a little bit of help and guidance please.

[spiritwolf333]

a little bit of help and guidance please.

@spiritwolf "For me, that would require hospitalization and a lobotomy" I actually found that quite funny, but it's definitely "each to their own".

Chelsea -I now officially classify myself as a moron. I misinterpreted information and tried to make a point using what I thought to be valid. Please accept my apology. This will certainly help me limit the scope of my posts until I graduate from the school of morons.:sorry:

[spiritwolf333]

a little bit of help and guidance please.

Palladium;1572837 wrote: I?ve drank several times since I?ve started my own protocol, but these were all self-contained incidents, and each time the baclofen limited the amount I could drink, and therefore reduced the likelihood of a binge.

The last time I drank, it was on top of 200mg of baclofen. I drank nine beers @ 4%vol (that?s 16.2 units). Once upon a time, I would have considered that wee amount little more than an aperitif. Previously, I?ve binged on up to a litre of spirits a day?and that could go on for two to three weeks.

The reason I drank on top of baclofen? I was anxious and craving alcohol.

If you?re still having those symptoms, it doesn?t mean that the baclofen isn?t working, it simply means that your dosage is too low or your dosing schedule needs to be looked at again.

Each time I?ve drank, I?ve increased my baclofen dose by 20mg the very next day. Yes, there are side-effects, but in my experience they tend to wear off within 72 hours. And the longer you use baclofen, those side-effects become fewer and less pronounced.

Continuing to drink on top of baclofen will not ameliorate those side-effects; they will exacerbate and prolong them, and you end up blaming the medicine, or assuming that you are a unique failure and you discontinue?too many already have done!

But if you do drink, don?t beat yourself up. If you?re in to that kind of thing, go to AA?I believe they hold regular birching sessions for non-conformists.

Baclofen works!

Keep calm and carry on.

Palladium -THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST DESCRIPTIVE POSTS that I have read in a while -that fits me to a tee. I think now might be a good time for me to take the cotton out of ears and put it in my mouth.

[spiritwolf333]

a little bit of help and guidance please.

Lastly Palladium and Chelsea - I am so enthralled with the results that I have received from Baclofen, that I want to see others have a real shot a sobriety. I have read so many times where people keep on drinking while taking baclofen and then eventually blame baclofen for the failure. As you both say, we are all different I don't need to act like a bull in a china shop when trying to make a point -or better yet and for now, just don't try to make these types of points.

[chelsea98]

a little bit of help and guidance please.

spiritwolf, seriously, no need to apologise at all!! sometimes ramming home a point can really get it home and i did take on board what you said. i wasn't offended in the slightest if thats what you're thinking, but it did confirm to me that i wasn't letting bac do it's work so in fact, your comment did help me, so many thanks. palladium's post that you quoted also nailed it for me, though the other contributors to this thread of mine have also hit various other nails on the head too. i'm just very pleased that this support is here for me now, i've posted in the past and had minimal replies so for strangers to reach out to me in this way is very heartening indeed.

spirit, if you're keeping sober then you too are an inspiration to me so many many congratulations and I hope to be joining you back on the wagon asap!!!

soooooo.......:thanks:

[kronkcarr]

a little bit of help and guidance please.

Thanks for this thread. Habit was the whole key for me. I'd meet certain friends, go to the beach, get ready for a party, go to a party, come home from work, spend a weekend alone and more and they all equalled HAVE DRINKS!

Now I see it as choice and I'm better at making the choice.

[neophyte]

a little bit of help and guidance please.

Palladium - i find this the most difficult part of my recovery, i can go without a drink but now what? sometimes i exersize which helps but on nights that i do not. i just sit at this computer feeling a bit empty, missing that drunken euphoria and oblivion. i have surcumb to that desire a few times over the past few weeks after being AF for 33 days. I regretted each and every experience.

I remember before alcohol i would spend my time reading articles and things of interest on the internet. i really enjoyed this. I still do but sometimes it just doesnt interest me and i want to be alone but then im bored. Finding what to do here is difficult.

[kronkcarr]

a little bit of help and guidance please.

neophyte,

I had this same experience in probably my second, third and fourth months on baclofen. I became indifferent to most everything. For awhile I was fine with this but then it got to me. I'd been pretty active before bac so I did have things to do. I just had to motivate. I think it'll come for you.

Prior to bac I hated lulls. I'd whip something up to get out of them. My first post here was about being in a lull. I've had a few more lulls since I started on here and I'm able to weather them.

Keep posting.

[spiritwolf333]

a little bit of help and guidance please.

Boredom -great topic. The recovering addicted brain is so accustomed to finding the highs that it is difficult to overcome -at first. For some strange reason at about month or two -af and full of baclofen, I was full of new ideas and wanting to learn new things that I was almost driving myself crazy. In non-baclofen recovery attempts, the boredom issue almost always won and led to another drink. For me, I have to make myself get up and go somewhere and do something -regardless of what I think. I do not allow myself to negotiate with myself regarding getting out and moving. If I do, I will come up with a hundred reasons not to do so. Being alone, no ambition, and somewhat sad finally lead to one result: a drink. After all, if I drink I don't have to be creative and I don't have to think about what I have or don't have. Today, I have so many things that I want to do and enjoy doing it is unreal. This was never the case pre-baclofen sobriety attempts.

[Cassander]

a little bit of help and guidance please.

I guess I am a broken record but at about this point in discussions about boredom after quitting drinking (this is not the first time the subject has come up) I come on and offer the prescription that worked for me after quitting: proper exercise, diet and sleep...and especially exercise. Unless I am especially distracted by something else (usually its job stress, but sometimes its personal, financial or family issues) I try to do at least one hour of cardio a day at least five days a week. I mix it up, sometimes going on the stationary bike or the elliptical or taking a run outdoors or a bike ride or what I call cardio tennis, but what matters most seems to be just getting the heart rate up and keeping it there. Often before exercising I'm bored or anxious or cranky. Afterwards, I usually feel great. Relaxed...patient...comfortable working if there is work to be done...or chilling if chilling feels right.

FWIW, I never exercised regularly before quitting drinking. It has made all the difference since then.

Cass

[bleep]

a little bit of help and guidance please.

Cas, all this talk of exercise tires me out. However you will be pleased to know that I am at least talking about exercise behind the scenes with lo0p.

Just wanted to say that rizla, spliff, etc.. Nice to hear some words from my part of the world! Makes me want a castle!

[chelsea98]

a little bit of help and guidance please.

I must say that each time I come back to this thread it fortifies me that bit more. No booze at all this week which is very exciting as the cravings are, not completely vanished, but severely reduced. I sent my wife to Ireland on Friday to go and see Chic/Nile Rodgers with some of her friends as she didn't come to glastonbury (another huge 5 day blow out with chop, mdma and pills thrown in too) and she face timed me from the venue. She was having a great time and then our mutual friend Karen came in to view and she proceeded to hold up her bottle of bacardi breezer to the camera. My heart sank. I then spoke to my wife after the concert and they'd just been to the pub. She didn't sound drunk but she said she had drunk a lot and that she was in fact pretty drunk. I was absolutely gutted. I won't ever be able to join my wife in the revelry which is so common to people who have a decent relationship with alcohol and I've done it to myself, we all have done it to ourselves. But then reading this thread again this morning has lifted me a lot. it immediately made me realise that I'm taking my own life back and fuck alcohol, it's a c**t.

I've also been worried about life after booze (and spliff and skins etc (hat tip bleep)) and I've already been looking at gyms etc. I can more than afford a gym now that I'm not spending the money on 5 trips to the toilet a night. Reading the comments on this page 3 has made me look ahead (which I never really considered) and made me realise I must get a lot of stuff to occupy my mind. I play video games (GTA V is crazy) and I used to make music so maybe it's time to get my creative juices flowing instead of beer juices.

@cassanda, I'm glad you're loving your excercise. I'm starting a new business with a friend of mine who's 43 and recently ran a marathon in a cracking time. His partner is training to be a personal trainer so I'll have all the motivation and more than I need from them to get out and do something about it.

@spiritwold, @neo & @palladium, your words are resonating so loudly with me. Even though I see a councillor at my local addaction centre I don't think it's ever been expressed to me what to expect in such a concise way but then, all of the people i've spoken to in real life haven't done baclofen so I'm really drawing from your experiences to go through my own.

:thanks:

[Ne/Neva Eva]

a little bit of help and guidance please.

Good morning from Virginia! Glad you're feeling fortified, Chelsea. Hopefully you'll get to a point where you don't really care about the booze (and etc). And then you'll be able to join in the fun without the drama and pain of actually having to ingest the stuff. It feels goooood.

It helps if whatever fills the time is fun. And feels good. And makes your brain go snappity-spark.

Hope it's a good day/evening!

[emily]

a little bit of help and guidance please.

Wow, what a great thread, perfect for where I am in my journey right now, thanks guys, you've helped me a lot, x

[joanna_d]

a little bit of help and guidance please.

chelsea98;1573849 wrote: I won't ever be able to join my wife in the revelry which is so common to people who have a decent relationship with alcohol and I've done it to myself, we all have done it to ourselves.
"i've done it to myself" those thoughts are nice ones. in this sentence you're both the perpetrator and the victim, which leaves you with no room for being sad and mournful about where your life has come to and neither for being really angry. drama thoughts. there's no release to them.

i wouldn't worry about the revelry if i were you. i just got AF again after a few weeks of drinking one to three glasses of wine a night (and some nights a very large rizla) and felt like i was on speed the past couple of days. :H

chelsea98;1573849 wrote:
and I used to make music so maybe it's time to get my creative juices flowing instead of beer juices.

yep, creative juices are great after having switched. my work has changed so much since i'm no longer an alcoholic. when i look at the drawings i made when still boozing, i feel a pinch in my stomach. how locked in i was... painful. it feels like a different person who's made them. an alternate reality is maybe more accurate.
then again, the experience of 'awakening' is something i've come to really value. there's wisdom in that too.

after switching i've had different episodes over time. peace&harmony&just being so happy to have this whole new life, wild diving into art work, getting used to having a choice which meant wasting time drinking again (i can't drink more than a few glasses, but then again i don't need to, to feel like half the person i could be these days), processing my past (sadness, anger, what not).
i just try to take it one moment at a time. feel the ground right beneath my feet. man, i'm standing, not lolling or on the verge of falling!

by the way, pot has become a different expernience for me too. devastating to my energy. when i was still on switch dose, i had massive weed hangovers.
and also: i have way more of a choice in that area too. no more days in a row of smoking. i think i could call that indifference.

sorry for being so elaborate. it's kinda early here. when i say something it appears to be either a grunt, or, when i push myself onward some, a waterfall.

[chelsea98]

a little bit of help and guidance please.

@joanna_d ""i've done it to myself" those thoughts are nice ones. in this sentence you're both the perpetrator and the victim, which leaves you with no room for being sad and mournful about where your life has come to and neither for being really angry. drama thoughts. there's no release to them."

Can you expand further on this? it does seem that I'm all bottled up and the lid is screwed on double tight. i don't know what to do with this self loathing and how to release it, any guidance would be very helpful. I had a eureka moment the other night with my wife. i came to realise that all the issues i had with sex in our relationship (which has always been a massive issue for me) was due to my consuming alcohol. in fact pretty much all the shit that has happened over the years can be blamed on it. but i still know that i was doing it to myself and i can't blame anyone else.

@palladium I'm glad to hear you're back into your writing and hope the guitar thing kicks off for you again. I'm going to try and get back into it but with 3 kids and 3 cats and a wife there's still a lot more important things to repair. I know what you mean about inane chats as well, i once, pre google and without any knowledge, spent 4 hours discussing how helen keller could have won her nobel prize.