hi, I have been a on and off pain medication and then eventually heroin addict for 5 years now. I Did quit the first time for about two years before i eventually relapsed and started up again. Everytime except the very first time i have quit i have done it at home. the first two times i quit i was using pain meds and the last two time was with heroin. I have had my most succesful and longest clean time from heroin by doing my detox at home. I feel safer than i would in a detox center and if your around family you know that they really care and they arent getting paid there to watch you suffer. Im definetly one of those people who can't use any pain medications at all. The reason for my relapses has always been due to a doctor giving me pain meds for injuries i have sustained throughout my life. I never new about any other remedies besides the usual ones like suboxone and subutex. I had taken both of those but i realized you have to detox off of those pills as well and the detox is just as bad. So i decided to just do it cold turkey. But this time im really trying to quit for good and its so hard. I'm beggining to feel its impossible to do. The first time i did it from heroin i had friends and family around me all the time witch i feel made it alot easier. They kept my mind off of it as much as possible but my addiction wasnt as bad the first time. Iwas only sniffing it when i first did it. This time i graduated to using needles ( definetly one of the worst desisions i have ever made besides using heroin in the first place). The only real time i felt the withdrawals was when i was trying to go to bed. This time i dont have anybody around and i have to do it myself. Im using my vacation time that i saved up for the last two years and i have two weeks to kick. Ive been planning this for a while. But this time it feels alot different and worse do to the fact that i was using alot more and injecting it as well. Im having alot more fatigue in my legs and aches and pains through out my body. I can barely get more that two hours of sleep a day. I have 12 days left on my vacation and this is killing me. Im really weirded out on taking meds because i really dont wanna substitute one drug for a nother but i really do have to stop. this is The hardest thing i ever had to do and i blame myself for it. I was wondering if anybody new anything else that can be done thats more natural but efective at the same time. Methods to help get to sleep and avoid the tossing and turning that comes from the bone aches and the fatigue. I heard that yoga helps and exersize to physically get you tired but anyone who has been addicted to heroin knows it doesnt matter how tired you get yourself from working out it always comes back within an hour or so and then you wind up waking up again. Also with the hot and cold sweats. That has to be the most annoying part besides your legs hurting and the constant bathroom trips. Ive tried all types of over the counter pain relief for my legs but it doesnt work and ive tried all kinds of sleep aids. I still wind up tossing and turning for hours on end and those hours feel like days when your detoxing. I was hoping for a good combination of something. Please, If anyone has any suggestions for me about the sleeping and cold sweats i would appreciate it. This will definetly help me due to these are the most frustrating withdrawal symptoms i go through and the ones that i feel would lead me to giving up. Thanks again this forum is helpful for us addicts.
Hi i too am a heroin addict and have tried detoxing many times. I have been to a detox facility and I agree they are not the best way. I didnt like it at all. I have also detoxed at home with the use of saboxone. I find that the worst thing about detoxing is being so tired all of the time but never being able to get to sleep. The reason for this is because in sure you know heroin sedates you so your body has to produce more energy receptors on your cells to keep you functioning. When you detox your body still has all of these receptors so it makes sleeping pretty impossible. Put that with the shivers and twitching and its pretty rough. I find that a soothing bath helps a lot. Especially with the pounding heart and the anxiety. It relaxes you. Also if you don't want to take other medication to help there are some over the counter medicines that help a lot such as Maalox and Tylenol. Its still rough but fortunately the withdraw symptoms will go away in about a week and in about 3 weeks all of those receptors will fall off any you should start sleeping more regularly. Hang in there its for the best.
ok all i can say is this.ive been strung on the needle for 20 yrs.i NEVER sniffed.ive done in excess of 3 grams a day at time or more than a brick in bags.i was a hardcore junkie criminal so money came easy.its has been my experience,and i know you are leary of other drugs ib guilty but the ONLY thing that has worked for me in the past is valium/xanax in large does and clonidine and lots of reefer.youl need at leat enough valium/xanax to take between 30 mls of valium or 2 sticks of xanax 2-3x a day as needed(basically when you wake up nand want to go back to sleep) an 1 ml of clonidine in the morning and at bed time for at least 1 if not 2 wks.make sure you dont have anything to do during the next 2 wks. when you wake up take the pills smoke a bowl or small joint whatever you prefer with a cup of green tea.make sure you also drink lots of fluids and take vitamins as well as you body is probably deprived of both.and stay away form anything that will raise you blood pressure,i.e. caffiene,chocolate,etc.when you withdrawal you blood pressure raises causing the symptoms to be worse,hence the blood pressure meds.chances are you will fall asleep within the hour and you will probably get a little high from this combo.but here is how it works.the benzos relieve the anxiety and help you sleep while the clonidine lowers your blood pressure which in turn helps to keep the withdrawal symptoms a little less harsh.you wont be clanking and sweating as much.as for chills they may still be there.now i cant say that this dosage is for everyone.you will have to experiment a little depending on your habit you may need more or less.take what you need until you feel comfortable.suboxone and methodone suck,they are just replacing one opiate for a synthetic one and after you come off of them you still kick and meth is way worse than heroin,i use so much of the pills because ive found the only way for me to kick is to sleep through it,however you may be diferent.good luck.and remember,starting out you may not need so much,it depends on your habit,like i said only take what you need and i strongly reccomen no more than 1ml of clonidine at a time...
ativan and clonidine
good luck and thanks for sharing this story ...mine is similar but its my bf who is struggling to be clean
usedtobmenowitshim 4 minutes ago
This may be long sorry...Im out of ideas. Im 32yrfemale w 3kids and my bf is losing his fight to be sober and clean off opiates. After a year of him trying to keep his habit a secret, he finally tells me 7mo ago he is addicted to opanas perks and said he worried he was gonna lose everything(he has a small business he used to proudly maintain and was on his way to being financial stable and happy)and his pills had cost him so much of his hard earned savings in 5or6months that he ended up letting go of his crew of workers(2guys) and was faced with having to be the laborer,boss,book keeper, and it was more than he could could deal with being 1man when it used to be 3men or 2men working. Well his business is seasonal landscaping in sring summer. leaf removal cleanup and winter ready for plowing in the winter...last year winter never really came like always with plenty of snow to plow and that was really difficult for us. losing close to 12.000 by the time spring got here he had a major depression and drug problem too. He decided last spring that our newborn baby deserved him sober so we attended a 3day intensive detox,Eagle Institute Michigan. It was bad enough to watch as we attempted two or so at home detoxing efforts. He never cud stick w it and needed to work to make our income but needed to use to work. It took two months and me threatening to leave him unless he attended rehab. It was expensive and it was an experience we both should never forget,still once back home and three weeks after his last dose of Naltrexone,he refused to take anymore and started using again. Only he was broke and opana isnt cheap on the street,all his pills were fromt he street-not prescribed to him. Ultimately, one of his opana suppliers was "kind enough" to get him something cheaper and ended up handing him a heroin addiction.
He isnt a shooter or smoker, his mode of transmission is snorting. To each addict their own method serves them best. He was not able to conceal his using but what he was using was something he knew I had zero tolerance for after my past expeirences with it. H what a b***h she is. Tricky b***h that refuses to silnce her hunger and will use every method and plot any means to make the user her slave and provider of her heroin. Anyways for four months I was refusing to let up, i knew he wasnt sober and he was too hooked to see how much pain and saddness his cycles of using lying about using and periods of withdraw between usage. He wasnt himself to me or family but he swore everyone was stuck on him going to rehab and would never let him be anything in their eyes but a user.
That brings me to last week, i walked into our bathroom and he was sitting on the floor with his hand closed and trying to hide whatever he had in it. I got this sick and scary feeling inmy stomach and ended up refusing to let him deny he had something in his hand, we wrestled over it he didnt want me to see it and i managed to get it from him. Thinking I would open the envelope he had and there be pills broken up or crushed to snort...it was heroin. I was baffled and stunned. I know what H does and I left the first man i loved 2daysfollowing his telling me and that was after 5yrs together. I knew he knew there was a chance I would leave him too,but this time I couldnt not with him. I wanted to be strong for him and walk him thru the recovery he faced if choosing to,if not Id leave. He and I came up with a plan to recover...taper for a week and detox with xanax immodium valerian and vitamins. Well its was his last day for using any on friday,oddly enough i expected to endure w him the type of things detox and wd was in his past attempts. But by saturday morning I was worried about why he wasnt showing detox symptoms like usual. He then pulled his usual past sh*t about he needs to work and flys out the door on a seconds notice,is unreachable from 1pm till 830pm when he gets in and isnt showing withdraws still but isnt admitting to using and swore he hadnt. He took some xanax and fell asleep, so i needed to know for myself whether or not he so much as tried to call his dealers...look at his phone and yep as soon as he left saturday around luch to work he was on the phone to his connections. But when i asked about it sunday morning he said he was tempted but not able to hook up. He never has any trouble hooking up when he is looking, and still not a withdraw like expected but after being asleep for 6hours he began sweating profusely and kept getting up and going to the bathroom repeatedly running the water whille he was in their and came back to bed and fell asleep till about 6-7hours later sunday after noon. He said he didnt feel good and was trying to convince me he was suffering wd but i wasnt buying it. He went to work and was MIA from 1pm till 830pm but swore he didnt use. I wasnt stupid but didnt wanna condem him over past failures.
How do i know if he is really sticking to the plan we made to be clean. What do I need to look for if I wanna know if he is high or was hours ago and needs more from withdraw signs.
I dont wanna give up yet he and i should beat this together...I am 12yrs clean off crystal and I was able to because of the people I got help thru and the fact that they too were former users. When do I finally walk away? How can he get thru this we still have 6months of naltrexone he didnt take as told by rehab doc. Is he able to take it now,even if he hasnt taken it since a week after his IM dose in july? I need to know what and how to help him, he has no drive or motivation for living most days if he doesnt use and its very discouraging to him to see what he put our family thru and how much he is losing to this demonic tricky b***h called addiction...if you made if this far thanks for reading any advice is welcome/
anything anyone has to offer as advice is welcome and needed thanks
As my name implies, I'm a parent of a heroin addict who is currently detoxing at home - again - and I am PRAYING SO HARD that this is the last time! My brother (1 yr clean from heroin) was prescribed Naltrexone, and it worked great for him. PLEASE NOTE - you cannot use it unless you've been clean for 7-10 days or it can cause death. I pray that your boyfriend is now clean, and GREAT JOB to you for staying clean! Take care!