Hi Mario

Sorry to hear things have been so rough for you lately. I don't know anything about xanax, but I have suffered with anxiety, depression and pre-natal depression. I take an anti-depressant called paroxetine. It is similar to prozac but it is also helpful for anxiety. Mostly it evens out my moods so I don't get depressed. Once or twice while on nal too much drinking has negated paroxetine's effect and left me feeling flat for a few days. I did still get anxious when I had an operation last year, but got thru that with a course of sleeping pills for 2 weeks.

I hope things improve for you and your brother. My alcoholic and diabetic brother (my only sibling) is missing in Bangkok, was in hospital with a fairly serious diabetic coma and owes money to the gov't so is not allowed to leave. I haven't heard from him for about 3 years which is very sad. I've contacted the embassy but they haven't heard from him since he was in hospital either.

Take care of yourself
Sticky

Hi Folks,

Naltrexone has still not kicked in for me properly even though I havent had a xanax for nearly two weeks now. I do know that I dont get blackouts or have the bad behaviour nor do I even get drunk at all even though Im drinking large amounts of alcohol. So the nal is working on some level. Im hoping and praying that it will kick in fully.

Im annoyed at myself that I drank last night after just waiting 15 mins. I had decided that no matter what I wasnt drinking but at about 10.45pm Hubby asked me if I would go for a drink with him. The bar was closing in 45 mins. I felt that I had to go though as Hubby has been off work since late September and is cracking up at home all the time with the result that we havent been getting on that well. Actually we havent been getting on at all. We have been together 20 years and usually have a pretty good relationship but right now he is driving myself and our daughter crackers. He is being critical and and cranky with both of us. Im seriously considering telling him to **** right off and move in with my sister for a few days and let him see how he likes that. I think hes actually jealous of me going to work every day. Ive told him to go to the gym or take up a hobby, do anything other than sitting at home trying to think of things to be moody about. Anyway thats why I went with him last night even though it just made things worse as he started criticising our daughter while we were there. He thinks she is lazy and has an attitude and just wouldnt let it go to the point where we ended up arguing again. It served him right this morning we got her school report and every single teacher said she was working very well. The overall coment was that she was a talented, confident and co-operative student. I read it and then took it up to him and threw it in his face and asked him where the child HE thought we were rearing was. I guess that wasnt the best thing I could have done for his current mood but I did it anyway. He is a chef but I would hazard a guess that Im cooking my own diner tonight.lol

Anyway Im sure everyone here has their own issues to deal with but it feels good to get it off my chest.

Hi Mario. I'm back - kind of!!!! Will pm you.

Hello Mario, good to hear from you, and it seems like things are sorting out a bit for you. I'm sorry about the drama with your husband - that really does seem infuriating!!!!

Things are starting to settle down again. I think looking back that nal was still trying to do its work but I was so crippled with anxiety which wasnt helped when I had to quit the xanax because it was effecting nal. I was out drinking the nal, taking xanax and then drinking to cope with the rebound anxiety. It was a vicious circle. Anyway to make a long story short I still had risidual anxiety and tension even weeks after quiting nal. I remembered that I had read in my way out that baclofen helped with anxiety and tension so I ordered them from River and its been absolutly fantastic. Im drinking much less, sleeping most nights and a calmness has settled over me. Its not meant to be addictive like benzos but at any rate Im only taking 10mgs at night. Many of the people in the My-Way-Out site are on doses of over 300 daily. I really dont know how people can function at that level as Ive noticed that if I take it later than 10pm I have a groggy hangover from it when I wake in the morning. It just makes it that bit harder to wake up and get going.

Im hoping things keep improving though Im 100% better than I was.

This is good news, Mario. So glad things are settling down.

I'll be really interested to hear how your experience with baclofen goes.

For what it's worth, here's a link to the French MD who cured himself with bac. There's a good FAQ section.

http://www.olivierameisen.com/en

Mario,
Good luck with your change of meds. I know that many of us are thinking that if Nal doesn't do it for us we are going to try Bac. Please keep us up-to-date with your progress by posting on this board.

Keep up the good fight,

Diver

Im using baclofen solely for anxiety and at very small doses ie 10mg a day which is miniscule for baclofen. Ive read quite a bit about baclofen benifits with alcohol and it seems that one would need a very high dosage to have benifits for alcoholism, somewhere in the region of 100-300mgs daily. Im quite happy with the way nal works for me and will stick with nal forever I hope.

Hi Mario

Its good to catch up with where you are at. Not so good to hear your out of work hubby is a pain to live with. Great that your daughter is doing well at school though. Hubby must be frustrated at not having a job and guilty that you are off to work each day, so he is taking his frustrations out on the closest person to him - you! Try to remember that if he picks a fight with you it is actually all about him and his insecurities and nothing to do with you. This is one of the best things I've learned in all my years in AA. I don't always remember it in my own life, but hubby and I rarely argue now. Last time we did it was actually HIM who overreacted to something I said, not the other way around!

We can't get baclofen in NZ yet, but am so glad to hear it's helping you.

Take care
Sticky

Thanks Sticky,

Hub has calmed down and is back to his normal pretty mellow self. To be honest Im not one to take anything lying down and often over react to comments from him. He is due back to work in a couple of weeks as well which helps. We are going on holls to the sun on the 19th, nothing but sun sand and dare I say it wine. I use to hate going on holls for the three years when I wasnt drinking. I dont care what all the non drinking fanatics say about being sober, its boring. Of course boring was better than being an active out of control alcoholic but Thank God I found nal and have a measure of normalacy back in my life.Thank God we all found nal.

Yeah Im thrilled with baclofen, it almost works like a benzo but much milder with no rebound anxiety. I will never again touch any thing like xanax. I truly believe they are evil drugs or at least they were for me.

Have a great weekend folks