Fred's Bac Thread

[Xadrian]

Fred's Bac Thread

Boredom

Hi Fred and Colin,

Fred, good to hear you reached the switch.

When I became alcohol free after reaching the reset button, I had no use for the large amount of free time too, that came instead of the free time I normally wasted by being drunk.
I began to read, what I hadn't done in years, watched seasons of Star Trek, for which I never found the time, looked uo things on the internet that interested me, but never seemed to have the time for, even got into quantum physics for reasons I still don't understand, but suddenly it interested me and I read a lot about it (still don't understand the major part, but anyway I try to).

I guess you have the same "problem" and dealing with a lot of (alcohol) free time for which you need to find a purpose and have to get used to. Maybe you have a long forgotten hobby, that you can pick up again, or a sport, maybe even some voluntary work. You name it.

[Fred_The_Cat]

Fred's Bac Thread

On another note, I'm quitting Zoloft. I've determined that my weight gain was solely from Zoloft and not drinking, as I've been drinking heavily the past 3 years but only put on weight after taking Zoloft.

Right now my dose down schedule is 25mg until next week, then 12.5 for two weeks after that, then 12.5 every other day, then hopefully I'll be able to quit.

I'd like to say the same of Abilify, but that will be a ways off.

The reason I haven't been keeping up on record keeping/exercise is that my job is pretty exhausting on top of the baclofen somnolence. I would like to step down to 50 mg as a maintenance dose.

One thing is for certain though, my binges will have to be few and far between whilst on the bac regimen. I went to a party last week and only had about 7 beers over 5 hours, but the next morning I felt like I was puking up my stomach lining. I've NEVER been that hung over and miserable.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Fred's Bac Thread

Hiya Fred.

Congrats! I think if you wander around here you'll find that boredom is a pretty common side effect of sudden lack of interest in drinking. :H It wasn't one I suffered from, 'cause I was so damn happy I couldn't find enough hours in the day. Like Xadrian up there, I just dove into a whole bunch of new things. And like Colin, I couldn't really stand doing a lot of the things I had done while drinking. (TV! ugh. It still drives me crazy! And to think of all the hours I spent watching it with a bottle of wine next to me. double ugh. I'm trying to expand my horizons and watch British stuff. )

yep, the bac hangover... I am still scared of them. Brutal. They don't really get better. And I've read worse. You're warned!

Please be very, very cautious/careful/concerned if and when you decide to go off of zoloft. I see what seems to me to be a very reasonable schedule for it, but I don't really know anything about what is reasonable. I think it's pretty fair to say that not many people do, when it comes to bac and other meds, especially SSRIs. I've read and seen enough to worry about the combination. Not trying to add anxiety! But just be aware, okay? And make sure that you have a backup plan, and probably some support for the process. The ol' brain chemistry thing is a very delicate, very misunderstood balance. In my (sometimes) humble opinion.

Glad you made it! (oh. And don't worry about the record keeping. I had the best of intentions with that too. And I did take copious notes! I just can't understand them...sober. :H)

[lostsole]

Fred's Bac Thread

Bac hangovers. Ick. The worst.

Plus after being "good" for a long time, hangovers are back to being like "oh man never again".

I would say be careful mixing the meds like SSRI's but I always had bad luck with SSRI's anyways. Others do well so stick with what works.

[Fred_The_Cat]

Fred's Bac Thread

Having a day off on a six day workweek seems to make me feel much better. I bought a heartrate monitor and I'm keeping track how many calories I've burned while exercising. It's pretty eye opening in that it takes about ten minutes of vigorous kettlebell exercises to burn off ONE Sierra Nevada.

On that note, I've switched to Miller 64 and can heartily endorse it. It fulfills the habit of having a cold beer in your hand while not getting you drunk and not loading you up with calories. I had three today (for a total of 192 calories) and did not come close to an alcohol buzz.

I've also followed some good advice on here and bought the generic abilify from India. It was only $70 for a three month supply. There have been no noticeable effects from halving my dosage of Zoloft in the past week.



Today wasn't super productive, but I consider not drinking myself into a stupor starting at 1:00 and passing out at 6:00 to be a major accomplishment from a month ago.