You have been searching for a Sinclair Method doctor, which means you probably already know the usual options. You may have tried some of them. Meetings that asked you to accept a label. Programs that demanded you quit before they would help. Willpower, again and again, until the willpower ran out.
Here is the truth that most alcohol treatment never says out loud: you did not fail those methods. Those methods failed you.
The Sinclair Method (TSM) takes a different path. It is a medical treatment that works with your brain chemistry instead of against your character. You do not have to stop drinking to start.
What is the Sinclair Method?
The Sinclair Method is a way of treating alcohol use disorder with naltrexone, a medication that blocks the reward alcohol produces in the brain. You take one naltrexone tablet about one hour before drinking, every time you drink. That is the core of it.
There are no group meetings. There is no label, no requirement to stand up and tell your story, and no demand that you promise never to drink again. There is a medication, a simple rule, and a physician who follows your progress closely.
Over weeks and months, something remarkable happens. The pull toward alcohol grows weaker, drink by drink, until many people find they simply want it less. This gradual unlearning is called pharmacological extinction.
How does naltrexone taken before drinking retrain your brain?
Alcohol reinforces its own habit. Each drink releases endorphins, the brain’s internal reward chemicals, and each burst of reward strengthens the wiring that says alcohol matters. Craving is not weakness. It is learning.
Naltrexone blocks that reward at the receptor level. When you take it one hour before drinking, the alcohol still arrives, but the payoff does not.
Think of a vending machine that takes your money and gives nothing back. You might try it a few more times. Eventually, you stop feeding it coins. Pharmacological extinction works the same way: when drinking stops paying, the brain slowly stops asking for it.
This is why the medication is taken before drinking rather than instead of drinking. Each medicated drinking session is not a failure of treatment. It is the treatment.
Why is abstinence not required to begin?
Most treatment asks you to change before it will help you. Quit first, then we will talk. Hit bottom, then you qualify. The Sinclair Method reverses that order: it helps you first, and change follows.
You begin while you are still drinking, because drinking with naltrexone on board is exactly how extinction happens. There is no white-knuckle phase and no test of character at the door.
This matters for safety, too. A person who has been drinking heavily every day should not stop abruptly, because sudden cessation after long heavy use can be dangerous. A gradual, medically supervised decline is gentler on the body and far more likely to last.
Some addiction medicine organizations, still closely tied to twelve-step thinking, minimize medication approaches like TSM and medication-assisted treatment (MAT). Dr. Leeds respectfully disagrees. A method that meets people where they are, and works with the brain instead of shaming it, belongs at the front of alcohol treatment, not the margins.
Is the Sinclair Method only for severe alcohol use disorder?
No. This approach suits people across the whole range of drinking concerns.
It helps people with alcohol use disorder, including those who have tried to quit many times. It also helps people in the territory often called gray area drinking: no dramatic bottom, no crisis, just a nightly habit that has grown larger than you want and harder to put down.
You do not need to qualify for a diagnosis to deserve help. If drinking takes more from you than it gives, that is reason enough.
One more distinction shapes everything Dr. Leeds does: physical dependence is not the same thing as addiction, and with alcohol the two often travel together. The Sinclair Method addresses both at once, gradually tapering the dependence and the learned behavior in the same slow motion. It follows the principle behind every service in this practice: when a gradual medical path exists, use it.
What is it like to work with a Sinclair Method doctor?
Dr. Leeds runs a concierge telemedicine practice. You work directly with Mark Leeds, D.O. at every appointment, never a substitute provider, a coach, or a rotating cast of strangers.
Appointments are weekly, by video or audio, and can run up to an hour. Between visits, you have 24/7 text access for urgent questions. Treatment happens from your own home, on your own schedule, in complete privacy.
There are no group meetings, ever. Dr. Leeds treats patients as intelligent partners who set the pace and direction of their own care, and that partnership includes coaching toward the activities and interests that make life feel worth changing.
Some patients follow TSM while continuing to drink. Others prefer taking naltrexone daily as part of an abstinence-based plan. Both paths are respected, and the whole program can be delivered remotely: you can read more about starting naltrexone and the Sinclair Method by telemedicine, including what the first weeks look like.
How to begin
Picture an evening a few months from now. There is music on, a conversation you are actually following, and a glass at your elbow that has been sitting there, half finished, for an hour. You did not fight it. You just forgot to want it.
That is what extinction feels like: not a battle won, but a battle that quietly stopped being fought.
To begin, reach out through the contact form at drleeds.com. An initial consultation is the usual first step. Consultations are paid sessions, by video or audio, available to people anywhere; they are discussions rather than medical visits and do not establish a physician-patient relationship. Prescribing and ongoing medical management with naltrexone are available to patients located in Florida.
You have already done the hardest part, which is looking for a better way. The next step is one message.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if a Sinclair Method doctor is the right fit for me?
A Sinclair Method doctor should offer time, privacy, and a plan built around you. Dr. Leeds provides weekly appointments of up to an hour, 24/7 text access between visits, and no group meetings of any kind. If you want a physician who treats you as a partner rather than a case file, that is the fit to look for.
How long does the Sinclair Method take to reduce cravings?
Pharmacological extinction is gradual by design. Many people notice their drinking pattern loosening over the first months, while deeper change often unfolds over six months to a year or more. The pace varies from person to person, and Dr. Leeds tracks progress with you week by week.
Do I have to attend meetings or accept a label to start the Sinclair Method?
No. There are no group meetings in this practice, and you will never be asked to introduce yourself by a diagnosis. The Sinclair Method here is a private medical treatment between you and your physician.
Is the Sinclair Method an option for gray area drinking?
Yes. Gray area drinking, the space between social drinking and severe alcohol use disorder, responds well to this approach. You do not need to wait for things to get worse before getting help.
Can the Sinclair Method lead to stopping alcohol completely?
It can. As cravings fade, some people settle into occasional drinking that no longer runs their week, while others discover they no longer want alcohol at all and choose abstinence. Naltrexone can also be taken daily from the start for people whose goal is not to drink. The goal belongs to you, not to a program.
About the physician
Mark Leeds, D.O. is an osteopathic physician providing concierge telemedicine care focused on benzodiazepine and z-drug tapering, psychiatric medication deprescribing, opioid dependence treatment, and alcohol use disorder. Dr. Leeds works directly with each patient, with weekly appointments and 24/7 text access between visits. He serves on the medical advisory board of the Benzodiazepine Information Coalition and hosts The Rehab Podcast on the Mental Health News Radio Network. Medical management is available for patients in Florida; consultations are available more broadly.