Going up to 50m BAC today

[Guest]

good morning, all.
I was hopeful that today was going to be AF, but I'm afraid that I'm already planning my first drink and it's 10am.
I'm on vacation this week, so may titrate up a little more quickly when I have the opportunity to lay low... So 50 today, up from 30. 20/20/10. Feeling a little wonky, but also hungover.
I'm scared witless about the side effects but so darn excited about the opportunity of an alcohol-free future! Wooohoooo!
So do the really bad (psychosis, paralysis, somnolence) SEs start as low as 50? Or is it simply a matter of too speedy titration?
Again, thanks. Am really grateful for this community!
BTW, I think my profile reads that I joined in 2008. Not so! Just joined in June 2010! Hope I'm here, but sober and offering help, in 2 years!
K

[craving]

Going up to 50m BAC today

50mg is no problem.

30->50 is also OK. you can go in 15-25 mg steps every 3 days no problem.

somnolence will start to get a problem above 100/150mg - really depends on the person.

i doubt you will have any problems with the dose you are on. I would also go next week to 75mg once you see 50mg is fine.

[Cinders]

Going up to 50m BAC today

research,

I had no issues up until 100 mgs/day.

However, others have had issues at much lower doses.

It really depends on your body. Listen to it.

I am at 120 mgs/day and tried to go up to 140 and ended up with sleep paralysis. A very scary SE. So, I need to go up more slowly from here on out.

But, up I will go. I keep reminding myself the final SE of alcohol is death. I prefer some tiredness, funny feelings in my extremities (another SE of alcohol btw, neurapthy from nerve damage, that doesn't go away.) etc.

Just take it easy and go up slowly.

Cindi

[Guest]

Going up to 50m BAC today

Thanks.

I appreciate your input. And your many posts. And love your chart! (how'd you do that?)
K

[Guest]

Going up to 50m BAC today

Thanks, Cinders

Yup, sleep paralysis sounds like the scariest thing ever. Except, again, the alternative--the long slow process of drinking ourselves into the ground--is worse. Good luck with the titration, and thank you for your posts, too!
K

[craving]

Going up to 50m BAC today

research;891310 wrote: I appreciate your input. And your many posts. And love your chart! (how'd you do that?)
K

chart is using amcharts flash software. you simply input the data in a txt file and it will then draw the chart on the web. credit for that goes to user "fets" though.

[beatle]

Going up to 50m BAC today

craving;891307 wrote: 50mg is no problem.

30->50 is also OK. you can go in 15-25 mg steps every 3 days no problem.

somnolence will start to get a problem above 100/150mg - really depends on the person.

i doubt you will have any problems with the dose you are on. I would also go next week to 75mg once you see 50mg is fine.

I believe this advice is based on Craving's own experience, but many here have experienced extremely different reactions.

Many, myself included, could never go up by 15-25mg every 3 days no problem. I had to go up max 10mg at a time for at least 2 weeks. If I did more, the SEs were intolerable, and would have cost me my job (something the alcohol already had done two times before, so I'm not taking any chances this time).

I have never had a problem with somnolence during the day, and in fact, at higher doses (over 80mg/day), my insomnia has increased dramatically.

Many people do experience intense, sometimes terrifying dreams from the get-go, including myself. However, I have always had an intense dream life, so these were rather more interesting than disturbing to me. I think also being prepared for this possibility made the dreams less menacing.

As for hallucinations, some people have them, but it doesn't seem to be extremely widespread.

I have had two during the past two nights after upping my dose to 160mg (from 140mg-150mg, which I have been on for weeks.) One involved a monitor on my ceiling recording my every move. The other was thread-like spiders crawling across my ceiling.

The monitor on my ceiling was very disconcerting, but I managed to go back to sleep anyway, in a very worried state. It was gone when I woke up, so I had to laugh.

More terrifying was the spiders. I kept closing my eyes and then opening them again, and there they still were, but in different places, because they were moving around.

Now here's what's really important: after a couple minutes of being terrified by those thread-like spiders, I realized that it was a hallucination, and I closed my eyes and went back to sleep. When I woke up, they were, of course, gone.

I'm not sure I could have handled that so well if not for all the experiences shared here.

[Otter]

Going up to 50m BAC today

Hi again

Well, my wife is on 120 mg a day and is just fine. She relapsed a while ago when she forgot to take her dosage. She says she did not realize how important the correct dosage is. Now she does. No SE's. Best thing since sliced bread.

Problem: Still cannot get prescription in UK for over 100 mg per day.

I have had a thought. A recent article here suggests Dr. A may have made the most important discovery of this century.... try millenium.

I think he merits a nomination for a Nobel Prize in Medicine. Who else comes close?

Also, does anyone know about setting up websites? If one sets up a website are there any rules about posting links to other web site? I am finding it hard to find the information I need about Baclofen in one spot and would like to set up a site with everything in one place. No disrespect to Mywayout but it is not a Baclofen site after all and I find it hard to find things in all the threads. We need a web site here in the UK as the situtation is very different from the US in terms of prescribing and attitude.

I don't want to offend anyone or do something that gets me into trouble by linking to other sites etc. This is all at my expense and not for profit, by the way. I have spent so much time on AL research over the years I felt it might help others if I just put it all in one place.

Any ideas, support, suggestions are welcomed.

Thanks for all your support, everybody.

Best wishes

Otter

[craving]

Going up to 50m BAC today

beatle, are you taking any other medicine beside Baclofen?
i have the feeling that a lot of people who are very sensitive to Baclofen, take other medicine as well!?

[Sunnyvalenting]

Going up to 50m BAC today

I had somnolence even at the 30 mg dose and had to increase slowly. I too took 2 weeks off of work to get to my 60 mg without nodding off OTJ. I also had to time my driving to safe times before the next dose was due.
No hallucinations or confusion. No paralysis. What is that like anyway? Could someone describe it please?
I am only on 60-80/day and sometimes need an additional 20.
I have been AF since Jan 13, 2010
This has been a wonderful opportunity for me after a long and often painful journey to recovery.
Sunny

[Guest]

Going up to 50m BAC today

Side Effects


I've felt terrible today. Not so much related to BAC as choices, I think. I drank until exhaustion yesterday, then got up with husband when he got home from work-late- and drank some more. I worked out HARD yesterday-woohoo!- and am not taking ibuprofen as someone reported on this sight that it interacts with BAC. And I didn't eat enough. (Alcoholics often suffer from malnutrition. Like BAC it's under-reported and like alcoholism, under-treated. Vitamins, people! Especially vitamins B! And good food! But I suppose that's another thread.)

Otter-I admire your efforts to consolidate information about this. It's hard to navigate. I wonder if it's not just the style of communication. It's complicated by the nature of the disease and the nature of the treatment we're undertaking. For years I've wished for a degree in medicine so I could decipher all the Greek (or latin as the case may be.) Now I wish for an understanding of French as well... I'm afraid I can't help at all in the web-site division.
I don't know that I'd agree that Dr. A should get a Nobel. If he can get the research done, if it stands the test of time, and if he has indeed unlocked a tool that takes addiction research out of the dark ages; well hurrah! He probably deserves a Prize. If he saved himself and helped thousands, going out on a dangerous limb while doing it, then hurrah!! He deserves something! But we're all guinea pigs at this point and I have to wonder why there isn't something more to latch our teeth on. Much more. While I buy into the pharmaceutical-company-nightmare-hold on our economy, I also gotta wonder why I'm still calling a physician a time-zone away. It's the nature of the disease, the treatment and the recovery. While Dr. Ameisen stands, we do too. Poor guy. If he falls, what then?
Very happy to hear of your wife's recovery. Sobriety is a gift that helps lift the weight of alcoholism. I hope she's doing well.
Craving-I wonder if in addition to other medications, age, weight, diet and level of addiction/drinking don't also affect the side effects. I've gotta admit, I'm highly amused by those prescriptions/people that advise me to quit drinking. (Really?? Would I be in rehab or taking a toxic drug if I could just decide to quit? It's a cosmic joke.) Still, I get the need to focus on the willingness to stop, the commitment to stopping, in order for anything to work. Is that your experience?
Sunny-is that how you've been sober since January? With commitment and fortitude? A society of friends? I seem to recall that you're well connected here...What works?

I've reconsidered and am going to take it really slowly. I think. I could perhaps handle a relatively benign monitor, they're the stuff of zoos in my world. Spiders, though are never benign. Even though the opposite is true, I suppose. And I don't think I could recover my willingness to continue if there were spiders on my ceiling, or if I end up paralyzed in my bed.
Time will tell, though. I once said, in rehab, that I would go to any lengths (it's one of the AA mantras) and had it thrown back in my face when I wouldn't. But I'm willing and sort of able to suffer through at this point. Maybe any lengths means still struggling, years later, and looking at hallucinated spiders on the ceiling while lying paralyzed in the bed and still taking the medication that will free me the next day.
~k

[Cinders]

Going up to 50m BAC today

Research,

Sleep paralysis is when you fall asleep and are struggling to wake up but you simply cannot. You are dreaming but half awake, you cannot open your eyes or move. However, your dream is very lifelike.

In my case, I kept trying to get up and could not. I kept dreaming I was crawling off the bed and falling onto the floor, but the next thing I knew, I was still in the same place I was when I fell asleep. Then I dreamed I had crawled off the bed and was pulling myself up the chest of drawers. But then I realized I was still in bed and in the same place I started out.

FINALLY, I was able to open my eyes and actually wake up.

It was scary and it was frustrating. I had upped my afternoon dose by 20 mgs that day. It was way too much, way too fast.

Follow the titration schedule recommended. If that is too fast, do it in halves.

I am still at 120 mgs/day and still suffering lots of tiredness and the night sweats, etc.

All in all, though, if you are careful, these SEs can be minimized while titrating up.

I have never been able to minimize my SEs from alcohol.

Cindi

[PhoenixRising]

Going up to 50m BAC today

Otter, you may want to collaborate with Dr. Phill (not Dr. Phil, LOL!) he has a site baclofen4alcoholism.com
already set up, he is a Dr and has gotten relief via baclofen. He is looking for website help.