Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

[Xadrian]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

So far so good. Still at 60 mg split into 2 doses.
No change in mood, no need for beer.

How is it working for you guys (Colin and Dundrinkn)?

[dundrinkn]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Hello Xadrian,
Glad your experiment is working out.

I went 50-30-60 for three days, but was having that waking up gasping for air thing. Hate that. Yesterday I went back to 50-40-50 and that went away. I am going to add the 60 in the morning tomorrow. So 60-30-50. See how that goes. Than add the 60 at night in a few days and drop the mid-day dose to 20. I am totally on board with trying to get rid of that mid-day dose and get the peak dose up a bit higher. Will keep you posted.

[Xadrian]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Yesterday, after having the flu for the whole weekend (still not completely over) and getting a phonecall that spoiled the rest of my day (before baclofen it would have spoiled my whole week), I had a mild craving (?) and drank 2 beers. After that, I could have drunk more beers, but there weren't any left in the fridge and the craving (?) was not strong enough to get more.

Anyway, I decided to up my dose yesterday evening from 30 to 40 mg and so I did this morning and evening.

I'm now consequently at 80 mg. per day, which I still take in 2 doses: one in the morning when I wake up and the other around 8 PM.
Compared to the day dose divided in 3, I experience a welcome advance during the day time. The dip I always had at around 2 PM has completely disappeared. However the baclofen is still doing it's job as good as when the day dose was divided in 3 times.

Also the headaches are gone, but it's likely that those just wore off and is not a result of the day dose split in 2 instead of 3.

So far, except for an overall better feeling and sleeping better at night, I don't experience any side effects.

[Xadrian]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Last weekend I did a little experiment on myself to see if I really hit the switch again, so I tried to drink 12 beers on Saturday. Well, I did not succeed. I only managed to drink 6.
The first 2 tasted good (it was very hot in the sun and the beers were really cold).
After that, I took a glass of ice tea, because I really was thirsty and didn't want beer.
At about 6 PM I had drank a total of 4 beers. In the evening I drank 2 more, but I really didn't enjoy them.

On Sunday, I tried it again and drank 6 during the afternoon. Except for the first, they didn't taste very well, so I drank ice tea in the evening (and also inbetween the beers in the afternoon).

So, I really was not able to drink more than 6 beers and the last ones took me a lot of effort.

Just because the stupid idea came to me to try to drink 12 beers, even if I didn't succeed, I decided to go up 10 mg to my supposed switch dose of 90 mg.

Having previously taken 80 mg in 2 doses (40 at wake-up, 40 at 8 PM), I took 50 on Monday morning and 40 at 8 PM.
This morning 50 at wake up, but I have been light in my head since I took the 50 mg.

So, while 90 mgs divided in 4 doses did not get me rid of the thoughts of beer, but hardly gave any SE's and 90 mgs divided 2 doses seems to work, but gives me the feeling like I have been awake for 2 days, my conclusion is that 90 mgs divided in 3 doses is the best option.

Because 90 mgs divided in 30-30-30 will give me a dip at around 2 PM, I will go after the possibly wise advice of Colin and will reduce my midday dose. However, I will not go like 35-20-35, but will try 30-20-40.
It is quite possible that 40-20-30 would be better, because as far as I remember when I went down to
find my maintenance dose the first time, somehow a larger dose in the morning instead of in the evening worked for me better than the other way around.
But still I will try 30-20-40 first and see if and how that will work for me.

I will let you know.

[Xadrian]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Because the psychiatrist has nothing to help me anymore with, he sent me back to the GP who refused to prescribe me the Baclofen in the beginning.

Because my baclofen supply I got from the psychiatrist in November or so is consumed by tomorrow, I had an appointment with the GP this morning for a new prescription.

She still doesn't understand the way baclofen works, because when I told her that I drank on average 8 beers on one day every month or so, she tried to convince me that doing so, would never get me rid of my alcoholism.
So I tried to explain that baclofen takes away the disease called alcoholism and one is able to drink like a normal person and that I most of the time choose not to drink, because I have a choice now.

I'm afraid she still doesn't understand, but at least she cannot deny anymore that baclofen works.
So maybe my visit was a little WD40 on her stuck-rusted opinions.
Let's hope so.
In a month or so I will bring the psychiatrist a visit to check how his other patients he prescribed baclofen are doing.

[joanna_d]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

been catching up on you thread.
thanks for all this information X. very valuable to me.

[joanna_d]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Colin;1505546 wrote: Perhaps your warning should be "Don't be in a hurry and don't drink at all". I believe there are cases where zero baclofen is successful after a long teetotal + baclofen period but only when succeeded by abstinence.

i've been on a pretty low dose now for about 6 or 7 weeks. 100 mg while my switch dose was 225mg.
wanted to go down mostly because of the somnolence and also curiosity. going down left me amazed for the second time. first the switch: motherfucker... this stuff works...!?!! then going down and finding out that even the maintenance dose promise came trough.
wow.
i read that the maintenance dose is mostly found between 2 third and half of the switch dose, and because everything went just fine, no cravings whatsoever and even distaste, not being able to stomach any kind of booze, i got to a point where i could stay on 125mg, which is above half, or go below. didn't feel like breaking pills in half for months (like that's such a hassle, but okay). partly excitement, wanting to try, and also hoping for more clarity during daytime.
that went just fine for a month. then came my birthday and i drank wine. was amazed (really) to find out i could drink it and even enjoy it. only a few glasses, no need for more. lots of water to go with it. no big hangover as well, only fatigue and some numbness the following day. the following week, some wine left from the party, someone coming over, and i'm drinking about 2 glasses on several week days. not days in a row, but still.
after one and a half week of this, i got alarmed. slippery slope? what the fuck am i doing? liking to drink?? this stuff has been wrecking my life for decades!!
still, going through those feelings i thought let's just see what happens. i can always go back up if i feel it becoming alcoholic drinking. the excitement, the scare (flip sides of the same coin maybe) seem quite normal for a practiced drunk. now some calm has returned. getting familiar with the feeling of having a choice.

by the way: i don't get nearly the same buzz as before from drinking. it's like there's no dopamine involved now or something (well, of course linking means some. but liking is different from craving. or wanting to go for it).

any thoughts on this, or experiences?

(note: no inclination to go down lower that this on bac in the near future.)

[joanna_d]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

(deleted post. thought maybe i'm not supposed to post things like this in another's thread. i'll figure it out!)

[bleep]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

You can post stuff like that, it is what this forum is about. I was trying to work out how to answer you...!

[joanna_d]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

oh. bugger!

[Xadrian]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

joanna_d;1521064 wrote: (deleted post. thought maybe i'm not supposed to post things like this in another's thread. i'll figure it out!)

Please put it back. It's not "my" thread. I'm glad I get a response once in a while. Otherwise I probably would have ceased posting a long while ago......

[Colin]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

Xadrian;1521104 wrote: Please put it back. It's not "my" thread. I'm glad I get a response once in a while. Otherwise I probably would have ceased posting a long while ago......

Keep posting. I rarely comment on other's posts but I like yours.

[joanna_d]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

found it! it was still open in another tab.

Colin;1505546 wrote: Perhaps your warning should be "Don't be in a hurry and don't drink at all". I believe there are cases where zero baclofen is successful after a long teetotal + baclofen period but only when succeeded by abstinence.

i've been on a pretty low dose now for about 6 or 7 weeks. 100 mg while my switch dose was 225mg.
wanted to go down mostly because of the somnolence and also curiosity. going down left me amazed for the second time. first the switch: motherfucker... it works...!?!! then going down and finding out that even the maintenance dose promise came trough.
wow.
i read that the maintenance dose is mostly found between 2 third and half of the switch dose, and because everything went just fine, no cravings whatsoever and even distaste, not being able to stomach any kind of booze, i got to a point where i could stay on 125mg, which is above half, or go below. didn't feel like breaking pills in half for months (like that's such a hassle, but okay). partly excitement, wanting to try, and also hoping for more clarity during daytime.
that went just fine for a month. then came my birthday and i drank wine. was amazed (really) to find out i could drink it and even enjoy it. only a few glasses, no need for more. lots of water to go with it. no big hangover as well, only fatigue and some numbness the following day. the following week, some wine left from the party, someone coming over, and i'm drinking about 2 glasses on several week days. not days in a row, but still.
after one and a half week of this, i got alarmed. slippery slope? what the fuck am i doing? liking to drink?? this stuff has been wrecking my life for decades!!
still, going through those feelings i thought let's just see what happens. i can always go back up if i feel it becoming alcoholic drinking. the excitement, the scare (flip sides of the same coin maybe) seem quite normal for a practiced drunk. now trust has returned. getting familiar with the feeling of having a choice.

by the way: i don't get nearly the same buzz as before from drinking. it's like there's no dopamine involved now (gaba. well, of course enjoying means some. but enjoying is different from craving. or wanting to go for it). and i'm still not into beer, which was what i drank mostly before switching.

any thoughts on this, or experiences?

(note: no inclination to go down lower than this on bac in the near future.)

[joanna_d]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

okay, enough of this. going back up tomorrow.
i found your quitting baclofen experiment very interesting and inspiring Xadrian. if you wouldn't have tried it, i'd try it next year i think. my being on such a low dose after 5 months already gave me the feeling i might well have a chance to make that work. it not working for you has (ironically) taught me a lot. paired with the feeling i have now, cause this is not working. i don't want to want to drink a few times a week. a lesson i'm somewhat reluctant to take in though. the will to do it on my own. must be one of the cardinal sins.
some proof maybe for Colin's remark about success in going off while abstaining completely. i was doing fine on 100mg before i tried drinking again.
and i'm still fine, though swallowing my pride at the moment.

on with the thread!

[bleep]

Xadrian's Baclofen Experience

I think the main thing to bear in mind with baclofen is that, as yet, it is not a science. It relieves cravings, and opens the door to the possibility of either abstinence or moderation. Either one becomes relatively simple once you have the required amount of baclofen in your system; which one you choose is an entirely personal affair.

I think people who have chosen to moderate would be foolish not to play around with their dose, and see what works best. I think the less baclofen you take, the better, so it makes sense to experiment. The beauty of the thing is that getting it wrong is not a train smash, you just go back to a level that worked.