I was prescribed Mounjaro for Type 2 diabetes in early 2023. I am also what you would call a heavy social drinker — 3-4 beers most evenings, more on weekends. I was not looking to address my drinking. I was not even sure I had a problem. My A1C was my concern.
Month 1 on 2.5mg: blood sugar started improving. Appetite decreased mildly. Drinking remained unchanged.
Month 2 on 5mg: this is when it happened. I poured myself a beer after work — my daily ritual for over a decade — took two sips, and put it down. Not because I was being virtuous. Not because I was trying to cut back. The beer simply did not appeal to me. The anticipatory pleasure — that feeling of "I earned this, this is going to be great" — was just not there. It was like someone had disconnected the wiring between the thought of alcohol and the reward feeling.
By week 6, I had not had a drink in 12 days. I had not been 12 days without alcohol since college. I was not white-knuckling it. I was not craving a drink and resisting. The desire was simply absent.
Month 3 on 7.5mg: I told my doctor about this and she said she was hearing it from multiple patients. She showed me the emerging research about GLP-1 receptors in the brain's reward pathways — the same mechanism that quiets food noise appears to quiet alcohol cravings. My wife started calling it my "miracle drug" because it was addressing two problems we had both been worried about.
I am now 8 months in. I drink occasionally — maybe 2-3 drinks per month at social events. The compulsive daily drinking is gone. My liver enzymes, which were mildly elevated, have normalized. I lost 40 pounds. My A1C went from 7.4 to 5.6. My blood pressure came down enough to reduce my antihypertensive dose.
I am writing this because I think the anti-addiction potential of these drugs is being underappreciated. For people who drink heavily and also struggle with weight or diabetes, GLP-1 agonists might be addressing the same underlying reward dysfunction from two angles. This was not my intention going in, but it might be the most important health change I have experienced.