issues you mention (alcoholism, compulsive gambling, anxiety, nail biting, skin picking). I am a 34 year old female.

How long have you been on the Naltrexone and what dose are you taking? I just started on it two days ago, so I am curious to know how others are doing, and whether it is consistently working for you. I am starting with 50mg/day.

My mom is taking Naltrexone for alcoholism that took a serious turn for the worse when my dad passed away. It has been incredible for her.

Many Thanks!

Hey there,

That is awesome to hear! I am on 50mg and I've been on it about a month and a half now. and it started noticeably working after 2 weeks. Make sure to take it consistently around the same time every day. I also wouldn't recommend taking it at night, it didn't work well for me that way.

My doctor said once I feel like I need more, we will up the dose probably to 100mg.
Also, not sure if your doc had you start off by taking a half pill the first few days, but that's what she had me do to get used to it. Again, the first week was tough with side effects, but I don't have any now.

But as far as Naltrexone working, it has done wonders. I rarely feel an urge to pull, especially those random times when I would just go to do it out of habit laying in bed or driving. Also, I don't know if this rings true for you, but whenever I would try to stop, I would have a tic-like shake that would run through my body, almost like having chills. I don't get that feeling when I stop myself.
It's like I'm in control again, that's the only way to describe it. And when I do pull, I don't get that feel-good release like I did before. It's like pulling has finally lost its sickly appeal.

As far as picking goes, that hasn't gone away completely. But I'd say there's been some improvement.
Over all, I'd say I've seen a 90% decrease in how often I pull. Which is incredible!

I really hope Naltrexone works for you too! If it doesn't, however, I would say try the N-AcetylCystein vitamin (it's an antioxidant). That helped me a decent amount before I got on Naltrexone, and I know other people who have had success with that supplement alone. That's one of the main treatment methods that researchers are looking at and testing right now. The first trail of N-AC apparently went a lot better than they expected.

I don't really suffer from trich, but i have very severe dermatillomania. My chest, face and legs are just covered and I always feel so ashamed and have to isolate myself for days. I haven't let my boyfriend see my chest in months... swimming is my favourite but i haven't gone for years cause i always need to cover my face with makeup. i can't go to the beach. i don't like going out during the day because it's too bright. it's been seriously affecting every aspect of my life for 9 years. i lose jobs a lot and miss a bunch of school because if i pick in the morning i'm so embarrassed and upset i literally no longer function. i have roommates so if i pick i don't leave my room to eat or anything for fear of running into people. i pull out my arm hair, leg hair, pubic hair etc. but that's about it so luckily there's nothing noticeable and embarrassing about it. i can't imagine losing a bunch of the hair on my head or my eyebrows or eyelashes!!! i have enough problems as it is!
I was reading about naltrexone for this as well about a year ago and have been trying to get my psychiatrist to prescribe it to me. i have ocd and i've tried so many antidepressants that are supposed to help with the symptoms but to no avail, it only ever works for my depression. i'm so happy to see that this is actually working for people. it gives me hope. i sometimes consider killing myself because of how miserable, insecure, and hopeless this affliction makes me feel. i'm grateful you posted this and i'm so pleased to hear my fellow sufferers have overcome this huge problem. i feel like i could cry!

Hugs , Priscgrove !

I'm sorry you are dealing with this . I hope that your P-doc can help . Please don't give up hope ! Overcoming compulsions takes a huge effort . I used a lot of distractions to overcome my compulsive gambling . Sometimes they worked for a few minutes , sometimes they worked for a few hours - but I never stopped trying to put off acting on the impulse . Eventually , I was able to go longer and longer between when I got the urge and when I actually acted on it .

It was hard in the beginning , I won't lie . I was really anxious and uncomfortable - it's so much easier to give in and do it ! But I gritted my teeth and made lists and lists of stuff to " do instead " . I tried them all and kept thinking up new ones . Over time , the compulsion grew weaker and the times it came over me grew further and further apart .

I don't know if this will help you but I hope it gives you some ideas .

Thanks for your response, I appreciate hearing your story and your advice! I've been referred to a specialist for therapy, so hopefully they will be able to help implement the ideas you mentioned.

That's great news !

I hope it works well for you . I found writing things out very helpful in the early days of battling my addiction compulsions . I posted here a lot and you are always welcome to come here for feedback , to journal or just vent .

Thank you for being so welcoming! It's so therapeutic to talk to people here who can relate, and to write about what we go through in general. My psychiatrist hasn't put me on naltrexone yet, I'm on prozac because I have depression and OCD, so now i'm at 60mg. But he also added the antipsychotic abilify because apparently it helps with impulse control and makes the prozac stronger. Have you heard of this/think there's hope it'll help with skin picking? He says if it doesn't work we can try naltrexone or some other addiction type medication. Only problem is it's really expensive and not covered by insurance...

I don't really have any experience with those kinds of meds but I hope you get some good results with them .

I think practicing distraction techniques and trying to look at what triggers you could be helpful . My recovery from compulsive gambling didn't come from one thing alone . It was a combination of a bunch of things . There were distractions that I tried that didn't work at all . There were others that worked pretty well .

I noticed that I got a bit of an self esteem boost when I successfully denied the urge , so I tried to celebrate any little victory and find one good thing about the day . Some days were rough - I was pretty depressed in the beginning and sometimes the best I could manage was " Good job on getting up and dressed today . " .

But it got better with practice . It's a habit now . Even on my crappiest days , I will automatically remember some little thing that made me smile . Today it was seeing a 5 year old girl in what looked like palazzo pants . They had really wide legs that made her look like a tiny Christmas tree .

The abilify totally seems to be helping!!! It's not close to a "cure" like naltrexone seems to be (completely not having the urge anymore it sounds like?) but I've noticed I don't pick for nearly as long anymore... Ten minutes at most when it used to be hours. The urge is still there but less frequent and without even trying to stop myself I'm just not interested in doing it for very long. That's probably all I can ask for, because now I feel like I'm picking in relatively the same way that non-disordered people pick their skin, and it's no longer ruining my life very much.