Baclofen and Exercise / Gym

[LadyLush]

Baclofen and Exercise / Gym

I was led to this MWO forum in all its glory :H

Glorious it is Alexan, ditto, ditto, ditto!



Lady

[Lo0p]

Baclofen and Exercise / Gym

Ukblonde;1102914 wrote: I'm using Nal Alexan having reduced my dose of Baclofen. Now heres the interesting bit, I too thought you had to take it an hour or two before drinking. Well after discussing my drinking, craving pattern etc the Dr has told me to take it in the morning because sometimes it does help with cravings. He says Nal acts in your system for around 10 hours, so I'm taking 50mg with breakfast. I usually have cravings around late morning, and late afternoon so it'll be prime in my system. Of course I asked him what if I do have a drink later in the evening - say 8pm when the nal is fading. I think he did say you can then take another 50mg prior to drinking as per TSM.

Hope this helps somewhat. Currently I'm down to 25 mgs baclofen and have taken 50 mgs Nal yesterday morning as well as this morning. No problems so far, and no side effects from the Nal.
There was a lot of contentious debate regarding the duration of action of Naltrexone and when it was "okay" to take it back in the day. I found a study which elucidated that it actually lasted much longer than most people thought.

https://www.mywayout.org/community/f2...tml#post812261

The most important thing in all of this crap is that study and this line:

Lo0p;812271 wrote: So nal and 6-b-nal seem to hang on to the receptors much longer than their plasma clearance times would suggest

We decided that regarding alcohol and TSM it was best not to screw around with the formula and take it as close to the "golden rule" (1 hour before the first drink) as possible. There were too many anecdotal reports of people slipping and falling back into relapse type behavior when they didn't follow the rule. Too many to ignore.

But Alexan, I made a personal decision to be very wary of unintended extinction of weightlifting and to take full advantage of the flip side (doubly reinforcing it as a positive opioidergic behavior). I can't prove it but I think I may have benefited greatly from it. I haven't taken a break from the gym for more than like 10 days since Dec 1 of '09, even through periods when I had a serious lack of motivation. I am genuinely addicted.

I was very careful in the early days to separate any gym time (especially heavy days) from a Nal dose by at least 48 hours, even more if possible.

I'm assuming you've read about this effect. If not I could definitely point you to some material.

[alexan]

Baclofen and Exercise / Gym

Yo Murph

Murphyx;1103079 wrote: Alex, when I read this post this morning I was concerned that no one had been helping you, there are a lot of newbies arriving all the time and I can't remember who all of them are, so I looked at some of your earlier posts to see whether you had been given any advice. You have and you've ignored it. You were advised to contact a doctor experienced in baclofen for alcoholism, to titrate slowly and consistently and that baclofen was a powerful drug, not to be messed with. Yes, you suffered unwanted side effects. If you had taken the advice, you may not have done.

There's no point my offering any further advice "or even anecdotes from experience" if it's just going to be ignored.

I wish you all the best and hope you find a solution to your drinking. If you do try baclofen again, please do so sensibly. Your previous attempt was not only dangerous to yourself but off-putting for newbies.

Good luck

Murph

Dear Murph,

I apologize for being somewhat acrid. When I read your one-liners I took them a tad personally. While I struggled through the first week on Baclofen, the second/last one has been a particularly difficult one; and a tumultuous ride to say the least, with what seemed to be never ending side-effects. In addition my physical appearance, which has so far been the means for my bread-and-butter, has surprisingly suffered quite a lot. In these uncertain and uncharted times, I felt useless and unnecessarily touchy, bitchy, and everything else along those lines -- Not to offend anyone but it reminds me of a certain lady friend from yesteryears who was going through a particularly bad episode one month.

The gym to me has always been somewhat of a Mecca, and this obsession has always been hard to convey to those who are not acquired of the same train of thought. As a previously chubby kid who quite possibly found comfort in food, I fought hard to overcome my anxieties and depressions by coming into this awesome fitness rush in my adolescence. To give you some idea; in my pre-alcoholic days the first question I would ask on my many travels was "Is there a gym there??" -- that was thereafter replaced by "Where's the nearest bar?" -- I suppose in many ways the gym was my "fix", and thereafter in times of trouble I found a new one in alcohol.

To not be able to go follow my routine for the last couple of weeks has been brutal and akin to some kind of living death... for even when I drank every night I still made it to the Gym somehow the next day and all was ultimately good, and off I went to drink again.

Needless to say, I wanted to put this out there. Hope you will understand.


Everyone else:
There are some positive developments afoot... More to come soon.

[Murphyx]

Baclofen and Exercise / Gym

OK Alexan, thanks. I'm not sure how a proper baclofen titration schedule would affect your gym visits. I'm sure others have more input into that.

[bleep]

Baclofen and Exercise / Gym

alexan;1103134 wrote: Ironically I found out about about all of this stuff when after one binge a few weeks ago, I very very wryly googled "Alcoholism Cure" -- and I suddenly discovered about the TSM book -- that led me to the TSM forums, where I stumbled across "Baclofen" because some of the members there were talking about it; and upon further Googling about that, I was led to this MWO forum in all its glory :H

How funny life is.

That's almost an exact replica of how I found out about baclofen. Although I wasn't so lucky, I found the research first, and plowed through a number of quite dry reports before finding MWO. At the time though, each report was incredible, each one pried loose a nail on the coffin I thought I was in.

How funny life is, indeed.

[alexan]

Baclofen and Exercise / Gym

OMG!!! Friend just texted -- "Bo0zy" Brunch??!

Oh man I have so much to talk about. But to cut a long story short -- I was gonna go to the Gym early today and kill it again like yesterday -- but a friend just texted and wants to pick me up for a "Bo0zy" brunch!!(!???)
[...for a long belated past occasion].
He doesn't know anything, No Bac yet! Was gonna wait till later.

What should I do!? Yikes.
Being tested way too soon (btw last night was an AF night completely -- second this week)

[Guest]

Baclofen and Exercise / Gym

Alexan

Just to let you know my hair is back to normal now I've titrated off Baclofen. Once I got above 80mgs I noticed the initial drying effect reversed, and my hair and skin because incredibly oily. I know I did have phases were I was so ill/zombied/fed up I didn't always look after myself or shower, but even when I got into a routine it was still the same. Weeks on end, not fun with a big head of hair.

Anyway I reduced my dose to pretty much zero in 5-6 days, and 8 days on everything is back to normal.

Perhaps an unlisted side-effect, who knows. Did wonder if the muscle relaxant effect opens up the pores, allowing more oils to be secreted by the glands - but who knows.

[ghooke]

Baclofen and Exercise / Gym

Hi,
has anyone had any experiences with exercise and a baclofen pump? If so what kind of effect did it have on your exercise regimen?

[curlygirl7]

Baclofen and Exercise / Gym

Does anyone know anything about combining low dose bac with Nal? The side effects of higher dose bac killed me so I'm down to 70 mg/day, but I still desperately want to succeed. Any info on the combo?:thanks: