My baclofen journey

[Mentium]

Well the baclofen related threads seem to have gone quiet of late. It would seem that it is only the occasional flurry of forum drama that generates posts, which is a real shame. Makes one feel a bit isolated 'out here'. Still, one can't force people to post.

I'm going to 140 mg today after 130 for three days. It might be just a tad too soon, but I'm not experiencing any significant SEs and proportionally as a percentage increase it isn't much at all. Actually about the only SE (if it is an SE of course) is waking up an hour or so earlier in the morning. No bad thing though. I'm hoping the 'switch' isn't too far off now. I am still finding it hard to imagine but so many people have experienced it from my reading here and elsewhere on the internet that it would be foolish not to believe all their testimonies. I'm getting a bit impatient though. Patience has never been my strong point, at least in part because alcohol does that!

Nothing much else to add. Onwards!

[Ne/Neva Eva]

I was hoping you'd go up to 140mg today.

Actually, this board was never busier than when Spirit stopped posting. I have had two text messages from people who don't want to post because they're worried about Spirit's response and the ensuing drama.

Keep working on what you're working on...

And sorry to say, the switch can't be rushed. Your wine may start to taste bad. You'll forget where you left your glass. You'll forget to drink the last of it. All those things will come.

At one point, I was so excited when I started drinking less I started measuring what was left in my glass in the morning. Silly, but inspiring! lol

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Oh, the other thing is that it's Thanksgiving here in the US. Busy day for most people, with lots of family and things-to-do.

My parents were supposed to stay with us, but my husband's got the flu and they decided to stay away from Typhoid Ed, so they're staying with my aunt and uncle about 10 minutes away. We also postponed Thanksgiving until tomorrow, to give him a chance to feel better and hopefully be less contagious. We're a cautious crowd. ha. So I'm on my own today (poor guy still has to work, since he gave everyone else the holiday off) and therefore posting away...

[Lostinspace]

Mentium - Unfortunately, Ne's right that the recent flurry of activity that started when spirit took a break from the forum is the most action this forum has seen in a long time. But I also have to apologize because I haven't had the time to post recently. Things got busy at work again and I'm bringing work home with me. And now I'm on my way to my brother's house for the long holiday weekend and I might not have another chance to post until I get back. But I promise that when I get home, I will be more active again, and hopefully others who have been equally busy will also find time to start posting again.

Anyway, good luck with 140 mg. I hope it brings some positive change for you. And patience isn't anyone's strong suit. We all felt the same way you do when we were titrating up. It's hard as hell to not want to rush things, but it's ultimately better if you take your time. You'll definitely have fewer side effects and, perhaps even more importantly, you're giving your mind a chance to adjust to the idea of a non-alcoholic life. Use this time to think of things that you want to do, or try, once you have more free time (by virtue of not spending that time intoxicated). Take time to wrap your mind around a non-alcoholic lifestyle. And keep in mind that, in the grand scheme of things, the month(s) you spend working towards indifference really aren't that long. You'll get there soon enough.

[Mentium]

I feel as if I was a bit whiny in my last post, for which apologies.

And a happy Thanksgiving to all our American members!

[Ne/Neva Eva]

I didn't think your post was whiney.

Also, whining is allowed and sometimes even encouraged. Better here than in your real life. Your spouse has probably heard enough of it, ya' know?

And happy thanks-giving to you, too, Ment. Thanks for sharing your story and keeping your thread going. It's important to me.

[Molly78]

Well the baclofen related threads seem to have gone quiet of late. It would seem that it is only the occasional flurry of forum drama that generates posts, which is a real shame. Makes one feel a bit isolated 'out here'. Still, one can't force people to post.

I'm going to 140 mg today after 130 for three days. It might be just a tad too soon, but I'm not experiencing any significant SEs and proportionally as a percentage increase it isn't much at all. Actually about the only SE (if it is an SE of course) is waking up an hour or so earlier in the morning. No bad thing though. I'm hoping the 'switch' isn't too far off now. I am still finding it hard to imagine but so many people have experienced it from my reading here and elsewhere on the internet that it would be foolish not to believe all their testimonies. I'm getting a bit impatient though. Patience has never been my strong point, at least in part because alcohol does that!

Nothing much else to add. Onwards!

You'r right, the increases as you go up are proportionately less - 10mg to 20mg is a 50% increase, 130mg to 140mg is a less than 10% increase. This should make it easier to increase faster as you go up, but for some reason it doesn't seem to, based on what people post here. I don't know enough about pharmacology to work out why this should be so!

(Mentium, you & I will have to keep the place going while our cousins across the pond enjoy their holiday weekend!)

[Spiritfree]

Well the baclofen related threads seem to have gone quiet of late. It would seem that it is only the occasional flurry of forum drama that generates posts, which is a real shame. Makes one feel a bit isolated 'out here'. Still, one can't force people to post.

Fellow MWO members: would you really like to know what the real shame is? The real shame comes from people, just like Ment, NE, Lost, Otter, Fred and several others who converge on me like buzzards after a dead animal. The only time that the forum in the med section gets active is when you all begin your attacks on me -people want to read your attacks -it is not so boring. Most fail to even read my posts and threads because they believe that if the majority is attacking this 'fool' they must be right.

Many of you keep asking (several of you are the same person identifying yourself with different avatars) about Baclofen advice. There are literally thousands of posts relative to Baclofen on this site. All of these posts address the same issues over and over and over; titration rate, side effects, where to buy, who to prescribe, what is the 'switch', etc, and on and on and on. It truly does get boring reading the same questions and reading the same answers -right? Also, it is absolutely non-sense to think that one must slowly remove alcohol from their brain (unless seizures, etc lure) to become alcohol free. This is only an excuse to keep drinking until some miracle occurs and this miracle never occurs unless one is free of alcohol -period.

So, where does this leave the medication and support thread? Well, I suggest that people have to begin to share truthful, real information regarding medications and underlying symptoms to help each other eliminate alcohol from their lives. There are several threads in this part of the forum that share day to day personal struggles relative to life and I think that this is a good thing, but it is not relative to medications for alcoholism.

Ment, your new baclofen forum should be an absolute hit -no brain-er. Most all of us will steer people to your forum when you decide to go all in.
All of us need to help try and support your new site: Home | Ourwayout

[Mentium]

Please don't post in my threads. You are on ignore and I don't read them. I have seen enough of your posts in the first few weeks here to know you are a disturbed individual who has little if any interest in the welfare of people who come here seeking support and advice. You are a nasty piece of work.

[Spiritfree]

Mentium - Unfortunately, Ne's right that the recent flurry of activity that started when spirit took a break from the forum is the most action this forum has seen in a long time. But I also have to apologize because I haven't had the time to post recently.

Lost, you continue to support NE -whether she is right or wrong. I simply do not understand this logic. The med forum section only gets active when you guys attack me. When you stop posting on your thread, the forum really loses. The med forum needs the type of personal drama that you provide on your thread or the type of drama that witnesses the attacking of me (or a few others). Get real Lost. Sounds like you are beginning not to drink and are beginning to achieve success in changing your life. Your life drama drives the flurry so please get back to posting. (The poor is me, I am such a loser posts resonates with so many other alcoholics -keep posting these posts.)

[Spiritfree]

Please don't post in my threads. You are on ignore and I don't read them. I have seen enough of your posts in the first few weeks here to know you are a disturbed individual who has little if any interest in the welfare of people who come here seeking support and advice. You are a nasty piece of work.

Hi Mentium -you are not on my ignore list and I do read your posts. You are 100% correct -I do have mental issues that cause me to want to at least try and continue to offer people information relative to becoming free from alcohol and live happy-SOBER lives.

Ment -just a personal suggestion; stop blaming the Baclofen titration levels, the amount of posts to the forum, the skin rashes from Baclofen, etc. Take baclofen, stop drinking, change your life habits, and get on with life.

[Mentium]

Sadly SF has decided not to do the decent thing. I don't know what he is posting but please 'don't feed the troll' as the saying goes. Positive support most welcome of course!

To return to the topic of this thread I'm on 140 mg today. The visual disturbances are pretty intense tonight. More than ever I would say. Flashing and flickering and quiet weird..and almost entertaining oddly enough. Otherwise all is well!

[terryk]

Good Mentium May God bless you ...

This is spam.

[Spiritfree]

Terry -if you truly want to be helpful to others, please keep bumping your own thread. What you wrote is very important for all who are trying Baclofen or considering taking Baclofen:

Terry K:
"Post "switch," my indifference has been effortless. My titration, however, was *definitely* not. I had very, very severe side-effects and wound up restrained in the ER and hospitalized for 5 days when I tried to increase my dose too high, too soon (recounted here). Increasing 20mg/week was too rapid for me and I settled closer to 10mg/week, and even then, day 2 after the increase was always a doozy, with intense hallucinations and shocks to my hands/fingers. All in all, it took 7 months of slow, steady titration for me to find indifference @280mg/day."

Now Terry, this is real and this can help. Stop hiding behind the words indifference and the pasting of long copied articles. Thank you.

[terryk]

EDIT: I have relocated my original reply to: https://www.mywayout.org/community/me...ml#post1647685

-tk