I received a blessing early in my bac journey. I found an extremely open minded addictionologist in a nearby city. He had actually been prescribing low dose bac to cocaine addicts for numerous years, so he was familiar with it.
I took all my research material, including a copy of Dr. A’s book, and made my sales pitch. He agreed to allow me to be his first “high dose” patient, as long as I coupled the medication with some type of counseling or 12 step program. He was really intrigued by the possibilities of bac.
Earlier this week I went in for my monthly consult. My doctor had done quite a bit of research on bac since my last visit. He had been in contact with the research institutions on both the west and east coasts who use or had studied bac. He had contacted many of his contemporaries, who are also board certified in addiction medicine.
I wanted to share what he told me with ya’ll. Most of this has already been said throughout this forum. A little of it might be new. But I think it is important because it comes from an objective member of the medical profession. Here it is:
1. In the fight against addiction, bac is one of the most “individualized” medications there is. Some people get its full benefit at low doses and others at much higher doses. There is no rhyme or reason as to why it works this way. I asked him if it depended on “genetics” and “chemistry”. He laughed and said when a doctor mentions “genetics” and “chemistry”, he is really saying, “I don’t know”.
2. The fact that bac is so “individualized” is the reason a lot of the addiction medicine community shy away from it. Some docs are lazy and want to write easy, run-of-the-mill scripts. To prescribe bac the right way you have to be diligent and disciplined. You have to really take time with your patients, especially when you are titrating down and trying to determine the maintenance dose.
3. He would never be comfortable with any of his patients going over 300 mgs a day.
4. We should be able to come completely off bac after 24 months at the most. It is not a lifetime thing.
5. To be completely effective, some type of counseling or therapy should be incorporated into the treatment. In and of itself, bac is not a cure.
6. Bac works for most alcoholics and almost all stimulant addicts.
I am not holding this out as the gospel truth, I am merely sharing with you what my doctor said. He came to these conclusions after doing his own research and consulting his colleagues. We already knew about #1. I found #2 interesting, and 3-5 are the subjects of great debate.
I took all my research material, including a copy of Dr. A’s book, and made my sales pitch. He agreed to allow me to be his first “high dose” patient, as long as I coupled the medication with some type of counseling or 12 step program. He was really intrigued by the possibilities of bac.
Earlier this week I went in for my monthly consult. My doctor had done quite a bit of research on bac since my last visit. He had been in contact with the research institutions on both the west and east coasts who use or had studied bac. He had contacted many of his contemporaries, who are also board certified in addiction medicine.
I wanted to share what he told me with ya’ll. Most of this has already been said throughout this forum. A little of it might be new. But I think it is important because it comes from an objective member of the medical profession. Here it is:
1. In the fight against addiction, bac is one of the most “individualized” medications there is. Some people get its full benefit at low doses and others at much higher doses. There is no rhyme or reason as to why it works this way. I asked him if it depended on “genetics” and “chemistry”. He laughed and said when a doctor mentions “genetics” and “chemistry”, he is really saying, “I don’t know”.
2. The fact that bac is so “individualized” is the reason a lot of the addiction medicine community shy away from it. Some docs are lazy and want to write easy, run-of-the-mill scripts. To prescribe bac the right way you have to be diligent and disciplined. You have to really take time with your patients, especially when you are titrating down and trying to determine the maintenance dose.
3. He would never be comfortable with any of his patients going over 300 mgs a day.
4. We should be able to come completely off bac after 24 months at the most. It is not a lifetime thing.
5. To be completely effective, some type of counseling or therapy should be incorporated into the treatment. In and of itself, bac is not a cure.
6. Bac works for most alcoholics and almost all stimulant addicts.
I am not holding this out as the gospel truth, I am merely sharing with you what my doctor said. He came to these conclusions after doing his own research and consulting his colleagues. We already knew about #1. I found #2 interesting, and 3-5 are the subjects of great debate.
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