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just started with baclofen, a bit desperate

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    just started with baclofen, a bit desperate

    hi Dun, thanks! yes i am. aside from a week of flu in which finally i had a few days (thank god for pain killers and caffeine!) of boosting and digging my teeth into stuff that needed or wanted to be done (rhooooaaaarr!) to be in the floor with fever again the next, i'm doing quite well.

    the last week no more nightmares. and for me, even though there was nothing "in control" about those dreams, and a lot of times i woke up gasping for air or talking or screaming "leave me alone!!!" once, those nightmares seemed actually quite healthy.
    i've had quite a few nightmarish episodes in my life, before and during my alcoholism, and i felt now is apparently the time to resolve all that old pain. in the state i'm in right now, i'm able to finally process the last bits of old burden (i'd already resolved a lot of it over the years, but being a drunk has kept me locked inside a circle of misery).
    so, as exhausting as they were, i thought "bring it on!". now's the time!
    and so it appears to be, 'cause i feel more free every day. and rich inside. it's so good to see how so much misery in the end can turn to treasure.

    okay, sorry for the halelluja's. it's a good thing i still smoke like a outboard motor (on diesel), 'cause otherwise in a few months i fear i'd be going around town wearing white sheets and sandals and bells or something. oh, and growing a beard of course.

    yesterday i went to my studio for the first time in ehrr.... months.... i'd been there two months ago to meet someone (and to throw out the last garbage bags full of empty beer cans), but this time on my own, and planning to go for it anew.
    phew... awkward. while i went up the stairs (i have to classrooms in a former school building) it felt like my stomach was descending.
    the last few years i could only start drawing after i'd drank a few beers. and while drawing i kept on going. my studio is so invested with depression, fear, feelings of failure. also a lot of nice qualities, but they got overshadowed, at least so it felt yesterday.
    started livening up the place some. whiting walls, ripping beams of a wall, so i can start drawing large format on it (on paper on it i mean), etc.
    when i came home after some hours of working there, i felt so utterly lonely.
    quite a confrontation with my old life (it really feels like that: my old life, my old self).
    so from now on, i'll be going there, fixing up things till i feel it's okay enough and start drawing.

    i have been drawing a bit over here at home, if only to feel if my fingers are still in close contact to my eyes and heart. they are.
    then again, i feel i'll have to reinvent or rediscover myself as an artist. the old ways won't do it for me anymore. which is good, for years i was banging onto my boundaries, but never really got through them. and the beers helped me to live with that (until the alcohol haze went away and i saw i was still running away from myself)

    but today my mom's taking me to the sauna's (spa?). i'm gonna get an hour long thai massage there as a side treat (by a man i always go to when i'm there, 'cause he knows how to work it, not the squishy squashy type. and fuck he's gorgeous to - in a way that only a masseur would be gorgeous to me)

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      just started with baclofen, a bit desperate

      joanna_d;1468779 wrote: it's a good thing i still smoke like a outboard motor
      You mean something like this?

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faZy93omGbo[/video]]Mercury 225 HP Dyno Run - YouTube
      Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

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        just started with baclofen, a bit desperate

        Your post makes me so heart happy. I spent a good amount of time just organizing. Throwing crap out. Stuff that I sometimes think about (even just this morning) and wonder if I shouldn't have saved it because though I didn't like it and didn't want it and it cluttered up my space I could "put it in the attic and use it there." :H Then I remember, all that old clutter HAD TO GO. Still does. On some days it's hard for me not to throw stuff out! Which is a huge gift I've given myself. The someday-projects, the old flyers, the deals I though I couldn't miss. Gone. YAY!

        Same with my mind. I think you know. The thoughts about "Why??" "What now???" "I should have/could have/would have" or worse "I wish I had" or the absolute worst "I shouldn't have!" Fuck them all and good riddance. No room on the carousel for those little ditties (songs).

        joanna_d;1468779 wrote:
        so, as exhausting as they were, i thought "bring it on!". now's the time!
        and so it appears to be, 'cause i feel more free every day. and rich inside. it's so good to see how so much misery in the end can turn to treasure.
        Yep. and :l Bring it on. (I had a mantra. Actually, I have about 6000 mantras. Very simple and I'm too self conscious to write any of them. But you know this: you got this. Whatever it is. Right?)

        joanna_d;1468779 wrote: okay, sorry for the halelluja's. it's a good thing i still smoke like a outboard motor (on diesel), 'cause otherwise in a few months i fear i'd be going around town wearing white sheets and sandals and bells or something. oh, and growing a beard of course.
        Hallelujah!

        It's so nice reading your post, and well timed. I decided to play hooky from class today, and was feeling a little bit guilty about it. But it is my time (all my time is mine--so easy to forget that) and I get to choose where to spend it and, and, and...The bottom line is, no need to feel guilty. I have stuff to do which doesn't include class time and well, I got this. So thanks for the reminder. :l

        Xadrian;1468824 wrote:
        You mean something like this?

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faZy93omGbo[/video]]Mercury 225 HP Dyno Run - YouTube
        I went to hypnosis to quit smoking. And it worked. So I stopped going to hypnosis. I guess I'm not quite ready for the white robe, bells and beard yet either.

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          just started with baclofen, a bit desperate

          Ne/Neva Eva;1468832 wrote: I went to hypnosis to quit smoking. And it worked. So I stopped going to hypnosis. I guess I'm not quite ready for the white robe, bells and beard yet either.
          I read in the newspaper that smoking is not good for my health, so I stopped smoking.
          Then I read in a magazine that drinking is not good for my health, so I stopped drinking.
          After that, I read on the internet that sex is not good for my health, so I stopped reading.
          Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

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            just started with baclofen, a bit desperate

            Hey Joanna!

            Sorry I haven't said this earlier, but I'm so fucking happy for you!! You sound like a different person than when you first came here, you realize that don't you?

            It's so great that you're delving back into your art. And brave, considering that was such a drinking environment for you. I drew for years and have been scared to do it since quitting. Still am. I think it's wise to spruce up your studio, make it feel like a new place.

            I'm too lazy to quote right now, but so much of your last post was downright poetic.

            Damn, how I would like a non squashy massage from a good looking guy.
            Oh, I would like that very much.
            "Yet someday this will have an end
            All choices made or choice resigned,
            And in your face the literal eye
            Trace little of your history,
            Nor ever piece the tale entire
            Of villages that had to burn
            And playgrounds of the will destroyed
            Before you could be safe from time
            And gather in your brow and air
            The stillness of antiquity."

            From "At Majority" by Adrienne Rich

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              just started with baclofen, a bit desperate

              joanna_d;1468779 wrote: it's so good to see how so much misery in the end can turn to treasure.
              That's my favorite part.:h
              "Yet someday this will have an end
              All choices made or choice resigned,
              And in your face the literal eye
              Trace little of your history,
              Nor ever piece the tale entire
              Of villages that had to burn
              And playgrounds of the will destroyed
              Before you could be safe from time
              And gather in your brow and air
              The stillness of antiquity."

              From "At Majority" by Adrienne Rich

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                just started with baclofen, a bit desperate

                Dear Laurie,

                I have bumped Jo's thread up for you to have a read (if you want to).

                If you do read it I am sure you will find it very informative and ulimately uplifting.

                Caro

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                  just started with baclofen, a bit desperate

                  oh!! argh!! :H uplifting??? guess you'll have to read the whole story for that (ouch and it's kinda lengthy too)
                  by the way: what exactly is bumping?

                  sorry for not having updated my thread recently, or responding to the responses of Ne, X and Windy. my main reaction is: :l (with jumps and little squeals of joy)

                  have been spreading my online time (which hasn't been that much) over other threads. hoping i can give some of the caring attention i got from the (*no words to describe*) people on this forum that where there for me throughout my struggle, to others that are going through the same thing. kinda wondrous, to feel you're not alone in this. at least it was, and still is, to me.
                  and reading about the neurological workings of baclofen, alcoholism and other addictions, to be able to reach out to people (ao some addiction care workers, psychologists and psychiatrists here in Holland) in a well informed and clear way.

                  and, you know, while in the outside world i was still (as time went by, more and more barely) managing to keep my head up high, living the other sides of me that were still there even while under the load of disease and slavery, this forum became a place for me to let out my desperation. kinda like an emotional lavatory

                  :l:l:l

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                    just started with baclofen, a bit desperate

                    Hi Jo,

                    I don't know if 'bumping' is the correct word to use when one posts in a thread to ensure it goes to the top of the first page. I used it in that context.

                    My intention with 'bumping' your thread was to give Laurie a chance to read your story, it might give her a bit of hope that baclofen does work.

                    Your posts really helped too me.

                    Take care

                    Caro x

                    Comment


                      just started with baclofen, a bit desperate

                      Yeah, a "bump" is to move an old thread to the top in forums such as these. It's not like "bumping" you in any other kind of way

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                        just started with baclofen, a bit desperate

                        :H

                        (now i'm thinking "so what exactly does bumping mean." hm. several associations spring to mind.)

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                          just started with baclofen, a bit desperate

                          Hey Jo,

                          Are you still going well?
                          Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

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                            just started with baclofen, a bit desperate

                            hi there X,

                            thanks for asking. i've been having this page open in a browser tab for a week now, and every time i want to start writing something comes up and i'm off again. might well be that it's partly postponing because, well, how the hell do i explain how thoroughly my life has changed since switching half a year ago (dec 10th 2013)???

                            i'm doing great. over the past half year i'm diminished my bac intake from 225mg (switch dose) to 100mg and i've been on that dose for over a month now. i know, it's kinda small for a maintenance dose, which i read is mostly about 2/3 to 1/2 of the switch dose, but it works fine. no cravings whatsoever.
                            i'm not thinking about trying to go down more right now, cause 100mg sounds awfully little to me already and i'm first going to diminish my anti depressants (starting tomorrow) and see how that goes.
                            every time i dropped a dose (by half a pill, which means 12.5mg) i had to get adjusted to the sudden overwhelming quality of impressions. outburst of exciting neurotransmitters in my brain.
                            last week i drank a few glasses of wine because of my birthday, and for the first time i wasn't disgusted by the taste of it.
                            i still dislike beer (which i always drank before switching, preferably the heavy belgian kind) by the way.
                            even though people around me were keeping on drinking, most of the evening and in between that few glasses i drank water. not because it seemed the rational thing to do, but just because i didn't feel like drinking more.
                            i've got about 7 liters of wine left right now, cause people (most of them not knowing i'd practically stopped drinking) showed up with bottles as a present. have to try to get some of it back to the store, cause what the fuck am i gonna do with it?

                            can't imagine ever going back to the days of being drunk every day.

                            my life has opened up.

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                              just started with baclofen, a bit desperate

                              What a great post to read... Very inspiring, Joanna. As a bac newbie, I have so many fears of SE's, efficacy, etc.. Just wonderful to read success stories such as yours.
                              Thanks

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                                just started with baclofen, a bit desperate

                                Hey Joanna

                                I love your posts, fabulous that you're life has opened up for you and you sound so happy. It's great that you can look back at you're drinking days as if it were a previous life never mind not so long ago.
                                Honour Thyself

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