Baclofen and the man on mars

[COSGringo]

Baclofen and the man on mars

Agreed, take your time titrating down. Maybe you will still hit a sweet spot? It's a tough med. I can't imagine going that high but some do have to and some have an easier time.

I had a hell of a time climbing the ladder. Glad I did but looking down I realize how far I had to climb.

Good luck.

[man on mars]

Baclofen and the man on mars

Well, been up since 5 AM. May as well get to doing stuff.

I have come down extremely rapidly with no real negative consequences as far as withdrawals. I did feel pretty confused for a few hours in a couple of instances, but nothing severe. I'm at about 75 mg/day now. I am planning to go to zero and wait until I feel completely normal before I do anything else. I really just want this stuff out of my brain so I can reevaluate and figure out what to do next.

My feelings/emotions are slowly peeking out again but are still muted.

Anxiety is back full-force. Baclofen really is amazing for anxiety. It was also a huge motivator. I was putting in 9 to 10 hours of work some days without it feeling like a chore. Now I'm back to the state where I get to about 3 PM and I just want to get out of the office. Just like I used to be.

In general, my quality of life was improved on HDB, other than the insomnia/somnolence. My anxiety was gone. Self-confidence high, almost too high. I got a huge amount of work done in a relatively short amount of time. Ultimately, the dealbreaker was the complete stripping away of all of my feelings and emotions. Living as a robot is not living at all. I would rather have the extreme highs and the extreme lows than an imperturbable flat line. I hope the rest of you HDB folks aren't experiencing this. l am very eager to get all of those feelings back.

[spiritwolf333]

Baclofen and the man on mars

Good luck to you MoM. Thanks for the post and update. For me, my anxiety level was so high pre-baclofen, I did not have much of a positive outlook anyway. For now, I will take staying level -not too high, and NOT TOO LOW. Sorry it is not working out for you. Seems as though you have provided some really useful information to the forum.

[Juan BH]

Baclofen and the man on mars

Agreed here. Mars, your posts were very detailed and I know you put a lot of time into them. I'm sorry you had such a rough go of it. Keep hacking away. TSM may be another route worth exploring.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Baclofen and the man on mars

Dude. Forgive me for my exasperation.

Have you read around here at all?

It is a really bad idea to take too little baclofen. I'm sure you'll be fine. Or not. It's a really bad idea.

Please people. Don't be a feckin' idiot about this medication. Not that you are, MoM. Unless you are.

And listen, the people who have freaked out because they've titrated down too quickly (or not at all) and then took way too much thinking that they were going to feel better if they got up to where they left off...It didn't work. It made it worse.

I'm not a doc, I have no idea how it's going to work out for you, and I hope that this is one of those (many) threads that points out that there is an exception to every rule. It makes me happy (really) when people have reason to remind me that I can be a Nervous Nellie about this stuff.

In the meantime, be good to yourself and don't go off the deep end. Okay? Thanks.

EDIT: I'm not referring to the fact that you might start drinking alcoholically. I'm referring to mental health and stability.

[Xadrian]

Baclofen and the man on mars

Man on Mars,

In the beginning of last December, I went down from my maintenance dose to completely zero, because I thought that I would be able to do it on myself now.

I had an alcohol free christmas and new year and drank 6 beers on my birthday in the beginning of February.
At first, I did well, but overtime the thoughts of beer re-appeared.

Well, I had to titrate up all the way to my switch dose (I had hoped that the maintenance dose would be sufficient, but it wasn't).

So, if I may give you an advice about going down to zero: Don't!
I wish I hadn't.

[man on mars]

Baclofen and the man on mars

Juan BH;1528226 wrote: TSM may be another route worth exploring.

This is probably what I'm headed for. I tolerated naltrexone fairly well both times I tried TSM, but I never stuck with it for long enough. The first time, I did it for about 5-6 months, but I was awful about remembering to take it an hour beforehand (as in, I usually washed it down with the first beer). The second time, I was only 2 months in before I decided to try baclofen instead.

I did actually manage two AF days on my last attempt at TSM. I never could manage a single one when on baclofen.

Most importantly, TSM didn't severely mess with my brain chemistry. I still felt like me.

I will probably post a different thread if/when I decide to try something else.

[man on mars]

Baclofen and the man on mars

Just wanted to check in with all of you to report that I'm not dead or in a hospital or anything terrible like that. I went from 275 mg/day to zero in 11 days and have not taken any baclofen for three days now. I think I only got away with that because I had only been taking it for two months before I started tapering down, and I spent only three weeks at or above the 200 mg level. So there is a data point for future reference for the community.

For the most part, everything is back to how it was before I started on baclofen. I am still dealing with some lingering SE-type stuff but it is diminishing. My emotional state is back to normal, and I've even been brought to tears by a couple different dramatic books, movies and shows in recent days, which was very refreshing to experience again.

I've re-started TSM and hopefully I'll be able to come back and report good news on that front in the not too distant future. I'll be keeping a weekly progress thread on the TSM forum under a different name. If you go looking for me there, you'll probably be able to find me pretty easily.

Thank you, everyone, for all the support and advice over the last several weeks. You'll probably still hear from me from time to time. I wish everyone the best of luck moving forward.

[bleep]

Baclofen and the man on mars

Fuck me, that's a rapid taper. As you say, I think the key thing to notice is the short period you were on baclofen. Still, I would be very sensitive to any severe mood changes in the immediate future, and immediately take some baclofen should any occur.

Hope it works out for you Mars, all the best.

[RedThread12]

Baclofen and the man on mars

We are all so different. I fell to my knees, crying with gratitude, when I realized I would never have to drink that way again - ever. Maybe two or three of the most emotional weeks of my life. When I was sober with AA, I got on my knees every morning to beg tearfully plead tonwhatever was "more" than I am for help. Post-bac indifference, that same position sometimes overtook me spontaneously, tears were there, too, but all for totally different reasons. And I became far more productive than I had ever been when sober, without bac. Which made me happier and more confident.

I think Bleep has put it very well. There i time and there are options. We all only want your well-being, MoM. And only you know what that is - and isn't.

[Xadrian]

Baclofen and the man on mars

You should be very careful with that, Mars man.
You are aware of what could happen, right? Including seizures, hallucinations and other horror stuff.
I really hope all of this will not be applicable to you.

Do you have any bac left? Did you tell people about your abrubt withdrawal and did you instruct what do do if it might go wrong? Just in case you lose consiousness.

The only antidote for baclofen withdrawal is baclofen. So, if...... you know what to do.

Wish you all the luck with TSM and keep us posted, good or worse.