Hi, everyone. I really appreciate this forum, as it -- plus reading Dr. Amiesen's work over the past 24 hours -- pushed me to contact my shrink, as it were, about putting me on Baclofen. She had mentioned it a number of months ago, but thanks to you plus Dr. Amiesen's second book, I finally took her up on her offer. I don't have my scrip yet, but am anxious to get it (hopefully tomorrow).
I've been trying the Sinclair Method for about a year -- almost to the day. While it help remove my initial craving for AL, and definitely allowed me to get off the hard stuff (scotch, vodka), I never really got down below the bottle-of-wine-a-night level, and so, here I am.
The one thing I'm trying to do is to leaven or otherwise manage / reduce my expectations about what might happen, in light of the Sinclair Method experience. What particularly attracts me is the following. About a year and a half or so ago, I was diagnosed as bipolar. This happened at age 45, and as one therapist I spoke with today said, it's not unusual for this to happen, even after seeing a parade of MD psychiatrists and therapists. I'm now on a solar system of meds (as opposed to a galaxy), and while things have evened out somewhat through a cocktail of lamotrigine, Seroquel, Gabapentin, and Ativan, I still feel on somewhat shaky ground, and clearly my drinking hasn't gone down in the way I'd like. (I did a stretch in AA in my mid-30s, but stopped after four years when I stopped identifying with other folks there as I had been a relatively high-bottom drunk, so to speak, who stopped drinking cold for four years after my first AA meeting.)
What I began to see about a month or so ago is how my drinking and other behaviors were triggered by what I perceived to be a brain that runs too hot, and the fact that alcohol and other substances were the universal cure-all for that plus both the manic and depressive phases of my condition.
What I really connected with in Dr. Amiesen's second book is his confirmation that dysphoria and anxiety are the drivers of these addictions, as opposed to the other way around. I've definitely been using these substances to regulate my mood, albeit often unsuccessfully. I think my shrink is great, but even she can get into the psychiatric happy talk about how I should curb certain behaviors, without necessarily exploring what's triggering those behaviors.
When I got hold of her today to ask her to put me on to Baclofen, she did indicate that she has had good results with some of her patients, although she did note that using Baclofen for alcohol dependence is an off-label use. (Maybe that's a kind of disclaimer that physicians have to make, although I come from a family of MDs myself and actually work in healthcare, although am not a clinician.) I half expected her to say she would not let me go past 80mg per day, but she actually indicated that she's taken most of her patients to 250mg and has had them stay there, despite Dr. A's talking about the switch for him at 270 or so mg, and then titrating back down to 100 with 40 when there are certain stressors.
I went to the pharmacy tonight, toting my very hungry three-year-old, and hoped that the prescription had been called in and filled, as I'm really anxious to get started (so anxious that I ordered a bunch today, prior to talking to my shrink, from River Pharmacy). Alas, no dice, so guess i will have to wait until tomorrow. Beyond the hoped-for reduction in my alcohol intake, I'm hoping it will also help with the chronic anxiety -- although my doc also wants me to taper off the Ativan as I titrate up on the Baclofen. So yes, am trying to temper my expectations, but after a life of hoping for a miracle cure, that's really hard.
So hopefully my journey begins tomorrow. I appreciate what I've read on this board, and hope I'll come to befriend and enjoy your collective support. Moreover, am moved by what I've read, and hope to someday (soon) pay if forward, in 12th step-like fashion.
I've been trying the Sinclair Method for about a year -- almost to the day. While it help remove my initial craving for AL, and definitely allowed me to get off the hard stuff (scotch, vodka), I never really got down below the bottle-of-wine-a-night level, and so, here I am.
The one thing I'm trying to do is to leaven or otherwise manage / reduce my expectations about what might happen, in light of the Sinclair Method experience. What particularly attracts me is the following. About a year and a half or so ago, I was diagnosed as bipolar. This happened at age 45, and as one therapist I spoke with today said, it's not unusual for this to happen, even after seeing a parade of MD psychiatrists and therapists. I'm now on a solar system of meds (as opposed to a galaxy), and while things have evened out somewhat through a cocktail of lamotrigine, Seroquel, Gabapentin, and Ativan, I still feel on somewhat shaky ground, and clearly my drinking hasn't gone down in the way I'd like. (I did a stretch in AA in my mid-30s, but stopped after four years when I stopped identifying with other folks there as I had been a relatively high-bottom drunk, so to speak, who stopped drinking cold for four years after my first AA meeting.)
What I began to see about a month or so ago is how my drinking and other behaviors were triggered by what I perceived to be a brain that runs too hot, and the fact that alcohol and other substances were the universal cure-all for that plus both the manic and depressive phases of my condition.
What I really connected with in Dr. Amiesen's second book is his confirmation that dysphoria and anxiety are the drivers of these addictions, as opposed to the other way around. I've definitely been using these substances to regulate my mood, albeit often unsuccessfully. I think my shrink is great, but even she can get into the psychiatric happy talk about how I should curb certain behaviors, without necessarily exploring what's triggering those behaviors.
When I got hold of her today to ask her to put me on to Baclofen, she did indicate that she has had good results with some of her patients, although she did note that using Baclofen for alcohol dependence is an off-label use. (Maybe that's a kind of disclaimer that physicians have to make, although I come from a family of MDs myself and actually work in healthcare, although am not a clinician.) I half expected her to say she would not let me go past 80mg per day, but she actually indicated that she's taken most of her patients to 250mg and has had them stay there, despite Dr. A's talking about the switch for him at 270 or so mg, and then titrating back down to 100 with 40 when there are certain stressors.
I went to the pharmacy tonight, toting my very hungry three-year-old, and hoped that the prescription had been called in and filled, as I'm really anxious to get started (so anxious that I ordered a bunch today, prior to talking to my shrink, from River Pharmacy). Alas, no dice, so guess i will have to wait until tomorrow. Beyond the hoped-for reduction in my alcohol intake, I'm hoping it will also help with the chronic anxiety -- although my doc also wants me to taper off the Ativan as I titrate up on the Baclofen. So yes, am trying to temper my expectations, but after a life of hoping for a miracle cure, that's really hard.
So hopefully my journey begins tomorrow. I appreciate what I've read on this board, and hope I'll come to befriend and enjoy your collective support. Moreover, am moved by what I've read, and hope to someday (soon) pay if forward, in 12th step-like fashion.
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