Tomorrow is the day...MAYDAY MAYDAY!

[kambob]

Hi again all ( I came here last week but can't find my post, this is a horrible board to navigate, just sayin' ) but at that time I had booked in for a D & A assessment (which happened yesterday) and today visited a Doc who prescribed a goodly dose of Baclofen and Naltrexone to get me through my outpatient withdrawal program which will start first thing tomorrow morning. I'm excited, YAY!

I was seriously impressed by the lack of crap that the Dr put me through. "How much, how frequently, serious med issues, family....." and within 5 minutes had my prescription on the desk and me away to have it filled. He even managed to complete an EBay sale online during the consult! Very cool.

My previous experiences with alcohol programs (over ten years ago) were replete with repeated 'confessions'.....the more you confess to what a stinking rotten alky you are, the better: back then, alcoholism was (for the most part) pathologised as a psychological disorder, and one that could be *cured* with appropriate therapies. For some unknown reason, they didn't work with me!! Funny that!! :H I'm not mad, I drink!! It's drinking that keeps me from descending into madness....isn't that obvious?? :H

So tomorrow my journey really begins. I am blessed that for the next two weeks I am able to work from home, so that if my withdrawal is blighted with issues, I can just walk away from my computer and go to bed/ the toilet/ stick my head under the hose, whatever it takes.

May all your journeys be successful, or at least something to write home about.:thanks:

kambob

[learningtolovewinter]

Tomorrow is the day...MAYDAY MAYDAY!

good luck kambob- interesting about ur visit with the doc.
seems they understand a bit more about drinking these days, and it is looked at a bit less like a 'social' disease.
ugh! good luck with this, i think this site should help too, once you get the hang of it.

[kambob]

Tomorrow is the day...MAYDAY MAYDAY!

Thanks for the encouragement LTLW. I'm sort of in a limbo now, but hanging out to get this journey on the way.

Tomorrow......

[Siren136]

Tomorrow is the day...MAYDAY MAYDAY!

Very encouraging, Kambob! Glad to see that the medical community is opening up and changing their mindsets a little more. THe more we learn about the brain, the better it will get, I think.

[jenniech]

Tomorrow is the day...MAYDAY MAYDAY!

May 1st is a lovely first day of sobriety!! Good luck, best wishes and keep posting and tell us how you are doing!!

[Struggles 106]

Tomorrow is the day...MAYDAY MAYDAY!

Hey Kam

Good for you! Mayday is a great start time!

You will get used to navigation here, and maybe like me come to deoend on this site for the nonjudgemental support.

It's great that you have help from meds etc. I wish you well, and here's to a happy sober summer!

[halfway content]

Tomorrow is the day...MAYDAY MAYDAY!

Good luck to you! I quit March 11, but feel very vulnerable this week, so I will join in the May Day journey.

[K9Lover]

Tomorrow is the day...MAYDAY MAYDAY!

Hi Kambob!

I am so glad to hear that your doctor was helpful and supportive. My doctor was/is as well. Maybe because I went in there knowing what was wrong and what I needed...so I told her and she helped me.

Depending on where you are in the world...it might be May already? Here in the U.S. we have one more day of April...

Good luck on your journey! Stick close to us and head over to the Newbies Nest. I look forward to getting to know you!!

K9

[Kradle123]

Tomorrow is the day...MAYDAY MAYDAY!

Hi Kambob and another :welcome:
The site can be daunting at first but I have found all I have to do is ask about a tool or a site section and voila! Someone stars me right, right away.

If you click on your Avatar you will see a drop down menue which allows you to 'see' all your old posts or threads...
Is this the one you were looking for? I think it was your first and it was wonderful. :l

kambob;1495871 wrote: Howdy folks, another newbie here.

After having what might be called a minor epiphany last night, I spent today trawling the interwebs looking for information about programs etc to help me move from (very) active alcoholism to a place where I can begin to live again: I came across this site and am really impressed.

Brief bio: middle aged woman (now single, except for a very intimate and loving relationship with big burly bottles of wine), grown kids, couple of grandkids, white-collar worker. I have registered this very morning for a home-based medical detox program which will probably begin in a week or so.

In the meantime I am trying to arm myself with as much info as possible.....my last sojourn into sobriety took place nearly 15 yrs ago, and attitudes and treatments have changed so much even since then.

Scared as anything, but looking forward to the journey ahead. Thanks for reading.

:new:

Good post and so glad you are here. I too had a loving relationship with my wine bottles!! :h

Stay close. :l

[kambob]

Tomorrow is the day...MAYDAY MAYDAY!

K9Lover;1499138 wrote:
Depending on where you are in the world...it might be May already? Here in the U.S. we have one more day of April...

Hah....yes, I forgot to add that I am in Australia, so it is indeed May 1st today, and of course coming into winter rather than summer.

Took the first dose of Naltrexone (50mg) and Baclofen (12.5mg) at around 6.30 this morning, and so the ride begins.

[buddabelly]

Tomorrow is the day...MAYDAY MAYDAY!

Hi Kambob,

Lucky you with the Doc. Not easy here in the uk to get Bac. I ordered it on-line, but I don't know if I can afford to go up to high doses.

I'm interested in the combination of the Nax and the and Bac. I was thinking about using the bac low dose foe my anxiety and speaking to my Doc about Nax. Do you know not one of them has even suggested a medication to help with cravings. I've only found about these from this site.

I've had to beg my doc for meds foranxiety, kept getting told I'm an addict and can't have potentially addictive meds. Well I told him I'd been on-line and that there are non addictive meds
and I WANT some. So I'm on Propananol now. It's only taken me 8 months, the first 4 of which I wasn't drinking. I'd been 6 mths sober and got yet another bout of recurent depression and anxiety. Been trying to get it through to them the anxiety came first, life long, and the depression. These are my Primary illnesses The alcohol merely offers brief oblivion from the hell in my head.
I'm Day 1 today, I've spent all this pm on here.

May I join your Mayday crew, I've just taken my first Bac, 10mg, tonight.

Looking forward to hearing about your journey.

Lea:welcome:

[kambob]

Tomorrow is the day...MAYDAY MAYDAY!

Sure!! I'd LOVE a travelling companion buddabelly! :thanks:

I too was suprised about the Doc's attitude (or lack of one really). The clinic was recommended by the D & A centre that I attended on Monday as being at the cutting edge of treatments for alcoholism: I guess it helps that I live in an area that is renowned for social, economic and substance abuse issues! These doc's have very good reason to try anything, and if it works, sweet!

Mind you, I'd never even heard of Baclofen before coming to this site....so glad I found it, and to read all the other stories as well.

Thanks again.

kambob

[Juja]

Tomorrow is the day...MAYDAY MAYDAY!

buddabelly;1499305 wrote:

Been trying to get it through to them the anxiety came first, life long, and the depression. These are my Primary illnesses.

Lea:welcome:

Hi, budda!

Guess what? We share the same brain chemistry. Ain't it grand?

I never understand why the docs don't understand how crippling anxiety is. I was ready to kill myself over its relentless onslaught. As my therapist said, my anxiety drives/causes my depression.

My pysch wants me to go to a recovery therapist, but said she'll tell me I have to give up Klonipin. No f******* way am I giving up that med, so I'm not going. It saved my life. Case closed.

My best to you, kb. Hang tight here.

[kuya]

Tomorrow is the day...MAYDAY MAYDAY!

Kambob I find the attitude towards addiction has changed but that may be because there are more addicts and there are certainly more addicts in denial.

Note that a lot here are women in middle age, having successfully hidden their addiction and been functional alcoholics.

My doctor has alcohol problems, I feel for him but am not comfortable to ask him directly.

[kambob]

Tomorrow is the day...MAYDAY MAYDAY!

kuya;1499381 wrote:

Note that a lot here are women in middle age, having successfully hidden their addiction and been functional alcoholic.

My addiction has never been hidden (from immediate family and very close friends anyway) but it's not something I've shared with workmates or other acquaintances. And yes, I'm what they call a functional alcoholic....I'm not in trouble with the law, have a job, no major financial issues, yada yada.

But after a while, drinking myself into unconsciousness every night, waking up in the morning and dry heaving into the toilet, wondering whether I've still got booze in my system when I drive to work, making sure my life is SO organised to accommodate my drinking that I'm not really living anymore. Just day after day of the same old stuff, I felt I was just counting down the days until I kicked the bucket. No joy, no spontaneity, nothing that would resemble actually living a decent life.

Anyways, day one is nearly over, and it's been the first (voluntary) AF day I've had in over 5 years. The drugs are doing their thing for me....spent most of the afternoon drifting in and out of a foggy haze in front of the WORST WW2 movie on the telly evah!! It was perfect for my needs. I'm more awake now, about to take my last Bac dose for the day, and haven't had any dramas at all.

So all my contingency plans for how to deal with the cravings, the obsessional thinking, the clock ticking onto Wine O'Clock have been unnecessary today....I'll save them for tomorrow, or the next day, or whenever they appear...which they will. I'm not quite so naive as to think I'm going to get out of this mess without a bit of work.

But I got through today, and I'm chuffed.