Bac and Binging

[Publius]

Hey couldn't find a thread that discusses this situation specifically. The way I've always drank is that once I start, I don't stop until I black out and pass out, almost without fail, making life a miserable endeavor. Many successes I've read about with Bac enable people to drink in moderation. What sensation is there on baclofen that once you start drinking you don't lose your inhibitions and drink your heart out? If any successes out there have any input on the subject I'd appreciate it.

[Seethepony]

Bac and Binging

When Baclofen starts doing its magic, you effortlessly lose all interest in bingeing. When I started Baclofen this time last month, I was drinking very heavily pretty much every night of the week, and I'd been doing that for more than 10 years.

The first low doses had little effect on my habits; almost at once, though, I thought the hangovers were nastier than normal. I jumped from 30 to 60 mg / day too quickly and combined with heavy drinking I had one or two awful days where I think my blood pressure went stratospheric. I didn't drink for a day or two after that - felt too bloody awful -- and that's when I suddenly lost my appetite for booze. This wasn't even a particularly high dosage - I took it to 3x 25mg / day and left it at that.

During the past month, my mother died - Alzheimers - and I flew to England for the burial. Usually a classic opportunity to get wrecked! I had one glass of wine on the day of the funeral and incredibly, that didn't lead to a second.

I got complacent and my baclofen supply was running out, so I dropped prematurely to 50 and sometimes 25 mg / day. I've just had an annoying weekend, reverting to bad old habits. I didn't drink much by my old standards, but enough to feel like hell afterwards. (Baclofen really punishes you for slipping.)

Today my Baclofen arrived by post and I upped it to 3x 35mg/day and I think that's what I should have done last Friday...

I didn't answer your question very concisely but I hope that helps.

[Publius]

Bac and Binging

Thanks for the reply. Is the sensation of drinking different, like if you were to get tipsy, and your inhibitions therefore lower, would you be less likely to want to get fully bombed? The idea of having 3-4 drinks is something I've fantasized about, the ability to drink "normally," but everytime I get to 3-4 it seems like the best idea in the world to have 20 more and then wake up hung over not remembering what you did or said the night before. So I guess my question is, does one feel different after 3-4 drinks on bac, enabling the elusive moderation unicorn.

[Publius]

Bac and Binging

I'm sorry to hear about your mom, that's really tough, I hope you're doing okay.

[rebirth]

Bac and Binging

Hmm. I am also intrigued by the answer to your question Publius

[Seethepony]

Bac and Binging

I think we all enjoy the idea of having 3/4/5 drinks and feeling nice and leaving it at that - "Like normal people" but I'm afraid that for me at least, and most proper alcoholic types, that's just never going to happen. 4 will always lead to 5, and 5 will lead to 9, and beyond.

With Baclofen I think it's possible to safely have a beer or two, once in a while, but it would be self defeating to let that become a daily habit. I haven't been on Baclofen long enough to say how it is after months of abstinence. But I don't think Baclofen gives you a miraculous license get "half-wrecked", and certainly not every day of the week. The point again being that it defuses that idiotic desire to get wrecked in the first place.

Thanks for the kind words regarding my mother. The thing with Alzheimer's is the person "goes" a long time before they're dead - so goodbyes were (silently) said a long time ago and the grieving was done while she was still alive. Death in this case being more of a relief than anything else - which I hope doesn't sound callous.

About ten years ago, when booze was first starting to mess with my life in a big way, I had to read at my grandmother's funeral (old age!). To my shame I lost it in front of the congregation and sobbed uncontrollably through whichever piece of the Bible I was supposed to be reading. Why was I ashamed? Because, deep down, these were tears for myself, not my deceased grandma. I hadn't yet figured out why I was so unhappy, and why I was getting nowhere in life -- I just knew something wasn't right. So I was damn grateful to have started the Baclofen in time for my mum's funeral, so that I could get through it without a similar volcanic eruption of self-pity. My thoughts were with her, not my own silly life (which has anyway - kind of miraculously - improved in the last few years, despite the booze.)

Damn, I've forgotten what the question was... sorry for the novel. I think I'll leave it at that!

[Doggygirl]

Bac and Binging

See, I understand what you are saying about your Mom and Alzheimers. :l

I know this is OT, but on that subject of what drinking I really fantasize for (on the rare occassion I let that thinking in!). I used to fall prey to the "just one.." BS thinking all the time. Truth is, I really have NO interest in having one or two (or even 3 or 4) drinks like a normal person and leaving it at that. Some of my most uncomfortable times as a drinker were situations where I really COULDN'T get away with drinking more than one or two at an event. (i.e. a business lunch) That was torture. I was like a crazy person waiting to get out of there and get some place to do some REAL drinking.

So no, "normal people drinking" never did cut it for me. I want to get blotto. Now...if I could be like those people who go on vacation once a year and drink their faces off, then come home and go back to a normal life....well.....now we're talkin' about a good fantasy here! :H (not really, but I hope you know what I mean in that half kidding sort of way!)

DG

[Sunnyvalenting]

Bac and Binging

I suggest every effort to abstain. This is not moralistic but a practical approach.
Animal and human studies identify 3 major reasons for relapse to dependence.
1. Taking the first dose (drink)
2. Places and situations where the addictive behavior was engaged in.
3. Stress.

Therefore I submit that if you really do not wish to lessen your chances of full recovery that you
1. attempt full abstinence (use whatever will power you have and you all do have at least some or you wouldn't be here) drink as little as possible and be abstinent at the earliest opportunity.
2. Avoid, at least at first "perfect drinking opportunities" (case by case, know thyself)
3. Learn to manage stress through other measures than drinking. Hypnosis, exercise, yoga, prayer, meditation, music, art, sex, food, sports, whatever you enjoy. The world becomes your playground when you are no longer addicted to alcohol.
All the best,
Sunny

[Sunnyvalenting]

Bac and Binging

PS
I totally agree with DG. That was me in a nutshell. Never enough.
Sunny

[muchthought]

Bac and Binging

I've been wondering about moderation too and am curious to hear other people's experience.

I am at 75 mg and still want to drink, but when I do drink I stop easily. Actually the moment of truth is when I am at the store! And bac seems to give me the ability to just buy 1 bottle of wine instead of 2 or a box or a giant bottle. I wish i could have more AF days. I am at about 2 a week.

I too fantasize about just drinking when we go camping, and not drinking at home. I wonder if that is possible.

Believe me I am going to keep taking the bac, I can handle the sleepy side effects and love not drinking so much, and not having hangovers. But I sure wish the cravings would go away.

At least wine is not the first thing I think about in the morning, and the last thing I remember at night. For that I am forever grateful to these little pills.

[ignominous]

Bac and Binging

On 150mg and going up. Interesting question.

Had a friend over for the last few days. Famous and happy drinker - unlike me - infamous and beligerent.

Been drinking quite a lot,certainly enough to push me over the point of no return and go for black out (bliss). It hasn't happened. I enjoy the camaraderie so much but in some small way the alcohol is a slightly annoying side show.

So to answer your question I think I've already lost alot of my inhibitions with the bac but I haven't lost my brain. Alcohol doesn't seem to enhance the experience past the first 3 or 4 drinks.

Don't know what the effects would be like long term, I've been on bac about a month. Also I've not forgotten what a muthafu@#er alcohol has been to me in the past.

[ThirdMan]

Bac and Binging

Here's my take on the problem of moderating. I actually had some degree of success for the several months that I took Baclofen and drank. I drank considerably less I'd say, but I still lost memory at least once a week and for me the next day I wasn't so much hungover (it takes A LOT for me to get hungover), but I was exhausted and could easily sleep for 12 hours, which was just such a waste. I started seeing alcohol as just a total waste of time, which I generally think it is. Now I've been totally AF for two months (today! I lost track, wow!), and I still consider drinking once in a blue moon...

But the problem I see is that if it is a "success," then it will ultimately be a failure. Knowing myself, if I do drink on a special occasion and I don't black out, do something horrible, or sleep the next day away then I will be that much more inclined to do it again. I know how I work. Holidays become weekends, quickly weekends become the occasional Wednesday after a hard day at work, then a couple of beers a night...

Does anyone else fear the seductive appeal of originally "succeeding?"

[Greg]

Bac and Binging

ThirdMan;968766 wrote: Does anyone else fear the seductive appeal of originally "succeeding?"

Yes, I have to say that I am always worried about the longer-term result if I go back to drinking and manage to succeed in keeping it low for a while. I have had periods of being AF in the past and have then gone back to alcohol, usually as an attempt to cope with issues. It makes me feel good initially, and I don't drink my usual huge amounts straight away. I find, however, that once I get a few nights of 'controlled drinking' under my belt I then start to want to drink every night of the week, and the quantity goes up quite rapidly. I tell myself that I can afford to drink that higher amount, and do it each night, because I'll cut down or stop again 'soon'. The end result is that I have never managed to drink in any sort of controlled or moderated fashion for any length of time, because my brain just wants the high and will ignore the lows and the problems of drinking. I have heard of the term 'euphoric recall' and I don't know if it's an official term in alcoholism treatment but it certainly describes my mind.

These days I try to remind myself that, for me, going back to the drink is like standing in a room full of gunpowder and thinking that I can afford to light just one or two matches...maybe that's a bit too dramatic for some people but thinking of it as the start of an explosive chain reaction does help me not start drinking again.

[Publius]

Bac and Binging

Greg are you a baclofen case? I know the feeling I've waded in the water and ended up in the deep end too many times. I'm curious to know if you are indeed working with baclofen if you still feel that that would be an possibility. If not, I'm quite confident that from my own experience that wading in that water never ends up with being able to stay there.

[PhoenixRising]

Bac and Binging

For me, when I hit the switch w/the bac, alcohol was a non-issue. I no longer craved it, obsessed about it or planned my life around it. I could walk down the wine aisle in the store and not be tempted. However, I titrated down a bit too quickly and the cravings came right back. I do have a drink or a couple now and again but it doesn't rule my life as it had before. I don't think I can trust myself with drinking at home tho, as I was a drinker like you - drink to passing out or not at all.

I like having more hours in my day and remembering my evenings. I, for one, never found the hangovers worse with Bac nor did I feel I got drunker, more that I fell asleep sooner due to the Bac. It has been a miracle for me. I drank for the past 35 years.