Questions from a Befuddled Mind

[PbarE]

I have researched these issues on here, to the extent that I can before nodding off. There seems to be a lot of info, some of it conflicting or indefinite.

1. How do you know when you hit ?The Switch??

2. How do you determine your maintenance dose? Is it the same dose on which you reach ?The Switch??

Sorry if this redundant, but I am not hitting on all my cylinders at the moment.

On another note, Charlie Sheen could sure use some baclofen ? I?m just saying?..

[Rusty]

Questions from a Befuddled Mind

Pbar,

You will know that you've hit the switch when you become totally indifferent to alcohol....you just don't care about it anymore. You can look at a beer or a bottle of wine and not want to drink the whole thing.

I believe the maintenance dose is a lot less than what you would be taking once you hit the switch. Isold and Lo0p are on maintenance doses and if you click on their names and see some of their previous posts, they give their maintenance doses, I believe.

What dosage are you on now and has your drinking abated at all?

[bleep]

Questions from a Befuddled Mind

Hi PBarE,

The switch is... Rusty summed it up - you just don't care about booze anymore. Take it or leave it. Completely. Usually leave it. If abstinence is your goal, it's pretty easy at this point to forget all about it.

I won't go into your maintenance dose query, as I'm uncertain myself. Hopefully in a few months I'll be back, oozing wisdom from every pore.

[PbarE]

Questions from a Befuddled Mind

Rusty;1068133 wrote: What dosage are you on now and has your drinking abated at all?

Today I am increasing to 220 mgs, so maybe I am getting close to "The Golden Dose".

My drug-of-no-choice is cocaine and I have not used in 65 days.

This stuff is working. I still have thoughts, but they are manageable. Before my obssession to use was like the monster from "Cloverfield" - it was huge, breathed fire and was indestructable. Now it is the size of a 12 foot gator - still big and mean enough to kill me, but at least it can be put in a cage.

I want to get it where it is the size of gekko - then I can just step on that bitch and squash it.

[Isolde]

Questions from a Befuddled Mind

Hey PbarE. The switch question has been answered very well. Some people know right away when they've hit it. For others, it takes a few days at a new dose to figure out what's going on. For me, it wasn't an "A-ha!" moment, but it was very much like a switch had been flipped as far as my cravings went.

There has been a lot of controversy over the maintenance dose. Initially the majority of us believed that we would be able to maintain indifference on a maintenance dose much lower than we switched at. For a few of us, we had a "sweet spot" on a certain dose coming up that we thought might be our maintenance dose (which was 80mgs for me).
Dr. Levin is now advocating that our maintenance dose is the dose that we switched at. For a lot of people, this just isn't something that is maintainable though, due to increased severity of SEs at the higher levels.

Personally, I am maintaing indifference at 80mgs just as well as I was at 180mgs, but I'm getting a great night's sleep every night and can focus at work during the day, without losing all of my cognitive ability in the early afternoon. I'm also experiencing the anti-anxiety and anti-depressant effects of bac at this dose, which for me had disappeared on higher doses.

I have absolutely no problem with titrating back up for awhile if cravings return. Then I'll come back down to 80mgs again and hang out for awhile. I don't see the need for an exact and static maintenance dose. I like the flexibility of being able to adjust my dose up or down as fits my current state.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Questions from a Befuddled Mind

:H :goodjob:

You've taken the little pill that makes even the looming beasties shrink right away, a la Alice in Wonderland.

The switch is indifference, I think. For me it was the ability to decide, after 4 months titrating up on bac, not to have a drink one night. Then I decided not to have a drink the next day with lunch. Then another decision, maybe?
But it quickly became just a matter-of-fact. I don't want a drink. hmmm. I often didn't want to drink. Now I don't want one and it's effortless. Not even a decision. I just don't care anymore.
No longing, no craving, no nothing. Completely and totally ambivalent. Check this out, if you haven't already:
https://www.mywayout.org/community/f2...fen-47958.html

You know, I'm sure, that the original tests were done with cocaine addiction? You're well on your way, and fun to read to boot.
Thanks

[Murphyx]

Questions from a Befuddled Mind

I'm going to aim for a maintenance dose of 0. If it doesn't work then nothing lost, I'll just titrate back up and find a spot that works on the way down.

[redhead77]

Questions from a Befuddled Mind

Not to make light of anything but someone should tell Lindsay Lohan about bac too!!

[bleep]

Questions from a Befuddled Mind

That's what this whole thing needs to get pushed into the limelight - some well known party animal to take baclofen.

[Isolde]

Questions from a Befuddled Mind

redhead77;1068207 wrote: Not to make light of anything but someone should tell Lindsay Lohan about bac too!!

:H

Redhead, I was telling somebody the other day that all of these celebrities that we always hear about that are in and out of rehab really need to get on baclofen!!

We're so underground.

[_serenity_]

Questions from a Befuddled Mind

When I hit my switch, it was as clear-cut as day. Absolutely, staggeringly definitive.

One day, I wanted to drink. The next day, I didn't. And I haven't had a drink since.

As for my maintenance dose, I stayed at my switch dose (190mg) for about ten days, and have slowly moved down to 170. I know that Dr. L recommends that we stay at the switch dose permanently, but I found that level to be uncomfortable. If I lower it enough that I start having cravings, I'll just go back up. Easy!