started with baclofen..

[lewis123]

started with baclofen..

Xadrian;1637083 wrote:
However, I doubt that the tiredness is caused by a 30 mg dose of baclofen.

that's what i'm also thinking.. So i'm gonna wait for all the blood results. And try to split the dose and take more melatonin to improve my sleep.

I will try to take 5 in the morning, so that i'm om 25mg total maybe it helps.

I'll just experiment on me a little bit and i will keep posting here how it turns out.

[kronkcarr]

started with baclofen..

Hey, lewis,

It's good to see you posting even if it's under these circumstances. You seem sensitive to bac so maybe it is related. I hope by switching your dose around this will clear up. I only went to 80 mgs and am now at 60-70. I am not as motivated. I hoped it would pass like the other symptoms did. Over a year later it hasn't. I don't have the tiredness just a general slowing down.

[lewis123]

started with baclofen..

hey,

the dr called me and said my blood is perfect. So no infections or kind off a disease. He said my feeling of general "malaise" is probably from the baclofen since he can't find no other reason and since this is a common SE of it.

Since yesterday i take 25mg instead of 30 and i feel better. Sometimes i think this can't be due tu the baclofenn because it's only a difference of 5mg. But anyway, i feel better and i still don't have any craving. So i stay on 25mg a couple of days and i will see what happens and how i feel!

Greetz

[Samandkatharine]

started with baclofen..

Hi Lewis,

I want to share my sleep and mood SE with baclofen. Maybe it will help.

I felt great until I was about 2 weeks into my switch. I switched at 80mg, which is low. I had been AF for 3 days due to a stomach virus, so I think that helped my brain see that being AF wasn't so bad! After those 2 weeks my sleep got choppy, and I felt blah. I wasn't depressed, but I couldn't feel much pleasure in life. I think for me it is the lack of dopamine in my brain. The same hormone that gave me pleasure drinking and running wasn't there in the same higher levels.

Now I lowered my eve dose by 10mg, and added some tweaks to get better quality sleep. I try not to nap during the day too. I use the sleep cycle app on my iPhone to monitor my sleep quality. It's not great but not as bad as I thought. I take magnesium before bed, and try not to use the computer or tv one hour before bed too.

I try and exercise daily to boost my mood. I do have to push myself out the door, but afterwards I'm glad I did. Exercise helps you sleep if done in the earlier part of the day.

Sleep came so easily to us when we were drinking and many of us used it as a sleep aid. I'm guilty of that. Hopefully it will get better. Good luck.

Sam

[skullbabyland]

started with baclofen..

I too have added Magnesium before bed and noticed my sleep is really good. Before that, when my sleep was bad, I had been using what i'm now pretty sure is a bad bottle of melatonin. It advertised as a "extended release" to keep asleep all night, but it did just the opposite. I went back to a regular melatonin, different brand, and added magnesium, and I've been sleeping fantastic.

Glad the adjustments to your bac dosage seem to be helping. Some of us are just ultra-sensitive to bac effects- I KNOW i am. I definitely notice differences of even 5 mg.

Lewis, remind me- have you gone AF for any period of time? It really helps the bac to "take hold" and work its best.

[lewis123]

started with baclofen..

skullbabyland;1637507 wrote:

Lewis, remind me- have you gone AF for any period of time? It really helps the bac to "take hold" and work its best.

Yes i am AF nog for 2 weeks ... Didn't drink 1 glass.

today again i took only 25mg and i have the same euforic feeling again like i had 1 month ago. It's so strange how just 5mg can totally change something. I also have the feeling that i will have cravings at 25mg. I'm not drinking, but to be honest i'm thinking more about it today than the month before.

Does someone think that maybe age can do something with the amount of baclo you take? Is it a false reasoning that people who are older and probably have way more alcohol consumption in the past, so more "destruction" of brain cells, maybe have to take more pills to fill in the "whole" in the brain (to explain it simple in my bad english).

It is just so double in my head now. I don't want to be tired the whole day like i was the previous weeks, but i also don't want my life full of cravings every night.

I so hope there will be a medicine that keeps the craving away without the SE

[lewis123]

started with baclofen..

Samandkatharine;1637489 wrote:

Sleep came so easily to us when we were drinking and many of us used it as a sleep aid. I'm guilty of that. Hopefully it will get better. Good luck.

Sam

This is true. For me drinking really was a sleeping aid. I just couldn't skip one day of drinking because i thought i wouldn't sleep. And if i didn't drink i smoked pot. In the last 7 years i really had no alcohol/marijuana free day. Well i had but than i took sleeping pills, so i didn't had a night of sleep without a substance.
Until 2 weeks ago because now i'm totally AF.

Thank you for your reply

[lewis123]

started with baclofen..

skullbabyland;1637507 wrote: I too have added Magnesium before bed and noticed my sleep is really good. Before that, when my sleep was bad, I had been using what i'm now pretty sure is a bad bottle of melatonin. It advertised as a "extended release" to keep asleep all night, but it did just the opposite. I went back to a regular melatonin, different brand, and added magnesium, and I've been sleeping fantastic.

Glad the adjustments to your bac dosage seem to be helping. Some of us are just ultra-sensitive to bac effects- I KNOW i am. I definitely notice differences of even 5 mg.

Lewis, remind me- have you gone AF for any period of time? It really helps the bac to "take hold" and work its best.

What kind of melatonin was it? I also take an extensed release version, its called circadin 2mg. Which one works the best for you? I never tried magnesium, how many mg you take?

[lewis123]

started with baclofen..

skullbabyland;1637507 wrote: I too have added Magnesium before bed and noticed my sleep is really good. Before that, when my sleep was bad, I had been using what i'm now pretty sure is a bad bottle of melatonin. It advertised as a "extended release" to keep asleep all night, but it did just the opposite. I went back to a regular melatonin, different brand, and added magnesium, and I've been sleeping fantastic.

Glad the adjustments to your bac dosage seem to be helping. Some of us are just ultra-sensitive to bac effects- I KNOW i am. I definitely notice differences of even 5 mg.

Lewis, remind me- have you gone AF for any period of time? It really helps the bac to "take hold" and work its best.

What kind of melatonin was it? I also take an extensed release version, its called circadin 2mg. Which one works the best for you? I never tried magnesium, how many mg you take?

[gumtree]

started with baclofen..

hey Lewis, I wouldn't usually post here (I'm taking topamax, not bac) - but have been following your thread in case topamax doesn't work and I end up making the switch to bac down the road.

Thought I'd chime in because I've had sleep issues for years and melatonin helps, but it depends on the type. In my experience the extended release ones don't work AT ALL for me. I prefer the sub-lingual ones (they dissolve under your tongue). I get them in 3mg or 5mg tablets, and take either 6mg or 5mg a night and it really helps!! That and magnesium are good suggestions (for magnesium I just take one tablet- others may have more input).
I also take 5-HTP when I'm struggling with sleep, it helps along with the melatonin, just make sure it doesn't interfere with other meds (serotonin issues).

[lewis123]

started with baclofen..

gumtree;1637743 wrote: hey Lewis, I wouldn't usually post here (I'm taking topamax, not bac) - but have been following your thread in case topamax doesn't work and I end up making the switch to bac down the road.

Thought I'd chime in because I've had sleep issues for years and melatonin helps, but it depends on the type. In my experience the extended release ones don't work AT ALL for me. I prefer the sub-lingual ones (they dissolve under your tongue). I get them in 3mg or 5mg tablets, and take either 6mg or 5mg a night and it really helps!! That and magnesium are good suggestions (for magnesium I just take one tablet- others may have more input).
I also take 5-HTP when I'm struggling with sleep, it helps along with the melatonin, just make sure it doesn't interfere with other meds (serotonin issues).

I also sometimes take 5-htp with the melatonin. Dont you have insane nightmares and vivid dreams when you take 5mg??? I have them at 2mg and the nightmares wake me up and i cant fall asleep again. Sometimes i split a pill in 2 so i only take 1mg than.

[skullbabyland]

started with baclofen..

Interesting-- Gumtree had the same results with a time-release melatonin that I did. And Lewis, since your sleep isn't good right now and you're using a time-release melatonin as well, that could be part of the problem-- maybe you're similar to me and Gumtree.

The time-release melatonin that worked horribly for me (waking up multiple times through the night etc) was just called Natrol Melatonin TR (Time Release) 5mg. It's just 5mg melatonin and 10mg Vit B6 but there are a bunch of other inactive ingredients listed which I'm guessing were the problem.

I've stopped taking that and now just take Now brand Melatonin 3 mg (inactive ingredients are just rice flour and gelatin for the capsule). It must be much more pure and is obviously so much more effective.

As for Magnesium, I've read how most people but especially alcoholics are very defficient so I started taking 2 pills per day- 1 at morning and 1 at night, when I take my melatonin. Each pill is 272mg and it is "Bio-Absorbable Reacted Magnesium". It also says on the back that it's "Magnesium- Citrate, buffered amino acid chelate" which from what I've read, I think just means that it's the good kind that is well absorbed by the body. The brand I got is "Bio-Recovery" but I think that any brand of the type listed above should work similarly.

It should also be noted that I am a coffee lover-- however I limit myself to two big cups per day and don't drink any past 2 or 3 pm at the latest.

Anyway I've been sleeping great lately so hopefully this info helps.

As for bac SE's, in my experience they will go away and you'll start to feel better. Sticking with it is valuable cuz the SE's go away but you'll feel great once living sober and not drowning in booze.

[lewis123]

started with baclofen..

Hey,

it's been 2 weeks or so since i posted here. And since 2 weeks i've stopped taking baclofen. And everything it's just like it was before. I have cravings every evening, and i drink / smoke pot every evening.

I do feel bad actually, every morning i say to myself that it has to stop.

Actually i don't know what to say here, but can someone give me advice on what i can do or try?

Every night i drink a couple of beers, and i smoke marijuana, every morning i feel bad and tired, but in the afternoon i feel fit again and than the craving starts again.

The reason that i quit baclofen is because i felt sooo insanely tired during the day and my sleep at night was horrible. I'm already thinking of trying baclofen again but i think the SE will be just the same.

So i don't know what to say more, i just wanted to post here again and hope someone can give me some advice or thoughts.

I just wish there was a medicine like baclofen without the SE. Because it worked so well for me on such a low dose.

[Xadrian]

started with baclofen..

Hey Lewis,

You could try taking 5 mgs just before sleep for 3 days or so.
If you don't get severe SE's, you titrate up to 10 mgs just before sleep for 3 days or so, and so on.
If you experience severe SE's, stay at that dose until the SE's subside.

If you take your whole day dose just before sleeping, chances are you will not have the daytime tiredness or at least not that severe.
You were only at 30 mgs if I am right, isn't it? Should be no problem to eventually take that in 1 dose.

[kronkcarr]

started with baclofen..

lewis123,

It's good to see you posting. I like X's idea. Let us know your results if you do it. What a shame that you're back where you started. 😁