Here starteth Paul's Baclofen diary

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Here starteth Paul's Baclofen diary

Paul,

I'm so sorry.
:l
The solution is and will be there. Hang in. Lots of love from me!
Ne

[bleep]

Here starteth Paul's Baclofen diary

Nice to know you are still around Paul.

I'm sure the post was, as you say, well intentioned. Doubtless a time will present itself to you at some point in the not-too-distant future where baclofen is an option. Until then, hang in there.

[Murphyx]

Here starteth Paul's Baclofen diary

Bac isn't suited to everyone in every situation, for instance I would shit my pants if my taxi driver announced he was trying baclofen and if my surgeon announced he was going to operate on me whilst all bacced up I would run screaming from the hospital carrying my severed arm and take my chances with super-glue. Well, that might be pushing it, but the point is Paul needs to bring his A game right now (that's an American expression and I'm not sure if I've used it correctly, but I do try. See?) and his A game whilst pissed is a lot more Aer than whilst on bac (I think may have got carried away with the A game expression. I'm not sure if a game can be Aer, but it's probably referring to one of those barbaric American games and God knows what sorts of language are appropriate for them, so I'll run with it anyway. But why the ex-colonies feel the need to prove their independence by making up such silly new games is beyond me. Why would the world need anything else when it already has rugby and cricket?).

Paul knows that bac is waiting for him when circumstances permit. He's proven his dedication to sobriety and I know he'll be back on it. Hopefully the time-frame will be of his choosing and not decided by those circumstances that are influencing proceedings at present.

So yeah, I'm fully behind Paul's decision. It's the most sensible and practical course of action and one I would also take under the circumstances.

Brian has discovered the wonder drug bac and is rightly effusive. There was a time when I was extolling its virtues at every turn and to every person no matter what their personal circumstances or their particular reaction to the drug. Just ask Ne; she used to be very pissed off at me. In fact, she thinks I still feel that way, even though I've told her a thousand times I don't. But women are odd chaps I've found. Really quite different to men and not just in the fun squishy ways. Ho hum!

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Here starteth Paul's Baclofen diary

You forgot soccer. I mean football. Whatever. I couldn't give a shit about any of it, so what do i know?

I'm not, nor have I ever (really) been pissed off at you. Pissed with you, probably, but who can remember those days? You continue to inspire me. As does Paul, as does Brian.

Rock on people!
And carry on...
xo
the odd chap with the squishy parts AKA Ne

[wanttobesober]

Here starteth Paul's Baclofen diary

Hi Paul, Let me apologize for my post!

I really sorry that I have made that post. It was really uncalled for. I wanted to apologize for that. I just got carried away by my enthusiasm with Baclofen. Even though I did not hit the switch yet, but I was reading so many success stories that I really wanted to believe in it.
I do really hope that it will help me, and I hope it will help you when you are ready to give it another try on your own turm!
Anyway I am in no way to give advice to anyone, especially about alcohol use.
As I stated earlier alcohol (or me) made so much damage to my life that it is embarrassing.
This week again I ended up with a couple of blackouts already and I can only hope tat today I will do better.
This is not good for my family either, since my wife is totally abstinent and you can imagine how much fun she has when she sees me passed out.

I hope you can solve all your problems!
May I ask you, at what level with Bac you have experienced fogginess?
I am taking only 60 mg from today.

Regards,

Brian

[LittleLessBoozin']

Here starteth Paul's Baclofen diary

wanttobesober;1128319 wrote: I really sorry that I have made that post. It was really uncalled for. I wanted to apologize for that. I just got carried away by my enthusiasm with Baclofen. Even though I did not hit the switch yet, but I was reading so many success stories that I really wanted to believe in it.
I do really hope that it will help me, and I hope it will help you when you are ready to give it another try on your own turm!
Anyway I am in no way to give advice to anyone, especially about alcohol use.
As I stated earlier alcohol (or me) made so much damage to my life that it is embarrassing.
This week again I ended up with a couple of blackouts already and I can only hope tat today I will do better.
This is not good for my family either, since my wife is totally abstinent and you can imagine how much fun she has when she sees me passed out.

I hope you can solve all your problems!
May I ask you, at what level with Bac you have experienced fogginess?
I am taking only 60 mg from today.

Regards,

Brian

No need for apologies Brian- as I said, I know your post was in good faith, it was just a little disheartening for someone in my fucked up situation.

TBH, i was only at 30mg when I experienced fogginess. As I think I mentioned, I suspect the fogginess was more AL+Bac than Bac alone. Bac alone might be fine. But..............

I'm in a pretty dark place right now, but I have a feeling something is going to change for the better pretty soon. LOL- I'll perhaps go into more details later, but I'm amusing myself because my definition of 'change for the better' is really very different from most people's at this point!

Cheers,

Paul.

[bleep]

Here starteth Paul's Baclofen diary

Hey Paul,

Baclofen and Al combined can certainly fuck you up more than normal, but baclofen by itself can do a fine job. I am looking forward to the time when you can take a month off and kick this thing. As, I'm sure, are you!

[Murphyx]

Here starteth Paul's Baclofen diary

I'm not sure we're not already there. I'd love to get my hands on half a dozen volunteers and prove it.

[LittleLessBoozin']

Here starteth Paul's Baclofen diary

Bac on Bac... Yes I'm BAC ON BAC!

...To paraphrase AC/DC.

So, I'm sneakily trying to wean myself onto Bac again.

I'm trying to combine the bac this time with semi-white-knuckling, as I am working on the premise that it was the combination of Al+Bac that was the problem, rather than Bac alone.

By semi white knuckling, I do not mean total abstinence, but rather 'tapering', at least for the time being. The reason for this is that when I started on Monday (5mg, 3x/day) I did consider trying to make it an AFD but my body told me that this was not an acceptable proposal :H

That said, I did not touch a drink until 10PM (circumstances made this easier than normal) and then had only 6 12Oz Heinekens, bolted down at the speed of sound though they admittedly were. 6 Heinekens may sound like a fair few beers to some of the less Alkie alkies here, but for me, that really is as good as AF.

On Tuesday, I managed to spend >1 hour in 2 airports and take a 3 hour flight AF. Flights are probably one of my biggest drinking triggers as I'm a captive audience, cannot be disturbed and have lovely flight attendants regularly coming by my seat bearing large quantities of hard liquor. In airport #2, I started to get a dry mouth, terrible headache and awful guts. I convinced myself that this was withdrawal due to not enough booze the night before and the fact that my body was probably pretty fully dry by that point, but rather than have a beer, I settled for grabbing a water and walking by the airport bars longingly, thinking "I might have a drink on the flight".

Well, to an alcoholic "I might allow myself" is as good as "Bring it on!", so I had 1 nice mixed drink (it was only a 45 minute flight, but believe me I have been known to bolt down many more than one cocktail on such flights before!)

I then had 6 12Oz 'sex in a canoe' beers after I got to my lodgings and a treble scotch before beddie byes. Again, not exactly sober living, but by my standards a pretty good effort.

I have to say, as I discovered last time, even at these very low levels I feel a mild reduction in cravings. As a scientist, I have to caution myself that this is most probably a psychosomatic effect, but as a realist who wants to make this work, I respond to myself "So fucking what if it is?! I'll take a little faith healing this once!"

Wednesday today, and I do not yet have a 'drinking strategy' in mind. Here, addiction is compounded by habit: I'm back home, and my evening pattern after the cocktails after work and bottle of wine with dinner is:

- Watch TV shows with beer
- Smoke cigarettes in TV show breaks, also with beer
- No 30 minute show may pass without the consumption of at least 2 beers
- The duration of a cigarette shall be enough time to imbibe one beer

I'm hopeful about cutting down the pre-dinner drinks; may be able to keep it slow on the during dinner drinks, but the post-dinner drinks are going to be a toughie, frankly, as the idea of sitting around watching TV with nothing to do is hard to contemplate for me, TBH.

Oh well, let's see how it goes. Will report in on Friday, by which time I will have gone up 100% to the 10/10/10 dosing that wiped me out last time.

Of course, the plan is to mitigate the Bac SEs with medication.

Of course the flaw in that plan is that Friday is, erm, Friday: A day traditionally associated with drinking as much alcohol in as many of its varied forms as is humanly possible!

I'll keep you posted

Paul.

[RudyB]

Here starteth Paul's Baclofen diary

hey paul, i think at one point, at the beginning of my bac journey, we were at the same mgs. sorry you've had a rough go of it. i hope it works this time. i'm now at 150, and se's are intense (somnolence), but al consumption is way down. just struggling with the HABIT factor, mostly.

i'm glad to hear from you again. i'll be keeping up with your progress. of course i wish you the best.
rudy

[LittleLessBoozin']

Here starteth Paul's Baclofen diary

Thanks Rudy, and yeah we were- we were both starting out. You were able to keep going; I had to stop. Fingers crossed I can go the distance this time.

Trouble is, even at 15mg/day and 'minimal' alcohol I feel kinda woozy and weird. I still suspect this will be the right med for me, though I confess that I cannot help having UKBlonde's horrible experience in the back of my mind!

Paul.

[wanttobesober]

Here starteth Paul's Baclofen diary

Hi Paul,

Good to here from you!
Good luck for this time.

Brian

:goodjob:

[ignominious]

Here starteth Paul's Baclofen diary

Welcome back Paul.

[LadyLush]

Here starteth Paul's Baclofen diary

LLB,

Been gone too long. I am reading as fast as I can. Don't give up, take the damn pills. What does Neva say? JTTDP? I think. Please, I will keep reading. It saved my lfe; I swear to God.

Please!

LL:l

[bleep]

Here starteth Paul's Baclofen diary

Paul, it's good to see you back. A lot of what you posted had me laughing out loud - the cigarette to beer ratio was me to a tee, although I could never work out whether it was to cut down smoking or cut down drinking. Regardless, it says a lot about the speed of consumption. Also the six beers = AF. I'd feel proud after a night like that.

Baclofen can indeed make a difference at very low doses. There is a thread from ages back, fucked if I could find it now, about someone who was indifferent, absolutely indifferent, after their first pill. An extreme case, obviously, but you can feel from the SE's at these low doses what it is capable of.

For me the SE's were definitely worsened with alcohol. That's not to say they wouldn't have been there, but the next day after tying one on I would feel all the SE's times 10, and new ones as well.

There is also the zoom zoom that Karen speaks of. It is very real, and extremely productive, should you be fortunate enough to find that particular dose. This particular SE will blow your mind if you get it.

Best of luck this time around.