Horrific Baclofen nightmares-Anyone know the brain science behind why this happens?

[truvision]

Hey all, Ive recently been trying to very slowly taper off of Baclofen. Ive only been on the stuff for two months but every time I drop the dose even just a LITTLE bit I have to worst nightmares I have EVER had in my entire life! Its almost akin to the times Ive done hallucinogenics and had really bad experiences on them. Ive awoke half in and half out of sleep in my dark room and thought I was buried alive but forever locked in this place of darkness and bolted out of bed with sweat dripping off of me to find that of course I was still very much alive. Ive had these really crazy dreams as well that were like total out of body experiences where I would just float above my body and be freaking out but be paralyzed and feel like I was floating all around my house but be unable to snap out of it and woke up screaming for help (yea,might sound like good stuff to some, but trust me its not fun).

Other ones were even more sick feeling than that which I wont go into cause Im sure you get the idea. Just last night though I bolted out of bed after just closing my eyes for what felt like a second and saw a car schreeching towards me.. I felt the impact , REALLY heard the sounds and saw it just as clear as if my eyes were open. I snapped right out of it after what would have been the 'impact.' Man Ive heard that nightmares can be a side effect from this stuff esp when your trying to taper off of it. but why do they all have to be so negative and evil?

I havnt even made it down a half a pill and this is happening. I cant IMAGINE how much worse these nightmares could really get. I even went and got a nightlight and have been sleeping with the TV on but its still scary as crap.I suspect Im gonna really pay HELL to get off this drug. The irony is that during the daytime its the most effective anxiolytic that Ive ever used for my social anxiety but the crap that visits you at night just isnt worth it.

Ive even had audible and visual hallucinations while my eyes were still OPEN and I have never had a history of that before and I know that its def coming from the Baclofen. I thought I might add that Im not the first person to have this on Baclofen either.. and for most people the nightmares are pretty much like what Ive described.. dark, evil and scary. Its just thier so real and it makes me afraid to even close my eyes at night! So, my question is maybe if I can understand the science behind WHY this is happening to my brain I wont fear it so much. Does anyone know what causes the brain to respond in this way when trying to even slightly taper off?

 

[trees_please]

I have no idea what baclofen is, but i know if i take a break from weed, the same shit happens to me. quitting cigs too. its a perfectly normal response to having a sober mindset. your brain now has an increased opportunity to process and adapt to your patterns of behavior. this can manifest in nightmares/lucid dreams..

 

[Foreigner]

Night terrors, sleep paralysis, and waking dreams are all symptoms of rapid arousal from non-REM sleep. Basically, you are going from deep sleep to wakefulness too fast. Normally your brain transitions gradually from each stage of sleep so that it's more seamless, but the drug you're on is somehow disrupting it. You can research "night terrors"... children often suffer from these.

Baclofen is a GABA agonist, and GABA is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter of the central nervous system. Among other things, it regulates wakefulness and the transition between different stages of sleep. More GABA in the brain signifies deeper sleep, whereas less would put you closer to REM (dream) sleep and wakefulness.

I looked up baclofen and one of the side effects is actually nightmares. In your case, reducing the dose might disrupt your GABA system and that is likely what is producing the nightmares. You could try taking a GABA supplement before bed on days where your dose has been reduced. The scientific community seems split on whether or not such supplements work though.

 

[truvision]

Trees-Man it must.Thing is Im not even close to being off of it yet and far from sober but your right I never thought about how it happens with other things as well. The hallucinations Im getting coming off of this one at least for me just seems to be up there with things like MDMA and the tryptamines.Baclofen is an agonist for the GABA B receptors and for some is almost as hard as a benzo to come off of, although benzos work predominantly on the GABA A receptors. It doesnt give the same euphoria as a benzo at all, and had I known how hard it was to come off this med I never would have started it.Thanks for the input,I guess it could just be as simple as your brain having to readjust to the downregulation or regulation of neurotransmitters that has been altered by the drug. I think your point has given me more clarity about whats going on. I just wish the nightmares werent all so freaking demonic!

 

[truvision]

Foreighner, you creeped up on me while I was writing the other post but okay that really makes even more sense to me now.It also makes sense that with less gaba(the calming neurontransmitter) that it would produce a more anxious and alert state, thus causing worse nightmares esp when your body has downregulated gaba to compensate for the drug.. does that sound right? And yea, its as if Im falling asleep abrubtly and then snapping out of it before I even realize it. Gaba actually does work for me and my doc actually advised I start taking that as well. Ill go the the health food store first thing tomorrow. Man if a kid suffers through this I feel so sorry for them. Sometimes I just dont think some of these drugs are worth it ,sure they will take your anxiety away during the day but then the devil visits you at night so at least in my case, thats not a good trade off. Thanks for the info!

 

[footscrazy]

What dose of baclofen are you on?

The nightmares sound really rough. I think nightmares are easily underestimated. I've experienced really terrible nightmares and I know that they can be so horrifying and disruptive; they can be pretty much real, in the sense that the emotions that accompany them are real. I don't have any more to add after what Foreigner wrote, but I do wish you well dropping down your dose. I was on baclofen for a time but luckily experienced no withdrawal symptoms whatsoever when tapering, although my dose wasn't very high to begin with. Is it possible to drop more slowly (I'm sure you've thought of this)? The half life of baclofen is also quite short, so perhaps you could experiement with when you take your dose. Splitting your dose so that you can take some right before bed might help; in the past I've also set my alarm for 2 or 3 in the morning to take medications - perhaps if you split your dose you could take some before bed and some half way through the night. Disruptive, yes, but probably no more so than the nightmares, if it'd help at all.

 

[truvision]

Foots crazy, I was on a total of 30 mg or ten mg three times a day. I’ve tapered a quarter a pill at a time but every time I try to go down to a half a pill reduction or to 25 mg ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE.Be VERY thankful you did not have any side effects from coming off it it, man I wish my body chemistry was like yours cause I want of this **** SO BAD! My God it seems you understand about these nightmares and I say nightmares VERY LOOSELY SINCE WHAT I’ve been experiencing is NOTHING CLOSE.

WARNING THIS IS HEAVY- YOU GUYS PLEASE BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY THIS I AM NOT CRAZY BUT…..

These are more like AWAKE night terrors and have been getting steadily worse over time and last night was something like I have NEVER experienced not on psychedelics or MDMA or EVER FOR THAT MATTER. These feel more like spiritual experiences than anything else. I will say that I just recently I had a relapse with smoking, opiates and got on this anxiety med Baclofen from a bad internship experience so, yea I do feel kind of bad about myself right now, which I concede may somehow be contributing to the intensely dark subject matter of the experiences BUT I’m gonna tell you guys what happened to me last night at the complete risk sounding TOTALLY BAT CRAZY but last night was THE WORST THING I HAVE EVER ENDURED!

I was once again stuck between dream state and wakefulness and I felt as if I was LITERALLY AND I DON’T MEAN FIGURATIVELY FIGHTING WITH THE DEVIL HIMSELF!!! During this time my neck was spasming ( which is also a side effect of coming off of baclofen) and I thought that the devil had his foot on my throat and I kept saying “you cant do anything to me your not my God” and every time I said that he just kept pressing his foot down on my neck even harder and kept laughing louder and I ACTUALLY HEARD him say “You cant get away from me I’m gonna DESTROY you!” and I kept screaming to God, my mom, ANYBODY to help me and that to PLEASE let me off this pill and help me. Finally, And I’m reeeaaally not trying to sound overdramatic right now at all but the thing that caused me to snap out of it was the devils face like a joker or something, flames and screaming people in agony flash across my bedroom wall!!!! NO EXAGERATION here at all, none whatsoever!

I even heard the screams of people and mind you I believe my eyes were half open or something and I was once again TOTALLY PARALYZED. When I was able to snap out of it which felt like an eternity, it took all I had to stop from running into my mom’s room screaming bloody murder. I tried to go back to sleep and it just kept happening and happening OVER AND OVER AGAIN. I would try to wake out of it and escape (whatever it was) only to almost feel as if my spirit was being dragged right back into my room. It is the most demonic HELL OF AN EXPERIENCE I HAVE EVER HAD! Even if you don’t believe in that kind of **** IT WAS VERY REAL TO ME!I'vehad similar experiences on drugs but its not even in the same stratosphere as what this was. Yes, I did grow up in a religious household and do consider myself to be a spirtual individual who believes in God but this stuff seems to be SO FAR beyond what anyone else has went through trying to get off this med and why the material was about Hell I have no idea!

Foots crazy, that sounds like a good idea to save my pills up to take closer to bedtime, Ill try ANYTHING. I am going to start doing that. As soon as I was able to snap out of it I went and took another quarter of a pill but it even kept happening after that. As a side note, I had also taken some Nigella Sativa because I am also trying to quit taking opiates and feel as if that may have possibly (though I’m not really sure) be what may have made the hallucinations even worse last night. I don’t really know how Nigella Sativa which is black seed oil or black cumin would have interacted with it, but it was truly so much worse last night that I’m just considering all possibilities. I mean it’s not like it hasn’t happened the other nights but NOTHING like last night. I have absolutely no history of schizophrenia or anything like that, all this has started happening when I started trying to even SLIGHTLY reduce my dose of Baclofen.

I don’t know what to do though, I CANT go through that every night, I was up till four in the morning fighting these hallucinations both auditory and visual and felt like my eyes were open while I was having them. What do I do? I do have had a bad history of side effects especially when coming off of meds but nothing like this and this thing with my neck spasming is that dangerous? I want off this med RIGHT NOW but know of nothing else that I can be switched to. I think the only way is to taper but I am finding it IMPOSSIBLE to taper. Man they might have to admit me if this gets any worse! I’m going to get some GABA today and hope that will help. I’m not sure if the doctor can do anything for me but I think I’m gonna make an appointment with her anyways. Thanks for the support and listening. I know I sound TOTALLY NUTS right now but this is some crazy **** I have been going through. So intense it almost makes me wonder if there’s not something more to it!!! (humorously, I just realized with all of this going on that my screename is 'truvision,' just trying to find some humor in it as least, some of the best ironies of life most def seem to happen unplanned)

 

[michael]

i think that what you are suffering from sounds like a rebound anxiety effect. i know that my pain management office recommends lowering your dose by 10mg every 3 days. i'm not sure what else to tell you except that you can't go cold turkey from baclofen because there's a siezure risk.

 

[truvision]

Hey Michael, but thats what is totally nuts is that if I tapered down 10 milligram over three days on this stuff Id really go nuts. Ive been stuck at only a 2.5 mg reduction for close to TWO FREAKIN WEEKS and cant come down anymore cause as soon as I try to come down to even a 5mg reduction I can expect a visitor in my bedroom that night, or at the least something sick and bizarre.Ive heard of people having a hard time getting off of Baclofen but I think Ive just been blessed with a body chemistry that doesnt respond well to withdrawal of ANY sort.

One reason I suspect that it may be so hard for me is that Baclofen is actually HANDS DOWN the most effective anxiolytic that I have EVER used. I have suffered with a pretty bad case of social anxiety and the Baclofen has just totally squashed that. I have absolutely no fear whatsoever anymore when talking to people and during the day I feel as if Ive been set free! Once I hit 30 mg I started noticing some odd little hallucinations here and there and so I decided to just slightly lower my dose to see if that would go away.

It was when I started reducing the dose that the hallucinations really came on full force and it scared me so bad I thought holy crap,I gotta get off this med.. anything that does this to me has gotta be bad. The thing is that it works so well that if I could get stabilized on a dose where it would still work and I would have no hallucinations I might consider staying on it. Have you ever tried to get off it and had any problems?

 

[michael]

i take it for a bad back. i have tried to reduce my dose a couple times, but any time i have gone below 30mg/day i get spasms. i have gone as high as 60mg/day and had no problem cutting back down to 30, but i need to stay there.

 

[truvision]

Yea, Ive def got the spasms when reducing also. Good thing is as of now Im at 25 mg and it seems to be working fine with no night terrors so hoping it stays this way!

 

[alex1984]

Hey truvision. Hiw did this all end ? I am myself going through Baclofen withdrawal and having a very hard time. How did you manage to taper off ?

 

[Chris R]

exact same god damn problem with the night terrors and sleep paralysis with baclofen whether I reduce the dose or not to be honest, im surprised I found this thread it made me feel better to read that I'm not the only one that has to go through this shit. I'd love to hear back on whether there was some kind of solution or remedy you unconvered (hopefully), cuz i'm truly losing my sanity to the same degree you have described and your descriptions are on par with definite higher prevalence of sleep paralysis though.

 

[w0w0mg]

I had the same problem and symptoms coming off of Phenibut which is just like Baclofen but a lot heavier IMO.
These things are very tricky to come off of and a taper seems to be the only way. I hope you feel better - I was having bad episodes and acute anxiety attacks.
Try to get your hands on some gabapentin to use that to taper off the Baclofen - They both hit GABA receptors but gabapentin is not nearly as harsh.

 

[skornenicholas]

I'm glad to have found this myself, I was warned that it could cause "lucid dreaming" but I wasn't prepared for this. I've had night terrors/sleep paralysis since early childhood that have been horrifying, but Baclofen was causing me to have repeat dreams where I was smoking in bed and then the cigarette would vanish, please note, I have never and would never do this, but it would cause a mild panic attack. The next one had me consumed ALIVE by a snake nearly the size of my house, I tried to kick, claw, and tear my way out, ended up breaking a window by my bed with a foot. Truly, truly, terrifying stuff, and for the record, except for Keppra, Lamictal, and my high blood pressure meds, nothing else was involved. Couldn't sleep for two nights straight after.

 

[herbavore]

^I'm pretty sure that just reading that is going to give me nightmares! I wonder if some of the same techniques that you can use for intense tripping could be used for this kind of dreaming: i.e. you tell yourself calmly and persistently before sleep that anything that you see or hear or experience is being manifested from your mind and cannot hurt you. Tell yourself that you will bring that knowledge with you into sleep and see if you are able to access that knowledge to change the course of the dreams.

 

[Ruby Slippers]

Sleep paralysis is quite literally the scariest thing that has ever happened to me, thankfully only once. I take baclofen occasionally for insomnia because it works almost as well as benzos for me. When l took it consistently for a couple months and stopped it basically caused me to wake up repeatedly throughout the night. At least every hour. It will pass just hang in there.

 

[Bozzart2016]

Baclofen is an evil drug

I can identify with almost everyone and what they say about baclofen nightmares. My doc prescribed these pills (10 mg twice a day) for migraines and chronic back pain. To say that this drug causes bad dreams or nightmares or even night terrors is an immense understatement--baclofen causes feelings of INSANITY while sleeping and severe anxiety while awake. To prescribe such a drug to an uninformed patient is simply cruel, if not criminal. I have felt like I was losing my mind ("dreams" so sick and unimaginable that I thought my mind would NEVER recover) and feelings that only suicide could free me (having seen and felt things during these nightmares that I felt could never be explained or un-seen again). So I'm never ever taking baclofen into my body/brain again; if I have withdrawals, I'll ride them out--nothing could be as frightening and self-annihilating as letting this drug into my mind again. Has anyone ever just stopped taking this drug successfully?

 

[Reanimator13]

10 years on morphine... Named for the god of dreams. I had to sleep with the lights on for months because of intense night dreams and terrors. Ungodly they were... Soon though something flipped and I became okay with them. Then actually i got to where I looked forward to them every night.

I'm off morphine now and I miss them alot. My evening lucid terrors are gone. I have not been blown up, drowned, fallen, eaten, etc in almost 2 months now.

Embrace your dreams and terrors. They may become your best friends.

I will miss the god of dreams...

R13