Starting baclofen / Alcoholic with few cravings but a desire to drink again

[tbilisi]

Hello - It's good to be among others and reading about the progress people are making with baclofen. I've read Dr Olivier's book and am about to start baclofen with the help of an addiction counselor. Our plan is to begin at 10mg and increase by 10mg each week until -- I don't know what to expect.

My experience is one where I would appreciate hearing from others in a similar situation as well as any other responses.

I had my last drink almost 7 months ago, after detox and rehab in July. I was drinking regularly until then, and it became dangerous in May 09, with a trifecta of job loss, injury and death of a closest friend. Basically, I gave up, and gave over to drinking, just checking out.

Since quitting, I have had few cravings. This should be victory, right? But I wonder. I've gone to AA and while I have friends in the program, it does nothing for me; perhaps I'm spiritually deficient.

My world is small now: I control being at home, my work, the people I see. I have been at parties and bars and while the temptation is there, I get through it.

I want to do more again: travel, work, and yes, have a glass like a normal person.

My question is whether baclofen can help me in this process. Will it allow me to get on a plane -- an old trigger -- and get through it? What about several months in a wine region, like France, where I used to go?

Perhaps most significantly, I know I am not at risk if I don't drink. But is baclofen risky for me if I do want a drink or two, and it gives me an illusion of control? Or could it be real control, like a drug I might take for high blood pressure?

These are the thoughts on my mind. I've written to Dr Ameisen and hope to hear from him. If i do, I will pass along, if anyone else is interested.

Good luck to us all.

[Guest]

Starting baclofen / Alcoholic with few cravings but a desire to drink again

Welcome and well done on exploring other options.

I'm sure others with experience and knowledge will be along soon.

[tbilisi]

Starting baclofen / Alcoholic with few cravings but a desire to drink again

Thanks for the welcome

Hi UK,

I see you've gone for abstinence? At least that's what I read in earlier posts. Or have you decided that baclofen will work for you?

It's great to be greeted by someone so well liked around here.

cheers, Tbilisi

[Guest]

Starting baclofen / Alcoholic with few cravings but a desire to drink again

Oh thanks.

Do you see Baclofen as a moderating tool?I'm going for abstenance since I don't get anything out of drinking full stop, only more worry and heart ache. I'm trying baclofen to see it will help me with cravings, but I'm a bit hit and miss so not the best advert for taking it!

[Booktree]

Starting baclofen / Alcoholic with few cravings but a desire to drink again

Welcome tbilisi! This is an amazing place with a wealth of support and information.

My story is similar to yours-- I had about 9 months of sobriety (also was in rehab for 7 months) this past year and pretty much experiencing zero in the way of cravings. I drive home from work every day past a liquor store that formerly begged me to come in, but I was finding it quite easy to just drive on past without giving it a second thought.

I, too, have attended countless AA and NA meetings (and still attend fairly regularly for the social support), but I do not connect at all with the overall message and feel that my disease has merely been in a dormant phase but would be ready to strike again under certain situations. I had a slip on some Xanax (unlike others here, I cannot take it without ending up addicted and abusing it) about a month ago, so, according to "the program" I lost all of my sobriety time that I had built up.

I decided to look into alternative ways of getting out from under addictions, and found this site, Dr. A's wonderful book, and Baclofen--. I have just started the Bac last week, and I started a thread with some of my initial experiences with it so far.

My goal is total abstinence from all mind-altering drugs and alcohol. I can't really answer your question, therefore, about having a drink or two on the Bac. Personally, I don't want to risk it.

Please do let us know if you hear back from Dr. Ameisen. He is an extraordinary man!

[tbilisi]

Starting baclofen / Alcoholic with few cravings but a desire to drink again

If I think as hopefully as possible I would be a moderate social drinker who can get on a plane and go to france w/o a second thought. Walking it in if I can achieve it with bac then yes. If it is too risky I will abstain. I am trying to find the lines. Just drinking again? Not possible. With bac? Maybe indifferent as dr a says. Is anyone succeeding at this?
I will let you know if dr a responds

[bleep]

Starting baclofen / Alcoholic with few cravings but a desire to drink again

Welcome tbilisi,

Good luck with your decision, many others have found it to be a successful method, both for moderation and abstinence. I certainly would not test your decision to be abstinent now, at the beginning of your journey. Not drinking, you'll find it hard to know when you hit your switch, or even if you have hit, so best to err on the side of caution for the time being! Certainly, baclofen has opened up, for me, the possibility of moderation, but II wouldn't want to waste 7 hard-earned months of sobriety just to test the waters.

Give baclofen a few months, at least, if you are still determined to test the waters go in with both eyes wide open for the possibility of not having switched. It should be immediately obvious to you. Your whole mindset about booze will have changed, so much so that you pour the drink and then don't even drink it. Sounds impossible, but it happens.

Either way, you are in for a more pleasant baclofen journey if you do it sober.

Good luck, and welcome aboard.

[Isolde]

Starting baclofen / Alcoholic with few cravings but a desire to drink again

Tbilisi, first of all, welcome to MWO!
I think that the ability to be a moderate drinker on bac depends on the individual. But even Dr. O, hard core binge drinker that he was, found that he was able to have a few drinks one night, increase the amount of bac for the next few days, and then be just fine going forward. But he was just performing an experiment to see if he could drink some w/it out turning into a full on binge.

I have switched and do find that I can have a drink here or there on occasion and not fall back into my old ways. I hope that this will continue to be something easy for me to do as I start titrating back down.

You'll just have to see how it goes for you in your own bac journey. Best of luck!

[Otter]

Starting baclofen / Alcoholic with few cravings but a desire to drink again

Hello and welcome

You must read Lo0p's posts. He has followed the Sinclair method and combines bac and naltrexone. That allows him to drink safely.

[tbilisi]

Starting baclofen / Alcoholic with few cravings but a desire to drink again

Sinclair method?

Hi and thanks for the information. I will look up the profile.

I'm new here: what is the Sinclair method?

[bleep]

Starting baclofen / Alcoholic with few cravings but a desire to drink again

http://www.thesinclairmethod.net/

It uses a drug called naltrexone. Have a look. It was through researching TSM that I found here, and haven't looked back since.

[Otter]

Starting baclofen / Alcoholic with few cravings but a desire to drink again

There is a web site by that name. It involves taking naltrexone before you have a drink. Naltrexone is an agonist I think. It makes you feel like you have already had a drink so that when you do drink you don't get a hit from it. Over time you stop associating drinking with getting a sense of euphoria so I suppose you just drink for the taste or to be sociable or not
at all. It involves drinking as part of the treatment rather than abstinence. If you combine the two according to Lo0p you revert to the person you were before you drank. So the theory goes. Ameisen is able to drink without relapse. You up your dose of bac after you drink to stop the craving reemerging.
The problem with drinking on baclofen is if you relapse it is more difficult to get sober again. I don't know why. Also there is something called kindling which is drinking on bac which can lead to relapse. So I suggest you contact Lo0p before you start drinking on bac.

[Guest]

Starting baclofen / Alcoholic with few cravings but a desire to drink again

Very interesting Otter because I had posted on Bleep's thread, after he continued straight after hitting the switch. I wondered what the point in drinking was when (a) it may spark a relapse and (b) when you aren't bothered anyway!

[bleep]

Starting baclofen / Alcoholic with few cravings but a desire to drink again

Otter, do you have any links about kindling? Or more information?

[Seethepony]

Starting baclofen / Alcoholic with few cravings but a desire to drink again

Hm, this is a tough one. I don't think baclofen should be used the way you suggest - not for any philosophical reason, but simply because I have the feeling baclofen and alcohol pull your brain in two different directions. I've been on baclofen since August last year, and it put the brakes on my horrific booze habit. Down from drinking pretty much every night to once a fortnight.
Buuuut - the times when I do drink, it feels wrong. I drink far less than I ever did before but it makes me feel like shit, for want of a better word. Physically. I don't know if this is simply because in my drinking days (or decade) I pushed my body to the absolute limit and it simply cannot take any more alcohol or whether it is the tug-of-war going on between baclofen and alcohol that makes drinking even more a miserable sport than it used to be. My instinct tells me that using baclofen as a free-ride to acquiring "normal" drinking habits of which we are all so envious won't, unfortunately, work. But then, others may have different experiences.
It might be worthwhile for someone like yourself to give it a try - see if you can go from disciplined abstinence to an easy-going relationship with alcohol via baclofen. It would be a seriously useful piece of research. I'm not sure if it's what doctors would generally call "a good idea" but then they don't seem to know jack shit about anything regarding alcoholism, so sod 'em.
I'm meandering a bit. Gotta go to bed. Good luck & well done getting AF by yourself. In all honesty I couldn't do that in a million years!