My Baclofen Experience

[moglor]

My Baclofen Experience

United States, West coast. My first order showed up the same way. They say it shipped on the 18th and it arrived today, the 24th. Thumbs up for Goldpharma! I buy the Lioresal from them, only because I recognize Novartis as a major pharmaceutical company -- the off brand Indian stuff scares me. It's a lot more expensive, but I take some comfort in using a big name product.

[Cinders]

My Baclofen Experience

I know you had problems with the whole pee issue like I did. What other SEs are really causing you problems?

The worst one is the sleep paralysis thing. It is what is keeping me from titrating up faster. That was one of the scariest moments of my entire life.

However, I am ready to start titrating up again.

I will do whatever it takes.

Cindi

[moglor]

My Baclofen Experience

Hi all,

It's been a remarkably pleasant week, although it's getting hot, and I've been faced with some very stressful (and expensive!) car trouble. I'm still trying to recover from having to taper down the bac due to nearly running out, and my drink numbers show it. I was amazed at how much the cravings came back (albiet muted) even dropping down to 80mg from 100. I'm back up to 105 now, and ready to keep moving!

I just went back and re-read all my posts so far, and I'm a bit surprised at how much the character of my writing has changed, even in a few short weeks. My house is cleaner than it's ever been, and every day I make it a point to clean another small portion, and throw away some old junk. I'm finally getting rid of one of my ancient broken-down cars, and just tuned up and washed the other one in preparation for selling it. These are relics of my past that just aren't part of my life anymore.

In the last 11 days, I've been hung over once, after having drank 10 units on the 22nd, having been steamrolled by cravings after titrating down. I've been getting up around 7-8am, compared to my usual 11am-Noon.

I think my body has adjusted to the baclofen, so I no longer really have side effects other than some very mild feelings someone likened to the onset of hallucinogens. Hopefully this will continue as I titrate up.

At this point, I'm convinced baclofen works. Even if I go no farther than this, the changes have been overwhelming, and I would happily continue spending $300/mo on baclofen to maintain this lifestyle. I will press onward though, in search of The Switch.

At 7:40AM on a Sunday in June 2010, I realize that I owe my life to Dr. Olivier Ameisen and to the people on this board. There are no words to express the gratitude.

I started including my weight on this, after another thread about weight gain on bac. My weight has been consistent at 270lbs for the past year or so.

Date - Units Al / mg Bac / Weight (US Pounds)
2010-06-22 - 10 / 80
2010-06-23 - 0 / 80
2010-06-24 - 5 / 90
2010-06-25 - 5 / 80
2010-06-26 - 7 / 110 / 270 (122.5kg)
2010-06-27 - 0 / 35 / 270 (122.5kg)

Off to enjoy a productive Sunday,
-Moglor

[houtx]

My Baclofen Experience

Moglor , I've enjoyed reading your posts and am encouraged. I was going to go up to 120 mgs tomorrow, but decided to stay @ 100 mgs another week in hopes my next shipment arrives (from River). It usually takes about 10 days & I have enough for the next 2 1/2 weeks, I think. Hopefully -

I am discouraged by the weight gain, but am going to run out and get L-glutamine and see if that helps, as has been posted elsewhere. The wooziness continues for me and I have felt no changes in cravings. However, I'm going to add some self-restraint in the mix this week and see if I can't moderate better on my own.

I'm sick ofthis and want so much for BAC to work! To miraculously not feel the desire to drink...but I need to replace that habit with something else, I know. Just hanging in :-/

[Sunnyvalenting]

My Baclofen Experience

I am getting my baclofen from rite aide pharmacy. I get 240 10 mg tabs for just $27 dollars. That much lasts me a month as I am on just 80/day. The 20 mg tabs are more expensive for some reason! more than double. I am in California but the prescription is written by a doctor in Atlanta, Ga. (i started on the meds at a rehab clinic there). anyway It is worth whatever you need to pay for it but shop around and if possible try to talk your doctor into prescibing you the meds. I think that many docs, if they knew our history and our success with bac, would be willing to work with us on this.
Good luck
Sunny

[gratitude]

My Baclofen Experience

Sunny,
Did the rehab start you on bac. If so, very interesting. Sorry iff I missed an earlier post about this.gratitude

[moglor]

My Baclofen Experience

Yikes, been awhile since I posted, had to dig up my thread from page 3! On the flip side, it's great that there's so much traffic here!

Last time I posted was on the 27th of June. Since then I've had 3 incidents of wagon fail of 10+ drinks. These seem to occur every 4-6 days quite regularly since I started baclofen. It's clear I haven't hit The Switch, but I have definitely hit something that lets me drink less. This is good, but it's not what I'm gunning for.

[konbrot]

My Baclofen Experience

Moglor, Yes your writing is more thoughtful and considered now, with no loss to your power of expression. Maybe the bac is allowing the rational side of the brain to interplay more in the process.
I went through a similar process of diminishing interest and lessening of cravings with regard to the booze, at the same time as putting some order back into my life.
You are on the right road, heading in the right direction, you will arrive at your destination soon, maybe with a few more stop-offs on the way.
Keep posting, I also enjoy reading your updates.

[konbrot]

My Baclofen Experience

One more thing...The way you are describingd your journey on Bac, will provide a valuable resource to anyone thinking about starting out, or having just set off on a similar trip. Keep up the good work!

[Sunnyvalenting]

My Baclofen Experience

Moglor,
Sorry I missed your question of 6/27. Yes, the rehab clinic started me on bac plus nal. The nal I took just for a few weeks due to lots of nausea and dizziness. I have been on the bac ever since (mid Jan,2010)
Sunny

[OZboy]

My Baclofen Experience

Sorry..

..but it ain't..tha 'bac'..

..iv'e been read'in you'all posts..

..get off your drinkin' cycle...

..n' stop 'bs' your self........:thanks:...another 'bs'..artist.:thanks:..Ozy..

[moglor]

My Baclofen Experience

Ozboy, you sound like someone who's never experienced the true specter of alcoholism, or the changes which come with a baclofen regimen. I truly hope you never have to.

I've had a number of fits and starts getting up to 150mg/day, where I've been for the past couple days. No major SEs to report, other than occasional somnolence, which is almost always proportional to prior night's liquor consumption. I can still feel myself going through my usual drinking cycle, but the duration and intensity of the drinking has been reduced quite a bit.

I'm renewing my efforts to get back to the gym, with the idea of going in the mornings before work, something which would never have been possible in my previous life. I'm planning on going back to a low-carb diet as well, another thing that hasn't been possible with the AL train barreling down on me. I'm starting to get a little frustrated having not yet hit "the switch," and I occasionally wonder about the cumulative effects such high dosages are having on my kidneys.

With regards to the low carb thing, this, plus the gym, are two more incentives to go al-free instead of trying to moderate. Old habits, though, they die real real hard. The boredom that comes with sobriety has been a real challenge, one that I fear may be my undoing if I don't find a way to address it.

No weight loss or gain to report.

Date - Units Al / mg Bac
2010-06-27 - 6 / 115
2010-06-28 - 10 / 112.5
2010-06-29 - 0 / 112.5
2010-06-30 - 6 / 150
2010-07-01 - 1 / 112.5
2010-07-02 - 10 / 112.5
2010-07-03 - 6 / 100
2010-07-04 - 4 / 125
2010-07-05 - 3 / 125
2010-07-06 - 13 / 150
2010-07-07 - 0 / 150

-Moglor

[Sunnyvalenting]

My Baclofen Experience

Oz,
Bac allowed me to get off the drinking cycle. No BS.
Sunny

[moglor]

My Baclofen Experience

Well, the baclofen and low-carb has been going well. Impatience is getting the better of me, and I'm still titrating up as fast as my body can handle. Been picking up some SEs, so far I've experienced:

- Mild visual hallucinations, mostly little blips of distortion in my visual field, not bad, not entirely unpleasant, only occur when I'm very relaxed and sleepy.

- Mild auditory hallucinations, normal noises (cats moving around) sound abnormal, or louder than normal, not scary or anything, just weird.

- extreme somnolence in the afternoon/evening. this can be mitigated by doing something physical. I can't allow myself to go to sleep when this happens, otherwise my sleep schedule gets completely hosed. I'm now doing around 10:30PM to 05:30AM, waking up feeling reasonably refreshed before my alarm. On Al I was doing around 11PM to 7AM, but had to forcibly drag myself out of bed, and spend 30 minutes sitting in the shower before I recovered sufficiently to go to work, where I was dysfunctional most of the day.

- ears ringing when I yawn - had this since I started bac

- pee smells weird, chemically. may also be related to ketogenic low-carbing. I worry a little about overloading my kidneys, so I've been drinking a LOT of water. Now I worry about electrolyte imbalance. :-) I pee very frequently, and now wake up twice during the night to go. Without alcohol, I have no problems getting up, although I'm pretty groggy.

- brain fog, difficulty speaking - this is probably more due to the low carb conversion period. Switching from an extremely high carb diet to a low/no carb diet induces a period of malaise known as "carb flu," so it's hard to attribute this fully to baclofen.

- coordination, balance - I can't even tell you how many times I've stubbed toes, smacked elbows, knees, etc. I have learned to move slowly and with purpose. For a drug that's supposed to reduce spasticity, I sure feel spastic while on it. :-)

- excess sweating - I've always hated summer, and get overheated frequently. The bac really seems to increase my sweat output though. It may also have to do with the ridiculous amount of water I'm now consuming.

Please note that with the exception of the somnolence, all of these SEs have been completely manageable, and only tend to occur in what I think is the peak effect time of the dosage, about 2-3 hours after ingestion. I also speculate that instead of the peak time, it's actually the down slope, and the SEs may be the start of a withdrawal phase. I haven't tested this yet by taking another dose sooner.

Throughout this grand experiment, I've been checking my blood pressure (160/100) and my blood sugar (normal/slightly elevated) fairly regularly. Both of these are pre-existing conditions, and have not been altered by the baclofen.

Some other impressions of note:

- Sobriety is boring. When I drink, it's almost always because of a combination of boredom and stress. Stress from my job, and boredom from not having anything else to do besides my job.. As I discovered that physical activity cuts the SEs dramatically, I've been working more around the house, which has been a great boon, spiritually. Getting rid of junk is cathartic.

- Having another focus (low carb) helps bolster my willpower to resist drinking.

- Water is boring. I was drinking so much bottled club soda with potassium citrate that I started feeling ill from either excess water or excess potassium. I switched to regular water. I need a better beverage.

- Without spending my life sodden with booze, foods taste different. Salt is much more prominent now, recipes I used to make with a certain amount of salt are now too salty to eat. Foods I used to despise (bell peppers) are now reasonably edible. I still don't like the green ones much, but the orange and yellow ones are fairly tasty.

- My temper is more even, and the bouts of rage I was prone to have toned down considerably.

- My ongoing battle with depression seems to have taken a turn for the better, now that I am obsessed with improving myself.

I was sitting at my desk yesterday after taking my second 75mg dose of bac, was feeling reasonably high as a kite, heh, and my mind turned to beer, and how I just didn't really feel like one at all. There's been a bottle in my fridge for a couple weeks now. Of course, later on in the day when I was outside BBQing in 100F weather, I was nearly overcome with the urge to drink said beer, but I was able to resist. So, I haven't hit The Switch yet, but maybe I'm pretty close, at 200mg/day.

Added some dosage times, and later on the dosage amount to my log. Everything to date has been German Lioresal.

Date - units Al / mg bac dosage times(dosage amount)

2010-07-07 - 0 / 150 0700 1630 2230
2010-07-08 - 0 / 150 0610 1300 2023
2010-07-09 - 4 / 187.5 0630 1530 2230
2010-07-10 - 0 / 162.5 0700(50) 1611(62.5) 2038(50)
2010-07-11 - 0 / 200 0650(75) 1300(75) 2104(50)

Best,
-Moglor

[houtx]

My Baclofen Experience

Very interesting, Moglor and good luck! Sounds like you are doing great. I find I've been drinking less on BAC just b/c I get so sleepy at night I'm going to bed earlier. Am hanging on @ 100 mgs for awhile & plan to call Dr. Levin tonight. Those hallucinations, incontinence, etc you describe do not sound good though. Just these SEs I'm having w/ potential for more and with very little positive to report from my end...very uncertain going forward.