help with bac titration schedule please

[soberwithin]

Hi this is the second time I have tried bac and I know it may be a difficult time to start at this time of year with Christmas coming up, but I joined this site in 2007 hoping to cure my problem and apart from a few failed attempts at moderating and one 30 day AF with the help of antabuse (was hellish), I am no nearer getting myself out of this hole.

I have started to feel really ill recently and I know I cant carry on like this it is ruining my life. I have got some baclofen and want to give it a really good try this time round.

Last time I found it was my mental cognicense which was the worst problem for me. I had just started a new job as a trainee teacher, and I just couldnt think straight at all, couldnt remember things at all and eventually gave up. I think I probably titrated quite quickly aswell, cant exactly remember how I did it.

My main question is - I start a new job in 5 weeks time. Do I -
[list type=decimal][*]Titrate up quickly, hoping to have hit the switch before I start my job, so that I am used to BAC and all SE's by the time I start the job.[list type=decimal][*]Titrate up very slowly to avoid, as far as possible, any SE's may not be at switch when start new job, but if side effects are minimised maybe I wont have any problems.[/list type=decimal]
Any other ideas?[/list type=decimal][/list]
I really need to try and ensure that I am mentally alert in my new job, very difficult to teach a bunch of teenagers and be organised if you have mental fuzz all day.

I intend to go AF for the most part, apart from family get togethers coming up over the festive period and at those events i want to moderate. After New year I intend to go completely AF.



Alternatively, or in addition does anyone have any advice for any other medication I may want to take to help with the brain fuzz and ensure a good nights sleep so I can function properly during the day.

Any help, advice, comments would be really appreciated. I really need to make this work this time, because I feel if I wait another 3 years I wont be here at all.

[Seethepony]

help with bac titration schedule please

I don't know what doses you were on when you suffered the SEs and bailed out, but I would definitely start now and start slowly. My own alcoholic instincts began to subside after less than 10 day on Baclofen so maybe mine is an exceptionally fortunate story, but I would think that you can get a lot done in 5 weeks if you make a realistic plan and stick with it. If you find SEs intolerable, there's nothing wrong with backing off a bit on the dosage.
My main fear with Baclofen is that I know it works - it may be the only thing in the world currently standing between me and a grim pukey future I want to avoid at all costs - and I do not want it to "break." So, despite reports that it remains effective come-what-may, I would treat every "Baclofen journey" with total respect and dedication.

I've gone from drinking 13 nights out of 14 to not drinking 13 nights out of 14 - and the occasions I do drink usually involve me forgetting to take a dose or two. I don't want to sound too evangelical about it, but it is as if I have been given a new life. This stuff works! So do it now, and do it carefully!
And good luck!

[soberwithin]

help with bac titration schedule please

Thanks Pony, may I ask how long you have been on BAC for. Also, when you do drink the one night out of 14, do you find you drink less or use it as an excuse to binge.

Does anyone else have any suggestions please. I have started on 3 x 5mg yesterday, the only thing I found was I really struggled to sleep last night, although at tea time, I could have fallen asleep easily

Had my first AF night in ages last night, did take some willpower, but it wasnt too bad. I can usually go one day, especially if I am sufffering from many days of overdoing the AL. Tonight will be the testing time, second day is tough!

Any suggestions at all would help please. Struggling to wade through all the posts to see different titration schedules and effects. Thank you in advance

[Ne/Neva Eva]

help with bac titration schedule please

You'll find many opinions and approaches to titration.
The one currently recommended by Dr. Levin:
5mg/day for 3 days
10mg/day in two equal doses for 4 days
Add 20mg/day per week (so week 2 is 50/day. week 3 is 70mg/day etc.) also taken in equal doses.

I spent 5 weeks at 30mg/day and struggled with burdensome side effects. Over the last 4 weeks I have increased to 120mg/day and the SEs are greatly reduced.
Some of the other approaches include titrating much more quickly, and also more slowly to mitigate the SEs. Sobriety seems to help? I wouldn't know... But I will add that craving and anxiety are greatly reduced for me and I'm enjoying the journey at this point.
Good luck!

[lvb65]

help with bac titration schedule please

Hi Sober,

When I was on Baclofen, a month or so ago, I stumbled on to this forum and found it very helpful in answering some of my worries regarding the SE?s of the drug. While reading the different experiences of others I did ask myself how it was possible for some to continue working and even drinking while on Baclofen. But let me tell you my experience.
Today I am at day 49 on Baclofen. I started with 15 mg/day every 3 days up 10 mg. Except for day 3, when I drank 3 glasses of wine, no more alcohol from then on. After day 11 I speeded up the titration wit 10 mg p/ 2 days up to 160 mg p/day. From the beginning I experienced dizzy , pins & needles in hands and lips, vivid dreams and flashes of thoughts, uncoordinated head and body, and increasingly thumping in my head and falling asleep. Shortly after starting with Baclofen the craving for a glass of wine decreased noticeably. My atidude towards life also changed to a positive outlook. I still occasionally think of drinking a glass, but it does not stick in my mind any more.
When I was at 160 mg p/day the headache became worrying and I titrated down to 125 mg p/day for 14 days and now I am back up to 175 mg p/day. The headache seems to have gone away, but sudden sleep , needles & pins, dizzy and eye focus and concentration problems remain, however not very disturbingly. I don?t have cravings but am dedicated on reaching the "switch", because I hope to definitely eliminate the possibility of a relapse. I hope to reach this "switch" between now and 270 mg p/day soon. Overall I feel much more confident and relaxed as it is now. If and when I reach my " switch" moment, thye question of titrating down and to which level will become the big issue. I hope to be able to post this on the forum later on.
Hope you will feel encouraged and wish you luck. If you want to know more, feel free to ask.

[Seethepony]

help with bac titration schedule please

Hi Sober,
To answer your question, I started taking Baclofen in August. I wish I could say I have been 100% abstemious since hitting the switch so early on but I quite soon got over confident and would play with my new super-power by drinking a beer or two, just to see how it felt. Or I would forget to take baclofen, or take too little. On one occasion I was doing quite well, but for a nagging set of side effects - very minor by most standards, but persistant - inertia, muddiness in my brain, the feeling that I was never quite awake. This was after two weeks AF. I consciously went out for a beer, knowing I would end up getting drunk in an attempt at dislodging the spider-webs. Perversely, I think it worked.

Anyway, I am now trying to find my ideal dosage. My switch amount of Baclofen always leaves me a little bit shaggy round the edges. Decreasing it by 25-30% means I have no side effects that I am aware of, while my indifference to alcohol remains unchanged. Decreasing it further usually ends up with me feeling fine one day, and getting hammered the next. Which isn't, in fact, the end of the world, because I find it very easy to get my arse back into gear thanks, in part, to the punitive nature of a baclofen hangover. In short, the baclofen works like a miracle for me and even though I never intended to become 100% alcohol free, I am warming to the notion. Drinking, even only occasionally, on Baclofen, just isn't fun.

Bloody glad my switch level is so low, though - at 70mgs / day it's dirt cheap! And there are no horrible withdrawal symptoms should my baclofen supply run dry. (other than the yawning abyss of alcoholism....)

[Sunnyvalenting]

help with bac titration schedule please

I have been 100% Af since mid Jan 2010 on baclofen. I use a combination of discipline (executive function/decision making to be abstinent) along with the craving reduction of baclofen which allows me to carry out that decision. I have studied addiction a lot these past several months and firmly believe the best chance for secure cure is total abstinence. I haven't yet seen, even on the mod board, people being particularly successful and moderating once they have reached the point of needing to be here. If I am wrong I hope someone will correct me with their example of secure moderation. I believe that path is closed to most of us.
My written out dosage schedule was:
10 mg 3 times/day for 3 days (fairly sleepy at first)
20 mg 3 times/day for 3 days (too sleepy so had to cut back to 40-50 in 10 mg doses more frequently)
80 mg/day thereafter with up to 120 as needed if cravings developed.

It took me several weeks to get to 100/day in divided doses. I stayed there for a few months and have now tapered down to 20 mg at bedtime. I have been on that dose for about 3-4 months now.
Seems to work for me.
I think the most important thing I did to reduce the mental fog was to take the lower dose more frequently thereby reducing the "swings" in levels. I felt fine after a few months on it.
Best of luck
I think it best to start now as well. Binges and hangovers are not good for new employees either!
Sunny
Sunny

[Lowcountryman]

help with bac titration schedule please

Hi Sober,

Very difficult to answer your questions. Most important is to listen very carefully to your body. I can give you my experience.

I started Baclofen about 5 weeks ago. I was very worried by the SE's and started it with 3x5 the first day. Than 40 the next and it was easy going to 110 mg/d in one week. I felt better, slept better and almost no cravings. But I was going for the switch so titrated up to about 270mg/d. And that's when the SE's really kicked in. Insomnia, forgetfullness, stumbling, so I back down a few days on 250 mg/d. I had to stay there for about two weeks. Cravings returned, but it's physical undoable to drink as much as I used to.

Now I'm on 325/350 mg/d. Haven't reach the Switch. I drank about the same amount of beers the last 5 weeks that I used to drink in one day. I can't remember sleeping for over more than 3 or 4 hours a day. I don't even have to set an alarmclock to wake up anymore.
I guess I'm getting used to the tiredness and feeling high the whole day, because I don't feel that tired anymore and I don't care feeling a littlebit high. As a performance-artist I play a lot a pubs. I lately play sober, while I used to get really drunk while playing.
I've been playing around a lot whith the titration-schedule. Right now I take 75 when I get up, 75 at noon, 75 after dinner and 75 late in the evening, in between I take the other 50mg somehwere on a time where it feels right to do so. I was not able to handle these doses of 75, but I can handle them now with no worries.

I do this on supervision of my psychatrist, and I keep him updated every week. Which for me is important since I'm getting ' forced' to evaluate. He agrees reaching for the switch, but gets a little worried because in Holland doctors may only prescribe Baclofen at maximum doses of 80 mg/d. So, he's sticking his neck out for me. He's having good results with other patients in the range of 110/120 mg/d. They no longer reach for the switch, because they reduced their use of alcohol dramatically.

So, to formulate a plot (I listen to Eminem's Lose yourself, even though I'm really into old country music), the SE's will fade away eventually and after that you can titrate up eaysily.
Another SE. I ruin my neck by looking at all kinds of girls who pass me by. It's a littlebit embarrassing but I happens before I know it. Great SE cause it make the world a better place to be wandering around in

Another SE. I just can't keep my mails short. And people, who know me, say I'm looking so much happier now.

I hope you might find these 'answers' to your questions a little helpfull. When it feels safe, it is safe. If it doesn't, than be patient. I'm even facing a pile of unopened mail now.

Have fun
Low

[Dabhar]

help with bac titration schedule please

Here is my 2-bits worth...

How long have you been drinking? I've been drinking for 30 years.

What is the wisest way to get "up to speed" (ie., the point at which the Bac enables you to stop drinking)?

The wisest way, IMHO, is to let go of a fast titration schedule up. If it takes you 5 weeks, like me to just get up to 60 mg/day...how does that time period compare to the years that you have already spent titrating up your daily alcohol intake? I think that if it takes you even 5 MONTHS to slowly, safely, comfortably titrate up to find your "switch"....then WELL DONE! Congratulations!!!

Don't worry about the impending job demands...you've been more or less managing to keep on keeping on for a long time since. Just keep increasing the Bac at the pace that makes you comfortable and enjoy the ride up, because if it takes you 5 weeks or 5 months...who cares! 5 months to FREEDOM is a probably a drop in the bucket of time that it has take you to "titrate" up your boozing, right?

Start your journey...take it easy...but keep at it. Just that, your optimism towards being alcohol free, will sustain you in your job and the rest of your life.

It's taken me 5 weeks to get up to 60 mg/day, after titrating up too quickly in the previous 4 weeks to 90 mg, I had to drop back down to 30 in order to manage the side effects that the higher dosage was giving me. But after 5 more weeks I'm back up to 60...and if it takes me another 5 weeks or 5 months to get up to 120, or wherever my "switch" will be....that time taken will be irrelevant....because i will have achieved that which I have not been able to otherwise achieve over the last 30 years of my life. IMAGINE...being sober thanks to Baclofen.....after only 5 weeks, or 5 months!? For me, a MIRACLE. For YOU?

Start your journey my friend...take it easy...but keep on keeping on until you are FREE! Hopefully, Baclofen will give you that.

Blessings,
Dab