Home Remedies For Opiate Withdrawals

I have found that a little bit of drug substitution, if you think you can handle kicking those after the withdrawls cease, is the key to having a somewhat comfortable life during the withdrawl process. I am 3 days in right now. I did suboxone for a little over 6 years, mixing every other opiate you could imagine in the gaps of not being able to find subs on the street. I have never been on the program and do not intend to be. After i ran out of subs about 5 days ago, I decided to go out while having a little fun, so, I bought an opana and got faded one last time. The opana is what I'm coming off of, just for the sake of it possibly making the withdrawal process a little more severe but much shorter. Now, down to brass tacks, I believe that substituting just during the withdrawal process makes it much easier to live with the withdrawals. First, I take a little immodium ad (to help with the diharreha, also, it is i very minute form of an opiate, so it helps with all of the symptoms to an extent.) Second, about 20 to 30mg of Adderall a day, to give you a little energy to do the things you need to do and to keep your mind busy so you aren't constantly thinking about the symptoms. When you aren't thinking about it, it's like its not even there, trust me. And lastly, A small amount of muscle relaxer, like skelaxin or flexeril. Now, these are to help with the muscle tension and restless leg when you go to sleep. Iv'e been using these three in combination to help combat the withdrawal stmptoms and so far, it's been working pretty good for me. There is one thing I didn't address, the depression. Well, really the only thing I can tell you to help with that is to keep yourself busy, invest in an Xbox 360 and some games that make you think ad stay pretty alert. Call of Duty MW3 and Bioshock 2 have been helping me. Anyways, thanks for listening, if you have any questions or comments, don't be afraid to reply.

i am about to start oxy withdrawal tomorrow and i am terrified, i'm 18 and have been on 150mg's of oxy for about a year and a half now [i know i'm horrible, only 18 and already been a user for over a year and a half.] i'm going to have to go cold turkey as i do not have any more pills, i don't have any money or insurance either. I've started detox a few times before but have never finished it. does anybody have possibly a list of otc med's that will help? i am sooooo scared, i don't want to be chained to a pill anymore, i don't want it to run my life anymore, not to  mention the uncomfortable side effects that come with the sh*t. and i started for the most cliche and stupid reason, a guy... yeah stupid... and hes not even a part of my life anymore, he abandoned me after our best friend died six months ago, wont return my text's or phone calls, nothing. anyways, i'm going off on a tangent, the fact of the matter is that i'm freaking out and feel very alone in this world, i don't know if i can do this, but i don't want this anymore, not to mention i don't have a choice. anyways, a list of things that will help would be much much much appreciated, and not just med's that will help, things that help with the psychological aspect of detox would be great too, hell i'll take anyone with any form of help or encouragement, anything.

i am about to start oxy withdrawal tomorrow and i am terrified, i'm 18 and have been on 150mg's of oxy for about a year and a half now [i know i'm horrible, only 18 and already been a user for over a year and a half.] i'm going to have to go cold turkey as i do not have any more pills, i don't have any money or insurance either. I've started detox a few times before but have never finished it. does anybody have possibly a list of otc med's that will help? i am sooooo scared, i don't want to be chained to a pill anymore, i don't want it to run my life anymore, not to  mention the uncomfortable side effects that come with the sh*t. and i started for the most cliche and stupid reason, a guy... yeah stupid... and hes not even a part of my life anymore, he abandoned me after our best friend died six months ago, wont return my text's or phone calls, nothing. anyways, i'm going off on a tangent, the fact of the matter is that i'm freaking out and feel very alone in this world, i don't know if i can do this, but i don't want this anymore, not to mention i don't have a choice. anyways, a list of things that will help would be much much much appreciated, and not just med's that will help, things that help with the psychological aspect of detox would be great too, hell i'll take anyone with any form of help or encouragement, anything.

how did the L tryosine work for you

I have spent the last several hours reading all the stories here of addiction and the constant battle against opiates. Many of these recounts are very inspiring and I can relate to most. I would tell my story but it is a long and complicated one with numerous details and moving parts. and like most of you, are actually withdrawaling at the moment as i type :( honestly there's nothing available that will completely alleviate these terrible symptoms other than getting high as usual. withdrawal is one of the worst feelings and it feels like your body is dying because that's literally what your brain is telling your body. there is some comfort in that fact for me, when going thru the worst of it I remind myself that I can conquer this, I am stronger than this drug. Thoughts like these can sometimes lead to depression and regret. Mostly because we come back around to why we got addicted in the first place and how we let this happen to ourselves. Steps must be taken to repair these parts of our lives or else relapse and heartache can follow in recovery. I know alot of us feel that so many bad choices and mistakes have been made that it seems almost impossible to get our lives back. We make our own luck and what we do today affects our future, that being said we have the power and potential within us to change at any given moment. This is one of our most prized and underestimated freedoms, do what you must do to pursue the highest and purest form of happiness. I pray that you may all be filled with hope for as long as you possibly can.

I have spent the last several hours reading all the stories here of addiction and the constant battle against opiates. Many of these recounts are very inspiring and I can relate to most. I would tell my story but it is a long and complicated one with numerous details and moving parts. and like most of you, I'm actually withdrawaling at the moment as i type :( there's nothing available that will completely alleviate these terrible symptoms other than getting high as usual. withdrawal is one of the worst human experiences. it truly feels like your body is dying because that's literally what your brain is telling your body throughout the process. there is some comfort in that fact for me, when going thru the worst of it I remind myself that I can conquer this, I am stronger than this drug. Thoughts like these can sometimes lead to depression and regret. Mostly because we come back around to why we got addicted in the first place and how we let this happen to ourselves. Steps must be taken to repair these parts of our lives or else relapse and heartache can follow in recovery. I know alot of us feel that so many bad choices and mistakes have been made that it seems almost impossible to get our lives back. We make our own luck and what we do today affects our future, that being said we have the power and potential within us to change at any given moment. This is one of our most prized and underestimated freedoms, do what you must do to pursue the highest and purest form of happiness. I pray that you may all be filled with hope for as long as you possibly can.

16 yr addict, locked in bad...dont want to quit, just cant, chronic pain hip condition, theres never enough,this sucks. 20+percs a day,6 roxys a day,3 opana 10s a day...

I stumbled upon this thread because I too, am starting my much needed home detox from opiates. My habit started with Lortabs roughly 2009 and in the the past 2 years I graduated to Perc 30's and the occasional bag of H. When I couldn't get the "blues/perc 30's" or H, I would get Dilaudit and mostly snort. I am a habitual snorter and a once in awhile shooter. As of today, I am on a half a strip of Suboxone and I just took a warm bath with Epsom Salts and ate some decent food and water. Physically, I feel okay today. Emotionally, I am a wreck. I'm so ashamed of myself for what I have put myself and my girlfriend through the past 3 years. The amount of money alone that I have spent on pills is astonishing. I've become a cold hearted, selfish junkie that only cares about himself and pills. I've lost some of the best friends a person could ask for and I've also let my successful computer company wither to the ground. At this point, I owe so many people money and merchandise it's not even funny. The worst part is my father just died recently and although I haven't gotten the actual inheritance yet, I've got other tangible things which I've sold in order to get money for pills. That really sucks. Rather than give the money to my girlfriend to pay bills, I blow it on pills and rely on her to work her ass off and pay everything and accept a measly contribution a couple times a month. :(

I've said many many times that this is it and I am truly starting to believe myself this time. I am trying to do the right things, I changed my phone # and have 2 1/2 Suboxone Strips to get me through this "detox". I took a 1/2 strip at 9AM this morning and here it is 8PM and I feel fine. I had a coffee and Khalua earlier and that helped me relax a bit. My main problem at this point is I am overwhelmed with ideas and things I want to do in order to make this detox work. I need to slow down and take it day by day and get through this. I am anticipating that I will be almost out of the woods Monday and I can start to ween off the Suboxone. I don't plan on taking that much because I don't want that addiction and then have to detox off that one.  This thread helps me to know that I am not alone. My girlfriend has found a support group in order to learn about my addiction and she is standing by me and I'm not taking it granted for once. This sucks doing it alone per se, but I think it's the least I can do for myself in order to get my act together and live the rest of my life happy rather than not be a slave to the pills.

Best of luck to everyone in this boat. I will keep an eye on this thread and reply as my detox continues.

I've a read a lot of the posts here, and figured I would input on my ~9 years of history with opiate addiction.

I tried Oxycontin for the first time (not even knowing what it was) at age 18, in a night club.  I loved it, and it was quickly on.  Within a year, threw away college and was burning through money fast.  I went to rehab a  total of 4 times between age 19 and 21.  My family wanted it and pushed me.  I wanted it also,  but not nearly enough.

Age 21, I finally tried heroin.  I used heroin for about 3 years.  Lucky, yet unlucky, I made a good connect quickly so I was getting it cheap.  This only elongated the process.

Age 24, the results of the years of heavy drug addiction were showing major signs in my life.  Things were finally completely falling apart.  In a desperate time, I went to a clinic and got methadone.

I've been on Methadone for just under 3 years.  It has been great for me mentally, I'm definitely a different person.  Part of the reason is I cut everyone off in my life who did drugs.

During this 3 years, I've lived a normal life.  I've lived as a normal person, not an addict.  Except I would drink a little pink liquid in the morning.  After 6 months, I had thoughts of using very rarely.  After 1 year+, never.  Mentally I was in recovery.  But my body is still addicted unfortunately.  Methadone never made me "high".  I just felt normal.

Now, I'm detoxing from methadone.  I'm detoxing off ~20mg/day and it's quite rough.  I want to make sure anyone out there considering methadone knows some things:

#1 This drug is the most synthetic of all opiates.  Nothing compares.  It lasts 24-36 hours per dose!  If you know much about biochemistry or even just opiates in general, the more synthetic, the worse.

#2 The withdrawal from Methadone is 14-21 days.  Now I already know what you're thinking... "What?  Withdrawals are normally 72 hours.  Then a few days or a week longer of feeling like c**p from all the beating up it received during withdrawal."  No, sorry, with methadone you're looking at 14-21 days *acute* withdrawal, and then 1-2 months to recover.  Recovery can be less depending on age/health/etc.

#3 The withdrawal is SEVERELY worse than anything else.  I've gone through 12 or 13 full cold turkey detoxes.  I constantly tried to kick opiates over the years.  Heroin was the easiest, and I thought Oxycontin was "bad".  It wasn't even 1/20th of Methadone.  Methadone is EXTREME withdrawals even at a low dose.  Unbelievable stuff.  It really is designed for people to take it until the day they die.

My main motive of posting this is to warn people about methadone.  It can be great, like it was for me.  I have no idea where I would be now if I didn't get on methadone.  Probably dead or in jail, really.  But if you have that true burning desire to get clean and are willing to do whatever it takes, I'd recommend exhausting other options before taking this route.  It's the most difficult to go off of.


Some history on the amounts I was using:

[Oxycontin] Before switching to heroin, I was up to 160-240mg a day.  If I was "partying", it would be more.  Almost always snorted, rarely smoked.  Never IV'd.

[Heroin] Started at 0.5 gram a day.  Ended at 2.0 grams a day, to a maximum of 3 if I was on leisure time.  Always smoked (freebased) it.  I only IV'd it 3 times, and I've hated needles all my life so it just wasn't for me. (Thank God)

[Methadone]  Stabilized at a dose of 80mg a day.  I was sick, but just dealt with it because I wanted to be on a lower dose.  I had heard some things about methadone before, so I was cautious.  And they don't give you 80mg immediately.  You start at like 30mg and go up 10mg each day or every other day.  It's liquid, you just drink it.


Detox / withdrawal tips:

#1 Constant fluids.  Very easy to get dehydrated during the acute withdrawal phase.  Drink lots of water, and eat soups if needed.  Stay away from sugar if possible.
#2 Take hot baths.  I don't know why they are so soothing and help, but they do.
#3 Nutrition.  Withdrawals are very rough on your body, and it needs to repair not only your brain, but your body from the damage the withdrawals are doing, especially on certain organs such as the liver.  There's a great guide on another forum for the nutrition aspect, but I don't have a link unfortunately.
#4 Stay mentally strong.  Part of this is "gearing up mentally" before you start.  Prepare yourself for what is coming.  If at anytime during the withdrawal phase you are feeling weak, get a grasp on your thoughts and remind yourself why you're doing it.  You can't die from opiate withdrawals unless you have other major health problems.  Opiate withdrawal itself doesn't kill.
#5 Support.  Family and friends are immensely helpful.  This is a time where you are weak.  On top of that, many things you suppressed for years or maybe your whole life will present themselves.  It's natural to get emotional, whether male or female.  Use family and friends to help get through it.

I've been on methadone for 15 years. My last day at the clinic was Saturday.
First of all Mikey is spot on. Heroin withdrawls are a cakewalk compared to this. If anyone is reading this & thinking about getting on a clinic, I would reccomend a 30 day detox & no more. Part of me feels like methadone saved my life, but now it's killing me (I wish.)
I can't stop crying, my legs hurt terribly bad, I can't eat, my body tempature is always uncomfortable...& none of my friends understand because I left all my "junkie" friends.
Thank you all so much for the advice. Heres what has made me a bit more comfortable:
LOTS of ibuprophen, especially PM, nyquil or benadryl, kolonopin (sorry, you need a perscription, but it helps IMMENSLY. Valium or xanax would work too.) lots of pot (hopefully you live in a city like mine where you can get it medically, but either way..) try to do something exhausting everyday, do what you can to keep your mind distracted & like Mikey said, hot baths or showers. As this horrible & long process develops, I'll let everyone know if I figure out anything else that will help.
Thanks to whoever started this topic. It's REALLY difficult to find info on methadone withdrawls on the net (or anywhere else) but now I have lots of stuff to try out.
One more thing...20 mgs a day is a lot!!! Slow down, hun. I feel you may be setting yourself up for failure. It took me about 6 years to get from 80 to 25, at which point I stopped paying the clinic & they had me from 25 to 0 in four days. Which was too fast. In fact, I'm suprised they're even allowing you to do that! (unless you owe them money, of course.)

I first discovered that I was quite fond of opiate painkillers about sixteen years ago, though I've been on them pretty steady now for the last 9 years. I've gone through withdrawal countless times and yet I still put myself back into the same situation because with the pills I feel "normal" and I'm afraid of how I'll be without them. I know they are killing me. My liver must be a mess with all the acetaminophen that accompanies them. I've gone now for over a year where I haven't had to be without the pills and I'm on day 4 of a terrible withdrawal. I can't stand the sweats and the chills and the disability to keep my body regulated. The pain in my body, the shakes, not being able to sleep, etc. got me to the point where I just wanted to die. Yesterday, my dad took me to the hospital so that maybe I could get some help to make the detoxing easier so I wouldn't eat a bullet. I was given a shot of Decadron (steroid), Reglin (anti-emetic) and Benadryl (anti-histimine). They said I really needed to go to a rehabilitation center, but without having insurance, I can't go. The meds from the hospital made me really uncomfortable at first. So much so, that I walked out AMA (against medical advice). I ripped out my IV, all the EKG wires and stickies on me, the automatic blood pressure cuff that was trying to amputate my arm, etc. Once I got home, it took me a good hour to get my body warm. I was freezing. Then the meds started to make me feel a little better. I took one Loratadine pill today of my dad's. That's an antihistimine as well and it seemed to make me feel a bit better. At least the sweats or stopping some. I'm still so very weak and can't function normally. When I was on the pills, I functioned perfectly. You couldn't even tell I was on drugs. I was averaging about 23 10mg Lortabs per day. At my worst, I used to take about 30 or so a day. I have a really high tolerance to any medication really, so it's easy to up the dosages on anything. The last two nights, my dad also gave me Temazepam to help me sleep and that helps as well. So if you know anyone with Rx sleeping pills, ask for them, but only take enough to get you by for the first 4-7 maybe. You don't want to get hooked on that as well and only take them at night. I haven't tried any of the OTC stuff for withdrawal, but Valium does help. Unfortunately, that can also be addictive. Luckily, I was only given a couple by a friend to help out. As mentioned previously, the marijuana can help with the effects of withdrawal as well. You'll feel much calmer and less irritable. My bf talked me into getting high on pot a few times while withdrawing even though I'm not really fond of pot. 

Hey all, I haven't read the entire thread so I dont know if this has already been posted (sorry if it has) but I was hoping someone would find this useful. Apparently a commonly prescribed nausea drug called ondansetron significantly decreases withdrawal symptoms.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090217212255.htm

Excerpt:
"ScienceDaily (Feb. 17, 2009) — Scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered that a commonly available non-addictive drug can prevent symptoms of withdrawal from opioids with little likelihood of serious side effects. The drug, ondansetron, which is already approved to treat nausea and vomiting, appears to avoid some of the problems that accompany existing treatments for addiction to these powerful painkillers, the scientists said."

Additionally a common cough medication compound, DXM is known in small doses to help prevent tolerance build up for opiates, which I can imagine would help with withdrawal as you would be taking less opiates.

link to pdf file of "THE EFFECT OF DEXTROMETHORPHAN IN PREVENTING THE DEVELOPMENT AND IN TREATING THE EXPRESSION OF
WITHDRAWAL SYNDROME DUE TO PASSIVE-ADDICTED TO MORPHINE IN THE NEONATAL RATS":
http://jms.ndmctsgh.edu.tw/fdarticlee/old/2204171.pdf

Good luck with your withdrawals, mine only lasted about two days cold turkey due to my fast metabolism after about 700mg codeine a day for about five years since I was 16, though it was a hellish experience. Massive migraine, suicidal depression, high fever, shivering, gallons of sweat and pain in all my muscles, joints, back, even my teeth.

Best of luck everyone.

Thanks for that article! I'll ask my doc for some & see how it goes. Sucks that they had to force addiction upon neonatal rats, tho. Jerks.

hello...i know this is an old post, but i thank you for your information about your recovery...this is helping me help the man i love to recover from his addiction....i am very holistic and health conscious and want to help him regain his health, physically, emotionally and mentally be getting rid of this sh*t as naturally as possible to recover his life....thank you again

Lori: be patient with him. This stuff takes FOREVER to get out of your system & I honestly don't know how my boyfriend has lived with me for the last 16 days (it feels like years) If I'm not crying my eyes out, I'm being mean. I hate myself so much right now. Remember, he WILL get through this, but he may say & do things he does'nt really mean. I know it's hard to understand, but your brain gets completely fried when you do this, unless he's a short term or not so hardcore user, of course. Good luck.

One more thing... what do you guys do to stop your legs from moving all over the place at night? I seriously can't stand this & am considering going back to the clinic. I wanna be who I was while I was medicated. :(