Baclofun

This morning, as I was walking my dogs on the water meadows, they decided they wanted to take a break and frolic in the long grass. So I stopped and took in the view. It was a perfect morning, the sun was weak but still pleasantly warm and the air was crystal clear. I watched the swans as they glid idly by and a kingfisher raced past, almost colliding with a dragonfly which had kindly offered a piggyback to a friend. There was not a soul around to disturb the peaceful scene ... so I took the opportunity to drain the dragon. Hey, don't judge me, I was desperate. If you drank the volume of water I do, you'd have done the same. Don't blame me, blame the baclofen.

For those of you who don't yet know, baclofen is a drug officially used as a muscle relaxant but since Dr Olivier Ameisen published his book The End of My Addiction in 2008, thousands of alcoholics worldwide have been taking it to end their craving for booze.

Baclofen effectively cures addiction; it removes the craving, in my case for booze and cannabis. How does it do this? Look it up, I dunno, do I look like a scientist? OK, you can't see me, but no I don't, I look more like a Greek god ( I haven't put a photo of myself up on here yet have I? No, good.). As I was saying, I'm like a statue of a Greek god, but not one of those ones with tiny knobs. Just thought I ought to point that out.

Nine months ago my drinking was out of control. I would drink to excess every single day and had been doing so for more than 2 decades. In January I found out about baclofen and it led me to a forum for alkies who wanted to quit the booze My Way Out. Baclofen and the members of that forum saved my life. On 28 January, my baclofen story began and I kept a diary on the forum Murph's Baclofen (or should that be bacloFUN) diary: 

This was my first post:

I just know I’m going to regret that thread title if I’m 3 months down the road, taking 500 mg per day, suffering from hideous and scary side effects and still haven’t reached the ‘switch’. But for now Bac is proving to be quite nice. I’ve got a nice buzz on and I’m feeling really happy. I don’t know whether that really is the Bac or just the fact that I’ve finally made the decision to do something about my problem and the Bac is acting as a placebo. Either way, at the moment, I don’t care. I’m happy and it’s been a while since I was able to say that.

A little about me: I’m 45, been drinking heavily for the last 25 years (quarter of a century!!!!!) . I drink every day and my weekly consumption is around 150 to 220 units – that’s UK units, which I believe might be different to US units. I have only had 2 AF days in all that time and they were last November when I tried to knock the booze on the head, needless to say that wasn’t a success.

Anyway, I’ve got to stop the drinking before it all goes to bollocks and all this self-abuse finally catches up with me. When I was young I never expected to live this long, I assumed there was no point going past 40 and turning into a worn out old wrinkly, which just goes to prove what I’ve always thought – kids are idiots!

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a reference to Baclofen and its potential for anti-addiction therapy and immediately ordered a bottle of 100 x 10mg tabs. After further research I realised this was a woefully small amount and placed another order for a much larger number of 25mg tabs. The original order arrived a few days ago and I’ve been on 25mg/day since, split into 4 regularly spaced doses. As I’ve had no bad side effects I’ll be upping the dose to 50mg tomorrow and see what that brings, but so far so good.

I’m feeling really positive about all this, I know it hasn’t worked for everyone, but I’m prepared to go all the way with Baclofen, wherever it takes me.

Little did I know at the time, but it would take me only 8 days to reach what is known as "indifference". That is when you lose the craving for alcohol and you quite literally become indifferent to it. It's an extraordinary change, and one it took me a very long time to understand. There were the questions that needed answering, such as "why did I become an alcoholic?" and "OK, so what now?". But those questions will have to wait until another time because one of my dogs is scratching at the door to get out. He's been unwell since this morning's walk. When I thought he was frolicking in the grass, he was actually greedily hoovering up goose turds and I don't think they've agreed with him. Serves him right, the disgusting little mutt. But then again, he just loves eating poop; maybe you could call it his addiction.

Feel free to leave a comment below and if you're new to baclofen and looking for a way out of your alcoholism, please visit the forum here.

It might just save your life.

Murph