Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

[Murphyx]

I just know I’m going to regret that thread title if I’m 3 months down the road, taking 500 mg per day, suffering from hideous and scary side effects and still haven’t reached the ‘switch’. But for now Bac is proving to be quite nice. I’ve got a nice buzz on and I’m feeling really happy. I don’t know whether that really is the Bac or just the fact that I’ve finally made the decision to do something about my problem and the Bac is acting as a placebo. Either way, at the moment, I don’t care. I’m happy and it’s been a while since I was able to say that.

A little about me: I’m 45, been drinking heavily for the last 25 years (quarter of a century!!!!!) . I drink every day and my weekly consumption is around 150 to 220 units – that’s UK units, which I believe might be different to US units. I have only had 2 AF days in all that time and they were last November when I tried to knock the booze on the head, needless to say that wasn’t a success.

Anyway, I’ve got to stop the drinking before it all goes to bollocks and all this self-abuse finally catches up with me. When I was young I never expected to live this long, I assumed there was no point going past 40 and turning into a worn out old wrinkly, which just goes to prove what I’ve always thought – kids are idiots!

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a reference to Baclofen and its potential for anti-addiction therapy and immediately ordered a bottle of 100 x 10mg tabs. After further research I realised this was a woefully small amount and placed another order for a much larger number of 25mg tabs. The original order arrived a few days ago and I’ve been on 25mg/day since, split into 4 regularly spaced doses. As I’ve had no bad side effects I’ll be upping the dose to 50mg tomorrow and see what that brings, but so far so good.

I’m feeling really positive about all this, I know it hasn’t worked for everyone, but I’m prepared to go all the way with Baclofen, wherever it takes me.

Murph

[bleep]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Murph, well done on the best decision you've ever made. We've bumped into eachother a couple of times already, so I won't wish you good luck again!

I love that SE, a slightly stoned feeling, I still have it now. Shit, that reminds, me, time to take my pills. Watch out for absentmindedness, if you smoke, it's a killer. Post your journey, it helps, a surprising amount. You'll get support and advice, which is a lifesvaer if SE suddenly become too much or other shit happens.

Make sure you always have plenty of baclofen on hand, as you have already seen, you plow through a surprising amount of the stuff quite quickly.

Tons I could say, it'll all be said with time, I'm sure!

What dose are you currently on?

Go well,

bleep

[Lo0p]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Get ready for the ride of your life Murph! :happy:

We're all here keepin' the tempo if you miss a beat. :disco:

Bleep: Unless you truly do enjoy it, sounds like you need to switch brands. I hate feeling stoned and foggy, and that's not what it's for. But to each his own I guess.

[bleep]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Lo0p, the feeling faded today for the first time, which is good, it was getting tiring. Most of it was probably due to not giving my body any time to adjust because of a fairly quick titration. Switching brands isn't so easy here anyway, so I'll just ride it out. All in all, I can't really complain about the SE's I have got with my brand. Thanks.

[Murphyx]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Thanks guys.

I'm up to 50mg today, split into 5 doses. I'm trying to spread it out as evenly as possible through the day.

No bad SEs yet; I'm feeling a little foggy (but I don't dislike that) and sleeping so well, it's brilliant. Oh yeah and the night before last I kinda overdid it on the booze and I really should have had a shitty hangover yesterday, but nothing.....weird.

Anyway, I want to up the dose as fast as possible. Do you guys think it would be plausible for me to up it to 75mg or more in a couple of days, if I don't have any bad SEs in the meantime, or is that pushing it?

Murph

[Murphyx]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

In fact, thinking about it, isn?t the reason people leave 3 to 5 days between increasing doses because it gives them time to get over (or used to) the SEs that are associated with the increased dose? And so if you don?t have any bad SEs does that mean that you can just keep titrating each day?

[Guest]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Murphy

Whilst others reported blinding hangovers on Bac I found, like you I didn't have any at all - which was very unusual for me. It actually encouraged me to keep drinking, the hangover, headache sickness pre-bac would as a binge drinker actually put me off or at least render me unable to carry on drinking perhaps for a full day. What I did find on Bac however was that the 'stoned' feeling was far more intense, lasting into the next day instead. I don't agree with doing anything such as driving etc under the influence of anything that can affect your senses, and so I didn't use the car for long-periods of time during the short-time I used bac.

[Murphyx]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

This afternoon I felt something very odd, I didn't have the overwhelming desire to get completely shit-faced. That's not like me at all and it worried me greatly. But thank God I had the willpower, fortitude and determination to power on through that alien feeling and have so far managed to neck a goodly volume of beer. Yay me!

Here's hoping I don't wilt and give in to the baclofen induced crazyness of moderation. Crikey!!!!

@Blondie: Driving whilst under the influence (of many and varied substances over many years) hasn't been a concern of mine for quite some time. I know, I'm a bad, bad man.:upset:

@anyone else: Any views on the reason for slow titration i.e. simply the need to overcome SEs or not?

[beatle]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Just my opinion based on personal experience and reading MWO posts extensively:

If you are doing ok titrating up quickly without side effects, I see no reason to rein yourself in... although you might be suddenly taken blindside by side effects after the fact. So maybe do so with some caution?

Maybe just go with the flow about not feeling an extreme desire to get shitfaced?

Think: "Great, I have the magic baclofen to help me ... I don't have to get sober right now, I just need to be a little bit careful because there might be bad side effects if I go overboard, and besides which, I really do want to stop drinking."

[bleep]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Hey Murphy, good results so far, even if you managed to ride the urge out...

The titration vs. side effects is there for 2 reasons, I think. One is to adjust to the SE's, sure, but the other, as important reason, is to let your brain be changed by the bac. This is happening in the background, even if you aren't aware of it.

So I would go up quicker than normal, but don't make my mistake and go up by 30mg's a day until suddenly you get a whole weeks worth piling on to say hello in one night, because then they bring friends! In this one area, don't let your body be your guide, just go a little bit slower. Can't say what the magic number is here, maybe it's a 10 mg increase a day, 20mg's every 3 days, etc...

Welcome to the joys of being one of the first.

[Murphyx]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

beatle;1050626 wrote:

Think: "Great, I have the magic baclofen to help me ... I don't have to get sober right now, I just need to be a little bit careful because there might be bad side effects if I go overboard, and besides which, I really do want to stop drinking."

You're absolutely right. Thanks.

[Murphyx]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

bleep;1050635 wrote:

Welcome to the joys of being one of the first.

Yeah man, I'm beginning to realise this is the point; there's so little proper research in to the subject that we have to just feel our way along in the dark.

50 today, I'll try upping it 30%/day for now and when I get to a reasonably high dose (yet to be defined) I'll level off and try to get a couple of AF days and see what happens.

Maybe that'll be a good thing. Who knows? I fuging don't that's for sure.

[bleep]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Plan sounds as good as any.

I know I wanted to get there ASAP, even if it meant slightly more risk. And risk isn't even risk if there are no life-threatening SE's, just unpleasantness, and that can be dealt with.

[DayByDay01]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

Do not understand how much you drink

Murphyx;1049965 wrote: ... I drink every day and my weekly consumption is around 150 to 220 units ? that?s UK units, which I believe might be different to US units...

Murph

What is 200 UK units really means? I try to google it and is said one drink in UK is one unit.
It is impossible to drink 200 drinks I think...may be I am wrong?

[konbrot]

Murph’s Baclofen (or should that be BacloFUN) diary

200 units would be about equivalent to 100 pints (imperial not US) of normal UK beer. If the beer were 5%, you would need around 70/80 pints. It is all too achievable.