Baclofen -feel as if my hopes are dissappearing. Should i carry on?

[joanna_d]

Baclofen -feel as if my hopes are dissappearing. Should i carry on?

ah, thanks for noting that Xadrian. it's just the way (5 doses A day) my doctor prescribed it. but i am the first of her patients to go up over 50mg a day (i'm fortunate to have a doctor that tells me "well, we're both intelligent people, so why not go along with your plan and inquiries about doing this?". it's like inventing the wheel all over again over here.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Baclofen -feel as if my hopes are dissappearing. Should i carry on?

It might actually be beneficial to split it up some Jo. I certainly felt better when I didn't have to take 'em by the handful. :H

Your doc sounds great.

[cookinghappy]

Baclofen -feel as if my hopes are dissappearing. Should i carry on?

The "switch"

Had a therapy session yesterday. i expressed my frustration and lack of motivation to stop drinking because on the extremely rare occasion that i have had an evening of drinking less than usual i have not felt at all pleased with myself, or had a feeling of being 'clever' for resisting. Therapist suggested that perhaps i am waiting for the 'switch' to happen to me, and sugested that it might be a combination of themedication and an active decison to drink less that might make things move forward. She also felt i might feel more pleased with myself if i took an active, rather than passive role in my own progress. Last night i made the decision to cut my wine consumption by 1/3 to 2/3 of a bottle. It was
easy. Made me think that the baclofen has been kicking in without me realising. I've let my habits rule my drinking rather than hear what my body/brain 'needs'. However, tonight i drank my usual one bottle. Don't know why i did it, or whether i've reached the 'switch' Am on 15 mg 3 x day..... Does the 'switch' mean you decide to resist it and the drug helps you resist? To what degree does it happen to you? And to what degree do you make it happen by actively decreasing the drink? Why did i do well last night, yet not tonight? And why aren't i pleased with myself?

[joanna_d]

Baclofen -feel as if my hopes are dissappearing. Should i carry on?

don't know (haven't been there yet)
but it sounds good!

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Baclofen -feel as if my hopes are dissappearing. Should i carry on?

cookinghappy;1408727 wrote: Does the 'switch' mean you decide to resist it and the drug helps you resist? To what degree does it happen to you? And to what degree do you make it happen by actively decreasing the drink? Why did i do well last night, yet not tonight? And why aren't i pleased with myself?

The switch, for me, meant that I didn't want to drink. Not just that I didn't care about it (that came later.) I certainly didn't have to resist it. The thought was pretty gross, and I could barely choke down 1/4 of what I'd been drinking. But yes, I had to make the decision to try abstinence, and mostly because I didn't want to stop on a cold, rainy night to pick up something to drink and there wasn't any at home.

My husband, and several others that I know, just forgot to drink, or opened a bottle to find that they just couldn't drink it.

The degree is total. Which is not to say you can't apply some will power in the meantime. (I couldn't and didn't. But I know of others who did.)
I don't know how or if you can make it happen. It makes sense that you could and should be able to. But I haven't really heard of that happening.

I would imagine that the reason you did "well" one night and not the next, and the reason that you are not pleased with yourself are one and the same. If a person is still a slave to the bottle, it doesn't really matter whether s/he drinks more or less. Right? It still feels lousy. But I also know lots of people in recovery who are still addicted to alcohol, but are abstinent, and feel pretty good about themselves and abstinence. So those questions are best answered by you.
Hang in there! Marathon not a sprint...

[cookinghappy]

Baclofen -feel as if my hopes are dissappearing. Should i carry on?

Thank you. Your contributions mean a lot to me!

[joanna_d]

Baclofen -feel as if my hopes are dissappearing. Should i carry on?

yes thanks Ne. i am there now: one night i manage to keep some control over my drinking (which means i drink about 10 or 12 glasses still) and other nights i lose it completely. i think the being swung from hope to despair and back again, is very exhausting.
for me it's really comforting to hear you say you suddenly just didn't want to drink anymore, while you, as i, couldn't manage to handle your drinking before that. i'm thinking how the hell could i go from this drinking level to suddenly loosing interest in it... but it sounds like that's what happened to you and Ed (after you felt disgusted by it).
i feel don't really enjoy drinking anymore, but the craving's still there.

[soberwannabe]

Baclofen -feel as if my hopes are dissappearing. Should i carry on?

Hi Everyone.
I've been reading, reading, reading.. as has been strongly encourage before starting out.
I ordered my baclofen and it will be here tomorrow. - Now I am nervous.
My biggest concern is the somnolence. I am not able to take off work, but I do work from home, so I have some flexibility. I bought several bottles of 5 hour energy in hopes to ward off the sleepiness. My question is, does it subside (somnolence). I don't want to substitute one fog for another.. if you know what I mean.
Thanks for any suggestions.

[Colin]

Baclofen -feel as if my hopes are dissappearing. Should i carry on?

soberwannabe,

I too am looking for some help with reducing with the somnolence. Best I could find here looks like modafinil. I'll be trying it soon.

[cookinghappy]

Baclofen -feel as if my hopes are dissappearing. Should i carry on?

How much longer?

Have now been on baclofen for about 6 weeks or so. Have titrated up at a snail's pace due to bad side effects. Am now on 15 am, 15 afternoon and 20 at night. So far no effect. In fact last night i drank more than a bottle of wine. Felt like shit this am, and began to wonder if it's not worse for me to be drinking too much with this medecine than without it. The only way i can increase the dose is slowly, butnot knowing at what dosage i'll hit my switch is really hard. At this rate i could take another 6 months. I think i'l startto lose hopeby then.

Did you have worse hangovers when drinking on baclofen? As opposed to before?

Can i titrate faster? Would i feel it less if i split doses into smaller but more often?

Thanks.

[Xadrian]

Baclofen -feel as if my hopes are dissappearing. Should i carry on?

According to the instructions of baclofen, the maximum titration up is 15 mg every third day, so on average 5 mg per day If you experience bad side effects, you can do it slower.

If so, it appears to me that you up by 15 mg and after that wait until the side effects wear off a little.
After that, you up again with 15 and again wait till the se's wear off a bit.

But everyone does it different and you can experiment a little to see what is least uncomfortable for you.

[cookinghappy]

Baclofen -feel as if my hopes are dissappearing. Should i carry on?

I have now titrated up to 80mg in 4 doses a day. I have stuck with it for 4 or 5 days but am just feeling so dizzy on it. How long do i stick it out before i decide it's too much too fast,

[joanna_d]

Baclofen -feel as if my hopes are dissappearing. Should i carry on?

hi Cooking,

i absolutely feel that drinking while on baclofen will cause really bad hangovers. not your usual hangovers though, so you might not recognize them as such directly. i feel like i'm brain dead or something after a heavy drinking night. very very dizzy, tingling body, completely out of touch with myself. i feel walking is a good thing at a day like that. feeling your feet touch the ground, connecting with your moving body although it feels so strange and tingling, looking around you. trying to get at ease with the strangeness you feel. i think meditation is a good way to deal with se's also, though i rarely find the courage to do that myself right now.
i read somewhere (i think in the sweet success thread) that someone mistaked the baclofen-alcohol hangovers for being se's. that's exactly how i feel. all se's just go sky high after a binge.

i'd stick out on a dose until i really feel i'm up for another tiration. it's something you know in your gut i guess.
and as Ne always says: it's not only a matter of the baclofen dose, it's a matter of time as well. and this is a marathon, not a race. we've suffered from boozing this long, no need to pester ourselves in the last weeks, months, whatever before we're cured (and i for one know how difficult it is to keep pace and be patient with the process. it's difficult to be patient and caring when you're so close to an escape. but this is THE time to be caring, and patient with ourselves. it's just so much easier to say this to someone else than to myself )

i am at 172.5mg right now. se's are quite unpredictable, but i do feel something is changing inside me now...
and i know, it's so confusing that the process is different for everyone. it's so difficult to trust on your own process, as it unfolds.

keep up the good work girl. i still believe this is the way out....

[GolfMonster]

Baclofen -feel as if my hopes are dissappearing. Should i carry on?

Hi Cooking

Please, for your own good, abandon trying to persist with increasing the dose. I got to >150mg/daily and the side effects just got worse and worse (dizzy, sedation etc) with no noticeable effects on my drinking. The "success" stories here need to be balanced against the inescapable truth from the medical literature: only 2 case reports (Amiesen is one) suggesting it works and one placebo controlled study in patients with cirrhosis showing only a modest effect. That's it. In fact all the drug based treatments (such as TSM) for "moderating" have had pretty modest results when put to the test of science (I've also personally tried most of them).

Try an abstinence based programme such as Self Help Substance Abuse &amp Addiction Recovery | SMART Recovery? if you haven't already


All the best!

[GolfMonster]

Baclofen -feel as if my hopes are dissappearing. Should i carry on?

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