Abstinence Challenge

[skullbabyland]

Abstinence Challenge

Day 5 AF

[StuckinLA]

Abstinence Challenge

I keep thinking about therapy/counseling, too. Would work wonders if I did it, surely. I'm so confident that it would work, in fact, that I think I'm gonna spend most of Tuesday in the library reading about cognitive behavioral therapy and other such psychology things.

Day 163 AF (I think... actually, can't think much at all. Way too much sex in the past day and a half for any kind of thinking... only online now because the girl's sleeping in the bedroom and I'm too awake to just chill next to her.)

[Juan BH]

Abstinence Challenge

Sounds like a pretty steamy weekend Stuck!:H

[BetterAndBetter]

Abstinence Challenge

bleep;1571306 wrote: While baclofen removes the desire and the need to drink, I also found that it doesn't necessarily remove the desire or the need to not be present in the moment, for whatever reason. There have been times that I have been somewhat resentful of my sometime inability to get pissed. After a particularly crappy day, I still know of no better way than to unwind by having a few drinks, and indeed sometimes oblivion is what I'm after. So it sometimes very annoying to have this desire railroaded after 2 drinks, and just lose the taste. I always think I am looking a gift horse in the mouth when this happens, but the desire is still there.

Neo, I will say that this happens less and less with time. I still haven't found a better way to lose the pressure of a shitty day/week/life, but I am looking to escape reality less, simply I think as a result of time. Therapy may have helped had I gone to it, I don't know. I reckon it is worth trying everything but that is part of the attitude that got me in shit a lot!

And then at the same time, Skull, sometimes I will start drinking, and then that handbrake isn't as strong. It is always when I have decided to go out with mates, and get a bit pissed. On these occasions, I am able to get pissed, which surprised the hell of me the first time it happened. I was taking baclofen, and expected it to do everything for me; to my astonishment it didn't. What did happen was my definition of a fuck-up changed. Simply getting drunk became a fuck-up, even when I just went to bed. Previously that would have been marked as a success, the fuck-up definition being reserved for scenarios that involved insurance companies, protracted, draw-out battles with spouses, etc!

I suppose there are two conflicting statements in this post, to two different people. I think what it goes to show is that this is a confusing situation. Baclofen makes it relatively easy to do something that previously was very difficult - to physically stop drinking. It allows a large degree of choice to enter the equation, which before was absolutely impossible. What you do with that choice is up to you. It is not necessarily easy once drinking has been removed, although for me the ease with which baclofen removed the drinking part of the equation made me think that it would be a panacea for all of my ills.

You are a bleep-in' sage. Really sums up the way I am beginning to see baclofen at this point.

[bleep]

Abstinence Challenge

Wow Stuck, I hadn't realised how the days were stacking up man. Congratulations are due!

[joanna_d]

Abstinence Challenge

love this thread and also your post bleep: very relateable (is that proper english?)

[Xadrian]

Abstinence Challenge

StuckinLA;1571359 wrote: Way too much sex in the past day and a half

Too much sex? Would that be possible? :H

[skullbabyland]

Abstinence Challenge

Day 6 AF

[skullbabyland]

Abstinence Challenge

Day 7 AF. Happy to be up early, sober, with coffee and ready to get a bunch of stuff done.

Found a cool quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson that resonates with me-

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

[GolfMonster]

Abstinence Challenge

One year and one week AF! Haven't been on the forum for many months. Fortunately managed to get off baclofen completely.

The key for me has been reestablishing an obsession (golf) and fluoxetine. Alcohol dependence more often than not leads to low mood/depression. Fixing the low mood made it so much easier for me to stay AF.

People can see my previous posts, but again, please everyone, if you are persevering with baclofen in the hope it will control your drinking, just give it some good critical appraisal.

[terryk]

Abstinence Challenge

GolfMonster;1572426 wrote:
People can see my previous posts, but again, please everyone, if you are persevering with baclofen in the hope it will control your drinking, just give it some good critical appraisal.

We can't see your posts because you deleted them on 7/22/13. I sent you a PM to ask why shortly after and got no response. Now all that remains are sensationalist thread titles ("Baclofen nearly destroyed my life") that do little more than fear-monger.

One can only wonder what your motive for posting is...

-tk

[skullbabyland]

Abstinence Challenge

Day 8 AF

[StuckinLA]

Abstinence Challenge

GolfMonster;1572426 wrote: managed to get off baclofen completely.

That's kind of a weird way to phrase that, no? I mean, if one would like to stop taking bac, titrate off it slowly. Be aware of some possible residual anxiety and even depression, but bac itself is not an addiction - so I'm really wondering why you say you "managed" to stop taking bac. I "managed" to stop drinking on my own - same word, two very different things.

[Juan BH]

Abstinence Challenge

GolfMonster;1572426 wrote:
People can see my previous posts, but again, please everyone, if you are persevering with baclofen in the hope it will control your drinking, just give it some good critical appraisal.

I agree with this statement actually. Baclofen doesn't control my drinking either. It eliminates cravings so effectively that I no longer feel the need to drink, so I don't and that's good enough for me right now. I am four months sober today, but I couldn't have done it without the Baclofen.

[neophyte]

Abstinence Challenge

my abstinence has been so so over the past two weeks. the first time i drank was on day 33 AF i was violently ill and didnt enjoy it. tollerance came back to its old level by the third time i drank. The pattern has been that i will have one or two days where i will miss the old times, drink, realise its not the same and have a break for two days then repeat. generally however, i dont drink as much. there was one night where i had a bottle of wine and normally i would run back to the liqour store to get another until im at the level where my drunk needs to be at which is around the two bottle mark. I just couldnt be bothered. so when i do relapse, i am drinking less and less. normally i would drink 12 standard drinks a night every night. but on average, when i do relapse, its about 7 and there are days where i just dont want to drink anymore.

So there is progress, but i decided that 175mg of bac isnt enough, so im up to 220mg now, the last jump to 200 really made a difference. so ill keep going until that voice in my head quiets down some more.