Baclofen

[moglor]

Baclofen

I agree with Rusty completely. I was titrating up for 5 months before baclofen finally "took" and I became indifferent. I didn't see serious reduction in drinking until I was at 90+mg/day. Up until then, bac seemed to give me superhuman abilities to drink, but the hangovers were brutal. If they hadn't been, I'm sure my drinking would have skyrocketed. I was lucky in that I could afford to ramp up quickly work-wise, and that my body was mostly OK with it.

Personally, I think UK's case is interesting in that she is clearly a skeptic. Most of us seem to have already been believers before we even started, or were at least primed for a strong placebo effect regardless.

I should also add that UK's comments in some other threads lead me to believe that depression may be a factor. It was for me, and I saw some parallels with my situation. Wellbutrin works well for me, but it's contraindicated with alcohol consumption. If you can get to a point with baclofen where you're drinking less and think you can handle a few weeks with no booze, you might try starting something like Wellbutrin. I think without it, I would never have truly succeeded in altering my habits and perceptions of alcohol and its role in my life.

[Otter]

Baclofen

Hi UK

My wife has been on Baclofen for about a year and a half starting at low doses, trying to titrate up and with lots of drinking and lots of problems. It has been a roller coaster ride of epic proportions.

It was only in October when we changed doctors that we started getting good advice on dosage which was to keep individual dosages low enough to avoid side effects but high enough to stop cravings. The important thing is to keep the level in the blood as even as possible, so this means taking a bit more at bed time and in the morning and even some in the middle of the night. It may even mean taking tiny doses by breaking your pills into quarters and spreading your doses through the day.

Taking fairly large doses of 40+ mg at a time and then nothing for some time will result in highs and lows so you will get withdrawal symptoms as it wears off and then big side effects with the next large dose. I know I got lot of flack for this but it has finally worked. We have been through mega stress over the past few months but last week my wife said she had some cider and it had no effect at all. She takes 30 mg in the morning and then 20 mg doses spread through the day for a total of about 140mg a day. She takes what she feels her body can cope with. We were having a lot of problems because I was constantly telling her how people here were taking big doses so she was trying to take 60 or 70 mg at a time which was absolutely disastrous on all sorts of levels!!

If 10 mg makes you feel spaced out then start even lower. Take 2.5 mg and see how that feels. If you are ok after a few hours then take another 2.5 mg and so on through the day and if you are ok on that then increase the individual doses or increase the frequency of doses by taking more doses. Take it easy. It may be that your drinking abates only a little at first but at least you won't get the roller coaster effect of dose and withdrawal throughout the day.

If you are taking a single dose of 10 mg a day then when that wears off after 4 to 5 hours your cravings will return as your Gaba receptors will be even more sensitized than if you had not taken Bac. Hence your need to drink.

(NOTE for followers of the Dosage and Frequency thread: Baclofen can be and is used for detox at higher levels and is very good for that, much better than diazapam and not addictive. What I don't know is, after one detoxes, what does one do then? Do you go back to trying to titrate up from a low level? If one were to detox on diazapam one would take 90 mg a day on a reducing daily dose for a week or so. That does not mean one would carry on at that level after the detox and I think the same goes for Bac. You have to find your optimal level. And, of course, I would never suggest that someone who was not in a critical binge goes through a high dose detox...and...it should be done under the supervision of a doctor and in hospital if at all possible which is probably unlikely at the moment)

Keep trying. It does work...eventually.

[Guest]

Baclofen

Thanks Otter but 10mg wasn't affecting me at all. I then increased to 20 mg in 5 mg doses, no problems and then 40mg in 10mg doses. Recently I've been up to 75mg in 25mg/12.5/12.5/12.5/12.5 doses throughout the day.

[Guest]

Baclofen

Right well today I've decided to knock this on the head. I cut down my drinking yesterday to around 8 units not because of the bac, because I was really wanting to get trashed again, but because I knew I have to bring this to an end before it's too late.

So far I've found bac simply makes me sleepy, spaced out. The physical alcohol cravings had gone, but the psychological desire for the fuzzy headed feeling was still there. I felt wrapped in some sort of cocoon that was making me disinterested in life full stop - just like drinking full time really. With the bac I actually didn't suffer from one hang over at all. Now this is unusual for me since I am usually being sick, or at least suffer from nausea with headache almost everytime I drink. The drinking everyday was unusual for me since I only usually drink for 1 night - 2 or 3 days max. The only times I ever exceeded this was during a very bad spell 2 years ago, and last year for a very short period. Recently I'd been able to have spells of up to 2 weeks completely AF using my own tools. This was just going on for days although I didn't do any morning drinking, probably because I was so zonked. I did get the bac dry mouth(although that could also be down to alcohol), as well as tired eyes.

I will probably use the spare bac I have for any moments where I have trouble sleeping since I did notice I'd feel very tired about 1 hour after taking each dose and have to go to bed - although I would wake after only about an hour. Night-time sleeping was the same - would wake several times and I'm thinking that may be due to bac levels dropping.

Anyway I've cut it right down today and my senses are slowly returning, along with my usual determination which I'd lost on the bac. Maybe that's why I took it looking for an easy way out, I don't know but I've been more successful on my own wits. I want my sobriety right now, not in 6 months when I've gone further downhill. It's pretty ok now as long as I keep AF ODAT.

[Bruunhilde]

Baclofen

UK, good for you! So are you cutting out bac except for using on an as-needed basis?

[Guest]

Baclofen

Yes I am, only because I've got some remaining. I think it'll be useful in getting over the insomnia stopping alcohol usually results in during the first week or two.

[Bruunhilde]

Baclofen

Let us know how it goes and what strategies you employ for success.

[DayByDay01]

Baclofen

Ukblonde;1040235 wrote: ...
I'm not suffering hangovers at all which is unusual for me, but the sedative effects of the bac is what is making me not care a jot and therefore want to drink. In other words the side effects are making me want to drink.....

I have the same issue exactly since I started BAC

[ignominious]

Baclofen

Hi UK. Just have a thought I wanted to share and I have by no means followed your plight in detail so this may or may not be relevant to you personally.

You did say in a previous post whilst taking Bac that you have decided to cut your Al consumption back and in the same sentence attributed that to a moment of clear thinking unrelated to Bac. My personal experience was that Bac enabled me to rise from the mire and as a consequence of that I was able to think more clearly.

The other thing I think that is worth pointing out is that Bac is not a quick fix drug. Yes, some people get immediate benefit but others like TerryK have to struggle for many months to find the switch. However despite my doubts and to my continuing amazement, the switch does exist.

It's possible but unlikely IMO that Bac will not work for you however I would urge any one trying this treatment to start with resolute attitude. Speed of titration and SEs are major issues for many people. Listen to your body and take advice from people here. The end result is worth it.

While I'm at it I have a theory as to why you drank more when you started Bac. For me, it took away some of my daily, ever present anxiety. This may have included your normal mode of worrying every time you took a drink. Without this constraint you may well have drank more, I'm convinced that I actually increased my smoking which is no mean accomplishment at 3 packets a day!

Hope this finds you in good spirits UK and I wish you luck with finding your way out.

[DayByDay01]

Baclofen

Not sure if I can share since I am new here

I started on Jan 3rd on BAC.
Some seductive effects , some dizziness, increased libido (both physically and emotionally) , some pain in liver (occasionally). Bit mostly , increased cravings. I am getting more AL intake than before ! What that would mean?

[ignominious]

Baclofen

DbyD I would suggest that its possibly not increased cravings you are experiencing but decreased anxiety about them and the consequences. Therefore you may just be indulging yourself more.

Can't give any guidance on the liver pain except to say drink a lot of water and that Bac is a very safe drug. The libido thing has been a bit of a downer for me, having experienced an increase at low dosages I then progressively lost it as I titrated up. I hope I'm not being premature (no pun intended) but I think it may be returning at my lower dose. Yay!

Keep taking the pills and things will work themselves out.

[DayByDay01]

Baclofen

Thanks

The drinking water idea is very good...I'll try to replace my Coke with it..

The funny part is that AL almost destroyed my family and now BAC is fixing it by the newly found love( I mean sex). Also I forgot to mention the increased energy every day... I am starting with 30Mg next week. So, a long way to go... according to the posts here. Thanks.
And if I am not in the right thread, please tell me to shut up

[bleep69]

Baclofen

DbD - Threads tend to be very loose around here, so don't think a wrong place exists. Saying that, it would be good idea to start your own thread, if only so that you and others can track your progress...

"some dizziness, increased libido (both physically and emotionally)" - there's a whole world of difference captured in that sentence. I am also experiencing the same. Without getting graphic, I'm also finding it difficult to come... The side effects I'm experiencing are for the most part generally very pleasant, I hope yours are the same!

[Guest]

Baclofen

Ig yes I did experience decreased anxiety regards drinking. As I kept saying in my posts it was very much like being stoned and I just didn't care, very much like a lot of people when they drink and it did me no favours. I had suspected it would be like that since I know my reacting to any substance that has a relaxing, or numbing effect - apart from camomile tea that is. I'm an alcoholic and alcoholics drink to feel out of it.

It's not rocket science.

[ignominious]

Baclofen

The relevant point I zas trying to make is that the relaxation is a side effect, The main effect ze as a group are looking for is to stop drinking, to become indifferent to alcohol, to reach the szitch.

This can and often does take several months of diligently taking Baclofen even if the SEs are not pleasant. The crucial thing is that by all accounts 99% of people do hit the szitch eventually.

I certainly don't zant to encourage you to drink more than you habitually do but Baclofen takes time to build up in your system and it takes time for your brain to get used to the possibilities that are opened up to you. If you zere to try Baclofen I think you should be very clear on your goal and to zhat extent you zill pursue that too.

You zill be able to find a lot of good advice mixed in zith the light hearted revelry on here. It zould be a godsend if you could find a Doctor zith a similar positive attitude to Baclofen closer to home.

Forgive the zierd type, I'm using a friend's apple computer zith q keyboard that change configuration every time I turn it on. I cant for the life of me find "doubleU", hence the zzzs. Life's challenges.