Consolidated Baclofen Progress Thread

[me1455]

Consolidated Baclofen Progress Thread

what was it likekwhen you were not on baclofen cindy? if you were af? were the thoughts so overwhelming? is there that much a difference on bac ?

[Cinders]

Consolidated Baclofen Progress Thread

Me,

Yes. The cravings were horrible. Settling into my brain and not letting go until I fed the beast. I hated it. I hated myself.

Not today.

Cindi

[lucky 2.0]

Consolidated Baclofen Progress Thread

I have known cinders on the boards for a long time and she struggled so much to get AF- really struggled, harder than most I think, so I am thrilled that bac is doing the trick for her and so many others.

[veritas]

Consolidated Baclofen Progress Thread

Cindi, thank you again for plotting your progress. It was such an inspiration. My grandmother died of alcoholic cirrosis, I watched my father die of alcoholic cirrosis, I am now watching my brother die. I do not want my children to watch me die. For the first time ever, I feel full of hope.

[me1455]

Consolidated Baclofen Progress Thread

how are you doing veritas? what is the drinking or not drinking/craving like on bac at this point?

[veritas]

Consolidated Baclofen Progress Thread

Me1, I'm doing ok thanks. I am still having moments, but I can think now. I am not having that obsessive thought pattern where no matter what I do, I mentaly plan my trip to the wine aisle. Its been more succesful and well trodden than any wedding aisle. I just go onto auto pilot.

Yesterday, I had to listen to a relative talking to me while she sipped wine and watched dolphins play in the waves. That was hard.

[beatle]

Consolidated Baclofen Progress Thread

Hi, I've been away for a little while. I received a notice that my Bac has arrived, but I can't get it for a couple days. That's ok, I have been planning for this. I have been at 10mg/day (5 morning, 5 night). I feel this has helped me a little, but am looking forward to more than a little help!

As for the milk thistle, if anyone thinks the jury is out on this, that is not the case. Milk thistle is the one non-chemical, natural substance that pretty much every medical doctor involved in liver problems recognizes as beneficial, and most of them recommend high doses for patients with liver problems. I am not an expert at all -- this conclusion comes from a lot of research AND experience.

There have been many "acceptable" studies done on milk thistle, pretty much all of which have "proven" that milk thistle has a beneficial effect on the liver. Go ahead and google it.

As for me, I am probably one of the worst abusers on this site, and yet my liver tests have been up and down, from mildly elevated to within the normal range. I attribute it to the milk thistle, and hope I live to prove this... but for that, the jury is definitely still out.

[veritas]

Consolidated Baclofen Progress Thread

Beatle, I am a great believer in milk thistle as well. I combine mine with high doses of quality vitamin B.

[brightlite]

Consolidated Baclofen Progress Thread

I've been reading the Baclofen threads for awhile. I see Zen and Cinders and Veritas post there progress pretty well. How many are actually on Baclofen currently and it would be helpful if everyone gave an update. How long you've been taking it, your current dosage, if you are AF or still drinking etc. I know there are quite a few on it now that only occasionally post. Your input is very helpful to everyone.

[billyb]

Consolidated Baclofen Progress Thread

brightlite;676263 wrote: I've been reading the Baclofen threads for awhile. I see Zen and Cinders and Veritas post there progress pretty well. How many are actually on Baclofen currently and it would be helpful if everyone gave an update. How long you've been taking it, your current dosage, if you are AF or still drinking etc. I know there are quite a few on it now that only occasionally post. Your input is very helpful to everyone.

I guess after my initial posts I haven't really updated where I'm at, but that's because there's not much more to post. I am cured, and I'm happy to say that's about all there is to it!

But, just to recap:

I slowly titrated up while continuing to drink. I started in January, so I've been on it for six months already.

I hit my magic dose at 150mg, but continued to drink a half-beer every night for a couple more weeks - it was purely habitual at that point, and not at all physical.

After stopping that final half-beer, I went AF for a month, while titrating down to 100mg.

Since then, I will have a single drink every once and a while, and have even had two drinks on occasion. I have never felt the need to drink more than that, and I have certainly never gotten drunk.

I went down to 70mg for a time, but I have had other stressful things in my life recently, and so I went back up to 100mg in order to keep cravings at bay.

100mg is perfect for me right now, and I have been doing great on it. Cravings are rare, but still happen on occasion (only on particularly stressful days - maybe once or twice a month at most). The cravings are easily solved with an additional 20mg dose.

[Bill.P.]

Consolidated Baclofen Progress Thread

brightlite;676263 wrote: I've been reading the Baclofen threads for awhile. I see Zen and Cinders and Veritas post there progress pretty well. How many are actually on Baclofen currently and it would be helpful if everyone gave an update. How long you've been taking it, your current dosage, if you are AF or still drinking etc. I know there are quite a few on it now that only occasionally post. Your input is very helpful to everyone.

I have felt in the same position as Billyb as not much left to say. I am cured. You can read my initial story on the baclofen thread on page 2 from a few months back. I had no idea it would blow up as a result. I just wanted to shout it from the rooftops that it worked and found this forum.
THankfully and oddly enough, Billyb showed up similar name and had near exact results as myself which at the time. I had never read anyone else's success.
My story starts with my wife and deciding that it was over. She didnt want to give up her career to move over with an alcoholic.
This was February. She thought that i would die and I had an alcohol withdrawal seizure in Tasmania which split my head open, broke my tooth and really shook her up.
I was at wit's end contemplating suicide and I said I had to do something different.

I had reseearched drugs before which they did not appeal to me. But at that point months ago. I decided this was life or death for me and I had to give myself one last shot, I had tried to quit infinite times, from inpatient rehabs, psych unit stays. I had no reason to keep going.
When I started my research again. I had never heard of baclofen but stumbled across Dr Ameisen's interview and his story. It struck me as to the similairities between he and I. So I went and got a prescription for 80mg. I go into more detail in my initial posts. But I titrated very quickly. Upon going up to 40mg day, I was coming off a 9 day morning to night bender. I had to go back to work and I was so exhausted from drying out adn the baclofen. I was too exhausted to drink. And I have never drank since. By that Friday of that week.
I was shocked I had zero desire to drink. I couldnt sleep. This was shocking to me. I comopletely changed my wife said. My positive outlook that I could quit gave her hope again. And it was my love for her that had me search for a solution.
Little did I know that I would find such a magic bullet for me.

I titrated fast as I had researched the medication and knew it was safe plus I work with medications and know quite a bit about medicine. So I knew baclofen was a very very safe drug with wide safety margin.
I found this site by chance doing google research and found a baclofen thread wehre my story is contained. I just wanted to tell people it works.
Then Billyb came shortly after with similar scientific mind and thinking process, similar name lol. But more importantly there was a real tangible person that had the same miraculous results as me.

My posts have petered out as I dont have much else to say. Baclofen is safe and works in virtually everyone if they are motivated and get their dose high enough.
But the update is, what started out months ago was a desparate attempt to find anything to save my marriage and ulimately my life.
My wife is arriving this Saturday and I still have zero desire to drink. If I were to decide to drink, which my wife would never let me given what Ive put her through. i am quite confident I wouldnt get sucked back into drinking for days on end like a drink would cause before baclofen.

For me, it was a lifesaveer, a gamechanger. Its been several months nows. I dont feel like an alcoholic anymore. I feel like a normal person. I never knew how this felt. I ALWAYS wanted to drink. Now, nothing. I used to count days, like is this for real? Then it became counting weeks. Then when I could count months I still couldnt believe it. Now Ive lost count as to exactly how long its been. Its simply not that important. Before baclofen, I couldnt imagine making it a week and to be AF for this many months.

Well I believe it is a cure.

And I dont know if I said this Billyb, I very much appreciated when you showed up and validated that it wasnt just an illusion I was going through. You were the first person I had read besides Dr. A to have the success as I and it helped alot

So thats my story. in the end, I got the girl (well Saturday)

Oh and so my dosage went up to 140 mg. I quit drinking at 40mg bc I was too exhausted and in a few days after that I was 80mg and continued to titrate up to 120mg, then dropped it to 100mg. Then went back up, sometimes it was 160mg but usually not.
I stopped completely abruptly. I dont recommend that, I did not enjoy that. Now I just take 30 mg 3 times a day. That may be just a hair too low for me. But its convenient and I do dose prn for anxiety. So another 30mg if I feel like I need it

[veritas]

Consolidated Baclofen Progress Thread

Bill, I think that you still have lots to give. We are all devouring your your medical insights like hungry waifs.

[billyb]

Consolidated Baclofen Progress Thread

Bill.P.;676448 wrote:
And I dont know if I said this Billyb, I very much appreciated when you showed up and validated that it wasnt just an illusion I was going through. You were the first person I had read besides Dr. A to have the success as I and it helped alot

Thanks for the kind words Bill. I felt similarly when I came across your posts here - although Ameisen's book and the case reports are nice, it is much better to hear from actual people who have experienced this.

I am continually amazed by how great this forum has been for getting the word out and sharing bac experiences.

[Cinders]

Consolidated Baclofen Progress Thread

I am grateful for everyone here, too.

I was a hopeless case. I had tried rehabs, Lenair, white knuckling, AA (I still go to AA, btw) and any other thing that came out.

I had read about Baclofen when I first stumbled on this site. I tried the 30 mg /day that was being tested and had no results, so gave up.

I tried Topa but was allergic to it.

So, once OA's book came out and I understood that the dosage of Bac needed to be much higher and then people started posting about their dosages, etc, I decided to give it a try again and this time follow the protocol in the book and from the experiences here.

I am sober today. That IS a miracle.

I hope you Bills don't quit posting. Your stories and ideas bring much needed information to us who are in this journey with you.

If it hadn't been for your postings, I might well have given up at an early stage of titration and not kept pushing forward.

I so appreciate this forum and these threads.

It has saved me from the unimaginable horror my life had become.

Love,
Cindi

[oliveoyl]

Consolidated Baclofen Progress Thread

withdrawn