How long should I stay

[emily]

Hi Guys

I haven't posted for a while although I have been reading the posts.

When I've got a bit more time I will update my progress thread, in the meantime, and I know the weekend is not a great time to post on the forum as it can be quiet, this is my questions that I would like a bit of help with

I previously was up at 120mg and did not stay there long, not anytime at all and came down to 80mg where I stayed thinking I could maintain at 80mg.

I couldn't so I'm up again now at 130mg and once I've settled SE wise a bit at 130 I may go up a bit further but I feel 140 would be as high as I need to go.

How long do I stay there?

[emily]

How long should I stay

Hi Palladium

I did the abstinence challenge a few months back, I was at 120 mg when I did that. I did a good job but did start drinking at around day 45, around the same time as I was going down towards 80 mg with my bac dosage.

Nothing much and compared to where I've been in the past nothing to worry about, so felt I was fine to continue reducing my bac towards a maintenance of 80mg

But, things started to decline more in the last month or so, (been at 80mg for a few weeks) - a return of the dreaded craving feeling. Drinking 2 bottles of wine in one go, even though I'm floored for around 3 days afterwards and a couple of weekends ago a return of drinking a bottle of wine on friday, two bottles sat and one sunday.

This was 'a for one week only extravaganza' and it was after this that I started on my - go back up in bac campaign. That one week gave me a peek back at where my life was and it is not where I want to go back to.

Last night I had two glasses of wine, I was absolutely fine, no problems. Tonight I will buy one bottle of wine. Habit? because it's Saturday night? We'll see if I drink it all.

I've been at 130 mg for just a couple of days.

I know I will have to go back onto the 30 days challenge again but I'm not ready yet.

I will get there, I know I will

[Juan BH]

How long should I stay

Hi Emily-

Nice to hear from you! I was thinking about your situation and this came to mind as a potentially good resource for your question:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59463672/Prescribing-Guide-for-Baclofen-in-the-Treatment-of-Alcoholism-Don.pdf

:l

[Ne/Neva Eva]

How long should I stay

emily;1582920 wrote:
I did the abstinence challenge a few months back, I was at 120 mg when I did that. I did a good job but did start drinking at around day 45, around the same time as I was going down towards 80 mg with my bac dosage.
Congratulations on the sober time, Emily. That's fantastic.

emily;1582688 wrote:
I couldn't so I'm up again now at 130mg and once I've settled SE wise a bit at 130 I may go up a bit further but I feel 140 would be as high as I need to go.

How long do I stay there?

It's almost impossible to say how high you'll decide to go, or how long you would want to stay there. It's completely up to you. I went high enough that I couldn't stomach the idea of drinking. It was distasteful (literally tasted bad) and unpleasant to think about. I think I still drank through that for awhile. Then I stopped drinking for a while, titrated down, and felt like maybe I was going to start drinking again, so I titrated back up. I had long periods of contented sobriety, with drinks very, very occasionally. And therapy. And exercise. And I got really busy. I can't say which of these things (if any) coupled with baclofen, stopped the obsessive thoughts and the habit of drinking.

In other words, there isn't a set dose for any of us. It's likely that it changes over time. It probably helps to have periods of abstinence. Using other tools to change a lifetime of habit is probably also beneficial.

Glad you're posting!

[emily]

How long should I stay

Hey Juan, thanks so much for taking the time to think of me and pass on this article, very helpful indeed, I've printed it off.

It says to stay at desired does for around 2 to 3 months, which is very helpful.

Have you been AF since our abstinence challenge? Wow!!

Ne/Neva Eva;1583229 wrote: It's almost impossible to say how high you'll decide to go, or how long you would want to stay there. It's completely up to you. I went high enough that I couldn't stomach the idea of drinking. It was distasteful (literally tasted bad) and unpleasant to think about. I think I still drank through that for awhile. Then I stopped drinking for a while, titrated down, and felt like maybe I was going to start drinking again, so I titrated back up. I had long periods of contented sobriety, with drinks very, very occasionally. And therapy. And exercise. And I got really busy. I can't say which of these things (if any) coupled with baclofen, stopped the obsessive thoughts and the habit of drinking.

In other words, there isn't a set dose for any of us. It's likely that it changes over time. It probably helps to have periods of abstinence. Using other tools to change a lifetime of habit is probably also beneficial.

Glad you're posting!

Hey Ne, thanks for your reply and it's helped me so, so much. I will keep going up and once I'm where I feel I should be I'll stay there for a while and not come down quickly like I did before.

You've managed to help me see things much, much clearer. The words are just not coming to me right now to explain how you've helped but in one paragraph you've just nailed it all for me and I now feel much more confident.

I'm going to post up my progress as a lot has happened since I last updated it and the getting busy and exercise has been something that has came together for me in the last couple of weeks and next year is looking good for me.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

How long should I stay

Hi, Emily!
I'm so glad things are coming together for you, and glad what I wrote helped in some way. That makes my day.

The longer I do this thing (life) the more I come to understand it's not "fixed". Nothing remains the same. Which is kind of a pain in the foot, since changing things around is one of my least favorite thing to do. But what choice do we have?

I hope you'll keep posting! It's really great to hear from you, and the support from MWO helps.

Rock on!
:l