Hi everyone from Bill.P.

[Lo0p]

Hi everyone from Bill.P.

Hey Bill!

I pretty much went straight to a switch dose in a couple of days (and hit it) and have been fine ever since (Nov. '09). I had serious SE's, but I was out of work and well...I kinda liked 'em. :nutso:

I'm totally with you on the "need to feel the power of the baclofen" (if I may quote you from memory ).

I'm often left wondering if people are manufacturing SE's and going past their switch dosages by titrating so slowly. But they call me the "anomaly". I tend to keep my mouth shut and only make noise every once in a while...till they brush me under the rug again. :upset:

[Lo0p]

Hi everyone from Bill.P.

Murphyx;1116662 wrote: Hey RedT, I tried searching on the username Sussanah and got 0 hits. Her's seems like an interesting story and I'd like to check it out. Could you find a link to her posts?

Susanne deleted all the pertinent posts, thanks to Tracy making threatening remarks to her via PM about their baclofen supply (among other hell raising antics). It was the story of how she saved her brother's life by switching from an onerous, pointless titrating scheme straight to shoving 30mgs down his throat hourly (to a total of about 340mg daily). He went from the throes of what sounded like one of the worst binges I've ever heard of (20-25+ shots liquor + beer daily) to hitting his switch in 9 days.

[RedThread12]

Hi everyone from Bill.P.

Murph: LoOp's short version is accurate. If you want to know more, PM me.

[terryk]

Hi everyone from Bill.P.

Lo0p;1116696 wrote: Hey Bill!

I pretty much went straight to a switch dose in a couple of days (and hit it) and have been fine ever since (Nov. '09). I had serious SE's, but I was out of work and well...I kinda liked 'em. :nutso:

I'm totally with you on the "need to feel the power of the baclofen" (if I may quote you from memory ).

I'm often left wondering if people are manufacturing SE's and going past their switch dosages by titrating so slowly. But they call me the "anomaly". I tend to keep my mouth shut and only make noise every once in a while...till they brush me under the rug again. :upset:

Hey Lo0p, could you please clean out at least one message in your overflowing heap of PM fan mail so I can give you what for, please? :wings:

[Murphyx]

Hi everyone from Bill.P.

RedT, Loop, thanks. Wow, far out!

It's a fricking shame so much information seems to have been lost by deletions.

[Guest]

Hi everyone from Bill.P.

Zenstyle;1116759 wrote: Oh yeah... I remember that thing with the girl's brother! That was an awesome story... what a shame the posts have been deleted. I wonder how he's faring now... don't suppose we'll ever find out...

I managed to find some traces of the whole affair, not too long ago. It actually looked quite alarming but hopefully it has worked out.

[RudyB]

Hi everyone from Bill.P.

Take it from a very newbie, Bill: A veteran's voice is always a welcome sound. Please share more.

[RedThread12]

Hi everyone from Bill.P.

The story of Susanne's brother was alarming beyond anything I've seen posted on this board. Yet he had an incredible support team of family and friends who were intelligent, well-informed, and savvy enough to hang in with it all. It all worked out, last I heard. Paul posted a few times as "Paulslice." As far as I know, and I've been in touch with his sister on the phone and via email, he's no longer an alcoholic. Enjoying his life and his family, et al. Desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures.

[gratitude]

Hi everyone from Bill.P.

hey billp,
welcome back. can't wait to hear how and what you a doing now. still doing film projects? grat.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Hi everyone from Bill.P.

Grat! Where the heck have you been?

Paul's story was indeed hair-raising. It was worse than that, actually. He posted a couple of times and then left again. I'm very relieved to know that he's doing well. I respect them for the decisions they made, but the point you made, Redthread, about his support system cannot be over-emphasized. Knowledgeable people, making informed decisions in life threatening circumstances with constant supervision.

I'm eager to hear more about your experiences, Bill. Specifically about your conclusions regarding amount of bac, duration, and use of xanax.
Thanks,
Ne

[Bill.P.]

Hi everyone from Bill.P.

Hey Gang,
Sorry for the tardy response. In between moves and just got the internet hooked up today at my new place.
I plan on spending more time on here for sure as I am basically retiring from working in the medical field. I see my old friend zenstyle is still here. Hey girl!
Anyways, I will reply soon in more detail to each question on this thread. The life of a travelling tambourine player is quite hectic at the moment lol.
But here's the deal, I have to find a replacement for me which may be a bit time-consuming and I cannot leave everyone in the lurch. Plus, I am travelling between new city and old city I am transitioning away from. But as soon as I can wrest free from my obligations. I will have more free time than I probably will know what to do with.
Ne/neva/eva since while typing this, I can see your post above me.

I have pondered the use of xanax as an additional agent, much like treating blood pressure with more than one agent for a few reasons.
One, is my personal experience. I like xanax, its my favorite anxiolytic for people and I also like baclofen as well for its anti-anxiety properties.
There is a definite line between the two however. That being, xanax I would not recommend using without the care of a physician because it can cause addiction in of itself, kinda defeats the purpose. It should be used situationally and for short periods of time under physician supervision. My view on baclofen is not as strict as most people dont want this on their insurance and it has such a benign side effect profile. Xanax that is not true, people can run into some very real issues with it.
Also, xanax is a controlled substance, baclofen is not. Meaning you can order this online which most people do and if someone was to get a hair up their butt in customs. They'll just seize it and send you a letter which you just ignore.
I know of several bodybuilders who order controlled steroids and they get seizure letters and chaulk it up as a loss. Steroids are controlled substances, rarely but it has happened that they do what is called "controlled deliveries" in situations where customs discovered large orders presumably for distribution beyond personal use. This could theoretically happen with ordering xanax from overseas. Not true of baclofen as it is not a controlled substance. I mean they reserve this for suspected dealers of controlled substances.
In any event, I would not recommend doing this on one's own like baclofen use.

In a perfect world, you could go to a psychiatrist and he would know exactly how to use baclofen and also when and when not to use xanax. But in reality, thats not the case.

Here's what I found worked great in my situation. With much mental debate and dialogue. My wife moved to a new city not too long ago. It caused a lot of distress between us as I was resistant on leaving my work to the point of splitting. So of course I had to choose and so I decided to resign and split time here and the city where I work as a courtesy until they find a suitable replacement which may take months.
The problem I find is that with the short duration of baclofen and being so busy at times, I would skip doses more frequently b/c of this stress. And wow, I woke up one morning at 4 am about losing my damn mind and I realized I had not taken the baclofen since my morning dose the previous day.
So if, in my situation, I was having a lot of course reasonable and expected stress from the situation I was dealing with. I decided that having a LONGER acting anxiolytic in place rather than risk the baclofen running out of my system. Revealing the stress I was under and then on top of that, the rebound anxiety of baclofen withdrawal.
So I added xanax into the mix, worked like a charm. I had to reduce my baclofen down a bit and also reduce down my xanax dose from .5mg to .25mg as it definitely helped with stress but left me a little groggy like when the first few days of titrating baclofen.

I'll have to expound on this a bit more.
My main points are.
Short term
Prescribed by physician as opposed to buying baclofen online
Helps with situational stress not a long term strategy in most instances
It is addictive unlike baclofen, its like alcohol in a pill as my biochemistry professor told me 20 years ago about. I still remember this clearly, valium works on the same receptor sites as alcohol without the excitation stage. It also has a long half life and little old ladies get addicted to it when they take after their husbands die b/c of the long half life and the withdrawal is the same as baclofen and alcohol withdrawal. I like that xanax is a much shorter half-life than valium or chlordiazepoxide (librium) for that very reason.

Anyways, Id say 90% of people should steer clear of this. I did mention though that there are some people who are baclofen resistant and get no benefit from baclofen? A very small percent
I wonder at some point in research combining the xanax with the baclofen would help the BRE-MACRO subset. But thats off into the future

[beatle]

Hi everyone from Bill.P.

Bill.P.;1117233 wrote:
I wonder at some point in research combining the xanax with the baclofen would help the BRE-MACRO subset. But thats off into the future

I wonder if I am one of those. The 5% bac-resistant subset.
It's looking more and more like I am.

[KatieSmiles]

Hi everyone from Bill.P.

Just passing through this thread..*waves* (Hi beatle (ltns), Hi Zenners)

[bleep]

Hi everyone from Bill.P.

Hi Bill,

Some interesting stuff here, thanks. I have a couple of questions if you don't mind?

May I ask what research you are basing your conclusions on? Specifically the 5% baclofen resistant subset. As I understand it, those sort of results and conclusions could only come from a large scale study.

As I understand it, baclofen is the only agent that acts on GABA-b specifically, so how will supplementing it with Xanax help? Or are you suggesting this as an alternative after people reach indifference?

[Guest]

Hi everyone from Bill.P.

bleep;1117306 wrote: Hi Bill,

Some interesting stuff here, thanks. I have a couple of questions if you don't mind?

May I ask what research you are basing your conclusions on? Specifically the 5% baclofen resistant subset. As I understand it, those sort of results and conclusions could only come from a large scale study.

As I understand it, baclofen is the only agent that acts on GABA-b specifically, so how will supplementing it with Xanax help? Or are you suggesting this as an alternative after people reach indifference?

And what does "Immune" mean?It simply doesn't work with them?

I'm interested in any cases where people had bad interactions with baclofen, in other words people where the side effects just didn't diminish and who didn't get the positive SEs such as increased confidence, happiness etc.

Allergy/Bad Reaction or something else?