The End of Addiction on Amazon now!

[azuldog]

Hey ya

I just got a notice from Amazon that Dr. A's book is now available for pre-order. I dont understand why it hasnt been there before this?
It might be a big help if anyone here has read it and benefited from it to write a realistic review of the influence the book has had on their lives. Many of the important things I have learned in my life have come from reading reviews on Amazon and other places on the Net.
I'm sure there will be negative stuff but doesnt that usually come from people who 'havent tried it' but still know best what wont work for other people?

Thanks to everybody who is journaling about their experiences with Baclofen. Im on my second day and the month can go fast enough for me!

azuldog

[Guest]

The End of Addiction on Amazon now!

Azuldog,
I am also on bac - 18 days, 14 AF. I am very interested to know if it has the same affect for you, please keep me informed! I love it, no cravings, no compulsive thoughts about alcohol!.

[azuldog]

The End of Addiction on Amazon now!

This very encouraging!

Hoping for the best....

Excuse me if yu have already written about this but what was your drinking history just before you went on Bac? Did you have any struggle at all? Im particulalry interested in folks who have underlying issues of anger and anxiety with their drinking. Best of luck

dog

[craving]

The End of Addiction on Amazon now!

Hello azuldog,

I have read the book and it is really excellent - you should get it

here the notes I took to summarize it for me :

Baclofen blocks the "high" received from drugs, and reduces the craving.
60-80 mg per day with no significant side effects
panic influences the GABA Transmission in the brain, and Baclofen is a GABA Agonist (An agonist often mimics the action of a naturally occurring substance.)

Olivier Ameisen increased the dose steady (by +15mg every few days) until reaching 180mg per as total daily dose.
His muscles have been totally relaxed, like he has never experienced it before. Everytime when increasing the dose he felt a little sleepy, but it was a very nice feeling and he awoke in the morning without the side-effects of sleeping pills. It reduced his craving for alcohol, and at the same time whenever he drank the highs have been less exciting. He was able to regenerate faster after each drinking. The effects are a lot more positive than Benzodiazepine and at the same time no addiction possibility exists.

the biggest risk he considered with 180mg (a several fold higher amount than suggested safe dose) is that his muscles could be totally relaxed at night, and he could suffocate. (which was also exactly my worry!)

doctors were surprised about the high dose, but said if he is active doing sport, and not having weakness on muscles then probably this could work.

he carried with him a paper saying "muscle disorders taking Baclofen 180mg per day" - in order to have the doctors informed in case he wakes up again in a hospital. As clearly with this high intake you do not want to miss a dose - as the abrupt withdrawal could be fatal.

Baclofen is the standard therapy for muscular cramps.

Even with 180mg he still had problems with drinking episodes, blackouts and accidents. The dose did not make him addicted to Baclofen.

1-3 mg / kg blocked the craving for alcohol. 1-5mg/kg for other substances

As 180mg did not succeed to keep him permanently off alcohol he started a new Protocol :

initially decreased his dose back to 30mg - then increased every 3 days by +20mg (I assume he was taking it 4 times a day and not 3 times!)
with high craving or high stress he added another 20-40mg

Because his craving was a lot higher during afternoons and nights he changed the different doses pieces in inequivalent amounts. Taking less in the morning and more in the afternoon and night.

Whenever craving became too strong, he took 20-40mg and the craving reduced within 1 hour

at 270mg/day his craving was gone (about 4mg/kg) - after 12 days on 270mg he reduced it stepwise to 120mg.
on 120mg he stayed without craving and was able to maintain his results. Once in a while when there was stress he added 20-40mg.

Dr Ameisen found an article of 1991 of C.R. Smith et al. "high dose oral baclofen: experience with patients with Multiple Sclerosis". That suggests that doses up to 270mg oral are without side effects, and that a majority of patients would need more than 100mg to get results (and that doctors are too often underdosing it). (page 179)

A person trying to commit sucide tried taking 2000mg Baclofen, and failed - no permanent damage left.

The absolute limit in dose should be around 300mg/day

[sennamick]

The End of Addiction on Amazon now!

Have you tried Revia? Baclofen does have some side effects for some people so please be careful and make sure to consult with a physician. I'm happy if it works for you however and the side effects seem to be temporary in most people.

[Guest]

The End of Addiction on Amazon now!

Azuldog,
I hid my drinking from my family as I drank until I blacked out every night for over a year. I was tired of waking up not knowing what I had done the night before and if my wife was pissed at me or not and also not knowing if my daughter was going to tell my wife something I did the night before that i had not remembered that I did it. So I would wait til about 8;00pm and I would have a beer so that would explain the liquor on my breath. What they didnt see was the pint of liquor that I would sneak to get me the high I needed. I drank after everyone went to bed until I blacked out. I stopped at nothing to sneak the money for the booze and make excuses to run out and get it. In the morning my constant thoughts were; How much AL do I have for tonight, do I need more and thoughts of AL continued all day. I do have a history of anxiety and when I talked to my doctor about my drinking problem, he said I probably drank because of my nerves. The bac makes you relaxed and in the beginning when I had thoughts of drinking at noght I took my bac and it made me sleepy so I forgot about drinking and just went to bed. I never crave AL anymore and I couldnt be happier with the way things are going.

[craving]

The End of Addiction on Amazon now!

Hoping for the best;810480 wrote: Azuldog,
I hid my drinking from my family as I drank until I blacked out every night for over a year. I was tired of waking up not knowing what I had done the night before and if my wife was pissed at me or not and also not knowing if my daughter was going to tell my wife something I did the night before that i had not remembered that I did it. So I would wait til about 8;00pm and I would have a beer so that would explain the liquor on my breath. What they didnt see was the pint of liquor that I would sneak to get me the high I needed. I drank after everyone went to bed until I blacked out. I stopped at nothing to sneak the money for the booze and make excuses to run out and get it. In the morning my constant thoughts were; How much AL do I have for tonight, do I need more and thoughts of AL continued all day. I do have a history of anxiety and when I talked to my doctor about my drinking problem, he said I probably drank because of my nerves. The bac makes you relaxed and in the beginning when I had thoughts of drinking at noght I took my bac and it made me sleepy so I forgot about drinking and just went to bed. I never crave AL anymore and I couldnt be happier with the way things are going.

I can so relate to this!!!
When my sister was here, I did the same, I took a beer, so they won't notice the liquor smell and I even did it more heavy ... I had a Guiness beer and added 3 US units Whisky right into it. So after that with 4 US units I was pretty well drunk! And then I could still sneak for 1 or 2 US units without problem. I also drank until I blacked out. I usually knew what I did the day before. Still I drank too much, and almost each day I would drink until I black out!! When watching TV this really sucked - I could not remember all details, as I was sleeping very often in between and would awake later.

I am so happy that I am not doing this anymore. 38 days AF. Thank you God for sending Baclofen on earth! :wave:

[Guest]

The End of Addiction on Amazon now!

Craving,
funny how we think we are the only ones, until we found MWO. Congrats on 38 days AF! I am happy as well. Keep in touch!

[eight days a week]

The End of Addiction on Amazon now!

It isn't showing up on the UK site. Is this book different from The End of my Addiction?

Also, can anyone tell me if there is much changed from the two versions of The End of my Addiction shown on the UK site (I have the older version).

Many thanks!

[craving]

The End of Addiction on Amazon now!

8 check this one

https://www.mywayout.org/community/f2...oks-40097.html

[eight days a week]

The End of Addiction on Amazon now!

craving;810504 wrote: 8 check this one

https://www.mywayout.org/community/f2...oks-40097.html

Thanks buddy, I'd already seen that thread and understood that The End of my Addiction was reprinted somewhere outside the UK as Heal Thyself.

But, is this The End of Addiction a new book, or a revised version of the old one, or...?

These are the only two books on the UK Amazon site, I'd love to know if there's anything new in the later copy, or if it's simply got a different cover?

The one I have

The later print

[azuldog]

The End of Addiction on Amazon now!

I'm so hopeful!!

First, I would congratulate those who have posted here who are AF with baclofen. I'm only on my third day and still drinking. I want to go faster but will listen to the voices of wisdom on this board and titrate slowly. I also am a sneak about AL around the house. I mix vodka and merlot. I hide the bottle in places James Bond could find it. I hate being a shit head.

I have never liked the taste of any of it except a lone beer on a hot summer day. I'm not gonna brag about how clever I was(am) about concealing my bad habits, I was (am) just an agent of my own premature death, how clever is that? An appropriate comment I heard at an AA meeting one night was: when you go around and introduce your self you say.....Hi I'm Tom I'm an alcoholic or Hi I'm Tom, I'm an addict. Well, this guy said, Hi I'm Tom, I'm an idiot. I feel like that every day.

Baclofen or some medicine is my last hope. Keep coming with those success stories. Maybe this is a revolution!

peace, love, happiness, dog

[beatle]

The End of Addiction on Amazon now!

You're not an idiot, azul. That's one of the worst, most harmful, most unfair things about being an alcoholic -- people think we are idiots, and they make us think that about ourselves. You are clearly not an idiot at all, azul, and you will show them all, and yourself, that.

[beatle]

The End of Addiction on Amazon now!

re: Ameisen books:

I have got mine shipped from the Amazon in the U.S. because even though Amazon U.K. is closer, I find the U.S. is cheaper. The one I got is "The End of My Addiciton" -- it looks like this:

Amazon.com: The End of My Addiction (9780374140977): Olivier Ameisen M.D.: Books

Now, I had understood that the paperback edition of this book is "Heal Thyself" (just came out recently):

Amazon.com: Heal Thyself: A Doctor at the Peak of His Medical Career, Destroyed by Alcohol--and the Personal Miracle That Brought Him Back (9780374532208): Olivier Ameisen M.D.: Books

And Amazon is trying to sell them together, like a package deal, but apparently they are the same book (shame on Amazon!).

Since "Heal Thyself" is the most recent, maybe that is the best one to buy?

And please, anyone who buys from Amazon, make a point of shaming them for their mismarketing!

[bernard]

The End of Addiction on Amazon now!

The main pages of both books are perfectly identical other than the physical sizes of the pages. I.e., the pages use the same artwork. Even the typos are the same, such as the kerning error on the third line of page 322 in which the J in Jean-Claude follows too closely after the comma. Thus, the pages have not been edited nor reset.

What's different in paperback Heal Thyself compared to the hardback The End of My Addiction:
The Foreword by Jeffrey S. Borer, M.D. was deleted. What, they had a falling out?

Heal Thyself adds:
A "Praise" section with review excerpts.
A brief biography page with photo is moved from the previous dust jacket to the interior.
The previous foreword is replaced with a preface.
A "Reader's Guide" section is appended at the end. It contains a "push polling" style of questions for discussion.
The jacket synopsis is condensed onto the back page.
The cover art is new.

What is the same:
No psychiatrist has ever or will ever read either book. If you try to hand them either book they will tell you how to find the nearest biohazard waste incinerator.

Moreover, the tiny minority involved in alcoholism who have even heard of Ameisen will dismiss, disparage, and dissemble if asked about either book. A Ph.D. researcher at a major alcoholism institute snorted to me that Ameisen took "sedating doses" of baclofen and that the only thing that works is AA.