I recently completed a trial run with:
Baclofen(Liofen)-10mg
Propranonol(Ciplar-Long acting)-40mg
Duration: 2 months daily usage
Introduction
Baclofen is a muscle relaxant used by people with multiple sclerosis and other types of pain associated with the muscles. It is a gaba-b agonist that crosses the Blood brain barrier quite well compared to other gaba agonist including gaba itself. Baclofen has slightly different effects from gaba-a agonist(benzos). The closest analogue to baclofen would have to be the one the most controversial neurotropics, phenibut. Baclofen is cleaner and the effective dose is much smaller. Baclofen is being used in growing numbers by alcoholics which was started by Oliver Amesian. It is not recommended to use baclofen the way those alcoholics are, which is in extremely high doses.
Propranonol is used for people with heart problems such as angina, hypertension and other issues. Propanonol is a non-selective beta blocker meaning it inhibits the action noradrenaline(epinephrine) and adrenaline(epinephrine) by blocking adrenergic receptors. According to the internet Propranonol is a better beta blocker for psychological uses due to its ability to cross the Blood brain barrier much easier than say atenonol. Propranonol is used off label for occasional use for stage fright. It is also being used and researched for phobias and PTSD. Propanonol seems to delink the emotions from the memory. Hypothetically one could consume propranolol then bring traumatic memories, attempting to de-link the emotional intensity from them. If using propanonol for that use I would suggest a not sustained release or long acting version.
Method
I flushed myself of other supps I had been on. I used caffeine and nicotine and various levels. I occasionally if need be would use a 300mg adrafinil in the morning as well, about once a week. I would take these drugs in the morning 5am-7am once a day, usually a 10mg of baclofen and 40mg of prop. This went on for about 2 months I did play with the baclofen dosage but considering my limited supply and cold turkey withdrawal symptoms I went back down to 10mg after some brief experimentation with doses up to 60mg. I also experimented with 80mg of Propanonol a few times but settled on 40mg. Initially I started Baclofen a week before and ceased its use a week before the usage of propanonol, meaning their usage was slightly staggered to measure their independent effects.
Results
ingestion: no taste small tablets, a lot smaller than a typical supp
Initial effects<1 hour: most notable is nausea associated with the use baclofen.
workday: Emotionally: noticeable decrease in actual manifestation of anxiety, less chest and stomach pain due to anxiety, less heart racing. Mentally the anxiety is still there, I can watch the brain perform the actions but I do not feel it. In all honestly I did not was not feeling a lot of anything most of the time. When anxiety is a dominant feeling in one's life and it is suddenly gone it feels like a lot of blank space, or so I thought. Propanonol was actually reducing all emotions, which was much more pronounced at the 80mg level.
Cognitively: I realized once I stopped taking baclofen that my cognitive ability was decreased significantly while taking baclofen. About 2 days after stopping baclofen full cognitive capacity was restored. It's an odd feeling, something I've never felt before. I rarely need that extra capacity which brings me to another cognitive effect. I was less bored, with reduced cognitive capacity I did not have the ability to set my brain on autopilot often like usual, making me have to focus on my work.
Afterwork: For some reason afterwork I just didn't want to do anything. Perhaps I was tired. My want to socialize after work waned. After about a month I also started drinking 3-6 light beers after work most days, which was odd because I would do that maybe once during the workweek usually. My socializing during the weekend also waned. I just did not feel like going out.I may have had a weak apathetic depression going on but this is confounded by the time of year and my location which leads to a snowy cloudy winter along with shortened daylight. I think baclofen actually made me want to drink more often, but I did not get drunk. I would cook dinner after those 3-6 light beers
Sleep: My sleep is terrible. My best sleep is around 6am-8am and I rarely get that. I wake up frequently and it's difficult to get to sleep. My habit had changed to going to bed around 8pm which is extremely early for me. My time to fall asleep varied considerably though. If I nap even for a small bit of time I do dream, and I often wake up and fall asleep back into the dream. From that I suppose my sleep cycle is pretty messed with near instant REM sleep. I also have reason to believe that baclofen was causing me to wake up with my hand/lower arm totally numb/paralyzed many mornings during this trial. It would go away after a minute or 2 and was not caused by sleeping on my hand.
Conclusion
Baclofen: not likely future use. The cognitive losses feel too great compared to the gain. The gain was a small drop in anxiety and a large drop in boredom(due to cognitive losses). If I try it again it will be in higher doses. It also impairs the ability to drink alcohol and increases the risk of danger while drinking along with possibly making me want to drink more. Maybe I do want to drink more often but my body cannot take the glutamate rebound usually. baclofen may have helped with this rebound effect and hypothetically could be used to help with hangovers. The nausea effect was annoying annoying but not in anyway a deal breaker.
Propranolol: Possible occasional future use. A neat drug taking many of the physiological components out of anxiety. Again this drug increases the dangers of drinking. The apparent dampening of all emotions did hurt this drug in my eyes.
Neither drug truly fixed what it is that is wrong with me, even when the physical effects are significantly blunted I am still producing nearly the same behavior, it just would not cause pain. So Far the only cure I know of is a special type of hangover from alcohol that comes a couple times a year which demolishes all symptoms. This effect from the hangover is instantly nullified once I consume solid food. I can feel the anxiety and pain come back. I can literally feel the muscle tension crawl up my arms as the effect of digestion displaces the bliss I get from this special hangover in minutes. I've experimented with the special mood and got it to last until 7pm by not consuming food, I was the most talkative, funniest, bubbliest person at the table until I ate a piece of bread. They noticed I suddenly lost it all but I couldn't tell them why. The question I have been trying to figure out for a long time is what is the method of action of this hangover and what is the method of action of the consumption of solid food. What is the connection?
That personality is how I imagine most people get to feel most of the time, or something similar to it.
For now I'll likely be looking at NMDA, AMPA, and metabotropic glutamate receptors. Any pointers would help, I know quite a few others who have similar effects(there is a thread on it somewhere's around here).
