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A little about me

My Own Alcoholism - through Baclofen I have beaten it. So can you!

A Little About Me

Born in 1961 in Greater Manchester, I have lead very varied but highly interesting and exciting personal and professional lives. Much has been both hugely enjoyable and highly successful. Some most definitely hasn't.

I have recently been developing an already successful business (www.drphillipthomas.com) providing publishing and literary services; proof reading, copyediting, freelance writing and ghostwriting. Interesting and satisfying though this work is, I have another great burning passion.

With both my academic medical and surgical backgrounds (along with my profound success in beating my own alcohol dependence through Baclofen), I am now committing most of my time to helping others who find themselves ravaged by the effects of alcohol.

This has been something that I have come to by force of public demand. After 2 years of running the baclofen4alcoholism.comweb site in my spare time and helping literally hundreds of people throughout the world, I have often been asked if I would provide a more dedicated intensive 'proper' face-to-face service. After much soul-searching, I realised that this could only be achieved if the individuals involved lived near to me (certainly in the UK) and I committed myself to it fully. Otherwise, the attention to detail, and the success that that brings would simply not be there.

Consequently, I decided to set up Alcoholism-NorthWest, and it has been the very best, most satisfying and rewarding thing that I have ever done.

Such is my experience in this field, that I am often cited as one of the UK's (and probably the World's) leading authorities on the use and effects of High Dose Baclofen for alcoholism. However, I am NOT a psychiatrist. Nor am I an alcoholism counsellor. In one sense, I am merely an enthusiastic amateur. However, I have collated considerably more information about Baclofen and its use in chronic alcoholism than most of these authorities. Further, I was a very experienced doctor and academic surgeon, with a very enquiring, forensic, analytical mind. I am undoubtledly useless at many things, but I have also had a reputation both as a teacher and a natural communicator; especially with my past patients. And, perhaps most importantly of all, I am one of us. And I have succeded in curing myself.

It is these attributes and skills that I bring to those whom I help with their own alcohol problem.

This experience, and increasing recognition, is evidenced by:

• Several enlightened GPs in the UK, who have decided to treat their patients with High Dose Baclofen, have contacted me saying how the B4a Baclofen Handbook gave them the confidence and important background information to commence the treatment. Further, almost all subsequently e-mail me for further advice in managing their patients(s);
• I have recently been asked to provide an Expert Report on High Dose Baclofen for the Scottish Criminal Courts.

So, what of my past life?

Very briefly, I am one of the very few people who hold full qualifications both in Medicine and in Law. I am also a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Since the mid-eighties, I have practiced both surgery and medical negligence law. During this period I have picked up several awards and distinctions, including:

I have also written a major surgical textbook (Pelvic Pouch Procedures, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1991), and published more than 50 academic medical and legal papers, poster and oral presentations. I am also an Expert Author on E-Zine for my papers on alcoholism.

Throughout the last fifteen years, I have also set up and run several private medical businesses; mostly in the field of obesity management / surgery, and childhood obesity. I was proud to have fitted the very first Gastric Balloon in an adolescent in the UK.

Through my reputation within these areas, I have appeared on numerous television and radio programmes and been in many newspaper and magazine articles. In 2005, was 'Dr Phill' on the major BBC TV Series 'Fat Nation', and a regular advisor to the BBC in the Midlands on all matters relating to obesity. I have also appeared on the 'Sharon Osbourne Show'.

Following several failed corneal transplants and my own alcohol problem, I have hung up my surgeon's gloves and put away my lawyer's wig.

Apart from the last bit, that all sounds pretty good, doesn't it? However, I am also an alcoholic. And through alcohol, I have managed to compromise, or lose, much of what I have achieved.

To put it simply, I have a trait where I suffer chronic anxiety, low confidence, low self-esteem, feelings of inadequacy etc. And an overriding 'fear of failure' and of not being 'good enough'. This is particularly crippling for me. Stress is something with which I find it hard to cope. Maybe surgery and law weren't the best career choices!! 

Not even my closest family had the slightest clue what I was going through. It has all come as a tremedous shock to them, I can tell you.

During this period of fantastic highs and unbelievable lows, I have managed to find three really beautiful, lovely and supportive women. And managed to lose two of them, and almost lost the third. My fault, not theirs.

I have managed to build highly successful careers in two of the most competitive and academically challenging professions. And managed to lose them.

I have managed to make two fortunes. And managed to lose them.

I have managed to build amazing periods of comfort and security and happiness. And managed to lose them.

I no longer practice medicine or law. I'm not even registered with the GMC.

But what about Baclofen? It would be perfectly legal and ethical for your GP to prescribe you High Dose Baclofen off-label (either on the NHS or perhaps by a private prescription) and undertake your care themselves. However, this almost never happens. Why?

• Very few GPs are remotely interested in alcoholism - they don't even consider it to be a 'proper' disease meriting their attention;
• Those that do just might not have the time to devote to what is a very labour intensive area of practice - especially if you want to get it right;
• Almost no GPs (or specialists for that matter) have even heard of the use of Baclofen for chronic alcoholism, its cravings, and the chronic debilitating anxiety and other character traits that often precedes it;
• Those that do hear about it simply do not believe the stories of the great benefits it can bring;
• Others are frightened off by the often very high doses of Baclofen that can be required to successfully control the cravings associated with alcohol withdrawal;
• None have any experience whatsoever in how to go about prescribing high dose Baclofen and the possible side-effects and associations of taking it;
• The NHS has become a slave to 'evidence-based medicine', and will not fund such 'unproven' therapies such as Baclofen for alcoholism.

Consequently, almost all Baclofen takers are self-medicating. Helping them to do this as safely as possible was my sole purpose in doing more than merely to help myself with my own alcohol problem. And it has been a fantastic experience, with so many success stories that I have lost count.

Importantly, my personal development as someone who might help fellow alcoholism sufferers has been massively enhanced by my great experience in helping sufferers from obesity. In many ways, the conditions are analogous. Obesity is a chronic, progressive, potentially fatal physical disease, just as alcoholism is. Food IS often used as a recreational drug, as is alcohol. The reliance on food to help with lows and stresses in your life often becomes destructive; exactly the same as it does with alcohol. And we most definitely do live in a Toxic Food Environment - just as we live in a Toxic Alcohol Environment. I know better than most that to manage an individual's obesity, you absolutely MUST adopt a wide non-judgemental approach; and find out precisely WHY they have this inappropriate relationship with food. Achieve that, and you are half way there. Then look at how they live - how does that way of life facilitate their abuse of food. Then formulate a personalised management plan unique to them.

I wholeheartedly believe that exactly the same pertains to chronic alcoholism.

It is my great experience in the area of obesity that, I believe, gives me a unique insight and legitimacy when dealing with my fellow alcoholism sufferers.

Through this, and the unerring support of my wife and mother, I have never been happier in my work and personal life. I am now able to devote the vast majority of my time to helping others achieve the enormous success and liberation that I have benefitted from through my own Programme and Baclofen. This brings me enormous satisfaction, and I am extremely proud of all of the success stories. Each one of you should be equally proud; now reaping the benefits of your own determination to finaly rid yourselves of the profoundly disturbing consequences of the 'Demon Drink'. Heroes all, and beacons of optimism and hope to the rest of us.

The lifetime of traumas and destruction that my chronic state of anxiety and alcohol caused me will be discussed in great, and honest, detail in my forthcoming book Baclofen & Me. I hope that it provides hope to all the millions of people throughout the world who, through their alcoholism, are ruining both their own lives and the lives of those around them. Because now there really is hope.

Great hope.

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