Baclofen- My Progress- Marbella

[bloggy]

Baclofen- My Progress- Marbella

Sorry guys, but mad busy here today, so only a very quick update....

Took 5mg at 10am, 5 mg at 2 pm and 10 mg at 6 pm- missed my 10pm dose because I was very tired- partly baclofen and partly work I think, but I had a very nice mood all day, and drank 1 beer at 7pm (had to make a difficult phone call- big trigger for me at times) then I took another beer home at 10pm, I drank that but if I had had more available I would not have drank it- apart from the phone call cravings were very very low.

I will write more tomorrow!

[jessie]

Baclofen- My Progress- Marbella

Hi Marb,
Thanks for the post - it certainly meant a lot to me. I am also struggling to beat the beast, but the longest I managed AF was 10 days last year. I also read Phil's post and now I'm interested in trying it. Just don't know how yet. So I'll be following your progress closely.

[happy4once]

Baclofen- My Progress- Marbella

Hi Marbella - great to see your post and also to see you are continuing to do well.

Are you stopping Nal for good or just until you get to a certain level with Baclofen? I was just curious if there was a reason behind that in case I need to go this route as well.

Take care & thank you for sharing!

[bloggy]

Baclofen- My Progress- Marbella

Hi Happy!!!

I reached a plateau with the nal- my drinking was at about 20 beers a week which is FANTASTIC compared to what it was but it was still more than I hoped for after being on the Nal for 4 over months....I decided to throw baclofen in after remembering the success that Ocean reported with it.

The quite by chance a few nights ago i was reading Bill.Ps posts and just made a spur of the moment decision to try the baclofen alone.

I like that the side effects are so few and that it is mainly metabolized by the kidneys- it seems there are no failures with this- just that some people need a higher dose than others....will keep you posted, please let me know how you are doing to!

[bloggy]

Baclofen- My Progress- Marbella

jessie;626089 wrote: Hi Marb,
Thanks for the post - it certainly meant a lot to me. I am also struggling to beat the beast, but the longest I managed AF was 10 days last year. I also read Phil's post and now I'm interested in trying it. Just don't know how yet. So I'll be following your progress closely.

Hi Jessie!

I have ordered the book "The End of My Addiction" by Dr. Oliver Ameisen- I guess this is the best place to start...I have done it the wrong way round and started first, thanks to the excellent posts by the 2 Bills!

Please keep checking in- there has to be a way out eventually.

[beatle]

Baclofen- My Progress- Marbella

I'm sorry I don't have time (right now) to read all the answers to Marbella's original post (but I did read that one) and I just want to say I appreciate that post beyond belief. Unfortunately I don't have the resources to follow this path (due to where I live), but I will do everything I can to follow in your path.

Thank you Marbella for a highly informative and inspiring post.

[happy4once]

Baclofen- My Progress- Marbella

Hi again Marbella - it's really so great to 'see' you. You always bring such calmness to the board(s) with your posts .

I am on week 13 now of TSM. My drinking went down pretty dramatically and now has gone back up - never beyond pre-Sinclair levels but more than I wanted at this point. I'm still hopeful though and plugging away. Life is still much better since I started.

I had not read your back story prior to this. I didn't realize just how far you've come, I'm so happy for you. I hope the Baclofen is the last piece of your personal puzzle.

Take care and keep us posted!

[bloggy]

Baclofen- My Progress- Marbella

Thank you for all your kind words :l

I was/am thrilled with the progress I made on Sinclair H4O- but I felt I need to see if I can get that bit further- I would love to just not drink and just not think about it...

I don't have much to report- same 20mg and same few beers! (It was 3 beers yesterday but spaced out over 4 hours).

I am seeing that my first drink comes after an event what I consider to be stressful- I have lots of animals that take a lot of time and work, one is on the verge of having to be put to sleep. I work in my own shop 7 days a week with a local neighborhood clientele- Spanish are not known for their good manners, so there is usually somebody (or three) who manages to annoys me (not difficult- I hate bad manners) plus my finances are at an all time bad, so I do have quite a lot of reasons to feel stressed at the moment. When nothing happens to upset me, I don't think of a drink (now on the bac- just a few months ago pre-naltrexone, I thought of it permanently, regardless of whether I had stress or not) now I don't -only when I feel upset....I am wondering how the nal can help with this- but I trust that it will.

Today I am going to go up to 25mg- I have intended to titrate up 5mg for the last few days, but by the end of the day I am pretty tired and think maybe I have had enough- today I took a morning dose of 10mg instead of 5mg.

[bloggy]

Baclofen- My Progress- Marbella

I have nothing to report- other than I am having trouble titrating up from 20mg to 25mg!

Everyday I seem to have a reason...too tired, yesterday was a headache, etc.

Well until I feel ready to- I won't- I am drinking 2 or 3 beers a day and generally feeling quite good, so I don't think it is an emergency that I rush this- I am gagging to have days where drinking doesn''t cross my mind, but I realise that rushing this could ruin the whole thing- I have to listen to my body.

[Bill.P.]

Baclofen- My Progress- Marbella

Hey, we want our updates!!

BTW, try using the baclofen and skip the beers, see how you feel, I bet you will have less issues.
When I quit while the alcohol was leaving my system and withdrawing that was the only time I had strong side effects of exhaustion.
I still get it transiently for like 20 minutes out of the blue. I do not know for certain that is why you are having problems at such a low dose but it seems a reasonable way to find out if you can tolerate it better if you dont have alcohol in your system for several days. Then take an inventory on how you feel without alcohol and its byproducts in your system. Then let us know if you are better handling the baclofen
Cheers

[bloggy]

Baclofen- My Progress- Marbella

I know the headaches etc are because i am drinking on top of the baclofen and not because of the baclofen- and although it is only a couple of beers it scares me how easy it would be to go right back to where I was.

The problem is Bill, I find it very hard to break the habit of those few beers, I am in exactly the same place every single day at 7pm, and to break the habit of having those few beers is difficult!!

I am doing my utmost not to start today, i have already had 2 x 10 mg of bac- I am scared to have another 10mg because if I do drink I know I will get a headache...I have had a headache
nearly everyday since starting and I have an awful lot of work to do at the moment and basically, well, I am just afraid!

I need to titrate up to get past these cravings and stop drinking but I can't titrate up until I stop- it seems to be a bit of a vicious circle.

[Bill.P.]

Baclofen- My Progress- Marbella

Marbella I understand what you are saying. I dont know you enough to offer any solutions as to what may distract you or entertain you to prevent you from getting those beers. And I know just saying "just do it" doesnt work b/c geez, every morning I used to swear I would never drink again and come 5pm when I am biking home, I would get sucked right back into buying alcohol and repeating the cycle and did that for years. So I know its not easy.
I guess you just have to get creative to outsmart your subconscious reward center of your brain working its mojo to get you to drink and feed it what it wants.
Maybe when you are early on in the day and the cravings are not quite there yet. You could sit down and write out a list of things that will help you overcome the beer craving when it inevitably comes. Things you can do like call a friend, pick a huge sandwich and eat it til you are going to burst right before you are to get some beer, eat so much nothing else will fit like beer lol.
Just think of about 10 things and right them down on how you can outsmart your cravings that day. And prepare yourself for the time you get the craving.

OR, well, one other way is to go in the other direction with baclofen. Take more. Thats what happened to me. I upped my dose and I was so literally exhausted by the time work was over. I could think of nothing other to do than fall into my bed and sleep. Too exhausted for beer. That worked for me b/c after 3 days of just falling asleep right after work. That drowsiness stopped immediately and thats how I quit drinking for good. Just made myself too exhausted for 3 days.
Now I dont know how far you live from work. I live 3.5km and combination of walking and bicycle riding. I wouldnt recommend that strategy if you drive unless you took a cab or a friend gave you a lift.

I think if you sit down at a time when there is no cravings in the morning. If you are like me, I had a period before noon where I hated drinking, Afternoon I was just counting the minutes til I get my beer.But when you are clear and in the moment. Just brainstorm on a piece of paper.
Right out why you want to quit, the pros of drinking and the cons of drinking. And then right down a list of strategies you can employ to fight back against your brain's cravings and pull that you know you will get. How to beat that devil on your shoulder.

One method of psychological therapy in dealing with obsessive thoughts is to make a "STOP" card. A card that has a big Stop sign on it like a traffic sign. And its meant for you to say stop to yourself when you find yourself thinking of something that is unhealthy. This is particularly used when breaking up with a significant other where a person constantly thinks of the person they broke up with. So saying stop and having a list of 10 or more things to start thinking of that interest you to change what you are thinking about, instead of ruminating about their lost love or a couple of beers. The list might say, imagine what you'd do if you won 10 million dollar lotto. Or other interesting topics to keep you from thinking about the beer until you can make it out of that slippery place and back home.

I hope you dont find my general advice too cheesy lol
But I guess just be creative in preparing for inevitable craving and have a strategy in place beforehand. Then see how it goes. You can beat this Marbs, someone once told you that :...you dont deserve this". And you dont, dont give up and fight back against your addicted reward center of your brain! Outsmart it!

[bloggy]

Baclofen- My Progress- Marbella

Thank you Bill- not cheesy at all!

I can arrange a lift home, I can't talk to the BF about this, but I could make a million excuses that he should pick me up- he wouldn't mind too much.

I am going to try and do the things you suggest- 10 things etc, if I don't find i am getting anywhere I will simply up the dose.

I have noticed generally my AF days are days when I am absorbed in another task I am doing.

[Bill.P.]

Baclofen- My Progress- Marbella

Well cool ladies.

I do like the STOP sign card myself as well. It just serves to break the thinking about the alcohol or anything else. And like you said, the AF days come when you busy thinking about something else.
The old saying is true
"Idle hands are the devil's tools" says that people (especially children) are more likely to get into trouble when they feel bored and have nothing to do.

By giving you something to think of or dream of. Think of where, if you could go for free, where would your dream vacation be to. Where would you like to visit etc...


Thats why I am off to the gym lol
Have a great day you two or evening depending on what time it is Spain
edit 8:20pm in Spain so good evening Marbs

[bloggy]

Baclofen- My Progress- Marbella

OK Thank you all, Marbs is leaving the shop now, not one sip has past my lips and I am taking a can of coke home

I took another 5mg at around 8pm- was a bit wary because of the tiredness, but I feel OK, and the cravings were low enough for me to ignore- I almost caved after a customer was rude, but I didn't. Big trigger for me...rude people- I really should not live in this country:H