For those who have lost the switch from drinking everyday - Baclofen

[bleep]

For those who have lost the switch from drinking everyday - Baclofen

I think that I am coming at this from a view similar to terryk's. In the past when I have gone too low for whatever reason and had alcohol regain significance, the switch has remained a constant number, above which booze simply disappears as a feature. I don't think that you are tempting fate by testing the boundaries and it is worth finding out how low you can go. This necessarily involves inviting cravings back to the party, but if you are aware of what you are doing then it shouldn't be a problem.

Welcome to the forum Boodle.

[bleep]

For those who have lost the switch from drinking everyday - Baclofen

Also, as Ne points out in her post above, there is a range of indifference. For example I am completely indifferent at 240. However at that level I also lose all interest and desire for sex. I am not prepared to pay that price so I take 150 instead at the moment. At this level, the urge to party makes surprise but gentle appearances, but I am learning to recognise and control it. It is a trade off that is working well and has been doing for a while now, but it took a fair amount of playing around to find. I think that these balances can exist for a lot of people but if they give up too easily out of fear that they will drink or otherwise "mess up" then they potentially lose a remarkable ally.

[neophyte]

For those who have lost the switch from drinking everyday - Baclofen

bleep;1695798 wrote: Also, as Ne points out in her post above, there is a range of indifference. For example I am completely indifferent at 240. However at that level I also lose all interest and desire for sex. I am not prepared to pay that price so I take 150 instead at the moment. At this level, the urge to party makes surprise but gentle appearances, but I am learning to recognise and control it. It is a trade off that is working well and has been doing for a while now, but it took a fair amount of playing around to find. I think that these balances can exist for a lot of people but if they give up too easily out of fear that they will drink or otherwise "mess up" then they potentially lose a remarkable ally.

Perhaps 300mg is not my true switch then. But I really don't want to go higher for the reasons you mention.

When I consider my self indifferent, if I drink one or two drinks I won't want any more. the feeling of inebriation does not accompany a pleasurable feeling. In this scenario I'm drinking the wine for the taste, but once it starts to effect me, I don't want more.

If I keep drinking daily I noticed I drink more. Up to the point where it got to a whole bottle of wine and I start to experience some of the euphoria back from drinking. normally when I drink on baclofen after abstinence, the feeling of inebriation does not accompany a pleasurable feeling. This interests me, since perhaps something is occurring in the brain to release dopamine that overrides baclofen?

When I got to the point of a bottle of wine, I had excessive low self esteem negative thoughts, suicidal thoughts and my sleep was filled horrible dreams, when my alarm clock woke me up I about jumped out of bed in fright and i was filled with anxiety about trivial things. I call this "the fear". During my alcoholism this was my daily routine, wake up an anxious wreck, wait until drinking time, rinse and repeat.

At that point I realised I was slipping back into my old ways, so I took antabuse at a time of day before cravings would hit me. After a day or two, i no longer care about alcohol, my sleep returns to normal, my anxiety is reduced. Antabuse will just have to be part of my routine.

[Fred_The_Cat]

For those who have lost the switch from drinking everyday - Baclofen

You're doing better, spammer. I actually made it a whole sentence into that piece of shit.

I'm glad this thread came up. After accidentally drinking 10 units last month (true story- 16 ounce cans that I didn't realize were 7% until the next day), I had a scare and tracked my drinking. Over the past month it's amounted to about 10 units a week and always with days off at 50 mg. Had things gone to hell, they would have by now.

But my mood and sleep patterns were also deteriorating. Even drinking 2 beers made me wake at night in a very unpleasant state which went away by dosing 50 mg early instead of at dawn. A couple nights ago it happened even though I hadn't had anything to drink. That was scary.

I saw this thread and realized I probably cut too close with my maintenance dose. It took a long time and there were no apparent signs of trouble. I was still able to say no to alcohol but not with disinterest, and my mood, anxiety and sleep were going downhill whether I drank or not.

I upped from 50 mg to 62.5 yesterday (plus 3 days AF) and feel like a normal person again, particularly because I actually slept. It's strange that it wasn't alcohol explicitly that drove my dosage back up but anxiety and unease. I'll see how 75 feels and keep tracking drinking/cravings. 50 mg was very much manageable, but not optimal.

[Fred_The_Cat]

For those who have lost the switch from drinking everyday - Baclofen

You're doing better, spammer. I actually made it a whole sentence into that piece of shit.

I'm glad this thread came up. After accidentally drinking 10 units last month (true story- 16 ounce cans that I didn't realize were 7% until the next day), I had a scare and tracked my drinking. Over the past month it's amounted to about 10 units a week and always with days off at 50 mg. Had things gone to hell, they would have by now.

But my mood and sleep patterns were also deteriorating. Even drinking 2 beers made me wake at night in a very unpleasant state which went away by dosing 50 mg early instead of at dawn. A couple nights ago it happened even though I hadn't had anything to drink. That was scary.

I saw this thread and realized I probably cut too close with my maintenance dose. It took a long time and there were no apparent signs of trouble. I was still able to say no to alcohol but not with disinterest, and my mood, anxiety and sleep were going downhill whether I drank or not.

I upped from 50 mg to 62.5 yesterday (plus 3 days AF) and feel like a normal person again, particularly because I actually slept. It's strange that it wasn't alcohol explicitly that drove my dosage back up but anxiety and unease. I'll see how 75 feels and keep tracking drinking/cravings. 50 mg was very much manageable, but not optimal.