Using baclofen strictly for anxiety

[Sunnyvalenting]

Using baclofen strictly for anxiety

IMO we drink because we have become alcohol dependent. We initially drank because it made us feel good. It may have been to cope with some anxiety or stress. But after awhile we drank because we didn't like how we felt sober. The bac allows us to not experience the distress of craving. If we have problems we can work on them. If all is well we don't need to. Most of my problems were related to the fact that I drank not the other way around.
Sunny

[Greg]

Using baclofen strictly for anxiety

I originally started drinking heavily and abusing alcohol as a way of self-medicating depression and loneliness, and to some extent social anxiety and insomnia.

As the years went on I kept drinking as self-medication but also because I was becoming severely addicted to it, and the addiction was causing even more problems. I know a couple of other men who claim they also drink to blot out depression and loneliness, but the alcohol is now only causing them even more grief. I think there may often be these two sides to alcoholism...problems that came first and may have triggered the drinking, and problems that came later because of the drinking. If this is the case with someone then they have to deal with both the alcohol addiction itself (and its cravings) and their other issues (which may require treatment beyond medication).

Please note that I am not trying to speak for others, just giving my story and that of a couple of other alcoholics I know.

[Sunnyvalenting]

Using baclofen strictly for anxiety

There is a known correlation between depression and alcohol dependence. They can each make the other worse. There was a study awhile back that compared treating patients who were depressed and alcohol dependent with Nal + an anti depressant vs nal alone, antidepressant alone, and placebo.
The best outcome of those 4 groups was the nal + antidepressant
That is not to say that all alcoholics are depressed. I think it would be hard to tell until someone actually stopped drinking long enough to feel!
Interesting thread
Sunny

[ThirdMan]

Using baclofen strictly for anxiety

I definitely feel MUCH more inclined to depression when I'm drinking. And I don't mean while I'm intoxicated, specifically, just when I'm living a drinker's life. Nothing's ever good enough, nothing I do is ever good enough. Everyone else seems to have it so much better. My life seems totally pointless. But just getting alcohol out of my life (it's only been a little over a month this time, but I plan on staying alcohol free for a while, lets see!), I'm always shocked by how things that were big problems turn out not to be, etc. I used to say that I was self-medicating for anxiety, but now I'm not so sure. In the last few years I've drunk a lot less, and especially when I'm abstinent, I'm always surprised by how calm a person I can be. The drinking and depression relationship is about as intertwined and complex as anxiety and depression and very hard to analyze I find. But at least in my case, I think its safe to say that the majority of my problems were BECAUSE I drank too much, and not the other way around. And now I wonder if I didn't use that to justify my drinking sometimes.

[Sunnyvalenting]

Using baclofen strictly for anxiety

It certainly can become circular, can't it Third?
Out beast will and can try to use anything to make us drink more including the mess we made by drinking!.
Sunny