New user of Bac-need help with side effects

[Samandkatharine]

Hello- this is my first post about my one week experience on Baclofen. I've had some good and not so good things happen.

The good
1. Cravings for evening wine much less after 1 week on 25-30mg. I still have 2-3 glasses but not the 1 to 1 1/2 bottle I'm used to. I can stay up and read a book after 10pm!!
2. Up until last night, I was sleeping through the night and feeling rested in the morning.
3. No anxious thoughts or social anxiety. I started drinking alcohol to feel more at ease. I've been a worry wart since I was born.

The bad
1. SE thru the roof! I nod off at 2 or 3pm and could sleep for 2 hours easily.
2. I feel like a zombie on more than 20mg. I look like I've had a night on the town, when I've been sober.
3. My head feels like it is in a vise. Weird tightness surrounding my neck and face.
4. Nausea, with increased appetite in between. I almost feel like I'm in my first trimester, when I'm 54! Ugh...
5. Memory is shot. I can't remember names of simple things and familiar people.

This is all on only 25-30mg daily. Should I keep going and hope the SE go away? I read about the success stories on this board and I want to be one of them. Thanks for reading, and I hope you will have some insight.

Mary Ann

[kronkcarr]

New user of Bac-need help with side effects

Hey, Mary Ann,

Welcome. Yes, everything you write sounds familiar to me. I started at 30 mgs for the first 4 days. I had the neck tightness and headaches, the sleepiness in the afternoon, the nausea and I also had the decrease in craving alcohol and in my anxiety levels. It's all part of the process.

When I'd get so tired I'd get up and walk a bit if I couldn't take a nap. Most of the other side effects come and go and as you titrate up you may have different SEs or these may return but in a different way.

Keep taking the pills! It's a nice new world for me. Good luck!

[spiritwolf333]

New user of Bac-need help with side effects

Samandkatharine;1524462 wrote: Hello- this is my first post about my one week experience on Baclofen. I've had some good and not so good things happen.

The good
1. Cravings for evening wine much less after 1 week on 25-30mg. I still have 2-3 glasses but not the 1 to 1 1/2 bottle I'm used to. I can stay up and read a book after 10pm!!
2. Up until last night, I was sleeping through the night and feeling rested in the morning.
3. No anxious thoughts or social anxiety. I started drinking alcohol to feel more at ease. I've been a worry wart since I was born.

The bad
1. SE thru the roof! I nod off at 2 or 3pm and could sleep for 2 hours easily.
2. I feel like a zombie on more than 20mg. I look like I've had a night on the town, when I've been sober.
3. My head feels like it is in a vise. Weird tightness surrounding my neck and face.
4. Nausea, with increased appetite in between. I almost feel like I'm in my first trimester, when I'm 54! Ugh...
5. Memory is shot. I can't remember names of simple things and familiar people.

This is all on only 25-30mg daily. Should I keep going and hope the SE go away? I read about the success stories on this board and I want to be one of them. Thanks for reading, and I hope you will have some insight.

Mary Ann

Hi Sam -glad to see your post and that you are giving BAC a go. I'm still kind of new to BAC protocol (3 months) but I can tell my experience relative to your SEs (I'm currently at 220mg p/day and al free):

1. Somnolence is much improved -initially, there were many days that the tiredness would settle in two to three times a day. At times, I was kind of glad; I was getting much needed rest that I had not experienced in long time. I do know that alcohol exacerbates the somnolence -to some degree.

2 Zombie Look -I have been that way for 50 years -lol. It gets better

3. Food: My intake increased five fold. I also remember that I would get nauseated if I did not eat. Meals and the timing thereof became extremely important -and still do to this day.

4. Memory -My memory was so shot before I quit drinking and started BAC that the only thing that I can say is that any short term memory improvement is huge for me right now. In times past, and after quitting alcohol, my short term memory improved quickly after about two weeks af. That is not the case now. But I am also getting older and have booze fried even more cells. I have heard that baclofen does have a short term effect on memory loss.

Good luck to you, and if you are able to tolerate the initial SEs, I think you will find yourself quite amazed.

[Samandkatharine]

New user of Bac-need help with side effects

Thanks for the quick replies

LOL on zombie look! Maybe at 54 I should just be happy I'm alive! I have a 12yo that keeps me young, and I'm taking the sobriety thing seriously.

I will carry on. I just took 10mg and so far so good. Maybe I need to take the bulk of it in the evening, meaning 10mg in the AM, and the rest in the early evening. I want to get back into my yoga practice, and worry about the balancing postures. I may topple over in tree pose if I'm bac'd out in the morning...😨

[MaryGoRound]

New user of Bac-need help with side effects

Sam-
:welcome:

Glad you joined. The SEs will change as your dose changes but the universal tiredness is one of the hardest. I have been on Bac for six months and this SE is mostly gone (at least on the dose I am on). It is the insomnia that gets me. It always happens when I change dose and I have been bouncing around a lot trying to find my maintenance dose level.

Keep posting and adding to the collective experience.

[Samandkatharine]

New user of Bac-need help with side effects

Thanks!

I'm hanging in there,
Watching the Giants-Dodgers game... No SE tonight, but hope I sleep better tonight. Those Bac dreams are weird!

Mary Ann

[man on mars]

New user of Bac-need help with side effects

If you stay at the same dose, your SEs should diminish from day to day. If you increase your dose, expect them to come back while your body gets used to it.

Most people need to go to a pretty high dose. Some lucky people hit "the switch" at 100 mg/day or less. It seems like most people need to go higher. I am at 275 mg, myself, and still looking for it. How high you will need to go is a complete unknown. You will continually fight SEs as you move up. It's up to you how fast you can stand to go. If you go slowly, the fight will not be as rough, but it will take much longer. If you go rapidly, the battle will be more intense, but you will find your way out more quickly. I remember being completely knocked on my ass at the 30 mg level like you describe, but I now take almost ten times as much just two months later. It has been very intense, but I didn't want to have to wait until the summer was over to get there.

If you have trouble with sleepiness at a certain time of the day, try reducing your dosage before that time. So if you are taking 10 mg pills 3 times per day, and you get sleepy at 2 PM, take one in the morning, only half at lunchtime before you would normally get sleepy, and then one and a half in the evening.

[summerglow]

I am new to BAC and finding I don't want to sleep during the day from fear of not sleeping at night.

I have been taking half doses during the day and the bulk at night. Will this still work for me doing it this way?

I started on 30mg per day and now up to 40-50mg. Supposedto be on 60mg per day from today.......taking it slowly....

Any advice out there will be welcomed!

Thanks in advance!

Summerglow

[StuckInCA]

Hi Summer. And welcome. Some people find that tweaking their dose schedule can help with sleeping at night. Others take their entire dose in a single go once a day (bleep does this, even at like 300mg, and I think Ne has done this more than once just because she's bad at keeping track of taking her pills). Not saying I recommend that approach, just saying that different things work for different people.

As long as you don't miss a day, feel free to mess around with when you take your pills. See what feels good. I always took mine spread out evenly every like 4 hours.