My Baclofen experience so far

[TimberTim]

My Baclofen experience so far

Hey man, hang in there! I don't understand anxiety, but I do take an anti-depressant for mild to moderate depression. But, I can see how being out of work for that long will do that to you. It helps to hang with people that don't drink or have had similar issues.

I see your from "north of Ireland". What do you think of the Scotland vote?

[Rand all]

My Baclofen experience so far

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[TimberTim]

My Baclofen experience so far

Do you think that could happen in Ireland or Wales?

[Rand all]

My Baclofen experience so far

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[Rand all]

My Baclofen experience so far

Sleep is becoming hard to come by. Sitting here... 3.30 am... Been basically up from about one.I couldn't be arse even turning the TV on. I had a few glasses of wine last night which I think hasn't helped. Gotta just get a grip and go AF. I can't get drunk no more and its absolutely pointless in having 2 to 3 glasses over 5 hours even its only gonna f** k with my sleep. The baclofen is the culprit but at least I was getting unbroken sleep from around 10pm to maybe 4 am. This is brutal. I'm not one of those people who can get up and go about there business. Partly because I live with my parents and younger sister who I give shit for being up at all hours and keeping me up I just sit and stare at the celling.

I've upped to 200mg as of yesterday. A lot of me SEs have calmed down thankfully. I'm gonna be ordering a new batch tomorrow and I'm gonna order some antabuse while I'm at it. A couple of weeks AF is what I need. The cravings have more or less gone but that old voice is still eating away at me even though its only a drink here and there. The thing is I really like being AF now and those couple of drinks I can feel the next day or more so when I'm lying a wake like now feeling like shit.

Something I've noticed is that I'm having trouble shifting a bit of weight I've gained over the last few months when I was drinking. It usually falls right off when I stop. I'm sittings at 182lb but when I'm not drinking I'm usually dropping to the mid 170s or lower. 182 is the heaviest I've ever been. My diet is fine. I'm in no way eating enough that I should be gaining weight. It should be coming off if anything. I'm back running and have been walking for Ireland every day so its a bit strange. I'm 6ft so its not a big deal. I remember when I was on naltrexone and still drinking maybe 4 to 5 beer every night I was down to 168.

Anyway not worry. One thing at a time. Booze first... Worth about weight at a later date:

[TimberTim]

My Baclofen experience so far

You're doing great, Rand!:goodjob: I know the sleep thing sucks. I have the same problem too. But, I slept really good last night and took a nap this afternoon. Who knows how tonight will be. I have noticed that the better I sleep, the less the side effects affect me. If I don't sleep very well, the SE's are worse. Drink plenty of water! I also notice that my weight increases while on bac, too. But you're right...booze first, weight later.
Take care, dude!

[Ne/Neva Eva]

My Baclofen experience so far

The vote for independence in Scotland was really interesting. I learned more about the UK from that than any history class I've ever taken. (Though, come to think of it, I've never taken a European history class. Sad but true. Just so you don't think I'm a complete idiot, when I had a choice I studied Asia. And I majored in Latin American women's history the first time I went to college. Fat lot of good that did me. :H)

Anyway. Things seem to be progressing for you! I can attest to the fact that drinking anything makes me feel wonky. My sleep isn't as good and if I drink more than a glass of wine, I definitely feel it the next day. Part of it is that I'm not accustomed to drinking anymore. Part of it is my age (44) and I'm sure I don't process alcohol well. And part of it is probably bac. (I can credit baclofen for the sobriety for sure, since I drank daily for 25 or so years and couldn't quit for more than a couple of weeks at a time except when I was in rehab.)

Great that you're exercising. I really got into that when I got sober and I think it made a huge difference in my well-being. As an aside, I took this summer off from school and socializing and it was a big mistake. I wish I'd forced myself to get out and about even though it would have been very difficult. Is there something you're interested in doing outside of the house that wouldn't add to the anxiety? Something organized? (I find that the purely social kinds of things really make me uncomfortable...Much better for me to do things that are structured.) Do you have dog or cat rescues where you can volunteer? Do you even like dogs or cats? (If you say you don't like dogs, I'll try not to hold it against you. )

Gotta run. Hope you're having a nice day.

[Rand all]

My Baclofen experience so far

There's nothing like a good unbroken sleep Tim

I spend most of my youth on drugs of one kind or another and I know all to well what its like to go days without sleep praying just to fall off just for a few hours. I got really caught up with benzo abuse a few years back and that was as worse as it could get where insomnia is concerned. Your talking weeks with an hour or two here and there if your lucky. I've never really fully recovered from that. Benzos work the opposite for me like they do for most. They actually keep me awake but I've heard this before from past abusers. My receptors are fried. I really did go all out and did a lot of shit I'm not proud of and more or less missed out on a good few years. Just yesterday my mum was rearranging my younger sister room as shes off to university and I happened to mention to here.. "Is that a new bed you got?" She looked at me in horror and replied "I bought that 5 years ago... You sold me it and delivered it when you worked in the furniture shop!!!" This is nothing new though.

My younger sister can sleep for 12 hours straight and my older sisters son can sleep through a whole day with a quick pit stop for a sandwich


The strange thing about this Bac carry on is that by around 8-9pm I'm like a zombie. Your think I was nodding out on opiates. By 10pm I can't keep my eyes open and I'm out like a light! Sadly I'm back up at 1am and if I'm lucky I'll get back to sleep to 4ish. A couple of beer or a few glasses of wine and unfortunately that's me up from 1am for good.

I'm just back from a decent bike ride so the tiredness isn't effecting me to much. Hopes all's well on your front

[Lostinspace]

My Baclofen experience so far

Hey Randall. That's so awesome to hear how well things are going for you with the drinking anyway, though the lack of sleep definitely sucks. I know that feeling when you start to drink way less and wonder "is that even considered drinking?" It's a wonderful place to be and shows that you're close to the goal of indifference. Doing a few days AF may very well be the nudge you need to push past that habit part and let the indifference set in. But more importantly for now, as you've kind of figured out, it can help a lot with the sleep. I know my sleep improved dramatically with each drop in alcohol. When I was drinking 24/7, I could barely sleep at all. When I dropped down to only drinking a small amount at night, I fell asleep easier, but woke up constantly throughout the night. It was only when I stopped drinking any amount that I was able to sleep through the night.

It's great to hear that you're getting into exercise so much, too. I'm not nearly as ambitious as you are - I haven't been running and my walks aren't as long, but walking has been such an important part of starting to feel alive again after living like a zombie for so many years. And it seems that pretty much everyone here who continues to be happy long into their bac journey credits exercise as being a big part of it.

And it's good that you're not worrying about the weight thing for now. It really will sort itself out with time. I had something similar happen. When I dropped from constant drinking to only drinking a fraction of that amount at night, my weight stayed about the same. Granted I was eating more, as I was barely eating at all when I was drinking heavily. But I wasn't eating enough to make up for the extreme drop in booze calories. Then when I stopped drinking entirely (outside of the odd night here and there), my weight dropped ten pounds within a month. Much like you, I was never overweight to begin with, but I was at my highest weight ever and felt more comfortable dropping a few pounds. My point is, your body is adjusting to huge changes on all fronts, both with the drop in alcohol and the addition of bac. Eventually it will regulate and the weight will come off.

[TimberTim]

My Baclofen experience so far

That sleep pattern sounds like me! I crash at about 10:30, then I'm up from 1 - 3, then I might get a couple of hours before I get up at 6:00 am. It sucks, because then I'm tired during the day. It's really hard if I have to drive anywhere far. I can barely stay awake for more than 10 minutes! Then I need to pull over and rest my eyes for 15 min.

NE, my wife and I have six dogs, all rescued from various shelters around Los Angeles! Two Chihuahua's, two "white" dogs (we call them the cream team), and two beagles. Never a dull moment around here, unless it's afternoon nap time!:alf:

[Rand all]

My Baclofen experience so far

Hey guys...

I'm really struggling with this sleep shit. I held off going to sleep until around 11pm earlier thinking that would be late enough. Here I am sitting up writing this and its not even 1am ffs. I'm literally like a walking zombie. I know it the Baclofen really kicking in as I feel that buzz all through my body but its working and I have no intention of titrating down. I guess I'll have to just ride it out and hope for the best.

All other SEs have more or less subsided even the gasping for air which was troubling me with my getting to sleep. The sexual issues are still there but I put it down to my body being hopped up on Bac. I'm sure it will settle now I think 200 might be the dose that is working for me and I can now settle at it and let my body start to adjust.

I'm thinking about Zolpidem a a last resort. Just for a day here and there. I'm just worried that they might not work because of my history with benzos and that they basically don't work for me anymore. I remember taking them about 5 years ago (yeah recreationally you guessed it) and I sleep for 24 hours straight and actually pissed myself!

I really need sleep this is getting beyond the joke guys.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

My Baclofen experience so far

Yep. Sleep is very important to the whole getting sober and being content thing. No doubt baclofen messes it up.

So other than meds, what things have you done or could you do to help with the sleep thing? I can't really speak from experience about this subject because I have sleep issues. Very frustrating. Of course, I haven't really done anything about it, other than whine. There are many things to try, though. My guess is that you may have to try a bunch of them, or switch it up. I wonder, too, if sleep isn't so important that it's worth going down a bit and then going back up? Again, I don't know the answer to this. But pushing through really onerous side effects is not always the answer. And sleep is very important. We underestimate the importance, I think.

What do you think? And perhaps you can sleep on it? haha. Sorry. But really, if you read this tonight, try not to answer. The computer/phone/online thing is really bad for sleep.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

My Baclofen experience so far

So much activity on this thread today! I didn't read all the way back...

Wait, Randall, are you drinking? I thought you weren't. (at least not regularly, right?) And we often forget to take into account that new sobriety goes hand-in-hand with sleep disturbance. Anyway. I also often get up in the middle of the night for an hour or two. I don't recommend it, but it works okay. I really need to do something about my own sleep issues. Are you sleeping well, Lost?

Tim, my beloved Goose died several months ago. (She's the one in my avatar.) We got a husky puppy in June. I can't wait for her to grow up. :H We actually bought her, about which I feel ridiculously guilty. There were several reasonable reasons for the decision, but still it makes me feel badly. She'll get a brother or sister soon-ish and from a rescue. Sorry to hijack the thread with this all important bulletin.

[Rand all]

My Baclofen experience so far

I wouldn't call it drinking Ne. I had 2 glasses of wine a few days last week. Just cause I could but I literally just sipped over them. Regarding sleep. I can't really think of much more I can do. I'm literally so tired i m having trouble keeping my eyes open. I've been exercising like mad as well. I'm dosing 7/11/3/7. I had been dosing 8/11/2/5 and might go back too that. Once I settle at a steady dose I might switch to a 3 dose schedule.

When I do get to sleep and wake up soon after its like I'm snapped right out of it and I've absolutely no way of getting back off again. I don't drink caffeine as it totally ruins me for the rest of the day. A cup of coffee and I'd have to lie down wrecked with anxiety.

i don't think dropping down at this stage would make much of a difference. I've been having trouble since around 150 and tbh the upside of the reduction in cravings trumps not being able to sleep. That coming from me is a big statement. No one enjoys their sleep like I do!

[TimberTim]

My Baclofen experience so far

NE, I see the husky. Cute and very smart dogs. They are pretty independent, too. We had two of them growing up. One of them got out and took off, never to be seen again. The other was a real killer. He used to eat our chickens! I think after the 3rd chicken dinner, my dad got rid of him.

Rand All, I feel for you man! I think I'll sleep pretty well tonight. Played golf today, didn't drink anything, and I slept like crap last night. So, I can feel a good slumber coming on. I have tried a number of drugs for sleep. Currently, my wife has a script for Xanax and that's not too bad. I have tried bennedril, antihistamines, and herbal stuff. Melatonin sometimes works well. Sometimes ice cream works well!

I guess just try some additional herbal things. Valerian Root works sometimes. That's all the advice I have. You will sleep one of these days.
Tim