Baclofen for anxiety?

[Niko54]

Coming off of an almost decade-long opiate habit, and dealing with a lot of residual anxiety. Took 20mg of Baclofen, and I'm feeling quite a bit of relief/elevated mood.

Is this a placebo, or is it actually working? Anyone else have experience with this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Epiper888]

I mildly works on GABA-B so possibly. I haven't got a chance to try it but one of my buddies has some. Personally it may help very Midly but it could possibly be placebo, especially since you only took 20mg, I don't recomend taking more since it's not considered very recreational and also isn't very good anxiolytic.

 

[Niko54]

Thank you for the info. Today I got up to 40mg, and was feeling very relaxed without feeling impaired. It seems to help somewhat.

Any suggestions on a more effective method and/or medication for reducing anxiety/depression? SSRIs have never worked for me as they seem to suck the creativity right out of me, and my job requires me to stay creative. I'm also exercising frequently and have started to change my diet.

 

[Epiper888]

Personally something that has worked great for anxiety/minor depression is gabapentin/lyrica. I take 1.2grams of gabapentin a day and it does wonders. Any doctor will RX it. I highly suggest trying it. I'd stay away from benzos, maybe you could try kava. But you'd need the right vendor.

Add: also gabapenin has never closed my
Mind it's opened it up even more, it won't dul your mind like ssri

I Wish you luck

 

[DementiaSavantPlus]

Gabapentin has many uses. I believe that Neurontin (the brand-name for gabapentin) was the cause of a gargantuan lawsuit when it was released in the early 1990s because doctors were prescribing it for a host of off-label ailments before its side effects profile was fully understood.

I would recommend it for all the reasons stated above. I have been taking it for seven years. When I first started it, it caused an almost psychedelic and euphoric experience that lasted all day and did not disrupt sleep or eating habits. It is also known for easing opiate withdrawal symptoms.

But, it will eventually cause mind-dulling and it actually does have a withdrawal syndrome for a lot of patients (although doctors seem to unanimously maintain that it doesn't, and this misleading info is probably residue from when it was overprescribed upon initial release.)

In regard to the original question: for me, baclofen did have a pronounced anxiolytic effect. I only took it a handful of times, howvever.

 

[Epiper888]

I have to agree tht over time it will dull the mind. I remeber when I felt like a zombie off it, this only happened once though and I took a much needed break. It has an action on calcium channels that give it a dissociative feel.
It's nothing like dxm dissosative it's more of disconnection from the world, unlike dxm witch disconects your mind from your body.
I'd just give it a try and see if you like it.

The only bad thing I noticed is it can make me say/do things I usally would not do.

 

[MocCozmiK]

I've been taking baclofen since mid November (2015) I have titirated up. I am now up to about 75mg daily.
There were lazy days when I didn't take it and I felt no withdrawal, just lazy.
I think baclofen has a weird effect on me, that it doesn't have on other people. It gives me super focused energy. I feel happy, and talkative. My social anxiety, and social phobia is gone, I mean GONE. I don't feel self conscious on it. I have been doing a lot of research as to why it has such an opposite effect on me.
My other meds I take are 30mg adderall IR 3x a day. And I take150mg pregabalin + 2mg Xanax + 20mg amitriptyline at night to sleep.
Since adding the pregabalin to that mix, my quality of sleep is amazing. I never wake up once during the night.
Before I woke up every 2-3 hours