Baclofen wears off

[emc]

Baclofen wears off

Hey Super Bleep!

i still have to learn how to "quote" but ok... i will arrive anyway to be understandable, i hope so.. with my imperfect english ;-)

Title its ok, dont worry. Is not so important. The subject is important, yes!

Stopping is not the goal, neither for me. There is no alcoholic that want to stop, and... why to stop if you can drink a little bit without the need of "explose" yourself!

With Baclofen is possible. Isn't it? on your experience? i imagine you say yes...

And... Bleep... not bad at all to be loquacious ;-) is good! but about your posologie... i can tell you, for what i read and learned, that is not the best to pass from 150 to 200 in one time, you should know this ;-) (but if you already take them ok... doesnt matter but keep the same even tomorrow, ok?). No jo-jo (up and down) with BAC.

If you still did not take it... take it easier, maybe... titrate up 10/20 mg a day until you reach again your super indifference... what you think?

ok... too many things to say... i will go to eat and continue to post as soon as i can.

Take care! ;-)
bye

[Xadrian]

Baclofen wears off

chaos;1475629 wrote: Baclofen destroyed my sex life as well...after all is such a potent MUSCLE relaxant...if you follow my drift..

I don't know about you, but my penis isn't a muscle.

[StuckinLA]

Baclofen wears off

My penis seems like a muscle sometimes... :H

Emc, don't worry about bleep--he, like Lo0p, is a special breed when it comes to bac (and most substances). But for the rest of us: DO NOT attempt anything even close to what they do.

My other thought, and the real reason I'm responding again, is that bac kind of re-wires the brain chemistry. Trolls and others have rightfully pointed out that there's a percentage, perhaps even a majority, of alcoholics who get sober that do so on their own. They are able, however it is that they do it, to stop drinking without AA or chemical assistance.

My own humble opinion is that bac may make the rest of us more like them. That is, easy to say no to a drink, perhaps even once we no longer take bac after the switch. But having a drink will screw all that up. Anyway, that's kind of my take on it. Discussion is welcome (or not).

[Eve Gatha]

Baclofen wears off

How bac works?

Hello bleep, I just referenced you in another thread. Planets must be in alignment for all this activity, or something.

There was another great thread about "how bac works" recently, it got me thinking. From my old notes... Bac works generally because... alcohol (and other?) addiction develops when there's a chemical event connecting the gabba-b receptor and another receptor (don't remember which) like a short circuit repeatedly being reinforced over time, cause it feels so good. Baclofen interferes, blocks and makes sure that short circuit doesn't happen. You're back to adapting and seeking growth and reinforcement the way nature allows, without alcohol, cocaine, etc.

I suspect since brain circuitry is recently being proven as being "plastic" (somewhat remoldable) this alcohol short-circuit takes a while to fade away through lack of use. So baclofen gives us a chance to rebuild a healthier brain path. But if the new path we're reinforcing w/other pleasant options doesn't get built up strong enough, consistently enough, the old short circuit path may linger enough to "serve" us. Yeah... Serve us like a pig down the slaughter chute! :upset:

I also sense you are right bleep, in wondering whether you could better reinforce your next, wiser spiral up and around with bac to better coast in life. Sounds so wonderful that both you and your wife seem to have a loving confidence that you'll work it out. :l

[bleep]

Baclofen wears off

I started quoting people to reply, then realised I was quoting everybody, so I'll just reply normally!

emc, to quote, just click on the button in the bottom right hand corner of every post. That brings up a new window, in which the entire post you want to quote is displayed between brackets that look like this: (QUOTE) and (/QUOTE). The brackets are [] though. Just delete the lines you don't want quoted, and if you want to quote another passage later in the post, just retype those brackets. And your English is great, panic not!

Hi Stuck, I hope you're doing well? I'll pop in to your thread shortly to say hi...

Eve, that's a great way of putting it. One of the best I've heard. Something I haven't seen written about baclofen is this though: I would also say that baclofen not only gives me that ability to say no, but also the desire, which is sorely lacking without it. My 'normal' brain just wants to get hammered all the time, but on baclofen there is a sense that doing so is perhaps not the best way to go through life.

It took my wife a while to realise that that desire had faded, and I think she was more surprised than I! When I suggested that I was going to take pill to sort my shit out, the sceptisim was palpable. It didn't help that I was smashed at the time!

I went to 200, and felt a bit stoned, but otherwise fine. This morning I feel very stoned, and it's not the greatest feeling in the world. Not unpleasant, but not something to strive for! I'll wait for this feeling to disappear, and then try 150. My aim is an SE free titration, so I'm not going to push it. I wouldn't suggest this speed to someone trying baclofen for the first time though.

[emc]

Baclofen wears off

bleep;1475916 wrote:
emc, to quote, just click on the button in the bottom right hand corner of every post...

et voila'... ;-) i know quite a lot about coding a webpage, i was not in top form yesterday... doesn't matter.. thanks a lot anyway, Bleep!

About subject, it would be great if we arrive to keep this thread as you title it...

What about to stop taking Baclofen? see "Baclofen wears off " (if you stop taking it ;-)

As i wrote before, i think that all the studies they say that it has to be taken even forever... if needed...
And this does not scared me at all if, in a lower dose than the "indifference", the SE i think they will pratically disappear...

About your idea of the "stock" of Baclofen in the brain, i'm not sure it works like that.
It makes more sense to me that, changing habitudes and deactivating this circuit of addiction, all made by us but mainly by the molecule, gives the result of being sober, or moderate (normal) drinker for quite long time... but.. but... the devil is still there if we don't have the medicament to support us...

I think it could be smth like that! ;-)
What u think about it?

And... about your 150 to 200 and back to 150... i'm not agree at all... but i will try tell you more later...

see ya

[COSGringo]

Baclofen wears off

All I can do is weigh in on how it seems to work for me.

I need to stay up on dose else the desires come back. I have other health issues that make this all tricky.

Else it becomes a serious will power issue again. No switch. I also notice the cravings go up for me the more in dose I go down.

So, I go back up again. I will probably keep a happy middle ground where I have basic control but not horrid SE's. I don't notice my SE's going crazy if I do screw up. The tinnitus picks up for me but that also happens with other meds like painkillers that I am on.

I still think it's the way for me, for now. I know how I would be drinking. And I know how I started to feel when I really lowered the dose. It makes a huge difference.

[Colin]

Baclofen wears off

bleep;1475916 wrote: My 'normal' brain just wants to get hammered all the time, but on baclofen there is a sense that doing so is perhaps not the best way to go through life.

Right.
Baclofen removes the compulsion to drink and provides the time to consider alternatives.
Getting drunk, boring people and falling over is not a great way of ending an evening.

[bleep]

Baclofen wears off

A quick dosage update, then I must watch kids that seem intent on killing themselves...

I awoke this morning a bit stoned, after 200 last night, and decided to drop to 150. Then I spoke to my wife, who informed me that she was up half the night worrying that I was about to stop breathing. I also wandered around the house mumbling, and then pestered her for sex, apparently awake, but I don't remember that at all. She was a bit frightened, because my mumblings made no sense, so I am not as immune to baclofen as I thought. I woke up thinking I had had a restful night's kip.

Last time I tried baclofen was with a sense of desperation, so I went as quickly as I thought possible. This time, I'm in no real rush, so I will do a more sensible titration, and probably go to 100 today, instead of my planned 150. Hopefully that will be low enough to not cause this sort of behaviour!

[StuckinLA]

Baclofen wears off

I don't know, bleep. A restful night's sleep and sex at the same time sounds like a pretty great combination...

[emc]

Baclofen wears off

Hi Bleep,

i'm sorry to tell you that i completely disagree about this way of managing the bac!

It does not work as... "decided to drop to 150" or "probably go to 100 today"... no!

You are taking a medicament that, even if it does not have a registered protocol, has a posology made by people's experiences.
I read really a lot about it and, as i said in other threads, bac dont like at all the jo-jo up and down.

[edited] there is really nothing to play with the effect of or to check how much "sensible" you are to bac.

I thought you know this basic things, that its a serious medicine and it has to be taken like that!

Sorry to be little hard but i really dont like when someone already arrive to reach a good point of health and seems to try again to destroy all by not following some BASIC RULE!!!

sorry again but my message is on your favor, not against you, at all.

PS: im going through all your old posts (2011 wow!) to try do understand you better ;-)

[COSGringo]

Baclofen wears off

Agreed, jumping all around on dosage sounds like a recipe for serious side effects. What the bleep?

[bleep]

Baclofen wears off

I stated earlier that it's not a titration I would recommend to someone! I've a lot of experience with it, and already know that I tolerate it very easily. When I was taking it last, for example, about 8 months ago, I would take my daily dose of up to 300 in one go, and felt no SE's, other than a permanently reduced ability to orgasm. It took a titration of 3 weeks to get to 400+, so I actually thought 200 was a pretty conservative number to aim for, although it is obvious now that the 3 weeks was pretty helpful in avoiding nocturnal adventures of both the good and bad variety.

Something else that seems worth commenting on, which I remember discussing ages ago, is the half-life of baclofen. Apparently it's 4 hours, yet despite taking my last 50mg dose at about 9 o'clock last night, I was mildly stoned all day today, until I took 50 more at about 7pm. So far, 3 hours later, no other SE's have presented. Can someone with medical knowledge confirm that the half-life has no bearing on the duration of effect of a drug?

[COSGringo]

Baclofen wears off

bleep, I think you are the exception to the rule.

Everyone's body chemistry is different.

When baclofen is used medically other than for alc dependence gradual titration would indeed be the approach there too.

If it works for someone going up in giant leaps, great. I think it's risky for most folks. I can tell you I would have been in the ER.

Salud.

[bleep]

Baclofen wears off

Hi COS,

I would agree, but also wanted to add that I don't plan on going up in great leaps - I remember from my previous titration that it took a while to get any SE's at all, and wanted to shortcut to that point. I'm basically trying to structure it to have an SE free ride, if that is possible. I thought it was about 200, and unfortunately I don't think I noted the dosage in my initial thread. Obviously it was a little lower!

I also want to point out that not all SE's are bad, and some are in fact very positive. Several times today I have caught myself thinking how beautiful something was, to the point where reading is almost impossible; I keep going back to reread the prose, thinking how exquisitely worded it is, etc..