Urgggg!! The Side Effects!!!

[moglor]

Urgggg!! The Side Effects!!!

I agree wholeheartedly. Bac is just a tool to help us get free of the cravings and the chronic alcohol abuse that shields us from our true problems. I think a lot of the "success" posts with bac can be a little misleading. For baclofen to truly work, the user must be an active participant in their own recovery, and make the life changes and self-introspection necessary to maintain sobriety.

There is no magic bullet!

[Blue79]

Urgggg!! The Side Effects!!!

I have gone up to 75 mg of bac a day in 2 weeks.

I weigh around 65kg so ill probs need a good bit more .

Side affects I notice are :

Ringing in ears (once only)
Stomach rumbling. (muscle relaxant properties of the drug?)
Dry mouth.
Excess saliva production accompanied by slight nausea.
Within the first hour of taking a 25 mg tablet I get a an effect similar to a very mild amil nitrate hit or small amount of MDMA. ie brain activity shoots up with a unusual feeling or euphoria or anticipation(bordering on panic sometimes), and my nervous system seems to get a bit sensitised. Following this I experience sleepiness and forgetfulness.
At nightime I get insomnia and lots of intrusive thoughts. I will have to find some sort of meditative trick to block out these thoughts so i have some chance to get to sleep before 3 am, any ideas?

I will current stay on 75 mg until the symptoms lessen, I am concerned that my speech is somewhat affected while at work, I seem to come out with some very disjointed sentences, and I feel the forgetfulness is very dangerous, I forgot to do such things as turn off taps, lock my apt door or indicate when pulling out my car in the morning.

I notice also hangovers involving anything greater then about 10units of alcohol cause much more, particularly mental tiredness.

[Sunnyvalenting]

Urgggg!! The Side Effects!!!

I hesitate to post this but want to put my 2 cents in. I must disagree with Moglor. In my case my problems were mostly caused or exacerbated by alcohol. By getting free of the addiction I was finally able to work effectively toward my goals. for some of us rather than shielding us from our long term problems IT IS our long term problem. Being able to act responsibly and consistently so has made life worth living for me. So to some extent, tho not a "magic bullet" (there are reasons it works so it isn't magic), it certainly makes it possible to do what I wanted to do all along. Having said that there is certaily some discipline involved in living life well.
Hope this resonates with at least some of you.
Sunny

[ignominous]

Urgggg!! The Side Effects!!!

I also have bad SEs at the higher dose. Up to 150mg or so the SEs were quickly dissapearing allowing me to titrate up to my goal of 'indifference to alcohol', and function normally at the same time.

Now I am constantly forgetting things, sometimes short term, leaving unbrellas in the taxi, sometimes work related things that I've temporarily put on the back burner only to realise a week later that I still haven't done them. Sometimes forgetting to take my dose.

I had thought I would move up from my current dose of 220mg after 5 days but I've been on it since the 25th Sept and the general somnolence and feeling high/drugged up all the time haven't abated. I'm not sure what to do, I haven't reached the switch and listening to my body tells me to stay at this dose a while longer, but I'm already a functioning zombie! Might aswell go up as Loop said and have done with it.

Undecided but will give myself a few more days before making a decision.

[ignominous]

Urgggg!! The Side Effects!!!

Have decided to increase this morning.
I think the SEs have abated a bit but still generally feeling high as a kite and I think becoming noticeable to people here on MWO and probably in my real life! I've looked back at some of my recent postings and have wondered what sort of bad hair day I was having there!
Having said this, 16 days at the same level seems rather long winded. I'm not a total vegetable yet, I suspect, so what am I really waiting for, everything to get back to nornal before going ahead?
I didn't like normal before Bac so maybe my SEs are to do with seeing things from a new perspective which is sometimes frightening. I think the new perspective may take me years before seeming to be normal!
Anyway I'm taking the bold step of increasing to another 10mg ................. despite the SEs................or because of the SEs!

[Isolde]

Urgggg!! The Side Effects!!!

I think it was a good choice to forge ahead, Ig. I am definitely out of my honeymoon phase with bac and have been having the SEs hit me hard. After about a week of staying at one dose, even if the SEs are killing me, I'll titrate up by 10mgs. Oddly enough, increasing the dose seems to help level off the SEs for a bit. It's completely backwards logic, but that's how it's been going for me. Hopefully you'll find that increasing gives you a bit of a break with the SEs too!

Good luck, let us know how it works out for you.

[ignominous]

Urgggg!! The Side Effects!!!

Thanks Isolde.

[Bruunhilde]

Urgggg!! The Side Effects!!!

Thanks for posting this Ig. I need to hear how the rest of your story went, I know you've hit a switch, but not sure how the titration went for you after this thread.

[Persona]

Urgggg!! The Side Effects!!!

It might be worth splitting your doses up more.

I am currently on 140 mg and I am taking 50mg at 08:00, 50mg at 14:00, and 40mg at 20:00. I stole this idea from another user here who had problems with side effects, and I have experienced virtually no side effects so far, apart from falling asleep watching TV late at night. I started out taking 30mg daily as 10mg tablets at the times stated above, and every 3 days I increase the daily overall dose by 10mg. It's a fairly conservative approach, but it seems to be working.

Having said all of that, I have yet to hit the doseage you're taking, so maybe the side effects are still to come. :O

Did you experience any problems at lower doseages?

[Bruunhilde]

Urgggg!! The Side Effects!!!

Hi there,

I took 6mg at 7am and another 6mg (a quarter of a 25 mg tablet each time) a couple hours later, and I can barely keep my eyes open and it's 2:30pm now. I had coffee and green tea too. Also, I almost got sick, even though I had eggs after the pill, and was fine until about noon. I barely made it, took an anti-diarrheal and feel a bit less like puking but still uncomfortable. I have a barf bucket sitting by me. This may be a result of too much wine last night too, I'm not blaming it entirely on the bac.

I have found that even when not drinking alot, I have this problem with keeping my eyes open. If I was not sitting in front of a computer all day, if I had a more physically active job, like Lo0p, I'm sure I'd do better.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Urgggg!! The Side Effects!!!

Christy gave up the bac shortly after this thread.
Ig is sober, on bac, after reaching his switch in late Nov. Part of his story can be found here:
https://www.mywayout.org/community/f2...ght=ignominous
Isolde reached the switch and her story can be found here:
https://www.mywayout.org/community/f2...ght=ignominous
Sunnyv is sober on bac, and though she doesn't have a thread, she's got a lot of really good advice.
Moglor is sober on bac, his thread:
https://www.mywayout.org/community/f2...nce-42779.html

I'm pretty sure that one thing all of the successful bac users on this thread have in common is that they titrated relatively evenly, and spaced out the doses of bac evenly throughout the day.
:h

[Katherine]

Urgggg!! The Side Effects!!!

I'm pretty sure that one thing all of the successful bac users on this thread have in common is that they titrated relatively evenly, and spaced out the doses of bac evenly throughout the day.
:h
I agree. Little and often is best - space them out from morning to night. Won't bore you with my story but my posts are still up there if you would like to read them. I feel blessed to have bac. in my life - yes, its my life now as I walk away from the Beast without looking back. :h

[Toro]

Urgggg!! The Side Effects!!!

I also tried bac and had a few minor side effects, but they were absolutely nothing even remotely comparable with side effects from drinking, and they passed within a couple of weeks. Have since hit my switch, after being doubtful such a thing existed as a result of ccidentally taking too many one evening, and now look at alcohol like the ugly and not very inviting poison that it is, and that is after 12 years of worshipping it.

Not to derail anything here, but I hope no-one gets put off by these 'side effect' reports, yep they can exist but they in the scheme of things and the life I have now regained, they are absolutely nothing.

[Katherine]

Urgggg!! The Side Effects!!!

Good outweighs Bad!

Toro;1045573 wrote: I also tried bac and had a few minor side effects, but they were absolutely nothing even remotely comparable with side effects from drinking, and they passed within a couple of weeks. Have since hit my switch, after being doubtful such a thing existed as a result of ccidentally taking too many one evening, and now look at alcohol like the ugly and not very inviting poison that it is, and that is after 12 years of worshipping it.

Not to derail anything here, but I hope no-one gets put off by these 'side effect' reports, yep they can exist but they in the scheme of things and the life I have now regained, they are absolutely nothing.

Toro - as this is the only post up here from you, could you let us know your story when you have time please. New to posting here myself and have been overwhelmed by the response I have had from all the wonderful people on here. As I said in answer to one of the responses I have had from a lovely lady: Having lived in a cocoon of secrecy for so long over my problem I dared a breath of fresh air through the mask to write on this forum. The response has been heartwarming and I'm so glad that I took the plunge. It is a truly inspiring community forum. I feel blessed that I took baclofen nearly a year ago because more than give me my life back, it gave me a new start and I am grabbing it by the horns! For it to have worked from the word go and that I have kept this new found state of happiness on such a low dose compared to our other friends on this forum is humbling - I only wish that they worked the same for everyone else. K. :h

[Bruunhilde]

Urgggg!! The Side Effects!!!

neva eva;1045553 wrote: Christy gave up the bac shortly after this thread.
Ig is sober, on bac, after reaching his switch in late Nov. Part of his story can be found here:
https://www.mywayout.org/community/f2...ght=ignominous

I'm pretty sure that one thing all of the successful bac users on this thread have in common is that they titrated relatively evenly, and spaced out the doses of bac evenly throughout the day.

Thanks, NE!