new here

[kronkcarr]

Hey,
I happened upon you all when I was googling baclofen. Thanks for being here. I'm in my 6th week of baclofen for over drinking. My dr has stopped me at 60 mg/day. I have sent an email to him asking if he'll allow me to increase to follow Dr A's protocol.
I have had a drink here and not so much there and I can truly say I have no craving or desire to drink. Yay! My first month on baclofen was so lovely. I sat in the sun and watched hawks and was enthralled with the world. Insights just flowed into my mind. Have others had this experience?
In month 2 this all went away and my compulsive thoughts have returned. Could this be because I have quit increasing my dose?
I'm happy to be here and appreciate any insight.
kronkcarr

[kuya]

new here

Hi Kronk and :welcome: to MWO.

I do not use meds but I am sure someone who does will check in soon.

Just wanted to welcome you to the site as I remember sitting for ages waiting for a Hi and feeling kinda odd.

I wish you the best on your journey out of this misery. Baclofen seems to work well from what I read.

[kronkcarr]

new here

kuya,
Thanks for the quick welcome. As you can see I am compulsive about email! Thanks for your support. I'm glad I've found you!
kronkcarr

[kuya]

new here

kronkcarr;1458354 wrote: kuya,
Thanks for the quick welcome. As you can see I am compulsive about email! Thanks for your support. I'm glad I've found you!
kronkcarr

Compulsive communicators do well here......keeping accountable works IMO

[Ne/Neva Eva]

new here

Hi Kronk, and welcome!

I don't know that I felt all that great back when I started taking bac, but I certainly did when I finally stopped drinking!
It's hard to guess why it changed for you. The whole process is sort of discombobulating, isn't it?

Glad you've joined us!

[RedThread12]

new here

Hi Kronk, and welcome!! Thanks for joining in and posting.

It seems, regarding baclofen, the more you read - and it's REALLY IMPORTANT to read as much as you possibly can! - the more different, sometimes even wildly diverse, each baclofentist's experience is. I'm over 3 years without drinking against my will because of baclofen. I've read a good percentage of what has been posted about bac on this board, plus a LOT more. The ONLY things that seems consistent among all bac users have to do with titrating down and/or quitting; titrating up and finding a long-term, workable relationship with bac is (IMO, weirdly) widely, and sometimes wildly, variable from person to person.

If you are "craving" again, it is a hint that titrating up could be in order. If you doc isn't willing, you've got a new dilemma on your hands A lot of us have been there, and there are ways to manage that issue. Here's my question, though: are you craving alcohol, or are you craving "ease?" 'Cause we all know, in the long run, the 2 are mutually incompatible.

There's a ton of information here about how bac has worked for different people. And the "hows," are well worth knowing. Please keep posting and asking questions. There's so much we don't know; but being free from drinking against one's will with bac is something quite a few folks here DO know about. Glad you're here.

[COSGringo]

new here

Good to hear from you kronkcarr.

Yup, try going up in dose. It will suck especially at times. Just keep your goals in sight.

[kronkcarr]

new here

Thanks everyone for your welcome! My dr has allowed me to go up to 80 mgs in the next week and a half. I'm off work for 3 days so I'll go to 70 today.

RedThread12, you pose a wonderful question. I've thought for about 5 hours--do I want ease or to be alcohol free? My reason for starting baclofen was that I drank a bottle of wine a night and ruined love relationships (imagine that!!). Since my first week on baclofen I've not craved alcohol until this week when I started thinking about using it to escape how I felt.

Maybe my lovely first month experience lulled me. Plus I'm in kind of a lull and I don't like them. I used to always whip something exciting up to get out of them. Maybe I'm being a baby and just wanting something easy. Prior to baclofen I was so tough and out of touch was any gentle feelings I had. It's tough for me when shitty memories come up. Whatever it is I'm not giving up. I've got my big girl panties on!

I have read a ton about baclofen but it wasn't until this week that I found a few blogs. Again thank you to all of you for responding.

kronkcarr

[dundrinkn]

new here

Hi Kronk,
Went and found your posts as the few I have read recently seemed to mirror my own experience. Now I find more in common. Like while I had that immediate relief from anxiety and also some awesome expansiveness and near cessation in drinking, I am now at a point where if I stay at the same dosage without upping it for 4 or 5 days, I start to feel shit creeping back in. Hmmm. And this too... I have been tough as a boot for a long time. Not interested in feeling vulnerable. I am at a day over two weeks, and I think you are about two months. I have started working out like a mad woman. Not sure if this is just more "running" from my feelings. I have had years of therapy, and AA and all that self-help shit. I no longer think I am running from something in particular, I think that "running" is just how my nervous system works. It's like I hit fight or flight from ANY stimulus.

I am finding this forum much more helpful now that I am putting people's bios and stories together. Good that my mind is getting clearer. Yes, even on 50mg of bac a day, my mental focus has improved a lot compared to drinking beer all day long. Go figure.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

new here

dundrinkn;1469789 wrote: Yes, even on 50mg of bac a day, my mental focus has improved a lot compared to drinking beer all day long. Go figure.

:H

About 5 months after indifference I started seeing a therapist I met in my last rehab. (She's in private practice now.) I kept expecting to start hashing things out, 12-step style, taking an accounting, ready for a reckoning. I felt like I wasn't being "normal" because I wasn't carrying around all this guilt and shame and remorse. In fact, I found myself slightly less empathetic in a lot of ways. (Okay, a lot less empathetic in some cases! :H) I finally told her this. She was confused. Wondered why I would try to feel some of that stuff.

Her response: "You have a disease. It's treated. Move on."

Riiiiiight. Took me another year to actually hear what she kept saying. (I'm a child of 12-step, after all. Repent or else!!) Now? pfffft. I do enough dumb shit on any given day that I have to take care of. There is literally not enough time in the day/week/month/year to "make up for" what happened when I was sick.

Just this morning I set off the smoke detector at 4am while I was drying my hair. On the only day this week my husband was planning on sleeping in. Then when I left the house I took his keys. And mine. To a place where I couldn't bring my purse, so I couldn't even check to see if I had them. He spent hours looking for them.
(We don't have any spare car keys--lost somewhere along the way in a drunken haze.)

I'm still me. Even without the booze! Inconveniencing people, forgetting to be kind/grateful/compassionate/whatever holier-than-what-I-was-before. No need to rehash what I couldn't do when I couldn't do it.

Hope it was a good run. Don't be surprised if you end up in the same place you started, only feeling MUCH better about yourself. And for good reason.

[kronkcarr]

new here

Hi,

I have a couple of questions. I flipped my switch at 80 mgs after staying there for 6 weeks (My dr wouldn't let me go higher.). I titrated down slowly to 40 mgs and still had no desire for alc. Plus I lost
That horrible lack of motivation I had at 80 mgs.

I started getting anxious in the mornings and started taking 40 mgs in the morning and 10-20 mgs at night. So, now I can't sleep on my back or I snore myself awake. I have that wicked fatigue in late afternoon.

This past weekend I bought my first lawn mower and I was so excited that I foolishly mowed my lawn in the middle of the day in the FL heat. I took plenty of breaks and drank tons of water. My lawn is a lot of sand and it was tough to get the front done. Then I got those electrical shocks in my hands and found it difficult to grip or hold things. Also I've started getting cramps in my legs and toes. I work in natural medicine so I use potassium, calcium magnesium and excellent quality vitamins.

I'm fit although I haven't done much since starting bac in Dec. Prior to bac I hiked 10-12 mile hikes in the Everglades, and I want to continue. I know there's no rhyme or reason to SEs, but I'd like to know it does get better.

Thanks.

[bleep]

new here

Mowing the lawn will do that to you. If possible, have it done by someone else.

Seriously. Get it done by someone else.

The SE's will subside once you have stabilised your dose, and kept it as steady as rock for a while. How long, seems to different for everybody, but that one thing is key. Going up and down even a little seems to throw everything into chaos.

[TexasAg]

new here

Getting dehydrated will also affect tremendously. I worked on the siding of my chimney in Texas August heat and my SEs went off the chart, tingly hands, brain, cramping and an anxiety attack to boot.

They subsided once I hydrated but it was rough. BTW pickle juice works to hydrate.

Cheers!

[kronkcarr]

new here

bleep,

Thanks. I trust your judgement on dosing, so I'll stay where I am for a month or so and see what happens.

TexasAg,

Man. I had no idea that not staying hydrated would hammer me like that! I'm sorry it happened to you, but I'm grateful you were able to tell me why. I'm going to have to gear up for this 12 mile hike a friend and I are going to do. And I'm so sorry about pickle juice--pickles are my least favorite food! Dang!

[StuckinLA]

new here

There's this great scene in this terrible John Travolta movie, called A Love Song For Bobby Long, where one of the main characters realizes one morning that he's out of mixers, and all he can find is a jar with no pickles but still 1/2 full of the juice. He sniffs at it, looks over his shoulder to make sure none of his housemates will see, and pours gin in the jar. It's supposed to show the viewer how desperate of alcoholics these characters are. But to me it's just silly. For me it wouldn't even be a question: out of mixer? Drink straight from the bottle.

Good luck on the hike. I didn't really realize that about the dehydration either, but it makes sense with bac being processed through the kidneys.