10 ms·

Can Ozempic Cure Addiction?

63 points by adrianhon 8mo ago

xdkyx 8mo ago
https://archive.is/1Zbeg https://archive.is/1Zbeg
- rat9988 8mo ago
  This feels like piracy to me and an unintended usecase of archives.
  - chwtutha 8mo ago
    I’ll admit I’ve felt a bit weird about posting archive links myself, but not weird enough to subscribe to The New Yorker instead
  - senko 8mo ago
    HN is only against piracy when AI labs do it.
    - t-3 8mo ago
      When giant IP corporations violate IP, that's very different from Joe Rando watching a movie for free. It's way worse, on multiple levels, for rule-makers to break rules than for ordinary people to.
      - senko 8mo ago
        > It's way worse, on multiple levels, for rule-makers to break rules than for ordinary people to. The purpose of the system is what it does. Yet the system routinely persecutes ordinary people for this criminal offense while giant IP corporations just treat it as an opening move in corporate deal-making.
  - Handprint4469 8mo ago
    > Are paywalls ok? [0] >> It's ok to post stories from sites with paywalls that have workarounds. >> In comments, it's ok to ask how to read an article and to help other users do so. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html#:~:text=Are%20paywalls%20ok https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html#:~:text=Are%20payw...
  - llm_nerd 8mo ago
    This isn't archive.org. Archive.is (and its many TLD equivalents) is explicitly for bypassing paywalls like this, and this is absolutely the intended use. 9 times out of ten it's because sites use cloaking and serve up all of the contents to search bots, but then paywall out end users, so it's kind of a hoisted by their own petard kind of situation. And, I mean, people can choose to not follow those links. To the rest of us they're often very welcome, and we aren't subscribing to every random site for the once in a millennia worthwhile article.
    - nullc 8mo ago
      > is explicitly for bypassing paywalls like this The site existed for most of a decade before it had any particular paywall bypassing. It's an ondemand archival site that saves the DOM in such a way that redisplay is faithful, unlike archive.org. It's a key resource in court cases for purely archival purposes and the fact that it bypasses paywalls is essential for its archival purpose to function.
      - llm_nerd 8mo ago
        Yeah, sure (sarcastic). And people mostly use torrents to share Linux distros. The site/org has no office and is anonymously run virtually. Exists on random, essentially free for all TLDs, does not honour take-down requests, does not respect robots.txt, masquerades as the Googlebot... ...yeah, I happen to have not been born yesterday so I'm not going to play along with a fiction.
        razingeden 8mo ago
        That’s nice. I’m still not giving the NYT my email or a dime.
        ImPostingOnHN 8mo ago
        Nothing you said contradicts the post you responded to, so there's no need to be rude (e.g. sarcasm) or adversarial here. You are both correct.
  - deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]
  - falcor84 8mo ago
    What do you mean? I was always under the impression that archives are for accessing a copy when the original is hard to access - this seems like the perfect use case.
    - PeterHolzwarth 8mo ago
      Bypassing a paywall does sound a bit like piracy, if you think about it. This is what the commenter is referring to (tho in this case, I don't see a paywall on the article this end.)
  - barnabee 8mo ago
    Piracy is ok
  - piperswe 8mo ago
    IMO it’s definitely piracy, but piracy is morally neutral
  - 46493168 8mo ago
    Advertisements and web tracking feel like stalking. I’ll pay for content when the content providers respect my attention and privacy and not until then.
cj 8mo ago
I was a daily drinker for many years. A "1 or 2 cocktails in the evening" type of person. (And of course, 1 cocktail often meant 2 shots, so 2 cocktails = 4 shots a night.. looking back... yikes) I started a GLP-1 in February of 2025. Lost a bunch of weight, etc. What I wasn't expecting was that I'd have such an easy time dropping the daily drinking habit. I'm not convinced GLP's will help if you're truly addicted to alcohol to the point where you need AA and structured programs to break free. But I do think GLP's have the potential to give you the initial "kick" you need to drop the habit if you're otherwise motivated to. In the first few months of starting the GLP-1, I remember losing enjoyment for eating (and drinking) a lot of things, especially unhealthy stuff (unhealthy foods/drinks tend to not combine well with GLP's). The taste of a cocktail wasn't as appetizing or appealing as it used to be, hard to explain. I'd love to see more research around this.
- glp1guide 8mo ago
  > I'd love to see more research around this. Looks like we posted around the same time, but see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945756 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945756
- colechristensen 8mo ago
  I have heard a few very different experiences with GLP-1s, for some an almost magical relief from addictive behaviors, for others they didn't notice much on that front at all.
  - thinkingtoilet 8mo ago
    Which is common with any medication and why medicine is so hard. Two people can react wildly different to the same drug.
  - t-3 8mo ago
    Without getting into individual physical differences that occur, expectation is a huge part of addiction and overcoming addiction. Rituals are very often a part of substance abuse for similar reasons. It sounds silly, but consciously placebo-ing yourself can be very effective for people trying to quit. "This medicine will cure my addiction" can be a very powerful mantra for people with a strong imagination.
lnsru 8mo ago
It’s not the cure. It’s temporary suppression. I re-sold few times monthly dose of Mounjaro and the buyers catapulted to same bad habits in no time when the last dose stopped working.
- gib444 8mo ago
  Same here when I start/stop Mounjaro except I continue to enjoy exercise. Though I'm probably just kidding myself that the exercise is undoing the naughty food The only way I found to reduce cravings is to be a hermit because there is food absolutely everywhere all the time
  - derektank 8mo ago
    This is exactly my experience. The only time I’ve been able to consistently lose weight was during the pandemic, when I could both work and socialize from home and strictly regulate what food came into my apartment, and when I’ve been on tirzepatide.
    - deleted 8mo ago
      [deleted]
  - 46493168 8mo ago
    Relying on exercise expenditure to outrun dietary intake is a losing strategy because exercise is not an effective way to create a caloric deficit. However, it may be one of the most effective ways to defend one.
    - gib444 8mo ago
      I addressed almost directly your first point in my comment but it's good to reiterate it (Not all fat people are idiots btw)
- falcor84 8mo ago
  Like any medicine, it's something that is intended to be prescribed by doctors to be used under supervision, rather than just taken by people ad-hoc at a random dosage hoping for a miracle. And as for cure rather than suppression - yes, according to that definition, no medicine that is intended to be taken indefinitely to manage a condition is a cure. But nevertheless, high blood pressure medicine, statins, anti-inflamatories, HIV antiretroviral therapy, and many other drugs have saved many millions of people from an early death. We should keep looking for one-off "cures" for all conditions, but let's not limit ourselves to them.
glp1guide 8mo ago
No one knows of course, but it's looking likely -- anecdotal data is piling up. That said, there are some that have reported it also lessens desire for things they want to desire. Did a writeup on this back in summer '25: https://glp1guide.substack.com/p/glp1s-vs-addiction-a-quick-review?r=3jmr7l https://glp1guide.substack.com/p/glp1s-vs-addiction-a-quick-... Paywalled so direct links to notable papers through the years below: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8517504 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8517504 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8820218 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8820218 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36031011 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36031011 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10684505 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10684505 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39764175 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39764175 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39032839/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39032839/ https://www.science.org/content/article/obesity-drug-cuts-opiate-craving?ref=glp1.guide https://www.science.org/content/article/obesity-drug-cuts-op... https://www.statnews.com/2024/02/17/opioid-cravings-glp1-weight-loss-liraglutide-penn-state/?ref=glp1.guide https://www.statnews.com/2024/02/17/opioid-cravings-glp1-wei... (The science.org article is paywalled IIRC) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39535805/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39535805/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39937469/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39937469/ Addiction comes up in anecdata all the time so I've written about it a few times but these papers are a good place to start to find more rigorous data points. Eli Lilly has taken to calling GLP1s "anti-hedonics" as well
- pixl97 8mo ago
  This brings up another interesting question. What is the chemical basis of desire in the brain?
  - torusle 8mo ago
    Easy, it is dopamine.
    - greygoo222 8mo ago
      No it isn't. Every neurotransmitter is involved with every complex phenomenon.
geremiiah 8mo ago
Something that has been hinted but not explicitly said: are these drugs performance enhancers? Like the same way you would take Ritalin you'd take these to curb your time wasting habits?
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
- awakeasleep 8mo ago
  When the research comes in, I will be surprised if they are a performance enhancer outside the health benefits. Meaning, it is performance-degrading to be overweight. When you remove that? you sleep better you breathe better you move better and therefore think better. If they are directly performance enhancing, it is in an extremely subtle way- far less than a soda’s worth of caffeine.
  - geremiiah 8mo ago
    Hmm, OK. I got the impression that they might improve your conscientiousness, which for some people, that would equate to a performance enhancer.
    - wincy 8mo ago
      Anecdotal, but since I’ve started Zepbound, I’ve lost 110 pounds. In that same time period, I’ve paid off and cancelled all my credit cards (except for one, which I pay off every month), filed taxes for the last five years, got a CPA on retainer, and have fixed several pressing issues around the house that I’d been studiously ignoring as they got worse. A major part of this story I think is especially important, the last time this sort of thing happened was about a decade ago, when I lost 90 pounds without any medical intervention. At that time I learned to code, fixed up my credit, and went from being front line technical support to junior software engineer. Quite a transformative time in my life. I think curing my sleep apnea due to substantial weight loss means I sleep better, so I just feel more ready to tackle the things the world throws at me. Weight loss is a skill I had, but it required absolute commitment to avoiding sugary foods, eating right every single day, and as soon as I strayed the weight would creep back up over the course of a year or two. It makes me think of the huge immeasurable economic costs that are happening in the shadows because of obesity, how many people like me are there other aren’t achieving our full potential because we’re just too tired and have too much brain fog to seize the day?
coredog64 8mo ago
I'm contemplating GLP-1 treatment but I'm concerned that it will accidentally decrease the obsession that I have that makes me good at my job.
- graboy 8mo ago
  N=1, I've been on GLP-1s for a long time and continue to be an obsessive.
- ainch 8mo ago
  It's a week-by-week injection - you can always stop taking it if you're unhappy with the effects.
  - dawnerd 8mo ago
    Also in pill form now in the US. I’m on it, results were pretty quick.
- awakeasleep 8mo ago
  I was excited about effects like this and think they’re entirely absent unless you’re obsessed with food-related app development or something else related to appetite.
- kerbs 8mo ago
  It's mostly appetite suppressing. Affects the perception of hunger and the brain/reward function of eating, which must also be part of what also helps for drug and alcohol addiction. It IME doesn't act like an anti-depressant/SSRI which can affect your enthusiasm/desire for your job. Absolutely life changing drug for me.
- marstall 8mo ago
  I take it; still obsessed.
- Cthulhu_ 8mo ago
  But what if this self-described obsession translates into burnout? Does it actually make you good or just work more compared to your peers? Can you maintain it for the rest of your career? (I'm just concerned; I've seen many people good at and super into their job end up with burnout, often multiple times because they keep thinking "I used to be good at this!", "I enjoy this!", etc instead of accepting that it was never sustainable in the first place. I suspect people's nervous systems etc are more resilient in their 20's, which is why most people with burnout only start to run into it in their 30's)
dynm 8mo ago
I'm surprised that this article doesn't appear to mention the RCT on semaglutide and alcohol use disorder by Hendershot et al. that was published in JAMA Psychiatry in early 2025 (though it's possible I missed it) https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.4789 https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.4789 This was largely portrayed as a great result in the popular press although personally I think it was a bit of a disappointment given all the amazing anecdotes https://dynomight.net/glp-1/ https://dynomight.net/glp-1/
- llm_nerd 8mo ago
  What made it a disappointment? Over only 9 weeks, which is a very short time for habit changes to take hold, there were measurable, statistically significant effects. And at the highest dose was just 1mg / week for one single week at the end, where the maintenance mode for many is 2.4mg / week. Seeing such an effect in just 9 weeks, 90% of that time being at low ramp up doses, is astonishing.
  - dynm 8mo ago
    The results for how much people actually drank in daily life were basically zero. No effect at all. The effects you're talking about are for a weird lab experiment where they sort of had people sit there in the lab and drink (or not). A huge percentage of people declined to participate in that experiment, too, which makes causality non-obvious.
    - llm_nerd 8mo ago
      The effects you're talking about are for a weird lab experiment where they sort of had people sit there in the lab and drink (or not). Where people on GLP-1s -- in a randomized, double-blind study, notably -- chose to partake of less. I cannot fathom how you dismiss this. It's a 9 week study at very low doses, and already a significant measurable effect was seen. Now if this wasn't a double-blind study I would dismiss it, but otherwise yeah, it matters. People who have drinking habits will take a long time to adopt new habits. I would never expect to see baseline behaviour changes in so short a time. But their non-habit desire for alcohol clearly was diminished, hence the lab outcomes.
eknkc 8mo ago
I've been on Mounjaro for 4 months now. You normally start with an initial lower dose and increase the dose after a month. I lost 5 kg (~11 lbs) on the initial dose in the first month, and when I increased the dose, I also stopped smoking. I've been smoking on and off for 20 years. I have stopped (and relapsed) many times, so I believe I can compare. This was a lot easier. I mean, I had cravings, but they weren't really that bad, and while the first week is generally the difficult part, I only had a couple of days with issues. I did not lose weight that month, though, which is fine as I would normally gain a lot due to compensating for cravings. I increased the dose again and started losing weight. I guess some people gain weight when they stop using GLP-1. Even if that happens, I'm fine with stopping smoking without weight gain.
- anovikov 8mo ago
  That's incredible! Smoking is the hardest one of them. Mainly because smokers tend to be skinny, as cigs kill your appetite (unlike alcoholics who tend to be fat) and all GLP-1 effects go together with the weight loss. Congrats. Smoking is a bitch of a habit and extremely hard to quit.
  - KellyCriterion 8mo ago
    Unfortunately, Im doing both and Im skinny :)
  - greygoo222 8mo ago
    Nicotine pouches (or even vaping) are astronomically less harmful than cigarettes and still work as appetite suppressors. As a bonus they are more convenient to use in public. Smokers should consider considering switching instead of quitting nicotine entirely if it's easier.
    - sublinear 8mo ago
      I don't know why you're getting downvoted, but I totally agree. I used to smoke a pack a day for years, but switched to vaping in the 2010s when nicotine salt juice became more available. It was a massive quality of life improvement. Though initially this unlocked a much higher dose of nicotine I'd ever get smoking, I eventually brought it down and regardless my lungs were doing better. Around 2020, I switched to the pouches and since then I'm down to using maybe like two a day if any at all. Since they are a slower delivery method, the nature of the cravings has changed too. I can easily hold off for hours or even days since they're less intense. I have zero desire to go back to smoking or vaping ever again. I've never experienced any oral health issues from the pouches either. X-rays on my mouth and lungs now show no damage. The only thing I will say is nicotine itself isn't entirely harmless and can trigger some mild anxiety. It seems to be related to keeping blood cotinine levels in check. I'd never recommend people start a nicotine habit, but I think we're at the point where it's not much worse than caffeine if you take it orally. There is some research out there about the potential benefits of both preventing dementia, but I won't link anything. People can argue about that somewhere else.
drcode 8mo ago
been on retatrutide a couple of months, used to drink maybe 3 beers a week now, alcohol has become the least interesting thing in the world, I just can't make myself drink it, it is so strange
pyeri 8mo ago
I've found some basic lifestyle changes to be way more effective at weight-loss and inducing well-being than a drastic chemical therapy like Ozempic. Imbibe at your own risk. - Intermittent fasting (16x8 or at least stop eating after sun down) - Daily morning pranayama (or 'breath work' if you prefer that term) - Daily morning intake of copper utensil stored water (~8 hours or overnight) - Weekly oil pulling for gum health. This approach feels a bit stoic and neanderthal initially, less attuned to our modern and progressive society, but as effective as Ozempic in long-run (minus the side-effects or addiction).
ltbarcly3 8mo ago
I had an experience similar to the article. Over 18 months, I lost about 85 lbs on Ozempic and Retatrutide. I went from struggling to walk past beer at the at the supermarket - giving in about 50% of the time - to having almost no desire to drink. I only one or two beers every few months. I haven't had a drink alone in two years, and my total alcohol consumption in that entire two year period is less than what I used to drink in a single week. During this same period, I left an abusive marriage and started exercising extensively. While the causes are complex, I attribute the loss of desire to drink primarily to the GLP-1. Subjectively, I now see drinking as a distraction from programming and other things I enjoy. This feels like my early 20s, when I saw getting drunk as a waste of time, rather than later years when I pushed for another round.
deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]
jaboutboul 8mo ago
Dropping alot of weight rapidly can lead to gallbladder issues. If you're on a GLP-1 please look into this and ask your GP about potentially putting you on Urusodiol. I saw a thread on reddit where a GP chimed in and mentioned that he was giving urusodiol to all his patients at the same time as GLPs, to help prevent the associated issues. Either way, modern science is great. Just do your research.
- dawnerd 8mo ago
  Exactly why it’s on the warning labels too. But also you still need to eat which can be very hard when your body tells you no more food.
  - mothballed 8mo ago
    Expecting the subset of people who are obese due to inability to ignore their bodies bad signals to overeat, to have the same discipline in the opposite direction, seems foolhardy.
- alyandon 8mo ago
  It does seem like a lot of doctors prescribe GLP-1s without any corresponding education on the dietary changes one should make while on them. A friend of mine's mother was hospitalized briefly because she was basically starving herself of proper nutrition while on GLP-1s. Since I already knew that rapid weight loss is very unhealthy, I intentionally eat very nutrient dense foods in order to keep my weight loss in a reasonable range.
eagsalazar2 8mo ago
I believe all the stories here about how these drugs helped with their addiction. However I will say I have not experienced this with food addiction which is interesting. I definitely eat less, but when I am hungry I'm still just as likely to eat peanut butter cups or french fries.
- joncrane 8mo ago
  Same here. I still crave sweets like nutella before I got to bed. I just don't eat as much of it.
baggachipz 8mo ago
Seeing all these articles and studies touting GLP-1s as a magic additive to enhance health and well-being has me so skeptical that there haven't been any major downsides found yet. I guess long-term studies are necessary in order to really understand what we're getting on here. I would love for it to be miracle it appears to be, since I hate trying to maintain my desired weight. I don't qualify for GLP-1 due to my BMI being too low, but I sure would like to stop the constant cravings for food and my love of beer. Everyday feels like a struggle to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
- greygoo222 8mo ago
  GLP-1s are the greatest medical innovation of the past decade. Top three, at least, mRNA might give them a run for their money. There are known side effects, mostly gastrointestinal issues, and they don't work for everyone. That being said, I'd recommend you make your own risk assessment and consider getting on GLP-1s if you have the cash to spare. You might find that GLP-1s increase your quality of life so much that it's well-worth it (or that you get terrible nausea and immediately quit, and then you no longer need to wonder). Potential risks have to be weighed against potential benefits. There are robust RCT results showing GLP-1s reduce all-cause mortality, major cardiovascular events, and stroke among patients with obesity or T2D by 13-14%, and suggestive evidence that some of these benefits apply to non-overweight people, though this hasn't been confirmed in RCTs and is likely smaller in magnitude. "Cardiovascular and renal outcomes of glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists among patients with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus: A meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials": https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666667724000473 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266666772... One reason to believe that cardiovascular benefits might apply to non-overweight people is that among the available evidence on overweight and obese people, weight loss doesn't seem to explain all benefits. See Figure 1 or the analysis section of the SELECT trial. "Semaglutide and cardiovascular outcomes by baseline and changes in adiposity measurements: a prespecified analysis of the SELECT trial": https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01375-3/ https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6... The main plausible long-term risk is thyroid cancer. Data from a meta-analysis of RCTs suggests a 55% (large error bars) increase in thyroid cancer risk. "GLP-1 receptor agonists and the risk for cancer: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials": https://dom-pubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dom.16489 https://dom-pubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/do... This is concerning, though it's worth noting that thyroid cancer is rare (1% lifetime incidence) and unlikely to kill you (98% 5-year survival, 99.9% when caught early). No studies have linked GLP-1s to a statistically significant increase in cancer-related mortality. I don't want to be too confident because RCTs have not yet shown this and I'm not an Eli Lilly shill, but cohort studies suggest GLP-1s are associated with reduced risk of other cancers. This is a good overview: "Glucagon-like peptide-1 medicines and cancer": https://www.nature.com/articles/s43018-025-01110-1 https://www.nature.com/articles/s43018-025-01110-1
46493168 8mo ago
FTA: > I’d already understood addiction to be a treatable disease, not a personal failing. Still, these scans helped me appreciate how deeply addiction is rooted in neurobiology. A mere photograph of alcohol—to say nothing of a sip—was enough to send a person’s reward centers into a frenzy. Ban alcohol advertising now and I’m not kidding or being hyperbolic.
- xnx 8mo ago
  > Ban alcohol advertising now and I’m not kidding or being hyperbolic. Agree. Don't need to make it illegal. Free speech doesn't mean the right to say anything to anyone at anytime.
rramadass 8mo ago
Relevant: Is India about to make Ozempic-like weight-loss drugs a whole lot cheaper? - https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/07/india/india-semaglutide-patent-expiry-intl-hnk-dst https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/07/india/india-semaglutide-p...
jqbd 8mo ago
as someone who struggles with eating too little, i will never cure my addictions :( i already have low appetite i might die on ozempic
password4321 8mo ago
Every time these come up on HN everyone is willing to share their positive anecdote. What are the negative experiences that come with GLP-1s beyond relapse after stopping? I need both sides before I'd consider encouraging anyone to try it.
- hippich 8mo ago
  Rapid muscles loss, unless you are careful and managing it. In my case muscle loss led to increase, not decrease, of the lower back pain related to the crack in one of the vertebrae there. I believe that loss of core muscles increased load on the spine and caused pain. Once I started doing core exercises and cut down on dosage, pain returned back to pre glp1
tsoukase 8mo ago
Smoking addiction is way harder to cope that alcohol, only surpassed by opioid. In any case a rigorous study must be performed as nowadays media hype articles about GLP1 drugs mention decline of supermarkets and increased profits by airlines because a few people lost 5-10kgs.

63 points by adrianhon 8mo ago

xdkyx 8mo ago

https://archive.is/1Zbeg https://archive.is/1Zbeg

rat9988 8mo ago
This feels like piracy to me and an unintended usecase of archives.
- chwtutha 8mo ago
  I’ll admit I’ve felt a bit weird about posting archive links myself, but not weird enough to subscribe to The New Yorker instead
- senko 8mo ago
  HN is only against piracy when AI labs do it.
  - t-3 8mo ago
    When giant IP corporations violate IP, that's very different from Joe Rando watching a movie for free. It's way worse, on multiple levels, for rule-makers to break rules than for ordinary people to.
    - senko 8mo ago
      > It's way worse, on multiple levels, for rule-makers to break rules than for ordinary people to. The purpose of the system is what it does. Yet the system routinely persecutes ordinary people for this criminal offense while giant IP corporations just treat it as an opening move in corporate deal-making.
- Handprint4469 8mo ago
  > Are paywalls ok? [0] >> It's ok to post stories from sites with paywalls that have workarounds. >> In comments, it's ok to ask how to read an article and to help other users do so. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html#:~:text=Are%20paywalls%20ok https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html#:~:text=Are%20payw...
- llm_nerd 8mo ago
  This isn't archive.org. Archive.is (and its many TLD equivalents) is explicitly for bypassing paywalls like this, and this is absolutely the intended use. 9 times out of ten it's because sites use cloaking and serve up all of the contents to search bots, but then paywall out end users, so it's kind of a hoisted by their own petard kind of situation. And, I mean, people can choose to not follow those links. To the rest of us they're often very welcome, and we aren't subscribing to every random site for the once in a millennia worthwhile article.
  - nullc 8mo ago
    > is explicitly for bypassing paywalls like this The site existed for most of a decade before it had any particular paywall bypassing. It's an ondemand archival site that saves the DOM in such a way that redisplay is faithful, unlike archive.org. It's a key resource in court cases for purely archival purposes and the fact that it bypasses paywalls is essential for its archival purpose to function.
    - llm_nerd 8mo ago
      Yeah, sure (sarcastic). And people mostly use torrents to share Linux distros. The site/org has no office and is anonymously run virtually. Exists on random, essentially free for all TLDs, does not honour take-down requests, does not respect robots.txt, masquerades as the Googlebot... ...yeah, I happen to have not been born yesterday so I'm not going to play along with a fiction.
      - razingeden 8mo ago
        That’s nice. I’m still not giving the NYT my email or a dime.
      - ImPostingOnHN 8mo ago
        Nothing you said contradicts the post you responded to, so there's no need to be rude (e.g. sarcasm) or adversarial here. You are both correct.
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
- falcor84 8mo ago
  What do you mean? I was always under the impression that archives are for accessing a copy when the original is hard to access - this seems like the perfect use case.
  - PeterHolzwarth 8mo ago
    Bypassing a paywall does sound a bit like piracy, if you think about it. This is what the commenter is referring to (tho in this case, I don't see a paywall on the article this end.)
- barnabee 8mo ago
  Piracy is ok
- piperswe 8mo ago
  IMO it’s definitely piracy, but piracy is morally neutral
- 46493168 8mo ago
  Advertisements and web tracking feel like stalking. I’ll pay for content when the content providers respect my attention and privacy and not until then.

cj 8mo ago

I was a daily drinker for many years. A "1 or 2 cocktails in the evening" type of person. (And of course, 1 cocktail often meant 2 shots, so 2 cocktails = 4 shots a night.. looking back... yikes) I started a GLP-1 in February of 2025. Lost a bunch of weight, etc. What I wasn't expecting was that I'd have such an easy time dropping the daily drinking habit. I'm not convinced GLP's will help if you're truly addicted to alcohol to the point where you need AA and structured programs to break free. But I do think GLP's have the potential to give you the initial "kick" you need to drop the habit if you're otherwise motivated to. In the first few months of starting the GLP-1, I remember losing enjoyment for eating (and drinking) a lot of things, especially unhealthy stuff (unhealthy foods/drinks tend to not combine well with GLP's). The taste of a cocktail wasn't as appetizing or appealing as it used to be, hard to explain. I'd love to see more research around this.

glp1guide 8mo ago
> I'd love to see more research around this. Looks like we posted around the same time, but see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945756 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945756
colechristensen 8mo ago
I have heard a few very different experiences with GLP-1s, for some an almost magical relief from addictive behaviors, for others they didn't notice much on that front at all.
- thinkingtoilet 8mo ago
  Which is common with any medication and why medicine is so hard. Two people can react wildly different to the same drug.
- t-3 8mo ago
  Without getting into individual physical differences that occur, expectation is a huge part of addiction and overcoming addiction. Rituals are very often a part of substance abuse for similar reasons. It sounds silly, but consciously placebo-ing yourself can be very effective for people trying to quit. "This medicine will cure my addiction" can be a very powerful mantra for people with a strong imagination.

lnsru 8mo ago

It’s not the cure. It’s temporary suppression. I re-sold few times monthly dose of Mounjaro and the buyers catapulted to same bad habits in no time when the last dose stopped working.

gib444 8mo ago
Same here when I start/stop Mounjaro except I continue to enjoy exercise. Though I'm probably just kidding myself that the exercise is undoing the naughty food The only way I found to reduce cravings is to be a hermit because there is food absolutely everywhere all the time
- derektank 8mo ago
  This is exactly my experience. The only time I’ve been able to consistently lose weight was during the pandemic, when I could both work and socialize from home and strictly regulate what food came into my apartment, and when I’ve been on tirzepatide.
  - deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]
- 46493168 8mo ago
  Relying on exercise expenditure to outrun dietary intake is a losing strategy because exercise is not an effective way to create a caloric deficit. However, it may be one of the most effective ways to defend one.
  - gib444 8mo ago
    I addressed almost directly your first point in my comment but it's good to reiterate it (Not all fat people are idiots btw)
falcor84 8mo ago
Like any medicine, it's something that is intended to be prescribed by doctors to be used under supervision, rather than just taken by people ad-hoc at a random dosage hoping for a miracle. And as for cure rather than suppression - yes, according to that definition, no medicine that is intended to be taken indefinitely to manage a condition is a cure. But nevertheless, high blood pressure medicine, statins, anti-inflamatories, HIV antiretroviral therapy, and many other drugs have saved many millions of people from an early death. We should keep looking for one-off "cures" for all conditions, but let's not limit ourselves to them.

glp1guide 8mo ago

No one knows of course, but it's looking likely -- anecdotal data is piling up. That said, there are some that have reported it also lessens desire for things they want to desire. Did a writeup on this back in summer '25: https://glp1guide.substack.com/p/glp1s-vs-addiction-a-quick-review?r=3jmr7l https://glp1guide.substack.com/p/glp1s-vs-addiction-a-quick-... Paywalled so direct links to notable papers through the years below: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8517504 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8517504 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8820218 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8820218 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36031011 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36031011 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10684505 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10684505 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39764175 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39764175 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39032839/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39032839/ https://www.science.org/content/article/obesity-drug-cuts-opiate-craving?ref=glp1.guide https://www.science.org/content/article/obesity-drug-cuts-op... https://www.statnews.com/2024/02/17/opioid-cravings-glp1-weight-loss-liraglutide-penn-state/?ref=glp1.guide https://www.statnews.com/2024/02/17/opioid-cravings-glp1-wei... (The science.org article is paywalled IIRC) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39535805/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39535805/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39937469/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39937469/ Addiction comes up in anecdata all the time so I've written about it a few times but these papers are a good place to start to find more rigorous data points. Eli Lilly has taken to calling GLP1s "anti-hedonics" as well

pixl97 8mo ago
This brings up another interesting question. What is the chemical basis of desire in the brain?
- torusle 8mo ago
  Easy, it is dopamine.
  - greygoo222 8mo ago
    No it isn't. Every neurotransmitter is involved with every complex phenomenon.

geremiiah 8mo ago

Something that has been hinted but not explicitly said: are these drugs performance enhancers? Like the same way you would take Ritalin you'd take these to curb your time wasting habits?

deleted 8mo ago
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awakeasleep 8mo ago
When the research comes in, I will be surprised if they are a performance enhancer outside the health benefits. Meaning, it is performance-degrading to be overweight. When you remove that? you sleep better you breathe better you move better and therefore think better. If they are directly performance enhancing, it is in an extremely subtle way- far less than a soda’s worth of caffeine.
- geremiiah 8mo ago
  Hmm, OK. I got the impression that they might improve your conscientiousness, which for some people, that would equate to a performance enhancer.
  - wincy 8mo ago
    Anecdotal, but since I’ve started Zepbound, I’ve lost 110 pounds. In that same time period, I’ve paid off and cancelled all my credit cards (except for one, which I pay off every month), filed taxes for the last five years, got a CPA on retainer, and have fixed several pressing issues around the house that I’d been studiously ignoring as they got worse. A major part of this story I think is especially important, the last time this sort of thing happened was about a decade ago, when I lost 90 pounds without any medical intervention. At that time I learned to code, fixed up my credit, and went from being front line technical support to junior software engineer. Quite a transformative time in my life. I think curing my sleep apnea due to substantial weight loss means I sleep better, so I just feel more ready to tackle the things the world throws at me. Weight loss is a skill I had, but it required absolute commitment to avoiding sugary foods, eating right every single day, and as soon as I strayed the weight would creep back up over the course of a year or two. It makes me think of the huge immeasurable economic costs that are happening in the shadows because of obesity, how many people like me are there other aren’t achieving our full potential because we’re just too tired and have too much brain fog to seize the day?

coredog64 8mo ago

I'm contemplating GLP-1 treatment but I'm concerned that it will accidentally decrease the obsession that I have that makes me good at my job.

graboy 8mo ago
N=1, I've been on GLP-1s for a long time and continue to be an obsessive.
ainch 8mo ago
It's a week-by-week injection - you can always stop taking it if you're unhappy with the effects.
- dawnerd 8mo ago
  Also in pill form now in the US. I’m on it, results were pretty quick.
awakeasleep 8mo ago
I was excited about effects like this and think they’re entirely absent unless you’re obsessed with food-related app development or something else related to appetite.
kerbs 8mo ago
It's mostly appetite suppressing. Affects the perception of hunger and the brain/reward function of eating, which must also be part of what also helps for drug and alcohol addiction. It IME doesn't act like an anti-depressant/SSRI which can affect your enthusiasm/desire for your job. Absolutely life changing drug for me.
marstall 8mo ago
I take it; still obsessed.
Cthulhu_ 8mo ago
But what if this self-described obsession translates into burnout? Does it actually make you good or just work more compared to your peers? Can you maintain it for the rest of your career? (I'm just concerned; I've seen many people good at and super into their job end up with burnout, often multiple times because they keep thinking "I used to be good at this!", "I enjoy this!", etc instead of accepting that it was never sustainable in the first place. I suspect people's nervous systems etc are more resilient in their 20's, which is why most people with burnout only start to run into it in their 30's)

dynm 8mo ago

I'm surprised that this article doesn't appear to mention the RCT on semaglutide and alcohol use disorder by Hendershot et al. that was published in JAMA Psychiatry in early 2025 (though it's possible I missed it) https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.4789 https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.4789 This was largely portrayed as a great result in the popular press although personally I think it was a bit of a disappointment given all the amazing anecdotes https://dynomight.net/glp-1/ https://dynomight.net/glp-1/

llm_nerd 8mo ago
What made it a disappointment? Over only 9 weeks, which is a very short time for habit changes to take hold, there were measurable, statistically significant effects. And at the highest dose was just 1mg / week for one single week at the end, where the maintenance mode for many is 2.4mg / week. Seeing such an effect in just 9 weeks, 90% of that time being at low ramp up doses, is astonishing.
- dynm 8mo ago
  The results for how much people actually drank in daily life were basically zero. No effect at all. The effects you're talking about are for a weird lab experiment where they sort of had people sit there in the lab and drink (or not). A huge percentage of people declined to participate in that experiment, too, which makes causality non-obvious.
  - llm_nerd 8mo ago
    The effects you're talking about are for a weird lab experiment where they sort of had people sit there in the lab and drink (or not). Where people on GLP-1s -- in a randomized, double-blind study, notably -- chose to partake of less. I cannot fathom how you dismiss this. It's a 9 week study at very low doses, and already a significant measurable effect was seen. Now if this wasn't a double-blind study I would dismiss it, but otherwise yeah, it matters. People who have drinking habits will take a long time to adopt new habits. I would never expect to see baseline behaviour changes in so short a time. But their non-habit desire for alcohol clearly was diminished, hence the lab outcomes.

eknkc 8mo ago

I've been on Mounjaro for 4 months now. You normally start with an initial lower dose and increase the dose after a month. I lost 5 kg (~11 lbs) on the initial dose in the first month, and when I increased the dose, I also stopped smoking. I've been smoking on and off for 20 years. I have stopped (and relapsed) many times, so I believe I can compare. This was a lot easier. I mean, I had cravings, but they weren't really that bad, and while the first week is generally the difficult part, I only had a couple of days with issues. I did not lose weight that month, though, which is fine as I would normally gain a lot due to compensating for cravings. I increased the dose again and started losing weight. I guess some people gain weight when they stop using GLP-1. Even if that happens, I'm fine with stopping smoking without weight gain.

anovikov 8mo ago
That's incredible! Smoking is the hardest one of them. Mainly because smokers tend to be skinny, as cigs kill your appetite (unlike alcoholics who tend to be fat) and all GLP-1 effects go together with the weight loss. Congrats. Smoking is a bitch of a habit and extremely hard to quit.
- KellyCriterion 8mo ago
  Unfortunately, Im doing both and Im skinny :)
- greygoo222 8mo ago
  Nicotine pouches (or even vaping) are astronomically less harmful than cigarettes and still work as appetite suppressors. As a bonus they are more convenient to use in public. Smokers should consider considering switching instead of quitting nicotine entirely if it's easier.
  - sublinear 8mo ago
    I don't know why you're getting downvoted, but I totally agree. I used to smoke a pack a day for years, but switched to vaping in the 2010s when nicotine salt juice became more available. It was a massive quality of life improvement. Though initially this unlocked a much higher dose of nicotine I'd ever get smoking, I eventually brought it down and regardless my lungs were doing better. Around 2020, I switched to the pouches and since then I'm down to using maybe like two a day if any at all. Since they are a slower delivery method, the nature of the cravings has changed too. I can easily hold off for hours or even days since they're less intense. I have zero desire to go back to smoking or vaping ever again. I've never experienced any oral health issues from the pouches either. X-rays on my mouth and lungs now show no damage. The only thing I will say is nicotine itself isn't entirely harmless and can trigger some mild anxiety. It seems to be related to keeping blood cotinine levels in check. I'd never recommend people start a nicotine habit, but I think we're at the point where it's not much worse than caffeine if you take it orally. There is some research out there about the potential benefits of both preventing dementia, but I won't link anything. People can argue about that somewhere else.

drcode 8mo ago

been on retatrutide a couple of months, used to drink maybe 3 beers a week now, alcohol has become the least interesting thing in the world, I just can't make myself drink it, it is so strange

pyeri 8mo ago

I've found some basic lifestyle changes to be way more effective at weight-loss and inducing well-being than a drastic chemical therapy like Ozempic. Imbibe at your own risk. - Intermittent fasting (16x8 or at least stop eating after sun down) - Daily morning pranayama (or 'breath work' if you prefer that term) - Daily morning intake of copper utensil stored water (~8 hours or overnight) - Weekly oil pulling for gum health. This approach feels a bit stoic and neanderthal initially, less attuned to our modern and progressive society, but as effective as Ozempic in long-run (minus the side-effects or addiction).

ltbarcly3 8mo ago

I had an experience similar to the article. Over 18 months, I lost about 85 lbs on Ozempic and Retatrutide. I went from struggling to walk past beer at the at the supermarket - giving in about 50% of the time - to having almost no desire to drink. I only one or two beers every few months. I haven't had a drink alone in two years, and my total alcohol consumption in that entire two year period is less than what I used to drink in a single week. During this same period, I left an abusive marriage and started exercising extensively. While the causes are complex, I attribute the loss of desire to drink primarily to the GLP-1. Subjectively, I now see drinking as a distraction from programming and other things I enjoy. This feels like my early 20s, when I saw getting drunk as a waste of time, rather than later years when I pushed for another round.

deleted 8mo ago

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jaboutboul 8mo ago

Dropping alot of weight rapidly can lead to gallbladder issues. If you're on a GLP-1 please look into this and ask your GP about potentially putting you on Urusodiol. I saw a thread on reddit where a GP chimed in and mentioned that he was giving urusodiol to all his patients at the same time as GLPs, to help prevent the associated issues. Either way, modern science is great. Just do your research.

dawnerd 8mo ago
Exactly why it’s on the warning labels too. But also you still need to eat which can be very hard when your body tells you no more food.
- mothballed 8mo ago
  Expecting the subset of people who are obese due to inability to ignore their bodies bad signals to overeat, to have the same discipline in the opposite direction, seems foolhardy.
alyandon 8mo ago
It does seem like a lot of doctors prescribe GLP-1s without any corresponding education on the dietary changes one should make while on them. A friend of mine's mother was hospitalized briefly because she was basically starving herself of proper nutrition while on GLP-1s. Since I already knew that rapid weight loss is very unhealthy, I intentionally eat very nutrient dense foods in order to keep my weight loss in a reasonable range.

eagsalazar2 8mo ago

I believe all the stories here about how these drugs helped with their addiction. However I will say I have not experienced this with food addiction which is interesting. I definitely eat less, but when I am hungry I'm still just as likely to eat peanut butter cups or french fries.

joncrane 8mo ago
Same here. I still crave sweets like nutella before I got to bed. I just don't eat as much of it.

baggachipz 8mo ago

Seeing all these articles and studies touting GLP-1s as a magic additive to enhance health and well-being has me so skeptical that there haven't been any major downsides found yet. I guess long-term studies are necessary in order to really understand what we're getting on here. I would love for it to be miracle it appears to be, since I hate trying to maintain my desired weight. I don't qualify for GLP-1 due to my BMI being too low, but I sure would like to stop the constant cravings for food and my love of beer. Everyday feels like a struggle to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

greygoo222 8mo ago
GLP-1s are the greatest medical innovation of the past decade. Top three, at least, mRNA might give them a run for their money. There are known side effects, mostly gastrointestinal issues, and they don't work for everyone. That being said, I'd recommend you make your own risk assessment and consider getting on GLP-1s if you have the cash to spare. You might find that GLP-1s increase your quality of life so much that it's well-worth it (or that you get terrible nausea and immediately quit, and then you no longer need to wonder). Potential risks have to be weighed against potential benefits. There are robust RCT results showing GLP-1s reduce all-cause mortality, major cardiovascular events, and stroke among patients with obesity or T2D by 13-14%, and suggestive evidence that some of these benefits apply to non-overweight people, though this hasn't been confirmed in RCTs and is likely smaller in magnitude. "Cardiovascular and renal outcomes of glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists among patients with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus: A meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials": https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666667724000473 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266666772... One reason to believe that cardiovascular benefits might apply to non-overweight people is that among the available evidence on overweight and obese people, weight loss doesn't seem to explain all benefits. See Figure 1 or the analysis section of the SELECT trial. "Semaglutide and cardiovascular outcomes by baseline and changes in adiposity measurements: a prespecified analysis of the SELECT trial": https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01375-3/ https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6... The main plausible long-term risk is thyroid cancer. Data from a meta-analysis of RCTs suggests a 55% (large error bars) increase in thyroid cancer risk. "GLP-1 receptor agonists and the risk for cancer: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials": https://dom-pubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dom.16489 https://dom-pubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/do... This is concerning, though it's worth noting that thyroid cancer is rare (1% lifetime incidence) and unlikely to kill you (98% 5-year survival, 99.9% when caught early). No studies have linked GLP-1s to a statistically significant increase in cancer-related mortality. I don't want to be too confident because RCTs have not yet shown this and I'm not an Eli Lilly shill, but cohort studies suggest GLP-1s are associated with reduced risk of other cancers. This is a good overview: "Glucagon-like peptide-1 medicines and cancer": https://www.nature.com/articles/s43018-025-01110-1 https://www.nature.com/articles/s43018-025-01110-1

46493168 8mo ago

FTA: > I’d already understood addiction to be a treatable disease, not a personal failing. Still, these scans helped me appreciate how deeply addiction is rooted in neurobiology. A mere photograph of alcohol—to say nothing of a sip—was enough to send a person’s reward centers into a frenzy. Ban alcohol advertising now and I’m not kidding or being hyperbolic.

xnx 8mo ago
> Ban alcohol advertising now and I’m not kidding or being hyperbolic. Agree. Don't need to make it illegal. Free speech doesn't mean the right to say anything to anyone at anytime.

rramadass 8mo ago

Relevant: Is India about to make Ozempic-like weight-loss drugs a whole lot cheaper? - https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/07/india/india-semaglutide-patent-expiry-intl-hnk-dst https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/07/india/india-semaglutide-p...

jqbd 8mo ago

as someone who struggles with eating too little, i will never cure my addictions :( i already have low appetite i might die on ozempic

password4321 8mo ago

Every time these come up on HN everyone is willing to share their positive anecdote. What are the negative experiences that come with GLP-1s beyond relapse after stopping? I need both sides before I'd consider encouraging anyone to try it.

hippich 8mo ago
Rapid muscles loss, unless you are careful and managing it. In my case muscle loss led to increase, not decrease, of the lower back pain related to the crack in one of the vertebrae there. I believe that loss of core muscles increased load on the spine and caused pain. Once I started doing core exercises and cut down on dosage, pain returned back to pre glp1

tsoukase 8mo ago

Smoking addiction is way harder to cope that alcohol, only surpassed by opioid. In any case a rigorous study must be performed as nowadays media hype articles about GLP1 drugs mention decline of supermarkets and increased profits by airlines because a few people lost 5-10kgs.