the thread was closed, but i just wanted to add a similar experience i had. i was taking 300mg a day in two split doses. i read about a member who took their dose all in one go at the beginning of the day. I decided to one day take my 300mg all in one go in the morning, instead of two 150mg doses split one at 6am one at 6pm.
I experienced something similar to TerryK, i was about to go to work but progressively felt dizzy, decided not to go to work and called in sick. i fell asleep on the couch, when i came to, I had no idea where i was, felt like i had lost touch with reality, i thought i was still living with my parents (i wasnt and hadnt been for years), I didnt recognise my surroundings in a house i had lived for, for over 2 years. it took some time maybe an hour for the panic to subside and to get an idea of where i was and what had happened. i had forgotten i had taken the full dose of baclofen when i was out of it. i realised after some time it was the drastic increase baclofen dose that did this to me.
I called my SO and she came home right away, throughout the day i felt like garbage, cant recall exactly how i felt but i kept drifting in and out of consciousness and by the end of the day i felt almost back to normal, the next day i felt back to myself. during the initial few hours i debated going to the hospital but managed to post on here and TerryK gave me some good advice and i decided to ride it out.
I decided to make this post, because its important to stick to a rigid titration schedule, stick to the prescribing guidelines as linked in my signature. when going up in dose in baclofen i was able to do 25mg every 4 days, once i got to 200mg i kept this up but the side effects became too much, i was seeing red dots, terrible sleep and unable to stay away during the day, from then on i increased much slowly, 25mg every week or 2 weeks depending on how i tolerated it until i got to 300mg.
listen to your body, baclofen is a safe drug, even in overdose you will be ok, but it can be scary, us early pioneers did some experiments like this on ourselves to get to the indifference level quickly as it takes months to get there, and it can get frustrating trying to reach indifference. TerryK was one of the earlier members to get on baclofen and i would probably have tried something similar, mistakes will be made out of frustration and that unfortunately we didn't have good medical guidance or none at all in the early days since this drug was so new to treat alcoholism. No one should judge TerryK for what he did, its understandable in that context. Bringing it up to attack him is deplorable and a nefarious way to attack a character who has done so much to bring great information to this website that we should all feel indebted to him.
When starting baclofen, many people will actually drink more initially, i was one of those, the reason i believe people do this is to try and beat the baclofen and get our old euphoria back. overtime you realise consciously/ subconsciously this wont work, the hangovers are worse, eventually you will stop drinking as you realise that drinking more wont help and you settle into a new life where you dont drink as much because it just doesnt work, drinking more makes you feel worse. this process took probably 3-4 months, it takes a long time to titrate up to your indifference dose depending on how bad your side effects are, again listen to your body. if the sides are too much, back off on dose and go up more slowly. I find it takes a week for acute side effects to go away and another week for you to return side effects not bothering you too badly, but your milage may vary.
Unfortunately, we still don't get the medical advice we need from doctors because alcoholism is not considered a true disease by doctors, rather an issue of a moral failure, so we get put into programs that dont solve the problem AA for example. Alcoholism is a disease, and there are known disease models for this addiction that I have articulated in my consolidated information thread. In my view, alcoholism is seen by many as a personal failure, not a disease, i like to this is probably analogous to how mental disorders were characterised 100 years ago. Time, studies and awareness will overcome this, which is why I created the subreddit Baclofen for Alcoholism as an information repository to help people understand that addiciton is indeed a disease and that baclofen can help in the case of alcohol.
i think this is important information to know for anyone considering high dose baclofen treatment. stick to a schedule, and don't try to fight the drug by drinking more. We don't have the medical advice we need often so we have to go it alone, i had to, and im glad i did, this community was the best resource at the time. unfortunately it was derided into what it is today, i need not go further into why.
I experienced something similar to TerryK, i was about to go to work but progressively felt dizzy, decided not to go to work and called in sick. i fell asleep on the couch, when i came to, I had no idea where i was, felt like i had lost touch with reality, i thought i was still living with my parents (i wasnt and hadnt been for years), I didnt recognise my surroundings in a house i had lived for, for over 2 years. it took some time maybe an hour for the panic to subside and to get an idea of where i was and what had happened. i had forgotten i had taken the full dose of baclofen when i was out of it. i realised after some time it was the drastic increase baclofen dose that did this to me.
I called my SO and she came home right away, throughout the day i felt like garbage, cant recall exactly how i felt but i kept drifting in and out of consciousness and by the end of the day i felt almost back to normal, the next day i felt back to myself. during the initial few hours i debated going to the hospital but managed to post on here and TerryK gave me some good advice and i decided to ride it out.
I decided to make this post, because its important to stick to a rigid titration schedule, stick to the prescribing guidelines as linked in my signature. when going up in dose in baclofen i was able to do 25mg every 4 days, once i got to 200mg i kept this up but the side effects became too much, i was seeing red dots, terrible sleep and unable to stay away during the day, from then on i increased much slowly, 25mg every week or 2 weeks depending on how i tolerated it until i got to 300mg.
listen to your body, baclofen is a safe drug, even in overdose you will be ok, but it can be scary, us early pioneers did some experiments like this on ourselves to get to the indifference level quickly as it takes months to get there, and it can get frustrating trying to reach indifference. TerryK was one of the earlier members to get on baclofen and i would probably have tried something similar, mistakes will be made out of frustration and that unfortunately we didn't have good medical guidance or none at all in the early days since this drug was so new to treat alcoholism. No one should judge TerryK for what he did, its understandable in that context. Bringing it up to attack him is deplorable and a nefarious way to attack a character who has done so much to bring great information to this website that we should all feel indebted to him.
When starting baclofen, many people will actually drink more initially, i was one of those, the reason i believe people do this is to try and beat the baclofen and get our old euphoria back. overtime you realise consciously/ subconsciously this wont work, the hangovers are worse, eventually you will stop drinking as you realise that drinking more wont help and you settle into a new life where you dont drink as much because it just doesnt work, drinking more makes you feel worse. this process took probably 3-4 months, it takes a long time to titrate up to your indifference dose depending on how bad your side effects are, again listen to your body. if the sides are too much, back off on dose and go up more slowly. I find it takes a week for acute side effects to go away and another week for you to return side effects not bothering you too badly, but your milage may vary.
Unfortunately, we still don't get the medical advice we need from doctors because alcoholism is not considered a true disease by doctors, rather an issue of a moral failure, so we get put into programs that dont solve the problem AA for example. Alcoholism is a disease, and there are known disease models for this addiction that I have articulated in my consolidated information thread. In my view, alcoholism is seen by many as a personal failure, not a disease, i like to this is probably analogous to how mental disorders were characterised 100 years ago. Time, studies and awareness will overcome this, which is why I created the subreddit Baclofen for Alcoholism as an information repository to help people understand that addiciton is indeed a disease and that baclofen can help in the case of alcohol.
i think this is important information to know for anyone considering high dose baclofen treatment. stick to a schedule, and don't try to fight the drug by drinking more. We don't have the medical advice we need often so we have to go it alone, i had to, and im glad i did, this community was the best resource at the time. unfortunately it was derided into what it is today, i need not go further into why.
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