im new and confused with baclofen

[Fast twitch]

Hi all,

Im new to this site, I did my own research few weeks back and decided to order Baclofen online. Im not a daily drinker but drank maybe 3-4 night week, get my cravings only in evening. but when i start i find it hard to stop. I was worried it would turn into daily, I wanted to take baclofen to drink less, i read that was hopible, and ive found it is however.....

the first few days i was taking 10mg x3 times a day. every night i drank bottle wine , (to see if it had any effect) prob an excuse to drink tho haha! any way no change. then i upped it to 20mg x 3 times day. BIG DIFFERENCE!!! it took me 4-6 hours to drink 1 bottle wine. i was still getting a buzz out of the wine not as much as usual but i really felt like i could be a normal ish drinker. if i could manage to drink just weekend a bottle over 6 hours to me seemed fine. then on wednesday just gone, I then upped my dose to 3x30mg in morn and 3x30mg in afternoon. about an hour later, i was so drowzy and sleepy thank god i was not in wrk i slept through it feeling totally off my head and a bit depressed. felt pretty horrible couldnt believe i was putting my self through this to stop drinking. I felt bit better in evening, i could only manage 1 glass wine, it had no high at all. waste of time, i put it down to the fact i wasnt feeling well with the sudden higher dose. the next night i didnt drink at all ( i was sooooo happy , this is what i want during week) so on friday i went back down to taking only 2 tabs just in morning . didnt feel as sleepy, but when i went to drink on the friday night ( the night i wanted to drink) i still felt nothing no high, it was bit disappointing, yester day i took 20mg in morning again, and last night tried to drink and still felt nothing, i feel disappointed as ive still the urge to get drunk , but i cant get anything out of it. i thought i could keep a low dose and maybe just reduce my drinking but it seems to have taken away all affect completely. I haven't takin anything this morning, not sure what to do, I feeling is almost like being a dry drunk, still wan to get drunk but cant. i read ppl saying they could still have few drink and then stop, thats wat i can do now, but whats the point if the few drink do absolutely nothing for u. there no relief. any one any experience of this is there a way to take a low dose and still get bit of buzz from it, or do i just keeping upping to when they say i wont crave it any more ?
when i was bout 1 week in i was enjoying drinkin still but didnt drink as much but , this completely no feeling at all is depressing.
does everyone completely loss all the high, but just drink anyway??? i dont see the point its just empty calories

p.s anyone know any doc in sydney that will prescribe it , as im ordering it from over seas so expensive and takes 2 weeks

[Molly78]

I think you have to just keep upping the does until you no longer want to drink. Part of your problem is habit - you are used to looking forward to an evening of drinking now & again. If you still get the same buzz from drinking, you will go on doing it, looking forward to it etc.

Just my view. Based on the fact that I had the same problem, the "reward" of a few glasses of wine at the end of a working day. It's taking me up to quite high doses (currently 200mg daily) to get rid of this, plus trying to substitute a new evening routine which doesn't involve wine.

You seem to be going up & down very fast. Have you read the presccibing guide for baclofen? The link is on the bottom of other people's posts, I will try to find it for you.

[Molly78]

Found it. Go to one of neophyte's posts - s/he has put the link at the bottom. S/he replied to you on your other thread.

[Mom21961]

Here you go:

Prescribing Guide for Baclofen in the Treatment of Alcoholism-Final Version

Also... A helpful post recently from serenity:

https://www.mywayout.org/community/medication-research-and-support/92103-starting-baclofen.html#post1646558

I would say you're titrating up and down too quickly. If you start again very slowly and don't change your dose so quickly, I think you will get to the place you want to be.

[Fast twitch]

Here you go:

Prescribing Guide for Baclofen in the Treatment of Alcoholism-Final Version

Also... A helpful post recently from serenity:

https://www.mywayout.org/community/medication-research-and-support/92103-starting-baclofen.html#post1646558

I would say you're titrating up and down too quickly. If you start again very slowly and don't change your dose so quickly, I think you will get to the place you want to be.

hi mom2jtxs,
thanks for that. why is it not not good to go up quicker, if im not getting any bad side affects,? would it not mean i would get there quicker therefor hit my switch earlier, so wont need to spend as long miserable bout fact i cant get an afffect from the alcohol

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Hi, Fasttwitch. I'm going to jump in on that question.

You can't really predict the side effects. So while you may not have any at one level, you may get them at another. Plus, it gives your brain, your body and (most importantly) your mind time to wrap around the idea that you're not going to be drinking every day. That's a lot of time to fill up! Some of us have found it's a difficult transition.

How much baclofen are you taking now? For how long? And remind me, how much do you drink and for how long?

[Mom21961]

hi mom2jtxs,
thanks for that. why is it not not good to go up quicker, if im not getting any bad side affects,? would it not mean i would get there quicker therefor hit my switch earlier, so wont need to spend as long miserable bout fact i cant get an afffect from the alcohol

FT.. I asked that very same question about titrating up more quickly in the post below. :happy2: There is lots of good advice on there.

https://www.mywayout.org/community/medication-research-and-support/91480-baclofen-dosage-increase-slow.html

Mom2JTx3

[Eloise]

why not see a doctor for advice?

[Ne/Neva Eva]

why not see a doctor for advice?

Generally, Eloise, doctors don't know. I see that you're from the Netherlands. There are doctors there that prescribe high dose baclofen. There are some in the US, but mostly in major metro areas. Two that we know about in the UK (outside of the NHS system, of course). There are a couple I've heard about in Australia, but I have no idea where they are. Same with Germany.

France is the only country that has adopted, and is implementing, high dose baclofen for the treatment of alcoholism. We do have several papers written by some of the leading addiction specialists in that country, so we use that as a guideline to help those of us in places where HDB hasn't been adopted.

I see that you've been sober for 18 months or so (congratulations!) but if you're asking because you want to try baclofen, I'd suggest calling around to addiction specialists. I know of several in Rotterdam, and I know there are some in other places, too.

If you're asking out of curiosity, hopefully I've helped to answer the question.

[Fast twitch]

Hi, Fasttwitch. I'm going to jump in on that question.

You can't really predict the side effects. So while you may not have any at one level, you may get them at another. Plus, it gives your brain, your body and (most importantly) your mind time to wrap around the idea that you're not going to be drinking every day. That's a lot of time to fill up! Some of us have found it's a difficult transition.

How much baclofen are you taking now? For how long? And remind me, how much do you drink and for how long?

Hi Neva,

ok i see what u mean. Im a binge drinker, currently i drink 1 bottle wine bout 3-4 nights a week, i try not to go out because if i was at a bar i would probably not stop till i fell down! i try to have bit of control, but is lonely and isolating way to drink. I started drinking at 12 years old, at 28 i got sober in AA and stayed sober for almost 6 years. the personalities and control and judge ment got too much for me in there , and i left a year later i was drinking at weekends again, ive tried several times over the last 3 years to go back to AA, but i only last few months i cant stand the ppl in there, (sorry if that sound offensive but it really is how i feel, apart from a few nice ppl i found majority really unwell and acting out in other addictions anyway). So now im tryin bac because my drinking at weekends is starting to spill over a bit into some week days and also im drink full bottle of wine, sometimes more in one sitting. cant just have 2 glasses. any way yes i did go up fast because i had relativly no side effects , just bit tired, and i noticed then at 40mg (2x20 morn, 2x20 afternoon) - the alcohol was starting to lose its affect, i was really depressing not being able to get drunk but still wanting to , so i upped it again to 60mg a day - drinking decreased to couple glasses a nite, still wanted to drink, more frustration. then uped to 90mg - got pretty bad side affect of sleepy drowsy, depressed went away after bout 4 hours. didnt drink at all -felt bit sick in the evening. i decreases my dose then partly because if the side affects but more because i was missing the affect so much and the evenings were soo long, now that i couldnt get drunk, my plan is to bring it down to 60ish and see if that keeps my drinking less with a little affect. ( prob not going to work tho) i feel like ill prob keep drinking , need to go back up on my dose, but just struggling with coming to terms with not getting any affect from alcohol, miss it so much, only thing that i want to do in the evenings , i go to gym every evening but once i get home from gym bout 8ish i start drinking some of the nights now , cus of the boredom and being lonely. what was ur experience on bac? so i should just keep going yeh? but slower ?

[Fast twitch]

FT.. I asked that very same question about titrating up more quickly in the post below. :happy2: There is lots of good advice on there.

https://www.mywayout.org/community/medication-research-and-support/91480-baclofen-dosage-increase-slow.html

Mom2JTx3

thanks for that just read it, some really good info, i think my prob is deep down i don't want to stop drinking - i want to be able to have a few and then stop and only on weekends, but i think this is impossible because on higher doses of back the affect is gone so i dont get any think out of the drinking . its depression. hard to get out of habit too

[Mom21961]

FT... I think you've hit the nail on the head. Many (most?) of us use drinking as a crutch. We use it to handle social anxiety, for entertainment, to hide from our feelings (big one for me) and yes, out of habit. I'm sure there are many other reasons. These are things we need to address when our craving for alcohol starts going away. Have you thought about talking to a therapist? I know many on here have found it helpful.

I think your experience of hitting indifference so quickly proves the assumption that the amount you drink pre-bac has a direct impact on your switch level. Thanks for sharing that.

I know you know that alcohol is not the answer to our problems. It just creates more problems.

Best of luck figuring this whole thing out!

M