My Baclofen experience so far

[Randall]

Tomorrow will be the start of my fifth week on Baclofen. This is my forth time trying after a few haphazard experiences over the last year or so. I've been jumping up in doses of 25mg every 6 days or so but since 150mg I've started to go up in 12.5mg doses to try and keep the SEs at a minimum. I'm starting on 175mg today. I'm on a 4 dose schedule... 8/11/2/5.

All in all things are looking good. I'm not constantly thinking about drinking. When I say thinking I don't mean craving (I got that as well). I used to think about drinking from the moment I got up in the morning to the moment I went to bed (if I hadn't had a drink that is). It was pure mental torture and very exhausting. The darkness in me is still there and fighting but the Baclofen seem to be dulling the chatter out somewhat.

I'm still buying beer for no other reason than out of habit I guess and with the thought in the back of my head that I'd like to get drunk but I just won't happen. I tastes disgusting and I can't get past 3. I bought some Whiskey midweek to defeat this but struggled to drink 350ml in 12 hours. As I said above the chatter is still there but I finally seem to have a weapon on my side to tell it to f**k off. All this help hasn't really kicked in till about 150mg. The week before last I went on a 2 week bender of 24 hour destructive/blackout drinking. I then had the customary 4 day withdrawal which mixed in with the Baclofen wasn't nice at all. I now couldn't look at a bottle of vodka without wanting to throw up. I even tried to drink a can of Coke (mixer of choice) the other day and nearly threw up.

It hasn't been smooth sailing by any means. SEs include....

-Shortness of breath/Gasping for air. Especially after drinking something or at night trying to sleep. Scary buy I've had it before and knew what to expect.

-Intrusive thoughts heightened. As I say heightened as I have previous but they are really a lot worse. Non stop thinking about things out of my control. 90% negative. Once again worse at night.

-Sexual. Can't for the life of my "climax" for want of a better word and to make things worse my libido is through the roof

-Memory. My memory is terrible anyway (so bad you wouldn't believe) but I'm having trouble even remembering the day before.

- Sleepiness. Forget the proper word for this but at around 7pm I can't keep my eyes open.

-Sleep. I drop out light a rock but once I wake thats me up. Usually around 5am. Could be worse.

-Anxiety. Sadly Baclofen if anything makes my anxiety quite bit worse. Walking I get paranoid and when I get anxious my balance goes all out of whack as well (vertigo?)

All in all I've had every SE there is but the above ones are the worst. That being said I can deal with them all. Its a small price to pay for being off the booze (not quite but you know what I mean) I'd like to add that there is no way in hell that I could do this whilst drinking. I would have just been too hard. The added anxiety and all the other shit would have been way too much to handle. That's me so far. I'm hoping not to have to go too much further but I'll go as high as it takes. I thing it took my drinking to get way way out of hand to realize I'm in serious trouble if I don't sort it. I also realized I'm hopeless at going AF for any amount of time which scares me a lot. Benders get longer and the times in between get shorter.

Peace

[Ne/Neva Eva]

My Baclofen experience so far

Hi, Randall and welcome to the forum. Thanks for posting your experience so far. The side effects can suck, but they do dissipate. So glad that you are starting to feel free to make a choice about drinking (or not).

It's funny when the beverage of choice becomes toxic-tasting instead of intoxicating, isn't it?

Hope you'll keep posting.

[Randall]

My Baclofen experience so far

Ne/Neva Eva;1705539 wrote: Hi, Randall and welcome to the forum. Thanks for posting your experience so far. The side effects can suck, but they do dissipate. So glad that you are starting to feel free to make a choice about drinking (or not).

It's funny when the beverage of choice becomes toxic-tasting instead of intoxicating, isn't it?

Hope you'll keep posting.

Yeah I expect the SEs to subside once I get to a stable dose I think is working fully for me. I notice that they are worse after my 4th dose of the day and also for the first day or two after upping. This all make sense I suppose.

I honestly don't think I'll ever even look at vodka ever again without wanting to gag as long as I'm taking Baclofen. When it comes to having 2-3 beer.. I think after a while of doing this and realizing I'm just pissing against the wind, I'll get sick of it and drop that to.

[TimberTim]

My Baclofen experience so far

Hi Randal, Hi Neva Eva!

I used to be a wino (red) and now I can't stand the smell of it! Beer I can tolerate, but, like you, I wonder why I am even drinking it. A "two week bender"? Wow, that must be harsh. I hope you can stop doing that as you will continue to suffer.

Best wishes!
TimberTim

[TimberTim]

My Baclofen experience so far

Oh, and I have to say I don't have the anxiety that you have. Just the opposite! I find the bac relaxing, and it really helps with my bad back.

TimberTim

[Randall]

My Baclofen experience so far

Hey Tim...

Yeah the anxiety isn't a great SE but I'm getting by. Its the reason why I stopped the first few times. I take a benzo when its bad. Its really social anxiety like when I have to go out into the world like shopping or something

Benders aren't great that's for sure. I usually go at it 24 hour.. waking.. drinking.. blackout and repeat until my body gives out. 2 weeks is usually longer that I can go its usually 5-7 days. I end up in a really bad way.

[skullbabyland]

My Baclofen experience so far

Randall- thanks for posting and welcome. You sound like you already have experience with the SE's and know that they will go away, as much as they suck. That said, you're having great success if alcohol seems gross to you now. That means it's working! The anxiety can be dealt with later, and will get better the more sober time you have. That's what happened for me. Anxiety, especially social anxiety, is still a challenge but much much less so now as a sober person on bac than when drinking. It gets better, just keep going! Well done and best of luck!

[Lostinspace]

My Baclofen experience so far

Hi Randall :welcome: I'm so glad to hear that the baclofen is starting to work for you. And yes, the side effects will subside with time. Just a suggestion - if your side effects are the worst after your fourth dose, you might want to try spacing out the doses a little more. Right now you're taking it only three hours apart. The half life of baclofen is two to four hours, so if you're taking it three hours apart, you still have half of the previous dose in your bloodstream when you take the next dose. The level in your bloodstream will thus continue to get higher and higher throughout the day. Then after your last dose, you're waiting a full 15 hours before taking it again. This could explain both why you have trouble staying awake after 7 pm and why you can't sleep past 5 am - all the baclofen would be gone from your system by that point.

Granted, it's not a good idea to play around with the dosing too much or too often. You do want to stay consistent, and having it be at peak levels during the hours when you would normally be drinking is ideal, but spacing the doses further apart may help lessen the side effects for you. Anyway, that was a very longwinded suggestion - sorry! Keep posting and let us know how you're doing

[Randall]

My Baclofen experience so far

I tried the 7/11/3/7 schedule but I found that it messed with my sleep to much. I don't really want to start any earlier than 7am so its either the above or the 8/11/2/5 that I'm on at the minute. I don't think it would hurt to much trying both as they're fairly similar plans. I'll play it by ear. I think the peak plasma for baclofen is 1 1/2 hours so I'm not really to worried about the 3 hour gap in doses.

I think once I get to a level dose I'm happy with my body will adjust. I think its just with the ever increasing dose the body is reacting as it needs to. I'll up to 175 today. I totally forgot yesterday my memory has completely gone lol. I'm used to it though.

[hopefulinOz]

My Baclofen experience so far

Thanks for this Randall. I'm on 90 and have been thinking of giving up. Maybe I'll keep going.

[Randall]

My Baclofen experience so far

Keep at it if you can. I gave up 3 times going back to the start of 2013 and I wish I'd a stuck at it. My drinking (coincidence or not) from then has gotten way way worse and my health has suffered.

How are you at 90? Are you getting any kind of results? I was getting results (or so I thought) from as low as 50 but at around 100 I went on a crazy 2 week bender and drank my way through any results I was getting. The resulting detox gave me a 4 day window to bump up and from about 150 I've started to see some good results.

I know you hear it a lot but this shit is WAY easier if your not drinking. For me at least. I feel like absolute shit after drinking on Baclofen. Maybe if your not drinking to get wasted it might not be too bad but I was guzzling down beer and vodka to just get shit faced and black out then repeating as soon as I woke up.

[hopefulinOz]

My Baclofen experience so far

I feel less interested in drinking but not enough to overcome the habit.

[Rand all]

My Baclofen experience so far

Having some problems with the move. Forgot my old password ans as I used a fake email to sign up I've no way to get it back. So I've had to re register. On a positive note its nice to see you finally have to confirm your account through email. Might stop the spamming once and for all.

Anyways... Things are going as good as I could hope for. I did have a bottle of wine Tuesday and Wednesday. Didn't finish either and both were over a space of 5 hours so no biggy. Its only a bottle of wine afer a over 5-6 hours. Is that even classed as "drinking"??? I'm not a wine drinker and I also think my days of drinking beer are well and truly over, it really tastes f**king rank. I opened a can I can in the fridge the other day (unthinkable having beer in the fridge for me. I usually make sure I drink EVERTHING before blacking out) The though of any kinds of spirits also makes me want to gag so that hasn't even entered my mind.

I had some Clonazepam lying around. Well my mum did. I can't be trusted with benzos as I used to have a SERIOUS benzo problem with 2010-2012 being a total blank. I tied a few days with them to try and counter act the anxiety I was having. Didn't work out to cut a long story short. Since my "benzo days" I just can't be having that dozed out feeling like zombie. Along with the Baclofen I couldn't be arsed even getting up off the sofa ffs.I don't know what I ever seen in the tbh. But you here that a lot from folk who used to have a problem with them.

I still feel a bit off today and took something that my mum said to me to heart earlier. It was along the lines of... "did you up your dose in them (them being Baclofen) I took it worse than I should and held back. I felt like saying "well f**k it I'll just stop taking them sure and head over for a bottle of vodka and let the madness start all over again!" TBF it was all in my head and I did pull her about it and she said I didn't mean any thing by it I just know when you up your dose your eyes go a bit wonky lol. In all honesty it was the Cloanzepam but I didn't want to say. There's me being para again

I'm upping to 200 tomorrow. and will be trying to go AF to Monday at the earliest. TBH is has not been hard. I do still have that auto pilot feeling for the off sales but its a bottle of wine or 4 beer at most for f**k knows whatever reason it is my mind is thinking. I'm not to hung up on it though, it doesn't lead no where.

I've started running again. Twice a week (the buzz is up there with the best of any drug.. just so natural) with a 6 mile walk every other day and a bike ride thrown in on the odd day when I can be arsed getting it out of the shed Waking up in the morning sober is hard to explain to a "non" drinker. I've gave up boring them. They don't get it. Its like when I used to try and explain to those who have never experienced a drug comedown on how it feeling waking up on a Monday after a weekend of not taking drugs. I used to really get on my ex boss nerves for just being to f**king happy on those Mondays

[TimberTim]

My Baclofen experience so far

Good luck at 200mg, Rand all. I remember when I reached 240mg. I really wanted to quit, but Ne/Neva Eva called me on the phone and convinced me to stick with it. A couple days later (on a Friday), I decided to go for it and went up to 300mg. And that was when I knew I had reached indifference to alcohol. I had gone to the store and I had no cravings when I browsed the wine section (my vice at the time). I stayed at 300 for about 5 days, then tapered down to 150mg or so. After being at 300, 150mg was a walk in the park and still did not have the "white hot need" for alcohol. :goodjob:

[Rand all]

My Baclofen experience so far

I think (hope) I'm not far off. I think if I was working the thought wouldn't cross my mind. I just have WAY to much time on my hands and that come with WAY to much time to procrastinate and my mind starts to wonder. Without Bac though I'd be in my own little world of metal torture and would probably on my 3 can by now. I'd so much love to get back to work but I need to beat this first. I know if I got a job I'd get my first pay check and that would be that. Not so much for the money although that would be a bonus but just to get back to living and talking again. I probably talk to the same half dozen people every day and usually about the same things. I feel like life's just there waiting for me to grab it by the balls. I've been out of work more or less 4 years now and very rarely travel more than a radius of 3 mile from my home. The longer it goes on the more my anxiety plays up. I had to get a letter from my GP to get off with jury duty. No f**king was was that a possibility. I haven't even been on a f**king bus in over 3 years. How f**king messed up is that?

A lot of my SEs seem to be subsiding. The intrusive thoughts have slowed thank god, it was a biggie. I can deal with the others.