Bac, some advice please

[emily]

Hi

I posted in any earlier thread that I had a meeting with Dr Chick and he prescribed me baclofen.

Tomorrow is 14 days on bac and I know it's very early days but I want this to work so much.

Dr Chick put me on a very low dose 30 mg per day which I had to build up to over 7 days. Noticed great things in the first week, low anxiety, great nights sleep, only side affect really was feeling a bit spaced out. Drink wise, in the first week I was able to just have a couple of the one glass bottles of wine and not crave more (which would be what would usually happen).

However, this weekend has been different. It started on Friday with a funeral and I fully intended to have some wine afterwards at the wake. I drank very slowly but over a 4-5 hour period drank around 4 glasses of wine (large glasses). On the Saturday we were invited to the house of friends that are big drinkers and this is where it all went to pot.

I knew I would go off the deep end and took 20 mg of bac before I went. I did drink slower but we were there all night and totally ended up binge drinking just like before.

Also had a drink on the Sunday!!

I have to email Dr Chick tomorrow and I feel a total failure and what if he thinks I'm not even trying!!

I know it is early days and I hope he advises me to increase the amount.

I'm now not really getting the spaced out feeling with the 30 mg so I am building up a tolerance.

What I'm trying to get to (the point) is this - I'm only 2 weeks in, am I expecting too much too soon??

Any help and advice much appreciated

[Xadrian]

Bac, some advice please

Like it has been said before: Baclofen doesn't make it impossible to drink, baclofen takes away the cravings. But it does so after you reached what they call your "switch dose", which is likely far above the 30 mg you take at the moment.

So don't panic and increase steadily according your doctor's prescription.

Although it is advised to stop drinking while on baclofen, I drank until I reached my "reset-button". Many more did and still got cured.

[ifulovelife2]

Bac, some advice please

Hmmmm, Dr Chick is a strange bird. As far as I know he will only prescribe up to 80mg/day. Utterly useless for most people. If he expects you to be doing well on 30mg/day he's got his head stuck up his arse and is totally ignoring all the evidence.

No, you shouldn't feel a failure but your prescribing MD should. If you need to go up to a high dose (and the chances are you will) then you'll need to buy your baclofen online and not rely on Dr Chick.

[emily]

Bac, some advice please

thanks for your comments guys

Ifulove, this has been a concern of mine, I'm maybe thinking of getting my prescription but also ordering online, I'll see how I go.

Xadrian, I think because I noticed on the first weekend that I dramatically cut down on my drinking I thought that this would continue and it didn't as the second weekend I drank the same as I normally would. I did notice that I wasn't bothered about driniking on the Sunday morning (I'd taken to having a couple of breakfast beers before my husband got up when drinking heavily the night before).

Will see what happens in the next couple of weeks.

Can anyone recommend the best online company that delivers to the UK?

[joanna_d]

Bac, some advice please

hi Emily, gonna keep this one short, cause i'm sitting on a terrace at a bar (people around me are drunk, and i'm sitting here, absolutely sober, drinking mint tea!!!! this is fucking surreal!!!!!)(oops, sorry), so i'm on my mobile. just wanted to say: not to worry. 30mg is nothing, so just keep on going. i'd say concratulate yourself on managing to lower your alcoho intake on those other days! way to go! and if this doctor doesn't prescribe above 80mg, start finding a way to get higher doses. there are good options to be found on the forum. i'll respond some more later. you're doimg fine. hang in there!

[laurie65]

Bac, some advice please

Hi Emily
I'm UK too, I get mine from Goldpharma and they are great, good price and always (I've ordered twice now) deliver within 7 days.
I'm new too and have been on bac for 8 weeks. I took a long time to go up and am now at 125mg daily. I don't want to be negative about my experience, but my journey has been quite challenging.
Lots of weird se's and if I'm totally honest I seem to drink more each time I go up a dose.
I'm smoking like a fiend too.
Yes I'm still drinking a lot, but that is down to my pure resistance to change
Now 8 weeks down the line I can clearly feel my relationship with alcohol is changing.
i am drinking much slower and actually forget i have a drink poured. this has only happened in the last three days.
Despite the se's and the drinking, I wouldn't change things for the world.
I actually love the bac experience. I feel more content within myself and much more confident that I can tackle my demons.
My resistance to change is prolific. i will even force myself to finish the bottle even tho i know i don't want or need it.
I figure tho that my alcoholism has been with me since the age of 14 and i'm now nearly 50 and have drank between 14-20 daily for the last 10 years. this beast ain't gonna lie down quietly.
Bac works..I really believe it.
Next leap...sobriety
Would be nice to keep in touch. pm if you like x

[kflmjs]

Bac, some advice please

Hi Emily

I saw your post. I went as high as 350 mgs/day. The cheapest pills I found were from River Pharmacy 25 mg--- 200 count which comes to 0.36 per pill or 1.44 cents per milligram.

You can get liquid bac cheaper at phoenix labs but then you have to dilute it and that can be complicated.

I currently have a prescription for 80 mgs/day from my gp(They come in 20 mg pills and are larger so they are easy to cut up into doses as small as 5 mg) and I use the 25 mg pills to fill in the rest---the 25 mg pills are smaller and I wouldn't be confident in cutting them any more than in half, which would be 12.5 mgs.

Good luck

I hope this helps

If you want, you can send me a PM and I will explain further or answer any questions you may have.

I am de-escalating now and am down to 270 mgs/day and still going down. Everything seems to be OK.

kflmjs(Kev)
:welcome:

[emily]

Bac, some advice please

Hi

Thanks for your comments.

Dr C hasn't replied to my email yet so don't know what he intends, however, I have checked out Goldpharma (thanks Laurie) and another one, which I can't remember now but is good for UK and ordering the extra Bac that I need is going to be easier (and much cheaper) than I thought (thanks Joanna_d) - you're right, I'll add on from online sources to the legit prescription.

I've decided to go up from 30 mg per day to 50 mg (hope that's not too much of a jump) per day for a wee while then I'll go up to 60 mg. Somehow, I don't think I'll need very high amounts as I have quite intense reactions to any medication, I'll see how I go.

Thanks for all the offers of PMs, might just take you all up on that.

Omg, how lonely would it be to be battling this without this forum, I would never have even found out about Bac if it wasn't for MWO.

The support and advice is amazing, thank you. x

[laurie65]

Bac, some advice please

Hi again Emily
Stick with it. I might be one of the sado's that's still drinking on bac, but today I notice a real difference. Just not at all interested in alcohol. Pouring and ignoring.
You said the word 'wee' in you post. Are you from Scotland perchance?

[kronkcarr]

Bac, some advice please

Hi, emily,
Hang in there! As far as the PM you got I'd ignore it. As you've read on here bac has worked for a good number of folks.
I did not over drink once I started bac but I had a huge surprise when almost 3 months in I wanted to get that bottle of wine and sit home alone and drink it and maybe drive drunk to get more. I was at 80 mgs then. It's like it came at me from space.
My dr let me go to 80 mgs then asked me to start cutting down to get off bac. I suppliment with liquid and I will be calling Dr L. I hope Dr C works for you.
Give bac time. Keep posting. Ignore those who don't mean well.
kronkcarr

[joanna_d]

Bac, some advice please

hi Emily, 20mg is a fairly big leap in my own experience.
but like everything with bac: it's different for everyone.
i tapered up with 10mg, then 12.5 cause i got 25mg pills. never more than that in one time. and it's good to keep a diary of se's (and if applicable: amounts of alcohol) and also your moods. in that way you can find out the course of your own reactions, and base your schedule on that.

a dose really kicked in with me at day 4. i would have expected to get increased se's the first days after going up, but most of the times, i really felt them on day 4 and 5.

no need to rush things. keep in mind it's you brain your treating and although us alkies are kinda used to fucking with the brain this is the time to start treating it with gentle care.
come to think of it: cause we're used to fucking with our system and most of the times discarding the effects we're provoking on it, one thing that was (and still is to me, after 3 months of sobriety) really important for me to learn while getting out of alcoholism is treating my system (brain, rest of my body, plain and simple: myself) with attentive care.

no need to rush things. it's likely that in a few months you're gonna be so sober you won't know what the fuck is happening :H and as much i can understand the feeling of wanting to reach that point as quick as you can: your cure has already started and the journey you're on right now has so many values in it as is. not only the goal.

emily;1473554 wrote: Hi
Omg, how lonely would it be to be battling this without this forum, I would never have even found out about Bac if it wasn't for MWO.

it is, isn't it...
while you're going through treatment for a severe and deadly disease (Ne once described the baclofen cure as "chemo for alcoholics" and that image helped me hugely), you don't have a kind nurse taking care of you, holding you're hand, telling you it'll be all right, and that everything you're experiencing - from epiphany to total wreckage - is part of the process and treating you with all the more care because of that.
i felt like this forum was my kind and patient and never condemning nurse (omg i still haven't reread my own thread. i felt so helpless and hopeless sometimes, and although in the outside world i managed to keep up appearances to a certain extent, over here i just let it all out. like a psychological lavatory :H). i don't know what i'd done without the amazing people over here.

Laurie, this whole post is directed to you as well!!

hang in there!!

[emily]

Bac, some advice please

Hey Joanna

Your posts are fantastic and are hitting the mark with me.

Just took 2 x 10 mg of bac before I read your post so I'll going to go down to 10 mg x 4 per day, which is a jump of 10 mg from the previous fortnight (I'm in week 3), as you said, take it easy. You're absolutely right, I want cured NOW but will be patient with it - my logical brain knows it'll take a while.

The 20 mg was making me feel a bit sick anyway, I could tell it was too much for me but great to get it confirmed from someone.

Keep posting Joanna, you're being supportive more than you'll could ever imagine, thank you, x

[Hippyman]

Bac, some advice please

I agree totally. Bac has worked for many of us. Ignor those who are not well wishers and believe that bac is a tool that will work for you too! I DO!

kronkcarr;1473668 wrote: Hi, emily,
Hang in there! As far as the PM you got I'd ignore it. As you've read on here bac has worked for a good number of folks.
I did not over drink once I started bac but I had a huge surprise when almost 3 months in I wanted to get that bottle of wine and sit home alone and drink it and maybe drive drunk to get more. I was at 80 mgs then. It's like it came at me from space.
My dr let me go to 80 mgs then asked me to start cutting down to get off bac. I suppliment with liquid and I will be calling Dr L. I hope Dr C works for you.
Give bac time. Keep posting. Ignore those who don't mean well.
kronkcarr

[kflmjs]

Bac, some advice please

Reply to Emily

Hi Emily

Kev again.

Glad to here you will order what you need.

I just gave you my numbers of 350 mg/day of Bac at my highest so you would know you can go very high if you need to.

Not many do and you probably will not

I think I reached my switch cause I just don't really think about alc anymore and when I do, it's certainly nothing I would call a craving.

Also baclofen helped with my general anxiety which would I think often lead to craving making me want to drink to relieve my anxiety. Very similar to Dr. Olivier Ameisen.

Good luck to you.

Have faith---it will work

You will experience side effects(somnelance, etc.) but don't panic

Good luck and keep posting.

Alot of people in MWO do sincerely care and want you to succeed. We have been there too.

Take care

Kev
:goodjob:

[joanna_d]

Bac, some advice please

hi Emily, how're you now?

i have to be short right now, gotta fly, but wanted to add to my last post that you don't have to be strict at going up once a week. you can try going up on the 5th or 4th or 6th day. just dabble around a little, find what way suits you best. keeping notes is a big help.
also helpful to know that sometimes se's get LESS when you go up a dose. crazy as it may seem.

:l