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  • As an alcohol enthusiast on 12.5mg of Zepbound for the last several months, my ethanol consumption hasn’t diminished much
    by sghiassy
  • My 24yo is on Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes and has said it’s also eradicated her interest in alcohol. She’s been a typical social drinker but now she’s doing mocktails.

    It’d be interesting if these meds help with weight and addiction or just even overdoing it regularly.

    by ChicagoDave
  • Just to counter some anecdata here - doing glp-1 for quite some time for weight loss. It works for me for that specific purpose. But I noticed no effect on mood or addictive aspects. But it appears to lower my alcohol tolerance, so I drink less of it. Ymmv
    by hippich
  • > A more recent RCT showed that low-dose semaglutide reduced laboratory alcohol self-administration, as well as drinks per drinking days and craving, in people with AUD [72].

    I think this quote is... wrong? Or at least extremely misleading? Here, citation 72 refers to a paper by Henderson et al. That paper did (sorta) reduced laboratory alcohol self-administration, but did not find any reduction in the amount that people drank. https://dynomight.net/glp-1/

    by dynm
  • All I will say, is if/when you start noticing digestive issues, it's probably the GLP-1 even if it's after a year of taking the stuff... and woah boy, coming off the stuff is anything but fun.
    by tracker1
  • Just a single datapoint here. About 8 months after starting on semaglutide I took a month off alcohol and by the time the month was over had lost all interest for alcohol.

    Almost 2 years now. I'm not religious about it and will occasionally drink the celebratory glass of bubbles or a beer (alcohol free if available) when it's hot outside.

    Very interesting how it has worked.

    by jnsaff2
  • Been on Mounjaro/Zepbound for the past 2 years. Lost around 80lbs, and my brain feels like I’m 25 again. Almost no urge for alcohol and have an opened bag of Halloween candy in the closet which isn’t calling my name. But the most surprising part hasn’t been that… it’s that my no limit poker game has gotten really quite good. I’ve played for 20 years, and been well above average, but after the glp-1, something just clicked. Maybe I no longer go on tilt or something? Played in the World Series of poker for the first time last year and placed in the money, in the top 10% after having not played since before Covid. I just started playing in a house game that I’d previously played in 10 years ago. Same people, and before I’d never placed in the money. I’ve now won in 3 of the last 5 games. Something’s different. Is playing poker pleasurable? Not in the least, but a good friend invited me, and played for the social aspect, but now I’m just stunned at how good I’ve suddenly become. Disliked the World Series so much last year, that I opted against playing again, even though I expected to place again. Maybe other poker players will adopt it.
    by jmpman
  • Much has been said about the GLP drugs and their interactions with all kinds of addictive disorders. Alcohol, drugs, even gambling... Anecdotally, I "struggled" at times with gaming (not joking). I would find myself skipping meetings at times or ducking away to play online sometimes. It never became a real issue but I knew I did it and it was embarrassing.

    Once I started on tirzepatide, and then with retatrutide, the "urge" to swap over to my PC between meetings and load up a game is pretty much zeroed out.

    Is this an "addiction" or a form of "abuse" similar to alcohol or other drugs? I would have said no some time ago, but now I'm not sure. I definitely feel like, looking back, I was more or less "addicted" to video games. I don't want to romanticize it as some sort of "escape", it just is what it was.

    This was an unintended side effect (benefit?) of the drug for sure, in addition to acute weight loss of course.

    Unlike many others, even after titrating down and coming off the GLP's, I have not felt the urge to binge food, video games, or anything else. I maintain a healthy, active lifestyle and have kept my weight exactly where I prefer it. My relationship with my body and my time has massively improved. I feel like I am at risk of sounding like a complete shill, obviously, but in my mind these drugs can be something that absolutely has the potential to turn life around for many, many people.

    by hbosch

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