New to baclofen

[Anjali]

Just saying hello and waiting for my baclofen. Drinking right now so I have the courage to post a thread. I am sure in a few hours I'll hate myself and be hopeless once again. Allthough after reading some of the baclofen threads I found at least the same fleeting feeling of hope that I do after I buy a lottery ticket and dream "What if?"

[ifulovelife2]

New to baclofen

Hi Anjali

I don't often visit MWO these days but when I do, I sometimes see a post that makes me want to reply. Sometimes it's to offer assistance, maybe moral support, occasionally to slap an idiot but in your case it was because your post made me smile. I know exactly how you feel: I felt the same way. In fact, maybe I was you a year and 9 months ago. The thing is, baclofen can work. It often works. It has its drawbacks (the side effects can be very harsh for some) but, like a few other medications, it can do the job of getting you off the booze. I hope you're one of the ones it does work for.

Good luck! ... oh, and welcome.

Mx

[newlifeahead]

New to baclofen

bac is working for me so far. It makes me totally chilled and takes my anxiety away. Just don't take too much at once. My first day I took 3 pills at once and was sleepy.

[playland]

New to baclofen

Hi, I have never posted to anyone on one of their getting started on Bac threads, (I post on the Topa Thread) and I wish you all the luck in the world but I want to also just say please be careful, Bac is not easy, the SEs can be really awful, it is not easy to stop if you need to for some reason and if you find yourself without it it is quite a scary situation, so I'm just stopping by to offer a word of "please take care in this journey".

Love,
Playland

[Greg]

New to baclofen

Hi and welcome. I'm trying to stay sober using a different method, but I want to wish you all the best with baclofen. I know there are a number of people on this forum who have found freedom from alcohol by their use of bac at high doses, and I hope you become another one of these success stories. I'll just echo what most others will tell you here, which is to slowly go up in dosage if side effects become a problem, and to spread out the doses during the day rather than bunching them up. That is what almost everyone who has had success has said around here anyway.

[Anjali]

New to baclofen

ifulovelife2;1382201 wrote: Hi Anjali

I don't often visit MWO these days but when I do, I sometimes see a post that makes me want to reply. Sometimes it's to offer assistance, maybe moral support, occasionally to slap an idiot but in your case it was because your post made me smile. I know exactly how you feel: I felt the same way. In fact, maybe I was you a year and 9 months ago. The thing is, baclofen can work. It often works. It has its drawbacks (the side effects can be very harsh for some) but, like a few other medications, it can do the job of getting you off the booze. I hope you're one of the ones it does work for.

Good luck! ... oh, and welcome.

Mx

Thank you for your occasional nod to say hello. I got the liquid baclofen a couple of days ago. An aquaintenance has been using it for a year and a half and I finally came to the point to where Ill try it.
I havent tried it yet. But tomorrow is Sunday and that is the start of the new week pretty close to a new month. So I am going to close out this Saturday staring at it and "getting back to normal"
Funny though, that I half to half into the breeze for me to have the courage to read the responses to this thread and reply.
I have been living in eternal anxiety that someone might post something that upsets me and nothing of the kind. I just lived in this imaginary world making it all up that I was being degraded for making a thread.
I guess I have a few more issues than the drink, but I have the baclofen now.

joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more-over than ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance

















x

[Anjali]

New to baclofen

playland;1382359 wrote: Hi, I have never posted to anyone on one of their getting started on Bac threads, (I post on the Topa Thread) and I wish you all the luck in the world but I want to also just say please be careful, Bac is not easy, the SEs can be really awful, it is not easy to stop if you need to for some reason and if you find yourself without it it is quite a scary situation, so I'm just stopping by to offer a word of "please take care in this journey".

Love,
Playland

Thanks Playland for your kind words and I do appreciate them and your kind heart for taking the time to offer me your heart, wisdom and your time.
I guess I am at that point to where I dont care about stopping baclofen, the only alternative Ive read was AA which didnt work and annoying waste of time and scientifically has no greater success rate than those who just spontaneously quit and went into remission without any meeting. And without any "god's gift's to sobriety- who repeatedly told me- AA works if you work it"
For your tender eyes I shall refrain what pops into my head that which I recall thinking.

I have nary a choice left and I have a few aquaintances that managed to turn on a dime with liquid baclofen and my situation is, that I dont have time for prozac to work weeks or months, I need something to turn off the craving tomorrow and I dont care if I dont wake up. Id rather sleep for a week and wake up with no alcohol craving than wake up wondering how I can afford rent and more alcohol for the day. Because if I run out of alcohol, the most dreadful feelings of doom and terror permeate my membrane of a mind

Ok, lol, so I am a bit wobbly and typing out loud my thoughts.

I do howver, now that I realized that I am responding to your post, rather than my own diary, do appeciate your warm hearted words. I honestly really do and thank you

[Ankheseanamun]

New to baclofen

Hello everyone! This is my first post so far but I have been reading many posts for a while for inspiration. I guess I will tell my story briefly and mention I recently got on Baclofen and it is changing my life.

For many years I was a social drinker, and looking back on those days I can barely remember what it felt like not having a problem. But overtime it became the center of my life. I am a singer/songwriter, I sang in bars and jazz clubs, of course drinking went along with it. I was pretty shy and I felt it was innocent enough, a "social lubricant" to calm my nerves.

But of course it didn't end there. It just took a couple years when it started effecting my relationships, health, and music. Suddenly the first priority of the day was to figure out "how to get a drink." I hid behind the lie of "I'm just a wino who appreciates the art of wine". But drinking as much as I did, eventually I couldn't buy nice wine every night. I'd settle for ANYTHING that could take the edge off.

My moment of realizing change was necessary came a year ago when in Europe attending a concert I passed out and had an ambulance come which ruined the show. I lost a few friends, and just two months later I lost one of the bands I was in due to my erratic behavior. After a while I felt hopeless. I wanted with all my heart to change, in the morning I'd be fine, I'd say mantras, I'd exercise, I even took Topomax for a while which helped but left me in a somewhat zombie state. I considered suicide on a daily basis, anti depressants barely helped.

So just a couple weeks ago, I read an article on Dr. Ameisen and felt it was worth a shot. (pardon the pun) So far so good, I am not on a high dose currently but will slowly increase it. I already feel more control over my life and the intense cravings that used to persuade me.

Honestly I would recommend Balcofen to anyone who has tried and failed time after time, as long as you have the will there, this can really be complimentary in taking back your life!

[playland]

New to baclofen

Hello Again Anjali,
I'm happy you are doing well, I have not tried Bac, I am taking Topa with good results and post on a thread called "Starting Topa and New With a Question" or something like that, please feel free to drop into our thread if you need some company, we have a very friendly group of people, no pressure to be on Topa, so feel welcome to come visit us, and also check out the thread of a guy called "StuckinLA", he has a thread named, something like New to the Forum And New to Bac, Sort Of, he has had quite a Bac Adventure, go talk to him anyway, take care and see you soon, and keep posting every day with your progress, problems, hopes and fears, we are here for you.

And hello, Ankes, we are here for you too, and welcome to MWO, stop by our Topa thread whenever you want, you are welcome there.

Love and Hugs,
Play

[Anjali]

New to baclofen

Ankheseanamun;1385226 wrote: Hello everyone!
So just a couple weeks ago, I read an article on Dr. Ameisen and felt it was worth a shot. (pardon the pun) So far so good, I am not on a high dose currently but will slowly increase it. I already feel more control over my life and the intense cravings that used to persuade me.

Honestly I would recommend Balcofen to anyone who has tried and failed time after time, as long as you have the will there, this can really be complimentary in taking back your life!
Here here.
Im all in for taking control of my life. Day 2 and I feel better. Day 1, not so great. I started off taking 20mg 4x daily. Which is higher than many who started at 5mg 3x daily. I do say, that it was either the fact that yesterday was just sobering up but it literally flattened me out.

Playland wrote: Hello Again Anjali,
I'm happy you are doing well, I have not tried Bac, I am taking Topa with good results and post on a thread called "Starting Topa and New With a Question" or something like that, please feel free to drop into our thread if you need some company, we have a very friendly group of people, no pressure to be on Topa, so feel welcome to come visit us, and also check out the thread of a guy called "StuckinLA", he has a thread named, something like New to the Forum And New to Bac, Sort Of, he has had quite a Bac Adventure, go talk to him anyway, take care and see you soon, and keep posting every day with your progress, problems, hopes and fears, we are here for you.

And hello, Ankes, we are here for you too, and welcome to MWO, stop by our Topa thread whenever you want, you are welcome there.

Love and Hugs,
Play

Thanks again, yeah Ive been lurking and reading for some time, took me some time to order and then stared at it for a few days. I'll try and post. Yesterday was my first day and first day sober in awhile. Today I dont have any withdrawals and no side effects per se. But as I mentioned, yesterday, my first day on baclofen at 20mg/4x daily I was a zombie. I couldnt get out of bed.
But that's par for the course the next day after a binge. But today I drank some coffee and at 80mg a day for my second day. I can tell I dont feel like drinking. Hoorah!

To be honest, yesterday, I was so laid out I didnt think baclofen was for me. But today I managed to clean up the dishes and the kitchen. Take the garbage to the bin and get some things done.
Which is odd because usually I cannot stand being in my own skin, especially on the second day of quitting drinking. Oh yes, I have many second days of "not drinking" lol.
But more of a peaceful feeling. Nice and no withdrawals to speak of today. Kind of bizarre actually, a bit unbelievable. I do know that I'd like to not drink ever again.
We shall see what the rest of this month brings and I am not just on a pink cloud for day 2.
I am curious as to how I feel tomorrow, I hope it's more like today than yesterday. I could barely move on my first baclofen day

[StuckinLA]

New to baclofen

Wow. Sounds great. Hang tight for a bit and see how you feel, but sounds like you're off to a nice start.

[StuckinLA]

New to baclofen

Oh and congrats on the AF day!

[Anjali]

New to baclofen

Thanks StuckinLA, I was about to go check out and read some of your thread after the suggestion by Playland.
Yeah, well 80 mg kicked my butt yesterday but that couldve also been the fact that I drank untold gobs of alcohol while I stared at my baclofen after getting it in the mail. Sorta like going out with a blowout. So I was definitely hung far low.
I probably wouldnt have gotten out of bed yesterday, the baclofen just made sure of that.
But this is quite possibly the easiest second day of sobering up Ive ever had.
I'll probably stick with 20mg/4x daily for a few days before bumping up to 30mg/4 x daily. Sooner if I get cravings. But day 2, no craving for alcohol whatsoever. A bit crazy to not crave alcohol at the moment. I am without a doubt certain that this will be my second AF day in a row.

SO for a log
Sept 1, 2012 DAY 1: First day sober, first day of baclofen 20mg 4x daily, in bed recovering
Sept 2, 2012 DAY 2: 20mg 4x daily. No side effects, any drowsiness off set by 3 large cups of coffee and managed to clean up. Easiest 2nd day of sobriety I can recall.

Another odd thing is that Ive been "puffy" from the drinking. Not sure if its the baclofen but today my water retention is gone. I doubt baclofen helped with that. Well in a way I guess b/c I didnt drink yesterday b/c of the baclofen lol.

Ok, so Im off to read some of your thread and others

[StuckinLA]

New to baclofen

I'd say 3 days before making any dose changes. And try smaller increments. Like +20mg/week total. So 80mg this week, wait until next week to go to 100mg, etc. I know you're not feeling it now, but just don't want anything catching up with you, k?

[Anjali]

New to baclofen

StuckinLA;1386650 wrote: I'd say 3 days before making any dose changes. And try smaller increments. Like +20mg/week total. So 80mg this week, wait until next week to go to 100mg, etc. I know you're not feeling it now, but just don't want anything catching up with you, k?

Naw, went up to 30mg, sure a bit tired but more exhilarated than anything else. Again with some coffee and a bit of a comatose state between 5 pm and 630 pm as it wore off.

Just have to say that it's nice to not be crawling out of my skin and I am not scared of side effects given my experience of puking for hours on end from a hangover. So far baclofen hangover doesnt even scratch the chin of those days (last month :P )

So 120 mg it is so far