High dosage Baclofen while working?

[tomahawkkid]

Just curious as to how many people in here got up to the 200/300+mg dosages and continued to work (driving to work/interracting with others). If so, presumably it was a slow titration schedule which made it possible?

For me, taking long absences/leave is not an option, as I'm sure is the case for a lot of people in here. Would like to hear from anybody who has managed it.

Thanks.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

High dosage Baclofen while working?

Hey, Tom.
I worked, drove etc. It wasn't easy or fun. I wouldn't change it for the world.
My husband worked 60-80 hours a week in a very, very demanding, intense job and he didn't really have any SEs because we managed them all before they happened.

There aren't that many who can, will or do, though...

It's different for us all. And if you want to do HDB up to indifference, then you'll have to manage the SEs if they come along. Reading as much as you can, planning ahead, figuring out what the goal is and sticking to it.

[COSGringo]

High dosage Baclofen while working?

Good luck. I don't think I could do it but I work from home so when I get a few hours of sleep I can nod off for a couple hours if I get my affairs in order. I have days I won't even drive because I feel worse than I would if I was buzzed. Some folks don't get SE's as bad as others. I am used to it at this point but it is miserable for me. Ear ringing, horrible sleep, dizzy at times. I figure I have stuck with it for months now I might as well keep going until I hit 300 and see. Else go lower and really work at it for a change.

[moglor]

High dosage Baclofen while working?

I continued to work. I'm ramping back up now, actually, at 200 currently, and sometimes I find myself nodding off at work. All I can say is that baclofen SEs are a billion times easier to cope with than alcohol hangovers, and I've done plenty of work on those. I get more work done on bac and have better interactions with people simply because I'm not drunk/hungover, so I call it a win.

[COSGringo]

High dosage Baclofen while working?

That's great! Just be careful. I decided last night I am going back lower. I am so ill it's ridiculous.

[ifulovelife2]

High dosage Baclofen while working?

Sorry to hear that Gringo, but I know how crappy the SEs can be for some people, so I understand. In your previous post you said you'd stick with it until you hit 300. What dose are you on at the moment?

Personally (and really just personally), if I had been titrating up slowly, been experiencing bad SEs, but had been able to handle the somnolence because I worked from home, I would just go for it. I'd bump my dose up by 50mg or 1/3 (whichever was smaller) for 4 days, ride the SEs and do the same again. It won't kill you and it'll give you a fighting chance of kicking the beast to the curb in double short order. Just a thought.

Anyhoo, good luck with whatever decision you make.

[spacebebe01]

High dosage Baclofen while working?

How did you manage se's Ne, I dont understand what that means. do you mean you managed to put up with them, or changed your life around them or took your pills at a different time. How can someone whos life is turned up on its head, not sleeping, not being able to work properly or take part in family life and feeling very ill manage that.

[COSGringo]

High dosage Baclofen while working?

So I hit 260mg. That's when the ER level stuff kicked in again. Parkinson like tremors and I couldn't speak. I realize I am not doing this again. All I did was go up another 10mg. I am down to 240 and life is still hell but it will get better. I know Bac will help and I will probably stay on at but a much lower dose.
When SE's are as bad if not worse than what your drinking put you through it's not worth it to me. I work from home and I can still barely deal with mess. I stumble around and I am not even drinking. Sounds like I have constant bells ringing in my ears. I don't sleep and the only way I don't sleep during the day is if I take some tea or really concentrate. I've had my head hit my desk before. I mean this is just madness. I will find some common ground and once I am healthy I can concentrate on the good things in life I like to do. How my wife puts up with this I don't know. I am lucky man.

[spacebebe01]

High dosage Baclofen while working?

Do you think that taking the dose of bac you got to has worked for your drinking Gringo, I see you said your not drinking so Im wondering if you have already hit the level you needed and carried on up without realising and maybe as you go down you will be able to find a lower level where your drinking is sorted as well.

Right now tho you sound as tho you just want to get down from this level which is causing you so much grief. can you remember when you felt ok, that might give you something to aim at, it must be hard for you knowing that you still have to wait to decrease and it will take time.

[COSGringo]

High dosage Baclofen while working?

No I am still drinking. I think part of the reason are the SE's. Now I am drinking about a 1/3 of what I was so that's amazing. I am down to 230 from 260 which was probably a touch too fast but I am going to stick with that for a few days then go to 220.

I think the last time I really got bad was 180 so maybe around there. I am just going to take it slow and see how I am feeling. Once I can handle life again I will stop at that dose and maybe eventually go back up but maybe not. Take it day by day.

That's what I've been doing but I came to the realization that Bac is controlling my life more than AL was which is pretty bad. I need to have a life.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

High dosage Baclofen while working?

spacebebe01;1313034 wrote: How did you manage se's Ne, I dont understand what that means. do you mean you managed to put up with them, or changed your life around them or took your pills at a different time. How can someone whos life is turned up on its head, not sleeping, not being able to work properly or take part in family life and feeling very ill manage that.

All of the above, space. I put up with them. I changed my life. And I took the pills at different times.

I started actively using the CBT and meditation stuff I'd learned in self-help books, from therapy or from my friends on here. I trusted their advice and experience almost completely. There was a really great support system without all the drama that has taken place in the last year, that continues even now.

I believed that it would work, and was determined to get there. I slept when I needed to and started taking really good care of myself (other than continuing to drink) and I spread out my pills so that I was taking them much more frequently.

I also realized that turning my life on it's head was just what I needed to do...Fear was the thing that kept me from everything and anything I wanted to do. I stopped being afraid, or started just seeing my irrational fears for what they were.

Every day I just got up and did the next thing. Took the pills, went to work, took the pills, tried to eat, took the pills, tried to sleep. It sucked. But it only sucked until it was over. The minute it was over, I knew it, and that was my "switch". I was able to go down and life stopped sucking and became really pretty great.

Indifference came with time, and doesn't suck at all.

My husband didn't have any of those SEs. He had a massive panic attack when he took the medication erratically, and it took two days to recover. But then he stayed on a regular titration, took xanax to manage the anxiety of HDB, and hit the switch and then indifference. He had me for support, obviously. And met several of my friends from here. That helps.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

High dosage Baclofen while working?

You know what, space? There are lots of examples of people who did not have the SEs that I did. And the things I did are rather moot. Some of them helped, some didn't. Whatever.

I guarantee you this, though. If you look at the people who claim the worst SEs (myself included!) they are the ones who played around a lot. And/or took too much and stayed there. I find it very frustrating that I'm the only one on here relatively regularly that has made it to the switch and indifference when there are many. They just got tired of the bull shit.
I certainly don't have all the answers, either. I try to pass on what other people have said/shared. But I get it wrong all the time.
It doesn't have to be that hard. And even though it was for me, it was worth it. What's four months in exchange for a lifetime of freedom...

And just to be clear. It's not that I can drink. It's that I don't care about drinking anymore. At all. If someone told me a little over a year ago that I couldn't have another drink ever, it would have caused me a good deal of anxiety. If someone told me that today, I wouldn't care. It just doesn't matter. Eric (my husband) and I marveled about it last night because yesterday I thought maybe I was thinking about getting a drink. The thought of having a glass of wine in the middle of the day is...ugh. We laughed. And were sad about how that was what we looked forward to every time we had free time.

Cheers, people. I hope it's a good day.

[COSGringo]

High dosage Baclofen while working?

Interesting Ne. Your hubby got anxiety from bac? I have some moments like that. My problem is that the xanax Dr L gave me is such a low dose it does nothing. But even when I have gone up on the dose benzos don't seem to do anything for me at all.

I am wondering if it has to do with the whole GABA receptor thingy. I have a scrip for clonazepam and that used to knock me out it does nothing to me now. I thought about getting a larger dose but I am thinking it just does not work anymore and I was spreading out not taking them at all for a while so I don't believe it was tolerance.

[COSGringo]

High dosage Baclofen while working?

And Ne, your husband had a massive heart attack from bac? My lord. I had a drinking problem but I am not sure it's worth that. I realize he was screwing up on the dosing but that is interesting since I was having chest pains the other night.

[spacebebe01]

High dosage Baclofen while working?

Thanks for that Ne, that is a good explanation. You are probably the only long time bac person who still posts regularly I think and Im so glad you do, its fantastic that people have got the help they need and have gone on with their lives but its even better when you are still here.
I asked because I reckoned if I didnt understand what you meant then other peeps might not either, and some might not like to ask, also there are peeps who just come on here to read and dont post and get help that way. It would be cool if they would just put there head round the door tho and say hello :hello: but it doesnt really matter either way.