baclofen

[Guest]

baclofen

Hi a new guy here I am very encouraged by the posting here ...it is so wonderful and brave to hear a medical practioner post so honestly thank you billp. Count me in I have ordered Dr OA's book and thanks to the great info re online pharms have placed a order for Baclofen. I am fully aware that a pill is not the complete solution I am taking the vitamins and stuff and listening to a meditation tape. Ill keep you posted when I start and of my progress

Thank you all you guys are amazing
Regards Reggie

[individualnz]

baclofen

Hi there from New Zealand

Hi all,

Greetings to you,

First of all this is my very first time on this site, so Im not sure if Im in the right spot, but I would like to say that I have read Zen's ongoing story/diary. Im intrigued, fascinated, feeling hopeful instead of beaten and most of all, that Im not alone.

I am also in the health profession and have started Baclofen today. I have not researched Baclofen to the degree some have, but I have made my own enquries. Prior to now I had come to the conclusion the the side effects of Baclofen would out weigh what I am trying to acheive, (based only upon general drug interactions and google), But it was great to see amazing people taking the risk and putting their lives in the hands of something so new and unknown, and to read the trial and error and bravery associated with all this.

I have many questions about the long term effects of Baclofen, and for how long one must remain on this drug. Im also wonder if the half life of Baclofen has anything to do with the titration process. I also wonder if it interacts with anti depressants as I have always suffered depression-anxiety, which I believe is where my addiction to alcohol first began. I worry about and wonder about nasty side effects as weight gain and lethargy, because those two together are enough to put me off, as I often drink alcohol as a motivator. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

I have found great hope in this website and the people on here and am finding it very hard to peel myself away from this site its so compelling.

I have started drinking for the day (Im normally a second or third daily binger) but today I was not so compelled. I question if its the Bac already or just reading through peoples stuff on this site last night. The desire on the way home from work to stop for booze was not the same, but obviously still there because I have had a glass.

Regards and thankyou for your honesty and wisdom!

[beatle]

baclofen

Welcome to here, individual!

Re: feeling that the Bac is working already: I had the same effect on Day One. I think it is a mix of the actual physical reaction to the first dose of Bac and the immense feeling of hope and belief that you are finally on the way to a "cure" (at least the possibility of regaining your life).

As for the side effects of Bac: many have found that they abate or disappear with time, while others have no side effects (I'm sure you have read about these experiences on this site).

There are also some for whom the side-effects are just too extreme to warrant continued use (see the "Failures" thread).

Like you, I use alcohol as a motivator (this is one of a few different "types" of alcoholics, and one of the most difficult to cure, I believe). But I have not experienced lethargy during the daytime from Bac, although I do sleep much more heavily at night (which is a positive side effect for me) and I do have some crazy dreams (although I always have).

I just went up to 50mg per day now, and am finding cravings to be much easier to handle and my alcohol intake is significantly reduced without much pain (willpower has become just ordinary willpower instead of extraordinary willpower).

I don't think there has been much talk about a weight-gain side effect -- but maybe I've missed something?? (I'm not very concerned about this aspect, plus, even if it is a potential problem for anyone, I'd still consider it to outweigh both the physical and social drawbacks of compulsive and extreme alcohol intake).

Good luck to you, and please keep us all informed about your Bac experience.

[prancy]

baclofen

Hello to all. I am up to 30 mg as of today. I do notice that when I take the bac without food, it causes me a bit of digestive upset. If I take it with food, this result is considerably lessened. The first time I took it, I had a few hours of abdominal cramping (quite pronounced), which is listed as a side effect. However, I have been on it for four days now and I have not experienced that since. I do not notice anything else, no lethargy.

I take a very mild anti-depressant that was prescribed to me for sleep (trozadone) and last night I decided to go without it as I don't want any unwanted drug interactions. I was able to go to sleep fine without it. I don't know if the bac helped with sleeping or not.

My craving for AL has considerably diminished even before the bac, which I believe is a result of reading all the posts, taking the recommended supplements from R Jewell's book, and really wanting to be free of this demon. I went alcohol free for 30 days and then had about a glass and a half of wine with friends. That was a week ago. It did not start me craving AL and I have gone another week without any AL. Usually if I go even a few days without AL, I start coming up with all sorts of plans about how I will still drink, but will moderate, will only drink wine, will only drink at social engagements, etc. etc. Then I usually forget that within two days and I find myself waking up having no idea of getting to bed. So far that has not happened to me in over a month and a week. Very encouraging.

Good luck to you all and thanks for all the informative posts. I had never heard of any of this stuff before I found this website. I got Dr. A's book from the library and read his journey. Wow. What a story. If bac worked for him, that is very encouraging.

[Lusus Naturae]

baclofen

Bill.P.;678447 wrote: Thanks...

And I'm sure there are many lurkers who haven't expressed their thanks. My indirect thanks from them, and my personal and heartfelt thanks to you. Both to you and through you to Dr. A.

It's been a wonderful (and perhaps here brief) ride here. You were individually responsible (whether that's a good thing...) for my being here, and my experimentation with a (at least) harm reducing substance.

Your wife's ability to reconcider, and forgive, wins her place in my heart as well.

Please convey my appreciation (and those of I'm sure of countless others who have not typed thus) to her.

My thanks and appreciation,
Lusus

[prancy]

baclofen

Zenstyle, so far, so good. I am going to stay at 30 mg per day for 3 or 4 days. If I don't have any major cravings, I may stay there for a bit longer. I had to go into a wine store today to buy some Wine Away, which is a great product that takes red wine stains out of clothes. Now who could possibly need that!! Anyway, the stacks and stacks of wine bottles did get me thinking how great a glass of wine would be, but I just ignored it, bought the Wine Away and left. It did stay on my mind, though, so I came home and took another bac.

[brightlite]

baclofen

Prancy,

I am so enthusied that you are doing so well on such a low dosage. You also made me laugh with "Wine Away", could be your new user name!!!

[prancy]

baclofen

Bright. Wouldn't you know that the sprayer on the Wine Away doesn't work. So now I have to go back to the wine store. Gee whiz!

I took 20 mg yesterday as I didn't remember to take the first does early enough and then didn't want to take two doses too close together. Today I plan on doing 30 mg and see how it goes for a few days. I do think there is a strong mental component here as well. I have to suppress the thoughts of AL not just wait for Bac to do it for me. For some reason that seems to be not as challenging as usual this time around. I agree with Dr. A that there has to be a chemical part of this, but I have had this "habit" for a long long time and don't expect it to give in that easy.

[Anna B]

baclofen

Hi all--sorry to chime in late on this but I just wanted to back up what Zen was saying about the baclofen & weight gain. I read a study a little while ago where they used bac to treat binge eating disorder and found it to be effective (granted the study had a super small n, but whatever). Here's a summary of the findings:

"This trial was conducted on 7 women (4 with BED and 3 with BN), who were administered 60 mg/day of baclofen for 10 weeks. Of the 6 women who completed the study, 5 showed significant reduction in the frequency of binging, and 3 women were totally free of symptoms at the end of the study. The medication was well tolerated and 4 subjects chose to continue the treatment at the end of the study."

--Anna

[Bill.P.]

baclofen

zz

[brightlite]

baclofen

Bill when will your site be up?

[Guest]

baclofen

Bump for every one great thread

[cowgal]

baclofen

Just read!

Didn't read this until now but enjoyed it......... Doing great on baclofen and happy to see everyone's progress!!!

MA

[Jeff]

baclofen

Does anybody know if it helps with the detox stage.
I tried a self detox last year and I was miserable for 4 days. I couldn't sleep, I had cold sweats, headaches you name it, but I didn't get DT's.
unfortunately I went back to drinking.

[beatle]

baclofen

I think it does. There is also lots of info on self-detox on this site, all over the place. I've detoxed myself dozens of times, so I'm kind of an involuntary expert on it. But I think the Bac makes detox much easier-- hopefully some others will jump on here and answer your question more directly.