Wanting to try Baclofen

[corkit]

Wanting to try Baclofen

Hi Chi, my husband and I are both doing bac he's going up to 170mg tomorrow and come Monday I will be up to 130mg. I just posted on the bac dosage poll that I've found if you go up very slowly the SE will be minimal and once you start getting to the higher dosages always do the largest dose before you go to bed, it really helps you sleep and you don't feel any of the SE when you're asleep. We have been drinking all the way up to about a week ago but now the cravings are so much less it's not hard not to drink. Don't get me wrong we haven't hit the switch yet but I think we could be coming close. A little background on us, we both have been drinking since we were teenagers and more heavily for the past 5 or 6 years now. Yes you're right I don't know what it would be like if my husband didn't want to be free from AL as much as I did but you and I are both lucky that they do.

If I can help in any way please Chi let me know.
Good luck to both you and your husband.

corkit

[Road to Recovery]

Wanting to try Baclofen

That is great Corkit! thanks for the update.

[Chi]

Wanting to try Baclofen

I continue to be thankful for all the responses and information on this site. As far as I am concerned information from real life alcoholics who are trying to help themselves is the best info one can get, especially when so many in the group are intelligent people who have really thought this thing through.

Well day one of baclofen and both my husband and I had a reduction in drinking by almost half.... if you guys knew our long time drinking habits, that IS significant. We each did 5 mg X3 with the last dose around 5pm.

My husband thought the bac was making him tired as the night went on, but I reminded him he is usually tired on Saturday nights from his six day work week..... and also that we were awake talking about it as opposed to passed out asleep.

The thing that I find almost amusing is there is that slight sense of worry about taking a "medication", especially on our own, more so on my husbands part then mine..... but we thought nothing of drinking hideous amounts of alcohol every day as if that had no physical consequence.... even though we felt the consequences of hangovers, etc on a daily basis. How crazy is that?

So.... on to day two. My plan for today- I'm not going to drink unless I crave it, and to be honest I expect that I will in some capacity today, Sunday is typically our biggest drinking day due to work schedules, etc.. So if I crave it I will, but if not, I won't. I really want to assess how the baclofen is working on cravings. I hope that made sense. I feel like we our conducting our own clinical trial of two.

[corkit]

Wanting to try Baclofen

Here's another thing Chi that I found if you drink while taking Bac it really intensifies the effects of AL on you. We were on both on Naltrexone for over 7 months it was beginning to work for me but nothing for my husband but one thing it did do was that it made your thinking very clear and you didn't feel drunk while you were drinking, hard to explain anyways BAC does the complete opposite in my opinion. It doesn't take much to feel like you had twice as much to drink, just keep that in mind.

Take care and good luck

[Road to Recovery]

Wanting to try Baclofen

Chi,
Maybe a little to late but you mentioned that u werent going to drink unless u had cravings... might be worth your while to just not drink - use your will power to fight off the cravings. Just a thought... thats how I did it but I also picked that day as the day to stop. that might help too.
As far as hubby feeling tired, bac will do that but again, use it to your advantage and get rest instead of drinking.
I look forward to following your progress!

[Cinders]

Wanting to try Baclofen

The thing that I find almost amusing is there is that slight sense of worry about taking a "medication", especially on our own, more so on my husbands part then mine..... but we thought nothing of drinking hideous amounts of alcohol every day as if that had no physical consequence.... even though we felt the consequences of hangovers, etc on a daily basis. How crazy is that?

Insane are we. Seriously.

I agree with R2R, let's do this sober. Let's try to get sober, sober. If that makes any sense at all.

It does, though. Let's stop the madness and be sober, cravings or not. I am hoping the Baclofen stops the cravings, but either way, I have to stop drinking.

It is killing me.

Cindi

[houtx]

Wanting to try Baclofen

Corkit - How are you??!! How did surgery go? Good to hear from you -

[Chi]

Wanting to try Baclofen

Hi everyone.... yes the goal is to be sober. Down the road I would like to think that I could moderate, but I know that may never be possible. I'm trying to deal with what I have on my plate right now which is full blown alcoholism in an active state. It's been that way for many years, and many times I've told myself I have to quit, but it has never lasted more than a couple (miserable) days. I've felt *physically* better after a few days AF, but that never stopped the intense craving so I was always back on after the fog of the hangover lifted and the first party was on the horizon.

This time I am taking a different approach which is to wean myself away from the alcohol and the lifestyle of daily drinking and deal with the cravings which is the #1 reason I have never been able to keep my resolve.

This is day 3, I just took my 5mg of baclofen and I'm happy to say so far so good. Friday my drinking was almost cut in half, and yesterday down to about 1/3. Sunday is usually my biggest drinking day as my husband is off work and we usually drink all day starting with lunch. Yesterday I had four beers total. That is huge progress for me but what makes it even bigger is I did it without that mental "fight" to resist. Quite frankly if I am miserable sober, fighting urges everywhere I look, I KNOW I will not stay sober. If I had that kind of mental strength I would have been sober a long time ago.

I also know it's not the "fun" of being drunk that is so great, because really, it's not that great.... it is an illusion because a craving has been satisfied. I'm realizing craving = brain chemistry. Unfortunately I am one of those people who needs to deal with this alteration in my brain chemistry, but I also have come to see it is no different than somebody who needs to take an antidepressant for clinical depression, or some other med that the body needs to function well.

[Road to Recovery]

Wanting to try Baclofen

Good for you!

Chi,
Sounds like things are really starting to take shape for you. Keep posting!

[Henrietta]

Wanting to try Baclofen

Hi Chi

I'm glad your Bac has come in and so far so good. I just wanted to throw a thought out to you. I know you are really preoccupied with your cravings right now. You seem to be counting the beers and somehow associating your intake with the amount of Bac that's in your system.

Please keep in mind that for most people who are titrating up, Bac simply does not have an effect on their cravings one way or another. It just doesn't work that way. Bac slowly builds up in your system until it reaches a level where it triggers a response of indifference to AL in your brain. Almost all of us here were drinking until we hit the switch. I'm sure there are exceptions, but for the most part Bac is for reaching the switch, not for managing your cravings. So I wouldn't worry too much about your cravings or your drinking right now. Just put your effort into a steady, safe titration plan.

Keep your chin up!

[Road to Recovery]

Wanting to try Baclofen

Chi,
In my opinion, bac does reduce your cravings. I did not drink until I hit my switch. I chose a day as an end date and I still had cravings but they were manageable. I didnt hit a "switch" I guess until a higher dose. I would not feel comfortable to say that most keep drinking until they hit a "switch". In my opinion, the sooner you stop drinking, cravings or not, the sooner not drinking becomes the norm in your life until the point where you no longer want it at all.

[beatle]

Wanting to try Baclofen

Thanks for that advice and insight, Henrietta.

However, I think many of us, and certainly myself, did in fact notice a reduction in cravings from the beginning on bac. Or, I should say, in my case, perhaps not a reduction in the frequency, but definitely a reduction in the intensity.

From the first few days, at 15-20mg per day, the volume I drank diminished by about 1/3 completely naturally. I keep very careful track of how much I drink (or I should say "drank", because I would always calculate it the day after), and every morning after starting bac, it would surprise me to see how much less I had had to drink than usual.

This took no willpower whatsoever. I didn't even think about it until the day after, when I would look at the vodka bottle in astonishment, and realize I didn't have to stop by the liquor store on the way home from work that day.

However, this was definitely a honeymoon period, and after a while, the level consumed began to creep up again, even as I titrated up.

It seemed somehow that after the initial decrease in tolerance, my tolerance actually increased.

HOWEVER (and this is in caps for a reason) I have never got outrageously drunk since I started bac 9 months ago. I have never blacked out. If I have a half a glass of wine left at the end of the evening, I often put it in the refrigerator for the next day (no, I have not yet reached the ability to throw alcohol out :^(

I guess everyone is different, but I just wanted to share that "in-between" experience of mine.

And I do think that even for people who are not willing to go as high up in their bac intake to reach their "switch", baclofen can lower the intensity of cravings, thereby making it possible to exert willpower to reduce drinking.

I don't ever want to drink again. It is a life or death matter for me. So I will push it as far as I have to with the bac. For some, however, in less dire straits than myself, bac may offer a different kind of "solution".

All I can say is that I would never ever have come this far without this forum and through exchanging experiences here -- getting advice, encouragement, gaining knowledge and confidence-- and real hope.

In fact, I would be dead.

[birdy02]

Wanting to try Baclofen

I drank right up until I hit the switch. I drank 10 beers the night before I hit the switch at 270mg! I have said this SEVERAL times on this forum and I will keep saying it - you don't have to stop drinking to take Baclofen. I couldn't quit drinking - I am an alcoholic. If I would have waited until I could quit drinking then I would still be a drunk right now instead of enjoying glorious and effortless sobriety.

Obviously doing it sober is best - heck, it is what we all want! I think it is great that some can go sober while dosing up on baclofen but I think it is wrong to mislead people that they should be sober while going for the switch. It took me 5 long and difficult months to reach the switch and a good part of that was because I read about people on this forum saying that drinking and taking Bac at the same time was bad and it worried me. I dosed back down, tried antabuse (which makes me suicidally depressed), did some more research and finally decided there was NO reason why I could not drink and take baclofen at the same time.

So, thank God I did not give up and took the bull by the horns and went for it. Chi, if you can do it without drinking then that is great, but please do not get depressed or discouraged if you still have cravings and end up giving in to them. Don't let that make you want to stop taking baclofen like it did me.

I had some days during my 5 month stretch where I had very reduced cravings but it never lasted more than 24 hours at the most. The cravings came and went and to be honest, at the higher doses I even had more cravings because I wanted the alcohol to help with the nasty baclofen side effects. However, all that changes when you reach the switch.

R2R - you are an exception and one of those very lucky people that practically hit the switch right out of the gate. If I had the ability to stop the drinking while having cravings then I also would have done so but that is the defining symptom of my addiction - I couldn't quit!

I agree with everything Henrietta said. Most of us are here because we can't stop drinking and many of us, therefore, drink during the treatment; baclofen, nal, topomax or whatever.

Look, I'm not promoting that people should drink while taking baclofen, I'm just saying that if you find that your cravings are not reduced and you give into then then you will still get there. Just hang in there. It is sooooo worth it!!

Kelly

[corkit]

Wanting to try Baclofen

Hi houtx, surgery went well just recovering now and will explain all of this to anyone who would want to listen to the saga once it's all over with.

I've always envied anyone who could just stop drinking, smoking, overeating you name it they could do it. I on the other hand would have a panic attack with just the thought of never having a drink again, that's why I decided to go on BAC and until it works I'm not going to believe it.

Chi, this is how I fooled myself into cutting down. I'm a wine drinker and instead of my nice wine goblet I switched to a tiny glass and told myself I would only have just so many a night, but it calmed my nerves knowing I wasn't cut off entirely. Do what you know you can do but just keep going slowly with the BAC.

Good luck

[Road to Recovery]

Wanting to try Baclofen

Hey,
I agree with Corkit. You do not have to think that you will never drink again - you do not have to stop drinking before you feel you can. If you think you want to take a stab at a few AF days, than go for it. Before I hit my switch, I couldnt fathom never drinking again, I drank all my life and people know me as a social drinker. I stopped drinking on bac not because I was going the rest of my life without another drink, but because I wanted to get out from under it's clutches. So as soon as I felt strong enough that I could go AF for a few days, I did. Shortly after that, I hit my switch and I realized that I never wanted to drink again, I did not want to feel that way anymore.
Baclofen hits us all at different points but I do believe that we all end up at the same place eventually when taking it - Free and Happy. We all expierence different journeys on th eway there, but we all end up there and it is sooooo worth it!