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

[cookinghappy]

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

I'm not prepared to feel this awful any more

Baclofen Has just taken away my quality of life. I think i am going to start titrating down. I've been on this dose for a week now (i think). From the moment i wake up, I feel happy or anxious accoding to whether i have a day that i will be able to sleep. I stagger around functioning at 50%, forgetting to do things and feeling dizzy, looking for a moment when i'll be able to take a nap. I feel worried driving and fear i'll fall down the stairs. Ironically, drinking last night made me feel 'human' again. No logical explanation there. Does anyone have any idea how to decrease from 80mg/day safely?
I can't imagine staying on this dose only to go through this again and again as i titrate up and up.

Such a shame, had so many hopes, and thank you for your encouragement, but this is not a life.

[Xadrian]

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

cookinghappy;1416319 wrote: Does anyone have any idea how to decrease from 80mg/day safely?

I read somewhere that you can decrease the baclofen the same way it is titrated up: every 3rd day you decrease with 15 mg or 5 mg each day if you like.

Decreasing slower is better, decreasing faster is dangerous.

If you want, you can stay at any lower dose that gives you less side effects, as soon as you reach that dose and later titrate up, but slower, so you can stay at each dose until the side effects wear off.

[YouKayBee]

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

cookinghappy;1416319 wrote: Baclofen Has just taken away my quality of life. I think i am going to start titrating down. I've been on this dose for a week now (i think). From the moment i wake up, I feel happy or anxious accoding to whether i have a day that i will be able to sleep. I stagger around functioning at 50%, forgetting to do things and feeling dizzy, looking for a moment when i'll be able to take a nap. I feel worried driving and fear i'll fall down the stairs. Ironically, drinking last night made me feel 'human' again. No logical explanation there. Does anyone have any idea how to decrease from 80mg/day safely?
I can't imagine staying on this dose only to go through this again and again as i titrate up and up.

Such a shame, had so many hopes, and thank you for your encouragement, but this is not a life.

How long have you been at this dosage?

I titrated off from I think 180mgs to 20mgs at night in approximately 7 days. I'd been using baclofen for best part of 4 months, 4 weeks at around the 180 mark. I had however had days of 100mg simply because I couldn't stomach,or face a higher dose on those days so first day I went right down to 100mg, dropped to 80 then 60 in next few days then I think on the 3rd or 4th day I had a moment where I just felt odd. I popped a 10mg and was just fine. Was down to 20mgs by day 7 although it took 2-3 days longer for the side effects from the baclofen to go completely and some of the mental effects took a few more weeks to wear off completely(wierd thoughts would return every now and then).

Like you I lost quality of life completely with baclofen, it just wasn't suitable for me. I tried all the recommended things, not drinking, drinking, spreading doses out and it didn't make a difference. I'm now completely free of the drive to drink alcohol, most of the time I don't drink because I really don't want to thanks to another medication. Whatever you decide to do make it your decision. Remember you haven't failed, you've tried something new and you'll get there in the end.

[Xadrian]

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

Ukblonde;1416467 wrote: I titrated off from I think 180mgs to 20mgs at night in approximately 7 days.

Someone else did more or less the same and she's not among us anymore.
Titrating down should happen slowly with a drop of maximum 5 mg per day. More can be very dangerous.
By the way, at that speed Cookinghappy should be baclofen free in 2 1/2 weeks.

[michelle602]

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

Tired feeling goes away

I was really tired for the first two weeks of taking Baclofen. Now at 60mg a day I am completely fine. It is normal to feel tired when starting a new medication until your body adjusts to it. Keep it up, I have been on Baclofen for 6 weeks now and can drastically feel a difference.

[cookinghappy]

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

Has being at 60 affected your desire to drink? I thought i should stop as it just felt so awful all the time, but now i am questioning whether to keep going, as i've realised that i am going to have no hope if i stop. But is it normal to feel this awful for 7 days?

[joanna_d]

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

i must say i felt awful at several times during the process. last week too. before i work for a few hours, i sleep or just lie on the couch (my habitat at the moment : ) with my eyes closed. after i've done everything i absolutely (more than that is just not possible right now) need to do, i crash on the couch again and watch stupid tv shows all evening.
i try to give myself as much slack as i need to go through this, cause i feel this is probably one of the most important processes i've ever gone through. i can now give myself more peace and respect for going through this. life will go on again after this, and hopefully it will finally be a sober life (i'm actually feeling it getting closer now). it's going to be a new life. i think you sometimes have to feel you're losing everything, to in the end gain your life back.
until then, i think i just have to be caring and patient with myself.
like with you, the quality of my life is zero externally , though internally there's so much going on. i feel like i'm in a vac?um and outside my couch, everything is continuing. there's no escape, only a possibity to make it as comfortable as possible.

i'm a person that has a hard time taking it slow, which makes it way harder i guess. there are people who do this very slowly and carefully, just staying at a dose for a month, and increasing when they really feel up to it. why speed up a process that's possibly life saving? take all the time you need girl.

for me, if i'd quit now, i know i'd be without hope, and i'd always be thinking "what if....?" and i could do nothing but try again. 'cause my life on alcohol was basically so miserable, knowing there's quality j?st around the corner (every day now!! not.). being on baclofen has rubbed my nose into that, 'cause i feel i'm kind of confined to my disease right now.

well i hope you can find something of use in this. when i read the story's of others who have reached the switch, and feel my relationship with AL is changing, i know there's only one way for me to go: forward with this, whatever it takes. if it means tapering off for a while, to make it doable, being a couch potato, making a fool out of myself at some forum, whatever.

i hope you can find some way to do this (going on, tapering down, quitting baclofen, or quitting and keeping the option open to try again later, perhaps with a specialist, like this doctor Levine, whatever) in a way that you feel you're doing yourself just.
and i hope i can tell you in a few weeks that it really works. even for me... i believe i will (hope it will be in a few weeks )
you're trying girl, and you are great for trying, even though maybe no one understands what you're going through.

i can so understand how difficult this must be for you.

[joanna_d]

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

ow jesus, i've got this silly signature underneath my post now! please ignore!

[PhoenixRising]

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

I had to get up to 280 before my cravings went away, and I am a 150 pound female. :^(

[cookinghappy]

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

Still on baclofen, but don't know what I'm doing...

I don't know exactly what more I expect you to say. You've all been so caring, empathetic and non-judgmental. I feel like a child, unable to decide what's best for myself. How do you know whether a medicine is ever going to work, especially when it makes you feel so bad? When do you persevere, when do you give up? I've been on Baclofen for about 8 weeks or more, and am still only at 70mg. My doctor is inexperienced at this so isn't really able to help me.

As I said before last weekend, I felt that I couldn't go on. Then I had a chaotic weekend pill-wise. I cut down but didn't keep a very good track of what I was taking or when. I didn't know what dosage (i.e. maintaining or cutting back) to take. Furthermore, was so dizzy I found it very hard to sort my thoughts out. I did cut back, by about 10mg/day to about 70mg. Felt more human. Am now trying to go back to 80 mg to see if I can cope. But am still drinking a bottle a day, and have no motivation to stop drinking. Motivation is the big problem for me. I didn't drink at all one night last week (due to horrendous dizziness), and didn't feel any pleasure or pride in myself. I have feel that I want to stop drinking rather than just know that I should. I need to care about myself.

Am so pleased that you reply to me. Thank you all.

[TexasAg]

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

Hi Cooking, I'm not sure what to say except that Bac helped me. I went up to 160mg and the SE's got to be too much. I went down and realized I think I probably hit my switch at 120mg. I didn't drink daily, I was more of a binge drinker. I tried not to drink while I was titrating up and I think that helped me.

Don't worry about posting, say what you're feeling. Doing this Baclofen treatment without direction is dificult and stressful. So vent, unload, post.

[StuckinLA]

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

You just have to decide what you want to do and then do it. I know that's the very hardest thing ever to do, but that's it. The lower doses are a lot rougher for some people than a little bit higher, so being around 70-80mg might really suck. I was sober for a couple months when I was where you're at, so I didn't really even notice anything except for somnolence in the afternoons. But bac and drinking will mess you up for sure. Also being irregular (even a little bit) with the dose will do odd things.

If you continue to take bac, enough of it and long enough, you will stop drinking. Motivation's got nothing to do with it, except the motivation to keep taking bac. Try taking smaller amounts in more frequent doses. There's nothing wrong with taking a couple of pills every two hours, other than it's a pain in the ass. Set an alarm on your phone, whatever. Getting up to the switch is not easy, and it's one of those things you just have to commit to and do what whatever it takes. So remember two things: this could be the most important thing you do for yourself--ever--and bac isn't going to be like this forever. Hit the switch, then back off until you find a comfortable booze-free place, and figure out when you take your pills then. You won't be chained to a bottle of pills and an alarm the rest of your life, because you won't be taking so much bac. More importantly, you won't be chained to a bottle for the rest of your life.

Hanging around at a dose that makes you miserable isn't the fun though, huh? The thing that's hard to believe is that more bac does not equal more severe SEs. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it just means different SEs, but nothing's definite. So I say go up. And post. And then go up again. And we all wish you nothing but the best.

:l

[joanna_d]

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

for me, i know all the other treatments are without result. psychotherapy etc has taught me a lot, but it didn't get me off drinking. i've tried campral, naltrexone, antabus, none with (lasting) result. so i don't have to consider these options no more.
i know from the stories i read over here, and by the book of dr. A, that this is the only hope for me, and somehow, i know it in my guts. at least it's worth a complete try, even if it means i have to feel like a zombie (which was one period during my baclofen intake), or a hypersenstitive tingling body, or a couch potato. i know it's gonna change after the switch, if only because after that, i won't be drinking so at least the combination that gives me so much trouble right now will be gone. and after the switch you can go down again, like Stuck said.
i find i'm discovering so much about myself, my beliefs, my patterns. and it sure helps me to take the time for this, just taking care of myself as good as i can, and giving myself as much room as i can for this.
i am sure, for me, that a few months of crisis (that, i find now, is teaching me so much, and it should! there's a whole world of beliefs and expectations that has to be reworked!) is more than worth the try for getting a booze free life. i'm gaining more respect for this process every day.
and, again like Stuck said, se's change weirdly. sometimes, increasing the dose suddenly felt a lot better se-wise. strange. and that's a bugger, that you just have to find out for yourself.

and about the sorry and all: i don't know if you ever read my thread, but i feel like a whining asshole a lot. but fortunately, there are lots of caring and just bloody AWESOME people over here that can stand it, and are always so heartwarming and caring and without judgement (well, maybe just not showing, but that's fine by me right now ) and who have been exactly where you and i are right now.
and: it helps. please keep posting Cooking!!!

i'm at 200 mg now, since yesterday, and i can tell you i feel changes in my thinking and feeling. also in my drinking, but i guess i'm one of the people who'll drink up to the switch (although i find over the last week there's only one specific type of heavy belgian beers i can drink right now. i don't drink liquor often, cause it makes me so crazy it gets me in real dangerous situations. other types of beer taste like horse piss right now, and wine makes me throw up. but you know, the specialist alcoholic always knows another thing that might do the trick, when others are getting repulsive...)

i'm blabbering on again, sorry. i guess i just want to beam a little sprinkle of hope to you, so you can find the strength to hold on to what for me seems the solution.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

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

I have to remind myself (or rather you all actually have to remind me) how bloody hard this whole thing is (was). Because from this side it seems sooooo eeeeeasy. Which is funny. Laugh-out-loud laughable.

It's ridiculous and absurd to expect this to be easy. Even in retrospect! But it is/was. The easiest really unbelievably hard thing I've ever had to do.

But I'll lay off of the esoteric mumbo-jumbo, and even the words of inspiration and just say this:

If you have to do it, you can.
It doesn't need to be that hard. There is plenty (oodles) of anecdotal evidence, completely unsubstantiated by science (but most of this is) that shows that if you take the pills for long enough, they will work. Period.

There is absolutely nothing, no where, and no one, that says you have to stick at a dose that sucks for you, or that you have to keep going up. That's how I did it, and I'm glad I did. But if I had to do it again? I'm not so sure I would.

If you can't keep track you will lose your place. Keeping track is number two after taking the pills. Maybe it's number one, because if you can't take the same amount every single day because you are not keeping track than you will...lose your place.

If you keep drinking you will suffer more. I did. But it sucked. I don't recommend it. If I had to do it again I'm pretty sure I would stop drinking earlier, no matter what I had to do to do it. Drinking sucks. I think part of the problem is that I didn't actually KNOW that drinking sucked/sucks. I was too scared to believe it. And I had never ever been able to not drink before. (Well, twice. But that's a different tale.)

If moderation is the goal than you're out of luck. Why? Because it doesn't exist. If you moderate your drinking you are still waiting to drink. If you are waiting to drink you are likely seeing it as some sort of...reward. Happiness. Fun. Whatever, dude. It's not. It's just a beverage. If your lifestyle precludes not drinking, or if your idea of fun is hanging out in a bar and knocking back a beer or knocking boots after many beers, than there is not a drug/medication/book in the universe that is going to keep you from drinking too much/when you don't want/too often/whatever. Dude. You know?

My goal was abstinence. Absolute abstinence. I was never going to touch the stuff again. Which is silly. It's just a beverage. Baclofen does that. It's the only thing that does. I had two glasses of wine last night at a birthday party. With Italian food. It was lovely. I had a headache this morning and woke up at (my normal) 4am without a smile. That is annoying.
On the other hand, my husband, who is also indifferent, was being celebrated after a big victory a couple of weeks ago. He drank shots of something and drove home so completely drunk that he got lost, had to use the GPS to locate where he was, so I could find him and literally save his (or someone else's) life. Baclofen does not save us from stupidity and the disease may always be there. I don't know. EDIT: I don't know if he drank "against his will" that night, or if he just plain ol' lost control at some point. You know? I am pretty sure that he is still trying to figure it out. For absolute sure it scared us both. A lot. Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. And sad and scary.

There is no room for discussion. Right? So go down 10mg. Wait it out. Then go up. And wait. Then go up some more. And wait. It works. It just does. Unless what you want to do is keep drinking. (But I did. Even though I would [and did] everything I could think of to stop drinking.)

And you, Jo? Rock on, sister. It's right around the corner. When the Belgian beer turns to vinegar, don't rush on your way down. (Don't wait too long either!!)

[Ne/Neva Eva]

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

It's not whining, by the way. None of this is. It's just reaching out and getting support. It's HARD people. We all know it's hard. Criminy. I remember when someone hit the switch and an old timer said to her, "I know what it takes to get there. So glad you made it."
That was my first clue that what seemed easy, that what I thought was easier for other people who had inspired me, was really effin' hard. For everyone.

So take it easy on yourselves!
:l