Baclofen - The Holy Grail or the Emperor's New Clothes? You tell me

[B4A]

I know what I think.
Tell me what you think.
Phill

[B4A]

Baclofen - The Holy Grail or the Emperor's New Clothes? You tell me

I'll start you off.
It works really well for most of us.
With tons of side effects that we weren't expecting.
True??
Phill

[B4A]

Baclofen - The Holy Grail or the Emperor's New Clothes? You tell me

Those side effects are almost all solveable.
Why are you not telling me your Baclofen experiences?
So many e-mail me through baclofen4alcoholism.com. And I'm very grateful.
It's obvious that there are so many other stories to tell.
Tell me them.
Phill

[Doggygirl]

Baclofen - The Holy Grail or the Emperor's New Clothes? You tell me

Hi Phill. I don't take Baclofen myself but as an alcoholic in recovery, I am very interested in all forms of treatment. It seems that Baclofen holds a lot of promise for a lot of people. I just wanted to say that I enjoyed visiting your web site just now and enjoyed reading the articles. I liked your reference to our "Toxic Alcohol Environment." Amen.

I am interested about the connection you make between Anxiety and Alcoholism. I am very sure I'm an alcoholic, but I don't believe I suffer from anxiety. (at least not when I am sober) So I'm just trying to better understand how it must be for those of you who DO suffer both. Am I hearing you say that it might be even more challenging to break the addiction cycle if a person is both alcoholic AND suffering from anxiety? Is it people with this combination that you think Bac offers the most promise for?

Many thanks in advance for listening to my questions,

DG

[B4A]

Baclofen - The Holy Grail or the Emperor's New Clothes? You tell me

Hi DG
Baclofen is without a doubt the best thing for most of us right now. I'm sure that 'son or daughter of Baclofen' will appear one day.
I cannot claim to have made the link between alcoholism and anxiety. That was Olivier Ameisen of course. When I read his book, it was like reading my own life story. I have discussed this with him on the telephone, and it is remarkable how similar our lives have been. Unfortunately.
I genuinely believe in the concept of a Toxic Alcohol Environment.
I'm delighted that you enjoyed my baclofen4alcoholism.com site. I has expanded and changed a lot over the last year or so, as visitors have made suggestions and had requests. I believe that it does some good for those that use it.
I also believe from my now considerable experience that Baclofen is the treatment of choice for anxiety - alcohol - alcoholism. What I call Triple-A Syndrome. The people who contact me by e-mail through the sitewho have not been successful with Baclofen almost all fit into the "I'm not anxious. Anxiety isn't why I drink" group. The other major group are the ones who just get too many side effects.
It's great to talk to you. Speak soon.
Phill

[Light Of Daz]

Baclofen - The Holy Grail or the Emperor's New Clothes? You tell me

So far... (3 months on Baclofen)... it is the holy grail for me. Never had I felt so different, so alive, so happy.

I hope the honeymoon never ends, and based on what you say Dr. Phill, and the length of time you've been taking Baclofen, I am definitely encouraged.

Unbelievable. Why did it take this long?

[Otter]

Baclofen - The Holy Grail or the Emperor's New Clothes? You tell me

The test of the pudding is in the eating. Look back over the MWO forums and see how little there was on Baclofen a year ago. Now it is taking over the whole site. It will grow exponentially.

I remember watching Sex and the City years ago and thinking I was the only one who had found it on late night HBO.

Baclofen will go the same way. One day it will reach critical mass and will explode. There is no containing it.

[Doggygirl]

Baclofen - The Holy Grail or the Emperor's New Clothes? You tell me

B4A;929311 wrote: Hi DG
I also believe from my now considerable experience that Baclofen is the treatment of choice for anxiety - alcohol - alcoholism. What I call Triple-A Syndrome. The people who contact me by e-mail through the sitewho have not been successful with Baclofen almost all fit into the "I'm not anxious. Anxiety isn't why I drink" group. The other major group are the ones who just get too many side effects.
It's great to talk to you. Speak soon.
Phill

Thank you for your response. I am so blessed to have gotten sober and thus far, stayed sober without medication. (but would not hesitate to go to any length if what I'm doing today stops working for me!) I of course know others who struggle and struggle and just can't seem to stay sober. It sounds like if anxiety is in the mix, then they are a good candidate for Bac? Just want to confirm that I understand your suggestion.

I agree with you about the Toxic Alcohol Environment. It's everywhere. To the degree we are genetically predisposed or have other conditions that lead easily to alcoholism, it's a very dangerous world out there.

I enjoy reading the posts in this section. Thanks for all the sharing.

DG

[Sunnyvalenting]

Baclofen - The Holy Grail or the Emperor's New Clothes? You tell me

I have been abstinent on baclofen for almost 7 months now. I am on a maintenance dose of just 30-40 mg. I had a long career of first binging and later almost daily addictive drinking. I had tried outpatient rehab, naltrexone, topamax, AA, RR and will power. Nothing "stuck" until I was able to control the cravings and behave rationally in my own best interest due to the baclofen. It is not a holy grail. A person must want to quit. Giving bac to someone who hasn't made that decision for themselves would probably not help. I don't think I have anxiety as a rule (unless I drank and made my life hell).
I dont know what a toxic alcohol environment is. Can you explain it to me.
This weekend I went to a big family reunion and had a wonderful time. It was at my cousin's vinyard and almost everyone had coctails, beer, excellent wine or whatever. I stuck to ice tea or water and did not feel left out at all. I thing a few of them had "more" than was healthy and may have suffered mild hangovers. I am so glad I was not in that group. This type of disinterest would not have been possible without the baclofen, I think. I kind of thought that some of the people who were drinking did get just a little bit pushy or rude but not terribly so. Again, thankful it wasn't my problem.
No such thing as a "holy grail" it is not magic. There are valid scientific reasons that it works. I am just thankful that it works for me weather I fit the typical alcohol dependent or not.
Sunny

[beatle]

Baclofen - The Holy Grail or the Emperor's New Clothes? You tell me

I think that to go to the extent of taking baclofen (and weather out all the side effects and follow close dosing/titration schedules, etc.) one would probably have to be highly motivated to stop drinking. Many of us reached for it after trying everything else, from AA to rehab, from Antabuse to kudzu, and every other manner of holistic and nutritive healing methods. And, of course, willpower.

I don't know if giving baclofen to an unmotivated person would work or not. It should curb cravings anyway, and it did stop alcoholic rats from drinking (and I doubt they were motivated to stop). But if the person really doesn't want to quit, i.e they WANT to continue, the lower cravings might not be enough to stop them from drinking (people's brains work slightly different from rats',).

[B4A]

Baclofen - The Holy Grail or the Emperor's New Clothes? You tell me

Hello everyone
Otter is as ever right. There is an enormous snowball coming over that hill in the distance, and it is growing with every roll. But this is a peasants' revolt (no insults intended) and the professions should be ashamed. But they won't be.
DG - yes I think that you have understood what my experience through my web site confirms to me in spades. If your alcohol problem relates to an state of chronic anxiety then you are liekly to be one of the best candidates for Baclofen. I believe thjat with all my heart.
SV - the Toxic Alcohol Environment is an extension of something I was one of the first to come up with with regard to a Toxic Food Environment and the epidemic of obesity. If you wish to know more about what I think about our Toxic Alcohol Environment in an E-Zine article I wrote. It isn't too long!!
The Alcoholism Epidemic - A Direct Result of Our Toxic Alcohol Environment
And Beatle is correct in my view in that we shouldn't all be getting massively over excited about how rats handle being turned into alcoholics and drug addicts. They don't have mortgages to pay, horrible bosses, or domestic arguments / divorce / bereavement to deal with.
Phill

[Tutankhamun]

Baclofen - The Holy Grail or the Emperor's New Clothes? You tell me

I'm enjoying this thread after all these months away.
Please, would you give me your impresions and thoughts about cravings.
All the what, why, whens , hows and avoids.
How would you quantify them, if you could?
How do you know how bad they are for you? How objective can you be?
Physical versus psychological / emotional.
Tell me what you think, please.
Phill

[B4A]

Baclofen - The Holy Grail or the Emperor's New Clothes? You tell me

It's gone quiet here.
Let me ask you all a few questions that I think are really important.
The first is
If you lived in a country where alcohol was banned, would you have taken to something else?
It's not a flippant question.
If you have taken to many other things, tell me why.
I'm into toxic environments and how people respond to them.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Baclofen - The Holy Grail or the Emperor's New Clothes? You tell me

I don't think so. Without a full catalogue of my experiences, I've tried several other mind-altering substances. Hated them for the most part. Cocaine ruins a good (alcohol) buzz. Tried it enough to figure out it was VERY expensive to get drunk when on it. Seriously pissed me off.
AL is my first, foremost and favorite love. And in the brief times I've been sober, I've not been drawn to anything else.
eva

[B4A]

Baclofen - The Holy Grail or the Emperor's New Clothes? You tell me

neva eva;931312 wrote: I don't think so. Without a full catalogue of my experiences, I've tried several other mind-altering substances. Hated them for the most part. Cocaine ruins a good (alcohol) buzz. Tried it enough to figure out it was VERY expensive to get drunk when on it. Seriously pissed me off.
AL is my first, foremost and favorite love. And in the brief times I've been sober, I've not been drawn to anything else.
eva

I totally agree. Thank you for saying that. It's very very important.
Phill