Sweet success! (with baclofen)

[Greg]

Sweet success! (with baclofen)

Reggie;1393475 wrote: Greg I am so grateful that you posted your freinds experience and I also so much wish you find your own way out soon from this horrible disease.

Hi Reggie, thanks for this and also for all your other comments. I have been using a combination of Antabuse (taken under family supervision as I asked), mirtazapine (antidepressant), and Trileptal (anticonvulsant that seems to help anxiety) to help myself stay sober and emotionally stable, and this has worked for 5+ weeks so far. However, as I told my friend who is taking the baclofen, I will take baclofen again daily if cravings become a problem. I have had success in the past with lowish doses, but I always counted them as "failures" because it hadn't stopped cravings 100 percent. In hindsight, the drug was working for me, and I was just being too perfectionistic in my thinking. A more realistic goal is for the cravings to be low and easily manageable, which is the case now and was the case when I was taking baclofen. I have also regarded success as absolutely no alcohol, but failure as having even one drink....I don't plan on having even one drink but from what many here have said, success can indeed (for some people) mean low cravings and just a small amount of alcohol.

[joanna_d]

Sweet success! (with baclofen)

i'm hoping for the day to come, when i post my own sweet success over here Ne...

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Sweet success! (with baclofen)

Me, too!

[HappyMontanian]

Sweet success! (with baclofen)

Was asked to post this here as well -

Hi All,

I think it?s time to add another story to the Baclofen road to success stories.

In late November of 2012 I decided that I had it with my lifestyle of drinking for 25+ years. Wow, where has my life gone?

I drank in mini-binges that would typically start after I was over my last hangover by going out and drinking 20+ units in a night, waking up with an awful hangover, drinking all day to keep hangover at bay hopefully not drinking too much and getting drunk for a second night in a row. If I somehow make it without getting drunk I can drink about 8 units on the third day and feel pretty good by day 4. On day 4, I would start the process all over again. If I did over drink on day 2, this process ended up being a 5 day and as long as 6 days. I had at least 6 units a day minimum.

Back to late November.

One morning I hit Google looking for an inpatient rehab center and somehow ended up on this website. I spent the entire day reading all of the stories, good and bad, deciding that Baclofen was the answer that I was looking for. I called up Dr. L and briefly chatted with him about who I was and what I was trying to accomplish. I found him very easy to talk to and what anxiety I had before I called quickly vanished.

Here is the titration plan that was decided upon:
Early December
Week 1 ? 4 days 5mg mornings, 3 days 5mg morning, 5mg 3 hours before bed; No SE?s.
Week 2 ? 10/10/10, 30mg; No SE?s
Week 3 ? 20/10/20, 50mg; No SE?s
Week 4 ? 25/20/25, 70mg; Noticing fatigue
Week 5 ? 30/30/30, 90mg; Fatigue, minor confusion
Week 6 ? 35/40/35, 110mg; Fatigue, minor confusion, mucus buildup in back of throat
Week 7 ? 50/30/50, 130mg; Major fatigue, confusion, mucus buildup, conscious breathing i.e. feeling the need to gasp for breath
Week 8 ? 60/30/60, 150mg; SE?s as week 7 but noticeably much worse

I lasted about 3 days at 150mg before dropping back to 100mg as the SE?s were too much to withstand. I was apprehensive to drop so much so quickly but I felt it was the right thing to do at the point. It was.

I didn?t add the alcohol units consumed because I didn?t keep track. Basically, when I first started I noticed that the first 3 weeks I was seriously craving at all waking moments. Even more than usual, after that I was drinking about the same amount EXCEPT on the days I titrated up. I absolutely had to over drink for two days every time I titrated up. Up to week 6 I hadn?t noticed much of a decline in my average unit consumption. Week 7, I started to notice that my drinking was slowing down noticeably. I was finding beer in my fridge in the mornings and noticed I wasn?t drinking in the afternoons as was my normal action plan for the day. Week 8, I just couldn?t function at all and ended up on a 3 day bender that left me so hung-over that I thought I was going to die with major anxiety. That was last week.

Today, WOW, What happened to me? Since I went to 40/20/40, 100mg I have hit a point that I have never been at in my life. In the last week I have had maybe 12 units. I had 6 total yesterday due to having a couple beers at the local brewery, did I say I only had 2 beers at a brewery? GTFO!!! Bought a couple beers to have with the wife at home and drank 1.5 Coors Light after that. Not sure why I ended up opening the last one, I didn?t want it.

I have always been an alcoholic and generally I have been able to function to a point. Sadly, once I started I would over drink and act the fool. It has been embarrassing and has caused many bad decisions in my life. Although, I have had many, many good times too.

I have been putting off stopping because I really like beer and enjoy having wine with dinner if I am out at a nice restaurant. I really didn?t want to give it up completely but it was going to kill me drinking in the way and in the amounts I would drink in. Plus, I don?t think I could have stopped for long term. I did stop a few years back and it was hell, mass cravings all the time that I would assuage with 1.5mg of Ativan. It was no way to live.

Baclofen has given me more than I expected. It has given me an ?I have had enough? switch that I have been missing. I could have had one beer at the brewery yesterday no problems. My wife ordered another one I had declined at first; she looked at me and said that has never happened in the twenty years she has known me.

Thank you my friends, you have given me my life back.

EDIT: I'm only experiencing light SE's as of now.

[Lo0p]

Sweet success! (with baclofen)

:cheering: Congratulations!!! :happy:

:grouptrophy:

[Diver]

Sweet success! (with baclofen)

Happy,
:happy:

Congratulations - Your story sounds VERY Familar. It gives me alot of optimism that I will have the same success eventually.

Diver

[Hippyman]

Sweet success! (with baclofen)

Greg;1393891 wrote: Hi Reggie, thanks for this and also for all your other comments. I have been using a combination of Antabuse (taken under family supervision as I asked), mirtazapine (antidepressant), and Trileptal (anticonvulsant that seems to help anxiety) to help myself stay sober and emotionally stable, and this has worked for 5+ weeks so far. However, as I told my friend who is taking the baclofen, I will take baclofen again daily if cravings become a problem. I have had success in the past with lowish doses, but I always counted them as "failures" because it hadn't stopped cravings 100 percent. In hindsight, the drug was working for me, and I was just being too perfectionistic in my thinking. A more realistic goal is for the cravings to be low and easily manageable, which is the case now and was the case when I was taking baclofen. I have also regarded success as absolutely no alcohol, but failure as having even one drink....I don't plan on having even one drink but from what many here have said, success can indeed (for some people) mean low cravings and just a small amount of alcohol.

I have reached a place of indifference to alcohol...finally, because of baclofen. If you could call a passing thought of Al a craving then I would say that I've had those but they are easily managed. I will always have Antabuse as a backup. If somehow I get a compulsive impulse to drink I will take the Antabuse ASAP! It's a great safety net for me. It sounds like you're doing great. Keep up the good work! :goodjob:

[MyNameIs]

Sweet success! (with baclofen)

Congratulations to you!

[Hippyman]

Sweet success! (with baclofen)

MyNameIs;1452437 wrote: Congratulations to you!

If you are still struggling, you can give baclofen a try.

[MyNameIs]

Sweet success! (with baclofen)

Thanks, Hippyman. I am actually on Day 5 of Bac today.

[TexasAg]

Sweet success! (with baclofen)

Howdy!

I'm not sure why I hadn't done this before, but I'm putting my story in the success thread. I'm following Windy's example and hopefully if you're a Newbie it can give you some hope.

I had been drinking against my will since I was 15. I always knew I couldn't drink like normal people. I didn't drink every day, but when I did, it was always to extremes with embarrassing behavior and consequences. I started a family very young which was a blessing because in the begining I didn't have the time or money to indulge. However that didn't last too long and my bingeing became routine. I could still work hard and function so my career progressed nicely. Fast forward 20 years. By this time last year my drinking was controlling my life. I was blackout bingeing at least once a week and the weekends were passed in an alcohol induced daze. My work, was still passable (barely) but my weekly sick days were routine or my "I'm working from home today" became ridiculously common. My home life was a mess. My marriage and family was crumbling.

I have attended hundreds of AA meetings and worked with sponsors and it would help for a while, but I still could not break the binging cycle. In my desperation, I searched the web and came across this website, My Way Out, where they talked about the GABA, brain malfunction, and treatments. I started with Kudzu herbal supplements in April and it gave me hope. I bought the Dr. A's book and it made a lot of sense. I kept taking the kudzu, it helped a little, but it didn’t fix it, and I still binged. So on July 13th, I took the plunge and called Dr. Levin. He was very nice. Every week I went up in dosage by 20mg. I split up the dose into 4 or 5 (when it got really high) evenly throughout the day. I would go up in dosage on Saturdays. In the begining (up to 100mgs) I didn't have any side effects except when I would go up in dosage, I would feel very tired. But by Sunday morning I would be fine. From the start I noticed that there was something. By 60mg my brain was calmer, I didn't feel as stressed anymore. I didn't get the feeling of wanting to disappear. I knew something was working because I was going through an extremely stressful seperation at home and I was dealing with it in a more rational manner. I wasn't getting so many extreme irrational thoughts. I wasn't obsessing on things as much. Best of all, I wasn't blackout bingeing and I even started being able to string AF days together, a miracle. I went up to 160mg but I hadn't hit my “switch” because I felt I was still craving alcohol. But the SE's were too dificult, I wouldn't be able to sleep more than 2-3 hrs at night and the somnolence in the afternoon was terrible. I dozed in a meeting, and my head would nod in others. I started getting sleepy in rush hour traffic. I was desperate to hit my switch but I knew I could not continue like this. So I started going down, again by 20 each week. I got to 120 and I realized that I wasn't thinking about alcohol, at all. It wasn't an off/on switch, more of a slow dimmer switch. I was free! I wasn't afraid of going to dinner meetings and white knuckling until I could get alone to slam whiskeys. I wasn't afraid of going to family gatherings and drinking too much. I was not afraid anymore.

That's not to say things got easy, on the contrary, I think that's when things got harder, living life sober and such and having to try and mend past actions. And also now, there are no cravings but old habits don't die easy. But I am free of the alcohol beast. I don't drink against my will anymore. I've had my first sober holidays in 25years. I'm still married, and dare I say she's cautiously happy and my kids are happy.

From start to indifference took me aproximately 12weeks. The last 5 were very hard. There were times I thought I would never hit indifference. When I had to titrate down before hitting indifference it was deflating. But through it all, MWO and the veterans here Ne, Space, Bruun, Stuck, Redhead, Bleep, Reggie, RedThread, Taw, LoveLife and some of my contemps Jo, Sober, Mary, Hipster, LostSole, Colin and many others who have given me advice, suggestions and support without asking for anything in return. I thank you. My family thanks you.

Oh and I can't forget Loop! Who's helping treat my rhino and helping many, many others!

I am blessed. Baclofen isn't for everyone and the SE's are real. I was fortunate to be able to JKTTP (just keep taking the pills) until it worked. My circumstances happened in such a way that while I thought they were not good, my separation, not travelling for work, they ended up working in my favor.

Thank you to Dr. A, Dr. L, and a big thank y'all from the bottom of my heart to MWO friends.

Cheers!

PS. Another reason I'd like to thank the Bac veterans is that it's easy to get sober and start living life. You are not obligated to come back to this forum and help, but you do. Thanks!

[dundrinkn]

Sweet success! (with baclofen)

Thanks for posting Tex. I read your thread before starting bac and found your story to be quite inspiring. Glad you are doing well and with your family. Sweet!

[emily]

Sweet success! (with baclofen)

I have an appointment today with Dr Johnathon Chick, from Dr A's book which I just finished reading last night. I last drank, heavily, on Sunday and usually tonight, because I'm feeling better would be the start of drinking until Sunday again. I feel as if I'm going to the gallows, I feel so nervous that he won't prescribe bac, I'm sure he will, I'm just anxious. I'm going private and have never spoken to anyone professional about this before (apart from one visit to a alcohol counsellor).

For some reason at the end of my tether, again, on Monday I came onto MWO and found all the info about baclofen. I'd never heard of it before. I didn't want to order online and then someone had written that Dr Chick was in Edinburgh, very close to where I live.

I feel a bit teary as noone knows I'm going and feel so nervous but hopefully today is the day my life changes for the better, xx

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Sweet success! (with baclofen)

Hi Emily! Welcome to the meds threads.

I hope all goes well today. I know how hard it is to take the step you're taking. Dr. Chick has been helping people with alcohol issues and/or prescribing bac for a long time. I really hope the appointment goes well.

:l

[kronkcarr]

Sweet success! (with baclofen)

Hi, emily,

I hear you. When I went to my dr we'd already agreed on the phone that he'd prescribe bac. And I was still jumping out of my skin before my appt. I sat in his parking lot with my ear buds in and tried to relax. No luck. When my appt started I thought I'd have a heart attack!

I have a private practice in town and I was embarrassed to admit my mess to anyone. But I did. I only lied once and that was when he asked if I really wanted to quit drinking. I said yes but really I wanted a drink here and there.

I was still a mess when I filled my script. It wasn't until I got home that I could start to calm down. The following 2 months have been, for the most part, the best I can remember in a lot of years (40 or so).

Hang tough. You'll get through it and you're on your way!

kronkcarr