Naltrexone - Can You Drink Your Way Sober? - with Katie HerzogNaltrexone - Can You Drink Your Way Sober? - with Katie Herzog
Sober Awkward
A peek outside the traditional pathways to sobriety...
36:40•10 May 2026
Can You Drink Your Way Sober? Katie Herzog on Naltrexone and the Sinclair Method
Episode Overview
- Katie describes decades of heavy drinking, including secret daytime Covid binges hidden from her wife.
- Traditional abstinence-based recovery and AA meetings did not work for her, despite many attempts over almost 20 years.
- The Sinclair Method involves taking an opioid blocker such as naltrexone at least an hour before drinking, gradually reducing alcohol’s reward.
- Over seven months on naltrexone, Katie’s intake dropped until she stopped drinking and noticed that alcohol no longer occupied her thoughts.
- Vic and Katie stress that naltrexone is controversial, does not suit everyone, and is simply one of many possible routes out of alcohol dependence.
“This isn't a story about drinking more, it's a story about breaking alcohol's control.”
How do people cope with the challenges of staying sober when nothing seems to stick? This chat between host Victoria Vanstone and journalist Katie Herzog looks at one very different approach: the Sinclair Method and naltrexone. Katie lays out her drinking history with blunt humour and zero self‑pity, from nicking liquor at 12 in rural North Carolina to becoming a full‑time barfly, then hiding daytime Covid binges from her wife.
She talks about “booze noise” – that constant mental chatter about when and how to drink – and how traditional routes like AA never quite fit. She went to meetings for years, but never did the steps, never got a sponsor, and simply couldn’t believe people who said they were happier sober. The turning point came when rehab looked too expensive, Zoom meetings weren’t helping, and she remembered an article about naltrexone.
Vic sets the scene clearly: this is “not about endorsement and it's not about medical advice… it's just a conversation” about another route out of alcohol dependence. Katie explains the basics of the Sinclair Method: you take an opioid blocker like naltrexone an hour before drinking, then drink as usual. Over time, the brain’s reward from alcohol shrinks.
For her, seven months on the method meant drinking less and less until she could stop completely, saying the most striking change is that “the booze noise is gone”. She also flags that it doesn’t suit everyone, especially “relief drinkers” who use alcohol mainly for sedation. Vic and Katie acknowledge why this approach is controversial in abstinence‑focused circles, joking about “sacred cows slaughtered”, while stressing there’s no single right way out of alcohol dependence.
If you’ve ever thought, “I know I need to quit, but I just don’t want to,” this honest, funny and challenging conversation might be worth your time. Could a different style of help be the thing that finally makes change feel possible?
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