Baclofen wears off

[bleep]

A brief background will probably help. I first took baclofen over 2 years ago, and it worked perfectly. I went, almost overnight, from someone who couldn't stop once I had begun drinking, to someone who very seldom started. I continued taking baclofen for over a year, and during that time went up pretty high, and was thoroughly indifferent to alcohol. Just to see what would happen, and because baclofen was screwing with my sex drive, I went off it, maybe 8 months ago. To my surprise, the indifferent effect remained, and until recently worked fine. I would drink perhaps once or twice a week, maybe a glass or three of wine, and that was that.

2 weeks ago, literally overnight, the effect wore off, and I've probably been pissed on 80% of the nights. So it's back to the titration drawing board. I just wanted to post to let people know, in case someone who is on baclofen currently is thinking of tapering off.

[ifulovelife2]

Baclofen wears off

Yikes! Sorry to hear that, Bleepster.

It does kind of support my belief that baclofen won't work in isolation. It's a tool and not the magical cure some people think it is.

I would love for you to share the Bleep titration plan. Day 1 100mg Day 2 200mg Day 3 300mg? lol

[emc]

Baclofen wears off

Hi Bleep,
thanks for your contribution ;-)

it's a really good one... i think!

You are saying that Baclofen works but that the super "indifference" effect can wear off... it's correct?

If so... for what i know... trying to simplify... is that this circuits that make us drinking falls asleep with Baclofen and if they are stimulated too much, they can wake up again and they need another titration to "fall asleep" and let us LIVE normally! ;-)

Agree with ifulovelife2 that Baclofen its a tool, that does not resolve ALL the problems, sure, but i even know that this tool can make turn the spiral upward to good life and not downward as alcohol alone does...

Can u please tell us the background of your Baclofen wear off? It happens suddenly from one day to the other without exageratin on drinking or maybe after a period of exceeding again on drinking? or maybe simply more stress? or some other reason that can help us to understand better?

Thanks and i'm sure u will recover soon! ;-)

[chaos]

Baclofen wears off

bleep;1475611 wrote: A brief background will probably help. I first took baclofen over 2 years ago, and it worked perfectly. I went, almost overnight, from someone who couldn't stop once I had begun drinking, to someone who very seldom started. I continued taking baclofen for over a year, and during that time went up pretty high, and was thoroughly indifferent to alcohol. Just to see what would happen, and because baclofen was screwing with my sex drive, I went off it, maybe 8 months ago. To my surprise, the indifferent effect remained, and until recently worked fine. I would drink perhaps once or twice a week, maybe a glass or three of wine, and that was that.

2 weeks ago, literally overnight, the effect wore off, and I've probably been pissed on 80% of the nights. So it's back to the titration drawing board. I just wanted to post to let people know, in case someone who is on baclofen currently is thinking of tapering off.

Baclofen destroyed my sex life as well...after all is such a potent MUSCLE relaxant...if you follow my drift..

Didn't help me with anxiety at all...actually even small dose increased my anxiety big time.

HDB made me almost psychotic.

I sincerely don't know why certain members of this forum 'feed' as with some BS shady statistics that baclofen is...88% effective for treating acute alcoholism.

[emc]

Baclofen wears off

Hi Chaos,
it would be good maybe to wait and give the time to Bleep to answer before sharing your sexual problems! that (i think) they are 99,9% not related with Baclofen but with so many other reasons that turns around a life of an alcoholic! (me first!).

Baclofen its a tool, i think a good one, is not for everybody maybe, i know, and probably didnt work for you but please dont tell me that your sexual life was destroyed by Baclofen!! nobody can beleive you!!

Open a thread about the subject if you want but please dont make dirty this thread that is a really interesting one...

This thread is about "Baclofen wears off" not about the sexual problems of chaos...

Sorry Chaos but i'm really interested about what happened to Bleep after all this "...2 years ago, and it worked perfectly..."

[StuckinLA]

Baclofen wears off

HDB can mess around with sexual function. It's just one more thing to weigh in the balance, ya' know.

EMC, bleep's talking about the indifference effect wearing off if you taper down and OFF bac entirely and stop taking it.

I've noticed that too, as I'm completely off. It seems to have a nice holdover honeymoon period for a little while, but cravings do return, I'm noticing.

[EDIT: to continue the above. This all is not to say that it wears off if you stay at your maintenance dose, whatever that ends up being. So people who find the somnolence inconvenient, or the sexual SEs, or whatever, should remember that they need to consider the fact that cravings return, eventually, if you go too low or off. Falling asleep in the evenings can be a bitch, but so is drinking... Food for thought.]

[EDIT Part the Second: Hey, bleep, it's great to see you around again, but obviously sorry about the circumstances.]

[emc]

Baclofen wears off

Hey StuckinLA... i remember about you these months ago when i was here... nice to meet you again! ;-)

I like your contribution... and i can add...

... i still dont know about HDB (i'm still on 95mg/day) but i think that alcohol probably make even worser? no?
In my case i can say that i dont have any sexual disfunction (Baclofen 95mg/day) but, more important is that my whole daylife is going better!!!

Let's talk about a global quality of the life and how much benzos or other drugs help our sexual functions! ;-) Ironic, no polemic at all, Stuck ;-)

For what i know, when you start take Baclofen you have to continue to take without stopping... (in lower dose but to continue)...
A new addiction, yes, maybe, but with a super result of a new life, with self-reward system that was completely destroyed by ALC that start to work again...
An addiction, maybe... but that does not destroy our liver and give us the life back!

Bleep and even you (StuckinLA) puts a really interesting subject about :
what happened when we stop taking baclofen?

this thread is about this, yes!! i want to learn more!! ;-)

[StuckinLA]

Baclofen wears off

Emc, I just want to quickly agree with everything in your post there, except for one thing. In my opinion, we shouldn't think of bac as an addiction. There are very real withdrawal symptoms, but it's not an addictive substitute for booze, like benzos. It's simply a pill that you have to take--nobody starts craving bac the way they crave a drink, ya' know?

And nice to meet you again, too. I'm glad you're feeling good these days. :l

[bleep]

Baclofen wears off

Wow, the forum is busy tonight!

Stuck got it right - I was completely off baclofen when the urge to drink returned. And I suspect it returned mostly because I continued to drink during the time I stopped baclofen. Not much, and not often, but I drank, and I think that's what triggered a return to full blown alcoholism. The timing was "good", Otter's post about kindling was at the top of the page when I came here to post this.

I think, and obviously this is speculation, that if I had abstained, which would have been simple, I wouldn't be here. I wasn't worriegd about this happening, because I have taken baclofen, and I know it works, so I had planned long ago to just titrate if this happened. The real proof of baclofen's efficacy lies in the fact that my wife isn't worried, and is just waiting for me to titrate up again. When I first began baclofen we were one booze-fueled cock-up away from divorce.

Iful, I originally had my titration in my first post, but deleted it before posting so as not to send someone down the wrong path! Please bear in mind that this titration is not recommended... Anyway, today is day one, and I'm on 100, I think I'll go to 150 today and then stay there for 3 or 4 days. As soon as I get significant SE's, I actually plan to take it slower than last time. I need to avoid the stoned look that plagued me last time, otherwise I would go to 240 today. I think 240 should work as an indifference dose, based on last time.

At the higher doses, I definitely noticed a lack of feeling wrt sex, and that was my primary motive for stopping baclofen. However, if it came to a choice of that, or the daily struggle to not drink, I would pick HDB everytime. That's exactly what I'm doing right now, in fact.

[YouKayBee]

Baclofen wears off

This is very important information Bleep.

In parallel to this several TSMers are finding the same with Naltrexone however in the case of Naltrexone and TSM this effect has already been documented in Dr Eskapa's book - and it's why I never dare drink without Nal.

[bleep]

Baclofen wears off

emc;1475624 wrote: ...
If so... for what i know... trying to simplify... is that this circuits that make us drinking falls asleep with Baclofen and if they are stimulated too much, they can wake up again and they need another titration to "fall asleep" and let us LIVE normally! ;-) ...

This is pretty close to what I think happens. It has been quite strange - I am able now to realise that my drinking behaviour is completely fucked, but very recently it wasn't. So it's interesting to look through these eyes that now suddenly think it is normal to have a bottle of wine with lunch, and continue drinking through the day. I know it's not normal, yet I can 'see' my brain telling me that it's fine, that it's a great idea. Prior to my previous indifference, this was 'normal' and 'right', and suddenly it is again.

Agree with ifulovelife2 that Baclofen its a tool, that does not resolve ALL the problems, sure, but i even know that this tool can make turn the spiral upward to good life and not downward as alcohol alone does...

This one makes me think. I used nothing but baclofen to stop drinking last time, and I think that if simply stopping is your goal, then baclofen is actually enough. The final results of my little experiment however would suggest that just stopping is not enough in isolation.



Can u please tell us the background of your Baclofen wear off? It happens suddenly from one day to the other without exageratin on drinking or maybe after a period of exceeding again on drinking? or maybe simply more stress? or some other reason that can help us to understand better?

Thanks and i'm sure u will recover soon! ;-)

I've touched on this, but I have been popping in and out attending to kids, so not sure if I have covered it completely, and if I go and re-read, the kids will cry and I will back to square one, so let me just go into it again...

I drank intermittently, and there hasn't been a stressful event or anything like that that might have triggered this. This is probably wrong, but it feels to me like I just 'used up' all the reserves that baclofen gave me, and band, here you go!

I'm not at all worried about not sorting this out. There are several very nice SE's that I am looking forward to!

[Hippyman]

Baclofen wears off

bleep;1475611 wrote: A brief background will probably help. I first took baclofen over 2 years ago, and it worked perfectly. I went, almost overnight, from someone who couldn't stop once I had begun drinking, to someone who very seldom started. I continued taking baclofen for over a year, and during that time went up pretty high, and was thoroughly indifferent to alcohol. Just to see what would happen, and because baclofen was screwing with my sex drive, I went off it, maybe 8 months ago. To my surprise, the indifferent effect remained, and until recently worked fine. I would drink perhaps once or twice a week, maybe a glass or three of wine, and that was that.

2 weeks ago, literally overnight, the effect wore off, and I've probably been pissed on 80% of the nights. So it's back to the titration drawing board. I just wanted to post to let people know, in case someone who is on baclofen currently is thinking of tapering off.

I was tapering off and the cravings came back so I'm back up on bac and feeling fine! Baclofen gives me the ability to say NO to alcohol. BUT...I still have to be the one to say NO.

[bleep]

Baclofen wears off

It's weird Hippy - when I first titrated up, and tried to reduce to find my maintenance dose, I couldn't go below 240. If I did, I wanted to drink, simple as that. Then I went pretty high up, and reduced, and was able to stop baclofen entirely for a while.

I don't know if going up high was the reason, and I don't understand from a medical point of view how that would work. I know you can't just build up a reserve, but that certainly seems to have been the case.

[emc]

Baclofen wears off

Hi again Stuck, Ukblonde... and thanks to the owner of the thread to reply to us! ;-)

Hello Bleep, nice to meet you!

I think is not a speculation saying that "...if I had abstained, which would have been simple, I wouldn't be here..."...

The main reason i think is that you was not taking Baclofen anymore for all this period (8 months). Maybe we can see it like that?
Baclofen works (seems to, i beleive it does!) but is needed to continue to take it even when indifference comes, slowly titrating down but keeping it...

So... what i want to say is that we probably cannot say that your actual situation is "directly related to Baclofen"... simply because you was not taking it anymore and the craving reappear. Obviously.
Are you agree, Bleep? Stuck? Ukblonde?

I think i have a clear idea of how Baclofen works (after reading everything! that is on the web) and... the "switch off" it has to be mantained by a small dose, maybe for life, who mind! if our life is back!

I wish you the best, Bleep, and i'm sure you will come back to your sober life that does not mean a "forced abstinent" life.. you know what i mean ;-)

at soon for more! ;-)

PS (edited)
i wrote the message without seeing the last 3 replies...

[bleep]

Baclofen wears off

Hi emc,

Thanks for your kind wishes! You have it right, and I actually wondered what to call the thread; saying that baclofen isn't working is misleading, but I had to go with something, and that's that...

In a way, having the baclofen back-up makes it very easy for me to continue drinking when I decide to.. decide to what? It's not stopping, because that's never been my goal, but deciding to... just get shit on the right track, I suppose, would be the best way to view it. That may be a bad thing, but that's how it's worked for me so far.

Anyway, it's getting late here, I'm on 150, and I think I will take it to 200 tonight, and see how it sits. I can feel a slight buzz, but as I just said on another thread, it's not something I would go searching for. There are SE's that I would search for, far and wide, but they don't seem to be repeatable. I am definitely more loquacious, I hope that's not a bad thing!

Plus, I need another glass of wine, so I'm gone for now...!