Strategies for dealing with side effects

[suneelca]

Per another exchange with Ne, starting this thread for folks to post their experiences in coping with side effects as they occur. Or, if you've experienced no side effects -- damn you! -- what you think might have been the reason why that was. Acknowledging that, as they say in journalism, it's hard to prove a negative.

Post narrative or whatever works for you, or a format could be:

SIDE EFFECT: blah
TRANSITIONAL OR ONGOING? blah blah
STRATEGY THAT WORKED: blah blah blah
or STRATEGY THAT DIDN'T WORK: blah blah blah blah

Hopefully no one posts something to the effect of 'Strategy that didn't work: Took rat poison.'

[suneelca]

Strategies for dealing with side effects

A couple from me:

SIDE EFFECT: Constipation
TRANSITIONAL OR ONGOING? Ongoing
STRATEGY THAT WORKS: Take magnesium (Magna Calm in tea at night, magnesium in pill form during morning) -- but hard to calibrate. Take too much, and you will get the equivalent of irritable bowel syndrome as a result; take too little, and nothing will happen. I've rarely gotten it just right. Risk of former is dehydration ...

SIDE EFFECT: Insomnia
TRANSITIONAL OR ONGOING: Ongoing
STRATEGY THAT WORKS: Taking last dose no less than four hours before going to sleep seems to have boosted to four to five hour range, with frequent wakings. Otherwise, am learning to live with it, and can't determine relationship between sleep / lack of sleep and daytime somnolence.

More on somnolence in next post. Now need to go take a nap!

[MWOLady]

Strategies for dealing with side effects

Great idea for a thread. I take Topamax and am up to 100mg morning and afternoon. Major side effect for me is lots of spaciness. It feels sort of nice but not so good for driving. Lucky for me I don't have to go out to work. I feel I could function ok but I might be a bit slow. Just when the first dose seems to be wearing off a bit it's time for the afternoon dose. I can still feel a bit dozy when I wake up. I have suffered from depression and anxiety so this stuff is really calming and I sort of don't give a darn about anything and I REALLY LIKE THAT!! This may be a huge factor in my sobriety!!

I'm also talking GABA 500mg to calm me and that works great. As well before bed I take one GABA 500mg, and two 50 mg 5HTP for sleep. I go to sleep great, but usually wake up around 3:30 am so I take another each of the GABA and 5HTP. This gets me to sleep until 8am.

Forgot to add: My husband does not know I'm taking this and he has not noticed anything - or at least he has not said anything - so the spacy effect is in my head but I can hide it - it does not show in my speech or movements.

[MWOLady]

Strategies for dealing with side effects

Is this a baclofen only thread?

[suneelca]

Strategies for dealing with side effects

Not the intention -- laissez the bon temps roulez!

[Cassander]

Strategies for dealing with side effects

suneelca;1248835 wrote:

Post narrative or whatever works for you, or a format could be:

SIDE EFFECT: blah
TRANSITIONAL OR ONGOING? blah blah
STRATEGY THAT WORKED: blah blah blah
or STRATEGY THAT DIDN'T WORK: blah blah blah blah

Sune--

Could I suggest a little more information in the same format you propose:

SIDE EFFECT: blah
TRANSITIONAL OR ONGOING? blah blah
STRATEGY THAT WORKED: blah blah blah
or STRATEGY THAT DIDN'T WORK: blah blah blah blah
DRINKING STATUS: blah blah
OTHER MEDS: blah blah
OTHER HEALTH CONDITIONS: blah blah blah

Best,

Cass

[suneelca]

Strategies for dealing with side effects

Cass -- as always, well played, sir!

DRINKING STATUS: About 9 - 15 drinks per week (down from 50 - 80 pre-Bac)
OTHER MEDS: Seroquel (25 mg), Lamictal (300 mg), Advil PM (two tablets)
OTHER HEALTH CONDITIONS: Bipolar II (don't agree with diagnosis in light of success with Bac), lower back pain (also mostly gone because of Bac)

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Strategies for dealing with side effects

There are a remarkable number of similarities between bac SEs and reduction-in-alcohol-SEs. To wit, insomnia, constipation, diarrhea, sleep disturbances and sugar-craving. As well as dramatic mood swings and torpor, anhedonia (the blah of the blahs!!!) and being overly emotional.
That is not to say that bac doesn't cause SEs, or that some of these SEs don't happen prior to reduction in drinking, or much after one stops drinking. Bac definitely has SEs.

There is a thread dedicated to those SEs after indifference has been reached, for those of us who have been on it for a long time. I'll stick with what I did when I was dealing with the SEs you mentioned.

• Constipation: spinach and lots of water. LOTS of spinach.
• Insomnia: I mostly used tools that were not medicinal. I wish I had also used medicine. I stayed in bed. I "guarded" my sleep. (Especially during those times when bac-induced-clarity accompanied insomnia. I would wake up after 3 hours of sleep ready to GO! And then really need sleep later.)
• Anhedonia: Usually leveled out when I leveled out my bac intake. I also looked for support, and used other tools. Or I went up/down with bac intake.Mood swings and emotionalness in general: I gave myself a break and pretended I was PMSing if anyone asked. Or I was PMSing. Or just pissed off. Or sad. Lots of emotions to be found with looking at life without the haze of a hangover. It is...life.Sugar craving: I ate sugar. Now I've stopped. It sucks, but again, that's life. I miss chocolate. Don't bring it up again, please. I'm still very upset about this one. But I feel so much better that I can mostly resist the siren call of that silky smooth velvet that coats my tongue and brings about the immense satisfaction of immediate gratification. I miss you, Chocolate.Somnolence: I napped because I could. When I couldn't/can't I drink lots of coffee. I also spread out my doses so I was taking bac in equal amounts, 6x/day. And I would also skip a dose prior to when I needed to be really sharp, and make up for it by taking more earlier or later. Now I just try to space it out evenly, 3x/day over the 18 hours I'm awake. (200mg. I take 60mg/60mg and 80mg right before bed.)

Someone I know and trust once reported that s/he felt that energy drinks might be a problem. This was enough to keep me away from them and any OTC thing that promised bursts of energy. (Plus they're full of garbage.) blech.
I have taken benadryl, xanax, adderall, and some supplements to deal with this stuff too. And also some over the counter ephedrine stuff, that I won't mention and wouldn't recommend unless you are really desperate for a quick, short term solution.
I am convinced that most of this stuff can be managed in the long term with nutrition, vitamins/supplements and exercise. In other words, a good, clean life. How annoying is that? Except I can actually do it now.

Strategies that didn't work: Ignoring them. Or paying too much attention to them.

They are almost all, in my experience, transitory. Sleeping is absolutely vital, and insomnia should be addressed immediately. IMHO.

Also, IMHO (sort of) there is a direct correlation between booze and bac SEs. Both lack of booze and too much booze. My last glass of wine made me unhappy and out of sorts for two days. While it tastes good, I hate the way that stuff makes me feel. It doesn't even make me feel as good as chocolate does! No more booze for Ne!

:l

Drinking status: Indifferent to booze. For the last three months I've had a glass of wine (or equivalent) a month. Maybe twice in November? Last time I got drunk was in October and it was excruciatingly painful.
Other Meds: Now I'm taking vitamins. Before I wasn't taking anything. At all. Ever. I was superstitious about it.
Other health conditions: None. I'm something related to ADD. I'm 42. Things creak. :boohoo: I'm also healthier than I have ever been in my entire 42 years.

[suneelca]

Strategies for dealing with side effects

Did you know that Woody Allen originally was going to title "Annie Hall" "Annie Hedonia"?

On somnolence -- does seem that resting one's eyes for 20 or so minutes can help one through the worst of it. If it persists, wonder what I'll do when I go back to working in an office. But this particular SE is, for me, unpredictable, and hard to relate to other factors such as somnolence. I did cut out Advil PM last night to see if that might help, and lo and behold, it does! At least today. To counter, last night took both melatonin and a valerian root based mix. Would have gotten a good rest save for our damn cat coming and meowing a lot starting around 5 am.

(Turns out our other cat got left out in the cold last night, and she was calling our attention to the situation -- but guess what I felt like doing with her at 5 am?)

At some point, as have indicated, would like to yank the Seroquel as well to further see if helps ease somnolence once transition off is complete. At 25 mg, dose is at best marginal. Maybe I will once am through the transition off of Advil PM, although after taking it every night for six or so years (great way to prevent hangovers), not clear it was doing me much good anyway ...

[suneelca]

Strategies for dealing with side effects

NE -- coupla questions.

1) For insomnia, did you try the strategy of taking last dose no less than four or so hours before going to bed? Conversely, why did you settle on taking the last dose at bedtime?

2) Sounds like you're able to get six hours of sleep (good on ya!) at 200 mg? What side effects are you currently experiencing?

Thanks!

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Strategies for dealing with side effects

Alrighty! Thought I'd forgotten, didn't you? Okay. I did. Sorry for the delay.

I tried taking it at different times of the day. It didn't work for me. This sort of makes sense, because after a while the amount of bac in your system remains pretty constant. (This all has something to do with half life increasing the longer one is on baclofen, etc. Whatever. It makes sense, though, right?) Some people, quite a few, have found relief by not taking it close to bedtime. I have always preferred, and still think it makes sense, to spread it out relatively evenly. That said, insomnia is a really persistent, and VERY threatening SE. We have to have sleep. More than anything else, I think the insomnia is a deal breaker for people. It can make your mind and body completely out of whack.
So...I've seen from your posts around that you are looking for a solution. I don't know that there are any one shot short term solutions. The sleep meds seem to wear off. So you can alternate them. (This is probably a good idea, anyway.) What I did is that I stayed in bed. Period. I woke up in the middle of the night ready to start the day, thinking, "oh, what the hell! I feel great/terrible I might as well get up!" Bad idea. Lo0p told me to guard my sleep, so I started doing that. Lights out. Computer off. No tv. etc. Hot tea, milk, a warm bath, etc. And CBT or meditation techniques when my thoughts were really negative/scary. When I had visual/aural hallucinations I reminded myself that my dog would be freaking out if there really was a man floating outside the window, or someone banging on the door. (yes. I had both and frequently for a while. I was a knucklehead and jumped around a lot and kept drinking as though my life depended on it. ) I thought pretty thoughts. Actually, I thought about the things I'd read on here, especially from people who made it.

Finally, it wears off. Like all of the SEs. I still miss only getting 3 or 4 hours of sleep! Now I get 6 or 7, consistently. If you include naps, I get a full 8 or so every 24 hours. (I'm a napper, always have been and hopefully always will be. I lament the idea that I will have to go back to full time work some day.)

My SEs now? I don't know. I'm stressed. My life is too full. I'm struggling right now. How much is related to 200mg of baclofen? Probably very little. It's been a year and a half, after all. That said, when I went up to 200mg about a month (?) ago, I had some insomnia and dream stuff start again. Very annoying, but it's gone now.

Yer welcome! Sorry it took so long!

PS. I also suggest xanax to people. This is what (I think) really, really helped my husband. That and regular incremental changes in dosing. He took .25mg of xanax before bed and in the morning every day for a month or 6 weeks. Less when he got over the hump, or wasn't particularly stressed. But mostly consistently. Then he stopped. And he has abused xanax before, so I feel relatively comfortable offering this up on this public forum. (I have known of one person who struggled with how much and how often she had to take xanax after I suggested she use that option. But there were A LOT of other factors involved there...) Just an idea, fwiw.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Strategies for dealing with side effects

Ne/Neva Eva;1252418 wrote: I'm struggling right now.

I want to share a little perspective about that comment. By struggling I mean that I am dealing with the fact that I haven't been meeting my own goals.

I hope you're end result is as joyful and amazing as mine. It ain't easy. But then again, it probably could be...

[suneelca]

Strategies for dealing with side effects

Ah, going to expand on that in 'my thread.' Thanks for posting all of that, Ne!

Hope you have a great time when you come out here -- we're having better weather (60s and clear days) that we do in summer (high 50s and lots of fog).

[moglor]

Strategies for dealing with side effects

Ne/Neva Eva;1252427 wrote:
I hope you're end result is as joyful and amazing as mine. It ain't easy. But then again, it probably could be...

Did you edit out your comment about being able to achieve goals you never thought possible? I was about to reply to it, but accidentally hit the "back" button and when I came back to the post, I couldn't find the paragraph I was going to quote. I thought I was going nuts.

My point was going to be - having hope and dealing with significant changes in lifestyle is actually a valid side effect, and something that I think a lot of people really struggle with when they first encounter sobriety of more than a few weeks. It may not be listed on the side of the baclofen box, but folks need to realize that they not only need tools for dealing with mundane things like constipation and insomnia, but also for dealing with major lifestyle and behavioral changes.

For me, I have been drinking heavily since I was a teenager, and the "side effects" of sobriety are truly the hardest I've had to cope with.

I hope this doesn't derail the thread too much, but as NE mentioned, there is already a thread dedicated to bac side effects. :-)

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Strategies for dealing with side effects

Yeah, sorry Moglor.
I feel self conscious about all of the things that I do to take care of myself, and achieve my goals. I'm not trying to preach, or to one-up anyone.

I will say that I think that one of the reasons I am...doing so well is because I studied the people that did well before me. You were one of them. Exercise. Counseling. Goals. Nutrition goes without saying.

I have noticed that a lot of people who suddenly have a lot of time (because they quit drinking) have a tendency to...start drinking again. It goes hand in hand with the decision to go way down on baclofen, but that's chicken and egg. So I take the bac and I do all the stuff that I think will help keep me sober...and content. With a passion I couldn't have brought to the table a year ago. It's a nice feeling.