Has anyone experienced an increase in anxiety on baclofen?

[brightlite]

Has anyone experienced an increase in anxiety on baclofen?

Cindi,

I'm so sorry about your pain. Hope you are still doing a good job at being AF.

BTW have you seen or heard from Larisa? She hasn't posted in awhile.

[beatle]

Has anyone experienced an increase in anxiety on baclofen?

Greg;799037 wrote: I have experienced very severe insomnia on baclofen when I take much of it close to bedtime. Worse insomnia than I've experienced with anything else. However it seems to reduce anxiety during the daytime when I take it, and may be helping a bit with depression.

I'm not going for my off-switch at the moment as I could never tolerate baclofen at high doses. 50 mg per day seems to be helping with cravings and I may try for 75 or more as long as I can bunch it up away from bedtime.

Greg, try to titrate up ever so slowly -- not according to the general protocol, but according to your body. It took me 5 months to get up to 120mg/day. Every time I would titrate up (by 10mg), if I felt more than a small increase in side-effects, I would back down, and try again after a few days... and then go to a 5mg increment. Wherever I could just tolerate, I stayed there for weeks, before trying to go up a small increment again. This is how I managed to get up to 120/mg daily, with minimal side effects at this level (except the insomnia-- which seems to be helped by taking the last bac dose 3 hours before bedtime).

[Cinders]

Has anyone experienced an increase in anxiety on baclofen?

Greg,

I agree with Beatle. You don't have to titrate up as fast as the book says. This is your body and your way out.

I had to titrate up very quickly this last two weeks. I had let my scripts lapse for all my meds and the headaches started up again. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of those drugs to keep my headaches from occurring, so I basically stayed home this week so people would not see the "stupid, tired, wobbly" Cindi. I am not all the way up yet and am not looking forward to next week when I have to fly to Dallas and work at the client site sitting next to one of the clients all week. Arrrgghh.

Within 30 minutes of taking all my meds, I am dizzy, tired, can't think of words, etc. But, I will tolerate all that in order to keep my pain away.

I am glad that Baclofen happens to be one of the meds that works for the headaches.

Brightlite, For some reason I recall that Larissa had to leave for a while. Marby had some issues with people knowing too much, too. Why don't you pm her and see if she is doing okay? I will, too.

Love,
Cindi

[beatle]

Has anyone experienced an increase in anxiety on baclofen?

mrblue;797518 wrote: Beatle, thank you for sharing this information. I've been on baclofen for 5 months, but for the last 2 months, I have been having severe panic attacks. I have been wondering if it is the baclofen this whole time, but, until now, I couldn't find any information that backed up my feelings that it was baclofen. So thank you for making me aware that others have had this same problem.

Would you mind pointing me in the right direction to find the others that you mention have had anxiety/panic attacks from baclofen.

Thank You

Sorry I didn't answer this sooner. I still don't seem to be able to use search here (although I have no problem on other sites). Maybe you can try search? I tried search with the key words anxiety and baclofen.

BUT, I'm pretty sure the posts would be on the Side Effects and Adverse Reactions to Baclofen thread. I have just now read through about 50 posts there, and the first one I found was posted by Prancy:

"I am having a very weird reaction to the bac. I am wondering if I am allergic to it. I have a sense of general unease -- feel anxious, can't settle down, not thinking too clearly."

I spent about an hour to get there, so I need to take a break. If you want to start at Prancy (her first post), and look from there, I think you will find a few more posts on that thread concerning anxiety and bac.

Sorry, that's the best I can do for now.

[Greg]

Has anyone experienced an increase in anxiety on baclofen?

Thanks Beatle and Cindi, I was always in a rush to get into the baclofen and actually titrated up faster than suggested to begin with, but have now slowed way down. A typical alcoholic, I wanted instant results without waiting. I will try increasing it slowly and use side-effects as the guide to titration speed.

Cindi, I will never whinge about my problems again after reading about yours. I hope you manage to cope OK. I can only imagine how difficult things are for you. I have read that gabapentin can help depression so maybe that's what it's doing for you despite side effects. I hope your headaches are brought under control with your current meds.

[beatle]

Has anyone experienced an increase in anxiety on baclofen?

more anxiety quotes

Now I have trolled through another big bunch of the posts on Adverse Side Effects and have so far only found the following quote:

Redthread12 ? 10/21:
"I also have the anxiety upon waking or going to sleep..."

I guess I am at least halfway through the thread, so will alert you if I find more. But I am also wondering if the exchange I am thinking of might be on another thread.

(Memory impairment again, thanks to bac -- and perhaps some other substances prior to bac?)

[Virgil]

Has anyone experienced an increase in anxiety on baclofen?

As an addition/follow-up to this thread, I have just posted the following:

https://www.mywayout.org/community/f7...tml#post815979

V.

[mabelee]

Has anyone experienced an increase in anxiety on baclofen?

Virgil, it's good to hear from you, though I'm so sorry you're not doing well. I hope and pray you get this figured out soon!

mabelee

[RedThread12]

Has anyone experienced an increase in anxiety on baclofen?

Just want to clarify - I've ALWAYS had anxiety, especially waking up. That hasn't changed with the baclofen. What HAS changed is wanting to drink to make it go away. And with bac, I'm able to use the skills I have (yoga, meditation and others) to understand and address the anxiety.

So no, baclofen has definitely not increased my anxiety. And although I still experience unpleasant physical sensations, knowing that I never have to drink like that again is pretty much the biggest anxiety relief I could even imagine.

[Lo0p]

Has anyone experienced an increase in anxiety on baclofen?

Pulling for you V. Don't be a stranger. :l

[Virgil]

Has anyone experienced an increase in anxiety on baclofen?

Lo0p;816163 wrote: Pulling for you V. Don't be a stranger. :l

Hello Lo0p,

Thanks.

Initially, I was excited about trying baclofen and I would still like to think it could help me - with both anxiety and alcohol intake. I truly was in learning mode and that was reflected in 'My Mood' as shown in the top RH corner of the screen. Today, I changed it.

My anxiety and resultant depression has driven me to despair - hence my thread:

https://www.mywayout.org/community/f7...ate-40459.html

It's not my nature to be a stranger.

V.

[craving]

Has anyone experienced an increase in anxiety on baclofen?

Virgil, I really hope the anxiety solves itself quickly. I had it only for a week and it freaked me totally out. I am still feeling afraid of having it happening again. So I am afraid of having anxiety (paradox no?)

[Virgil]

Has anyone experienced an increase in anxiety on baclofen?

craving;816187 wrote: Virgil, I really hope the anxiety solves itself quickly. I had it only for a week and it freaked me totally out. I am still feeling afraid of having it happening again. So I am afraid of having anxiety (paradox no?)

craving,

My best hope at present for relatively quick relief from the anxiety lies with my starting Citalopram combined with a reduction in baclofen dosage. But, only time will tell. Fortunately, the Citalopram makes me drowsy and I am less inclined to turn to alcohol to reduce anxiety. Whew!

With reference to your last statement, it is not unusual to develop a fear of fear itself. You are at a stage when you should be able to 'nip it in the bud'. You could start by searching on the internet against my phrase in italics. Or, you could get professional advice from a psychologist, for example.

V.