Hi! Im here again. A small voice still looking for friends on their way out of this

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Re: Hi! I’m here again. A small voice still looking for friends on their way out of t

Good luck!

Thank you. I have to start the process over again. But I will. I refuse to give in to the shame. And if I don't get my shit sorted, I'm going to end up in the actual hospital. I'd really like to avoid that.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Re: Hi! I’m here again. A small voice still looking for friends on their way out of t

Wow. I can’t believe it’s been a full week. And still an echo chamber in here.

the last week went from worse to better. I look forward to catching up with the February thread soon.

There was a guy on Reddit looking for information about baclofen and it broke my heart. I’m no poster child. Hope he gets through the registration wall and can get some answers here.

[NoSugar]

Re: Hi! I’m here again. A small voice still looking for friends on their way out of t

Hey, Ne. I know I don't read around the boards very often and I doubt others do either. You're welcome to post anything anywhere - not just here where you don't get much interaction and support. That is pretty much just journaling and you could do that in a notebook. The power of a place like this is making connections. xx, NS

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Re: Hi! I’m here again. A small voice still looking for friends on their way out of t

Hey, Ne. I know I don't read around the boards very often and I doubt others do either. You're welcome to post anything anywhere - not just here where you don't get much interaction and support. That is pretty much just journaling and you could do that in a notebook. The power of a place like this is making connections. xx, NS

Thanks, NS. I know. But I'm not journaling. I'm reaching out. If no one posts, then no one can share. And I know it's deadsky in here. But that doesn't mean that there aren't people who aren't interested in baclofen, or some other medication.

In fact, there was just (yet another) article about naltrexone in the NYT this week for treating people with binge drinking. And how harmful binge drinking is, especially for people who are older than college age. There's a guy in some section, Newcomers or something, who doesn't think he has a drinking problem because he doesn't drink regularly. He's waiting for some fairy tale medication (well, so am I! ha!) but what he linked is YEARS off. He might be dead. But if he knew about naltrexone, and it worked for him, he might never drink abnormally again. That's not hoopla or voodoo. Naltrexone may not be the panacea everyone thought it was, nor topamax, which is the reason this site was started. Nor baclofen. But some of them, alone in combination, with other medications or treatments, might save lives. So I'll post here.

And everywhere else I'm welcome when the mood strikes! hahahaha.

xo, Ne

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Re: Hi! I’m here again. A small voice still looking for friends on their way out of t

nytimes.com

omg, it's going to take me 17 years to edit this so others can read it and I still might get arrested for stealing from the NYT. (I'm being sort of sarcastic. It'll take 17 minutes and I don't expect to get arrested.) (It took 7 minutes. But it's worth it, I suppose, if it encourages someone to ask their doctor about a life-altering/lifesaving medication. No?)

Wasn't Dr. Leggio one of the ones who did baclofen research? Where do I know that name from? [MENTION=12381]terryk[/MENTION] [MENTION=14524]_serenity_[/MENTION]

It's probably behind a paywall. I'll try to copy the text.

Ever wake up regretting the last round of drinks from the previous night? There’s a medicine that might help.
A recent study adds to the evidence that people who binge-drink may benefit from taking a dose of the medication naltrexone before consuming alcohol, a finding that may be welcomed now that alcohol-related deaths in the United States have surpassed 140,000 a year.
Nearly half of American drinkers reported bingeing, defined as more than four drinks in a sitting for men and more than three for women, in the previous month, according to a U.S. government health survey.
Some may view binge-drinking as harmless because the habit is widespread and a low percentage of binge drinkers are dependent on alcohol, according to experts.

But it is considered a major risk factor for alcohol-related illness and injuries, and it heightens the possibility that an individual will develop an alcohol disorder.

In the study, which was published in December in the American Journal of Psychiatry, 120 men who wanted to reduce bingeing but were not severely dependent on alcohol were given naltrexone to take whenever they felt a craving for alcohol or anticipated a period of heavy drinking.

Naltrexone, which blocks endorphins and reduces the euphoria of intoxication, was approved in the United States for the treatment of alcohol dependence nearly 30 years ago. But it is typically prescribed for patients with more severe alcohol disorders to take daily to abstain from drinking.

The new study’s targeted approach, in which patients were advised to take the pill before they expected to drink, is less common, although studies going back decades have also demonstrated the effectiveness of the as-needed dosing method.

The randomized control trial was double-blinded, so half of the men received naltrexone and half received a placebo, and neither the participants nor the scientists knew who had received which. Each week, participants also received counseling on how to reduce their alcohol use.

By the end of the 12-week study, those given naltrexone reported bingeing less frequently and consuming less alcohol than those who had been given a placebo, a change that lasted for up to six months. The most commonly reported side effect of naltrexone was nausea, although it was generally mild and resolved itself as people adjusted to taking the drug.

Glenn-Milo Santos, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco and the study’s lead author, said patients could discuss the treatment option with their clinicians, even if it was not suitable for all. “Increasing awareness that there are effective medicines that can help people with their alcohol use is important in and of itself,” he said.

Taking naltrexone on an as-needed basis rather than as a daily dose may be more tolerable for some people because it allows their dopamine levels to recover in between uses. The approach could also let people feel more in control of their treatment. The practice is more widely embraced in Europe, where regulators in 2013 approved the medication nalmefene for similarly targeted dosing by people trying to drink less alcohol.

Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, a physician-scientist at the National Institutes of Health, said the latest study was “very important” because, while alcohol treatments had traditionally been designed for people with severe addictions, far more people, like the study’s participants, had mild or moderate alcohol disorders.

Last year, N.I.H. officials proposed rebranding these stages as “preaddiction” to underscore the need for early intervention, much as the diabetes field improved care by identifying and treating prediabetes.

“If we attack the medical problem right away and early on, you cannot only treat the problem but prevent the development of the more severe forms of the disease,” Dr. Leggio said.

The recent study enrolled exclusively gay and transgender men, groups in which there is a higher prevalence of binge-drinking, so the findings might not be applicable to all binge drinkers. The participants were recruited “via street outreach, recruitment fliers, sexual health clinics, needle exchanges, community organizations, bars, websites and social media,” according to the study, and additional participants in an unrelated study were also invited to join. Nearly everyone involved in the study reported having some college education and a regular health care provider.

Dr. Henry Kranzler, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania who led earlier trials of targeted dosage of naltrexone, said the approach provided a “niche opportunity” because not all people found it easy to anticipate their cravings and to self-medicate in advance of them.

“It takes a level of awareness that many people don’t have,” he said.

Researchers agree that while there is no one-size-fits-all approach to treating alcohol disorders, naltrexone and other approved medications are vastly underused.

Katie Witkiewitz, the director of the Center on Alcohol, Substance Use and Addictions at the University of New Mexico, said the drugs’ patents had expired, so cheap generic versions were available — but their original makers no longer advertise them.

In a 2019 government health survey on alcohol and drug use, fewer than one in 10 people with an alcohol use disorder reported having received any treatment, and less than 2 percent of those individuals said they had been offered medication. Many physicians do not even know about the drugs.

Dr. Witkiewitz said that two months ago she was supervising a patient she thought would benefit from naltrexone. But she said that the patient’s primary care doctor mistakenly believed that prescribing the medication required additional training in addiction medicine and refused to write a prescription.

“There’s a real gap in the medical community,” she said.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Re: Hi! I’m here again. A small voice still looking for friends on their way out of t

OHMYGOD. The study was exclusive to gay and transgender men. Like it's the 1950s and gay and transgender women don't have alcoholism? Like I didn't when I was a young woman in my 20s trying to get help and it was cute?

shame, shame, shame on our medical community. Once again. ffs

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Re: Hi! I’m here again. A small voice still looking for friends on their way out of t

I actually saw a psychiatrist once, dragged my husband in to support me because doesn't it always suck, and doesn't the family need to be involved? And that mother fucker addressed my husband. Husband was like, "dude, I'm here for support. Ask her." and the guy asked me how much valium I was taking. I was just another middle-aged woman to him. I was indignant! I was terrified of benzos*. Terrified there wasn't a way out. Still am.

He then told me he specialized in helping men. Good on ya'! But give me my fucking money back, asshole. And he did. And he is. or was. Because it was a long time ago and let's hope that things have changed, or he's found another fucking line of work.

*things have changed there. ha

[StuckinLA]

Re: Hi! I’m here again. A small voice still looking for friends on their way out of t

What up, benches. I'm still alive (go figure).

Hi Ne, I'm with you--just give me all of the drugs. All of them. Except then I never take any of them, couldn't tell you how much Nal is sitting around in unopened bottles here somewhere (the only bottles in my possession that have *ever* remained unopened, LOL).

I'll be around at some point maybe to update, just wanted to drop by and say hello and send great big virtual hugs through the ether-void hell in which we all live.

[Mulburry]

Re: Hi! I’m here again. A small voice still looking for friends on their way out of t

I was terrified of benzos*. Terrified there wasn't a way out. Still am. ha

I think valium/benzos are amazing for severe acute anxiety/panic attacks, and also for alcohol detox; they were life savers for me in both those situation. I would be terrified of taking them for a long period of time though (or recreationally), that seems like a horribly bad idea.

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Re: Hi! I’m here again. A small voice still looking for friends on their way out of t

And so, surprise! The medical community is looking into long lost, and long approved, meds for alcoholism.

Me? I'm a mess.

I got a call today from the woman who manages the PHP and she wasn't in her office last week. It's a relief to know that I wasn't being completely ignored. She said she had a stickie on her computer that "Ne called."

I'm pretty sure I'm going to check into their inpatient detox, which didn't used to exist and is still sketchy as shit. But whatever. Mind you, I have to "qualify" but since I have insurance, they're going to take my money. No guarantee that I'll go straight from there into the Partial hospitalization, which is the goal. Don't get me wrong, at this point, I'd appreciate a medical detox. But what I (we) have to go through to get it is kind of horrifying.

Meantime, I'm living like a saint. Lies upon lies upon lies. I think I saw that [MENTION=7008]JackieClaire[/MENTION] said she didn't have hangovers because she drank all the time? Forgive me if I've got that wrong. But I swear, I live in perpetual hangover, drunk or not.

Meds? I think I took 80 mg baclofen yesterday and 40 today. IDGAF. I just want to be done with this.

[Mulburry]

Re: Hi! I’m here again. A small voice still looking for friends on their way out of t

Meds? I think I took 80 mg baclofen yesterday and 40 today. IDGAF. I just want to be done with this.

So you're rapidly going off of baclofen? Isn't that a really bad idea (especially if your planning to quit drinking too) ?

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Re: Hi! I’m here again. A small voice still looking for friends on their way out of t

[MENTION=3640]Mulberry[/MENTION], I'm just being inconsistent. It's an ongoing issue. From like when I was 3. You're right, it's a terrible idea to be inconsistent. And despite my phone, my watch, my best intentions, I still suck at taking my meds on time.
[MENTION=16949]StuckinLA[/MENTION] OMG I can't believe I didn't respond earlier. Forgive me. Thank you so much for posting.

So I posted about getting into the PHP, and then backed out, and now I'm back in, if I get it together and do the intake before Monday. Let me tell you, I have been on a good path, but I need more. And as much as I LOATHE the idea of spending more money and more time on something that isn't actually going to fix the problem, I need this.

FML

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Re: Hi! I’m here again. A small voice still looking for friends on their way out of t

I've posted this elsewhere, but to keep track, I'll post here, too.

If I get myself to the intake tomorrow, I can start the PHP on Monday.

I'm conflicted. If I don't take this opportunity, I don't know that I'll get it again. That said, US medical care is what it is and I've got good insurance. Money talks. If I wasn't actually worried about paying for my program, I'd blow me off... But it's funny how the only time I get a call back is when I mention my insurance company. And suddenly, a day later, there's an opening!

But this week is going to be hellish. I can't decide what to do. Sobriety first, right? But I have to get my life in reasonable order, before my mom comes, for so many reasons. SO many reasons. The first being that I don't want her, or anyone who loves me, to suffer from my alcoholism, any more than they already have. It used to be selfish, or self-preservation. Now? the coin has flipped and I just don't want to... I'd rather be a blessing than a burden.

[Mulburry]

Re: Hi! I’m here again. A small voice still looking for friends on their way out of t

But this week is going to be hellish. I can't decide what to do. Sobriety first, right? But I have to get my life in reasonable order, before my mom comes, for so many reasons. SO many reasons. The first being that I don't want her, or anyone who loves me, to suffer from my alcoholism, any more than they already have. It used to be selfish, or self-preservation. Now? the coin has flipped and I just don't want to... I'd rather be a blessing than a burden.

Isn't getting sober the thing you're family would want most for you? Then why not put that first. Seems like a win-win.