Baclofen advice required

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Hasn't the Baclofen successfully treated your anxiety as well as alcoholism though Ne? you've been on Bac a long time havent you?

I relapsed in Dec 2014. I went down from my maintenance dose of 220mg to 80mg for about a year before I relapsed. Don't do that! Ha. I've been titrating up for the last several months. If you want to read all about it, you can check out my thread. https://www.mywayout.org/community/me...thread-ne.html
I've posted about it on other threads, as well. I think the relevant info is probably in the last two or three pages, just if you're interested.

I don't know that baclofen effectively treated my underlying anxiety as much as seeing a doctor, exercising, meditating, peer support and/or getting other help for it might work. It's not, in my opinion, the best choice for anxiety relief. But it sure does work wonders with alcoholism relief!

[Danathos]

Oh, see I'm not feeling very interested in drinking except as anxiety relief, much the same as Ameisen. I'm desperately hoping it will drastically reduce the anxiety eventually too

[knobert]

Hey Dan

I saw your thread. Ne is right. Don't rush it. Dr. A escalated every three days but his side effects had disappeared by then.
When I would escalate and had a side effect(for me usually somnolence and tingling in my forearms, hands and feet), they would usually go away by three days. But like Ne says, be patient. If the side effect hasn't diminished, don't escalate until it eases.
Dr. A increased 20 mg at a time. For me I found that 15 mgs was better.
Also, if you have been sick and withdrawing, you are probably under nourished. I did a lot of homework when I went through it. Make sure you get nourishment. No chips or junk food. Eat real food if you can. If not, broths, soups and vegetables until you can. Also a good multivitamin with minerals can't hurt. Make sure it covers all the B vitamins. I took 2 a day, morning and night. Their inexpensive. Also, stay hydrated. Lots of water and juices. I also drank a lot of milk, not just for the liquid but more for the protein.
For the anxiety, what helped me was valerian root capsules. They helped me take the edge off. They can make you drowsy
use caution during the day. I always took at least 2 at night. They will help you sleep and you won't wake up in a fog. They are also inexpensive.
The main thing is to get time behind you. Like Ne says---patience.
One more neat thing about the baclofen, when you escalate and the somnolence hits you, if you take a nap, you wake clear headed, no fog and refreshed. It's great. Dr. A made note of this in his book.
When I escalated, I went up to 350 mgs, but I'm not sure I had to go that high. I think I reached indifference before then.
I'm not saying that to alarm you. You could be far less. It's different with everyone.
Also, I took L-Glutamine powder for awhile. It helps with the withdrawls and the anxiety.
These are just recommendations but they helped me.
Keep posting
Try to get good rest
Be patient

Hang in there
Knobert

[Stevo]

Hi Danathos,
i saw your post earlier and thought I might be able to contribute here.This is from a post that I just made in another thread,I have just copy and pasted the relevant part here for you to read.
Hopefully it may help.

...and for you Ne,I am leaving for my mothers on the 29th of this month.I am still quite anxious about it,if there is anything that really gets to me it is dealing with my family.I left their vicinity 16 years ago and have only ever gone back for weddings and funerals.It took me 5 years to go back there the first time.
I have to say though that my anxiety is much less now thanks to bac than it has been previously,I used to not be able to sleep for days after being contacted by any of them.One of the things that interested me about bac was that Dr A was using it for his own anxiety,I related completely to his story lol,other than him being an accomplished doctor ha.These days they can call,which has been happening a lot since mum got sick and I don't do my head in about it.The anxiety is not completely gone but it is much easier to handle.
I saw on your progress thread that someone is talking about its use for anxiety,for me it has been amazing.I will have to post on your thread to let that person know my experience.
Seriously my psychologist asked me a few years ago,"on a scale of 1-10 on an average day where do you think you are anxiety wise?"I said,"I don't know maybe a 3 or 4."He laughs and says to me,"on a good day you are a 6 or a 7."
These days he is blown away with how calm I seem when I walk into his office,he usually says these days,"since you are doing so well we don't need to make another appointment,just call me when you need to."
I have known him for years now and when he first met me I was a ball of stress,I couldn't sit still and was constantly fidgeting.Now we just sit and chat he has told me that he will be doing some research into baclofen when he is finished studying whatever it is that he researching at the moment due to the change that he has seen in me.
I guess I have found it to be very good for my anxiety.

Cheers Stevo.

[Mom21961]

Calms Forte

For anxiety, the Calms Forte mentioned in Roberta Jewel's book works wonders. My non-alcoholic husband uses it during the day when work stresses him out. He doesn't find it sedating. It's kind of like an all natural Xanax. I get it off of Amazon and it's inexpensive. I've also used it as a sleep aid (I take three and add 3mg of melatonin) as my alcohol use is diminishing. I would highly recommend it! This link is for a three pack which is the cheapest, but if you want just one bottle, search for calms forte on Amazon and it will come up.

Amazon.com: Hyland's Calms Forte Sleep Aid Tablets, Natural Stress Relief Sleep, 100 Count (Pack of 3): Health & Personal Care

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Baclofen definitely decreased my anxiety, especially in the beginning. But so did not drinking and not desperately craving a drink. Hard to separate those two things. Still, it had a remarkable influence. I stopped being startled every time my husband entered a room quietly. More notably, I stopped being irrationally scared of spiders. I can now actually kill them. Or leave them alone. Neither of which had happened in the 40 years before baclofen. I'm not even being funny. I was seriously irrationally scared of many things and baclofen helped.

That said, I don't think it's main purpose, at least long term, is as an anxiolytic. In other words, I think I started to experience anxiety again when the newness of sobriety and indifference wore off. But I definitely titrated down pretty quickly, and didn't take enough for a long time, so who knows? Maybe someone with more consistency than I experienced will chime in with what their experience is after a couple or more years?

Either way, I'm super glad it's working so well for you. I'm still amazed at the difference indifference made and makes in my life. I think one of the reasons people have such a hard time believing that baclofen works the way it does is because when we are drinking against our will, it is absolutely inconceivable to think there will be a time when we just don't feel like drinking. Or think about it. Even if we have a drink.

It's a shocking development, and many people don't trust that it's true. But it is, and I'm glad you are experiencing it.

[nicnak68]

When I had my 16 days of indifference I didn't notice any lessening of my anxiety in fact I was very tense.I felt like I needed a very very hard massage on my shoulders and head,will book in for an Indian head massage if it happens again when I titrate up high enough

[Danathos]

I do desperately hope it does deal with my anxiety sufficiently too.... I'm taking 140mg a day now and I'm wondering if it will....

[Stevo]

I would have to agree with Ne about taking drinking out of the equation helping with anxiety too.I drink on the weekends and do have anxiety much higher on the days after drinking than the days that I don't.
There was almost a euphoric period for about 6 months when I believe that I had reached indifference,which is no longer with me now.
I still feel that I am in a much better place than before.
The period of abstinence I had prior to bac was a much more anxious time for me than post bac.

[neophyte]

I found that Baclofen did not resolve my anxiety. Staying off alcohol long term will help resolve some anxiety that was associated with alcohol, however i found my anxiety just where it was before I started drinking without any relief. I tried numerous anti depresants and combinations of them, finally found Escitalopram to be the best one so far that helps the most. Give them a go, often it takes trying many different medications to find the right one, they all work a little differently. My anxiety while tritating up in baclofen was higher however I was also drinking during that time and the hangovers were much worse.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Danathos, as the saying goes...your mileage may vary.

What I can assure you is that the anxiety your experiencing now--the panicky, fraught, overexposed, every nerve synapse firing kind--will stop. I definitely had it happen when titrating up, but I can count on one hand the number of times it's happened since then, 5 years ago. Most of which had to do with falling into the pits of depression. (Depression, too, is to be avoided. )

Truth is, nothing in my life has ever been harder than titrating up on baclofen EXCEPT drinking against my will every day. I thank my lucky stars I found baclofen.

Even though I'm drinking again, it is NOTHING like what it was like when I started baclofen. I neva eva want to go through that again. And I won't, because I will do anything to avoid that level of anxiety, fear and desperation.

Baclofen works, Danathos. Hang in there.

[nicnak68]

I'm new to Baclofen as only started in September and only took 16 days to reach indifference but that only lasted 16 days as I titrated down to fast.I had every SE going up the first time and really thought to myself if it was really worth it.But this time round I'm up to 120mg a day and have had only slight tingling in my hands,so tiredness in the day yet which was the worst thing last time.And no falling asleep at the drop of the hat in bed and major snoring lol

[Danathos]

At the moment I'm not feeling like drinking even though there is booze in the house, my problem is anxiety sapping my courage to go out and live and I'm utterly miserable, feel Like I'm not interested in anything at all, like l never be happy again. On the plus side I've been somnolent for the past few days, but then I've been on sleep medicine too

[knobert]

Dan

I'm glad to here you are doing better. I enjoyed the rest also as it is hard to get any sleep from the anxiety from not drinking.

That is why it's important to be well nourished. It helps everything including anxiety. It won't jump out at you like WOW, I feel better, but I have gone through it under nourished and not and trust me it makes a difference.

Have you tried anything else for the anxiety? As I said in my earlier post, Valerian Root helped me some, and it's affordable.
Your first post was on the 13th. You may still be withdrawing. Are you still not drinking? Hopefully, a few more days and it might ease somewhat.

What's your bac level? How are the SEs?

You do sound a little better.

Hang in there
It's worth it

Knob :thumbsup:

[Danathos]

I'm currently taking 140mg a day in 4 doses. I do feel a bit better but anxiety is still a problem for me, though I am functioning somewhat better
And anxiety is much reduced. Still getting night sweats and occasionally waking up in a bit of fear but again, I'm managing. I don't feel like drinking at all. I just don't want to.