Hey Folks.
I read this website a great deal, and I felt I needed to add my experience with baclofen (most recent medication tried) and other meds as well. Maybe this will help someone else. I ordered bac and titrated up to 65 mg per day. This proved to be quite challenging for me as I experienced significant side effects with this medication. Somnolence, pruritis, dazed affect, "interesting" dreams, etc. Read other threads for this information. I have posted a couple of times about my surprise that bac ( being a GABA-B agonist) is disturbingly similar to GHB, a recreational and highly addictive drug I took back in the day.
Like others here I've read, there are two types of alcoholics I guess: those who drink out of some "craving" or biologic need and those, like me, who seem to drink because its a powerful, powerful habit. My habit starts to kick in around 4 PM and I can try to get around it, but it grabs me powerfully around that time. I feel like the alcohol is my reward for getting through a day. I share my life with a partner who is quite infirm and needs much care. He's in bed much of the day so I have way too much time to myself.
It's very clear that alcoholism (god, I hate saying that word!) is an emotional and spiritual disease as as much as it is a physical disease. It is a disease (for me) of loneliness as much as a physical disorder.
For those who are looking for purely anti-craving meds I can give you several suggestions of meds that work. Here goes. Baclofen at a certain dose (apparently varies with each individual) reduces the physical craving (but not the habit of desiring) alcohol. Topomax definitely decreases the desire for large amounts of alcohol. With topomax there was the standard dazed, out of it feeling combined with the fear/suspicion that I was losing some hair, so I titrated down from it. But, as always, I tritrate down because no pharmaceutical reduces my habit of drinking, even though there are clearly several that reduce the physical desire. This distinction is critical, at least to me.
Ok. Memantine (look it up) combined with kudzu extract works also to reduce physical cravings. I have (with some difficulty; bac is a demanding mistress) titrated down my bac daily dosage to 35 mg taken 3X per day (10, 10, 10). I will try (out of academic interest more than hope) start at that level to combine it with the GABA-A agonist topomax at 25 md per day (taken as 12.5 mg X 2).
If you just biologically crave alcohol, it seems to me there are a number of meds that work. However, if you, like me, drink out of a powerful habit, none of these meds are of any value. It's not, unfortunately, a med problem. We need to find a way to change our habits, our way of living. 3-7 PM is my enemy.
Peace,
Krill
I read this website a great deal, and I felt I needed to add my experience with baclofen (most recent medication tried) and other meds as well. Maybe this will help someone else. I ordered bac and titrated up to 65 mg per day. This proved to be quite challenging for me as I experienced significant side effects with this medication. Somnolence, pruritis, dazed affect, "interesting" dreams, etc. Read other threads for this information. I have posted a couple of times about my surprise that bac ( being a GABA-B agonist) is disturbingly similar to GHB, a recreational and highly addictive drug I took back in the day.
Like others here I've read, there are two types of alcoholics I guess: those who drink out of some "craving" or biologic need and those, like me, who seem to drink because its a powerful, powerful habit. My habit starts to kick in around 4 PM and I can try to get around it, but it grabs me powerfully around that time. I feel like the alcohol is my reward for getting through a day. I share my life with a partner who is quite infirm and needs much care. He's in bed much of the day so I have way too much time to myself.
It's very clear that alcoholism (god, I hate saying that word!) is an emotional and spiritual disease as as much as it is a physical disease. It is a disease (for me) of loneliness as much as a physical disorder.
For those who are looking for purely anti-craving meds I can give you several suggestions of meds that work. Here goes. Baclofen at a certain dose (apparently varies with each individual) reduces the physical craving (but not the habit of desiring) alcohol. Topomax definitely decreases the desire for large amounts of alcohol. With topomax there was the standard dazed, out of it feeling combined with the fear/suspicion that I was losing some hair, so I titrated down from it. But, as always, I tritrate down because no pharmaceutical reduces my habit of drinking, even though there are clearly several that reduce the physical desire. This distinction is critical, at least to me.
Ok. Memantine (look it up) combined with kudzu extract works also to reduce physical cravings. I have (with some difficulty; bac is a demanding mistress) titrated down my bac daily dosage to 35 mg taken 3X per day (10, 10, 10). I will try (out of academic interest more than hope) start at that level to combine it with the GABA-A agonist topomax at 25 md per day (taken as 12.5 mg X 2).
If you just biologically crave alcohol, it seems to me there are a number of meds that work. However, if you, like me, drink out of a powerful habit, none of these meds are of any value. It's not, unfortunately, a med problem. We need to find a way to change our habits, our way of living. 3-7 PM is my enemy.
Peace,
Krill
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