Hoping everyone out there has found some peace, and happiness.
Was listening to some Ben Howard, "Keep Your Head Up" and thought of you guys :)
"Oh lookin' out at this happiness
I searched for between the sheets,
Oh feelin' blind,
I realize, All I was searchin' for... was me.
Oh oh-oh, all I was searchin' for was me.
Oh yeah, keep your head up,
keep your heart strong.
...keep your mind set, keep your hair long.
Oh my, my darlin', keep your head up,
keep your heart strong... keep your mind set in your ways
Keep your heart strong!!!!"
Peace and Love to all
Excellent advice about vitamins. I cannot take multi B vitamins because they make me VIOLENTLY ill.
Some people can't tolerate the vitamin regemine, especially on an empty stomach and especially during early withdrawal and vomiting stage.
I'm taking zofran for nausea. This has saved me. I am not free from other withdrawal symptoms and it's hell, but this medication allowed me to eat and keep hydrated. It also did not make me extremely drowsy as phergan would have. I highly recommend it because nutrition is critical throughout early withdrawal
Thank you. This was one of the most helpful posts I've read so far. I think NA/AA are wonderful and I know people who have sworn by them, but I am a rather introverted person, a chronic abuse survivor and I have a therapist that I prefer to share very personally with. Including my dependency upon opiates. I am not an addict, but I am dependent. I hated the way oxies made me feel. Tired, groggy, but were extremely effective pain relief. I want to get OFF of them and am now on day 1 after making the leap from 5mg. I tapered somewhat, a fast taper and I think it's helped quite a bit.
I feel very sad, very blue, but have the love and support of my son who knows just what I'm going through. My DOC was abusive relationships. I kicked all of that two years ago, along with an alcohol problem I developed in the relationship.
I lose site of my accomplishments and beat the c**p out of myself for taking my prescribed pain meds for cervical canal stenosis and autoimmune. I only took 22. mg of perc a day.
I keep telling myself I can do this. I'm choosing NOT to take the meds. I cannot spiritually live taking them. It is a personal choice.
I cannot endure the stigma that I know are attached to these medications. I am due to refill next week. I have not cancelled the appt, preferring to see how it goes. If I can make it to that day, I will cancel. If I cannot, I will go and explain that I need to be off and do an extremely slow taper, but I'm already off. Might as well keep going.
When it comes down to it, it is up to only you to decide. The strength has to come from within, not from externals and you have to really want it. I can't guarantee that i will make it, and I give myself room for that with a plan B just in case, but we will see. Great inspiration on these posts. Some many years old now. God bless. everyone.
Hang in there! Only other advice I can offer is don't beat yourself up if you don't break free this time, just plan it out and try again. Good luck and I hope you have a happy new year!
I was heroin addict for five years and slip every now and then. Best way I found to withdrawal from Heroin is to take lortabs, percs, etc for a week or so, weaning the dose down every day after your last Heroin hit. After that move on to Tramadol and xanax for a few days. You might feel a little shitty but not to bad. Best remedy for me so far.
I'm a young girl.. early 20's would be the most appropriate age to describe me.. and I was an addict for two years straight.
I've hopped around from Hydrocodone to cutting up some oxys in doses that were managable for me to get that high but not make me sick.. I am young and stupid, and although I knew this path was the wrong one, I took it anyways. The high was too good to let it pass me by, and with drugs so readily available to me.. I took what I wanted.
I've never gone anywhere near 100g a day.. maybe 30mgs hydrocodone tops. So I suppose my addiction isn't as bad as some of the others I've been reading about... but it was enough to cause terrible withdrawal symptoms.. terrible relapses.. and depressing, suicidal thoughts. Maybe if I could end my life, all of this pain and these cravings would just go away.
I still feel like I function better when I'm on opiates.. and I still have urges all the time to take them. I try my best to resist. I try to get out as much as possible and be other places and not talk to the wrong people. I've hurt my family.. I earned the trust they gave me and then I spit on it and threw it away, although I'm now taking steps to gain that trust back.. and it's just a vicious cycle in my family. One I was sure I was going to break, and failed.
It's been a year.. and I'm clean. I only touch hydrocodone (or loratab) when I've got a migraine and only when it is offered to me. And even then, I rarely accept the offer.. I hate touching them now.
All my life, ever since I can remember.. I was the person everyone came to. I allowed people to dump their problems on me. To tell me what was wrong and if they ever did anything stupid, I'd tell them what they did was stupid. I'd give them good advice.. advice I could rarely take myself. Little words of wisdom passed down to me.. things I never listened to when they were said, but made sense telling them to other people.. and things I'd hoped that, coming from me and not a parent, would have made sense to them as well.. and no one has ever known about my problem. I believe I had told someone about it once.. but I don't think she realized how much it effected me. How bad I felt I'd messed up.
My family is full of druggies. Almost all of them on my mom and dad's side both. I saw this coming years ago.. I never wanted to touch any drugs. I never wanted to know what it was like to be on them, and I thought being on them was stupid. I denied it.. and then I dove head first into it. I'll never forgive myself for being so stupid. For taking it too far. Everything in moderation.. apparently isn't really my style.
As far as what helps with the withdrawals?
Kratom. It can be made into a tea.. and if you're not careful, it can cause the same withdrawal effects as the pills themselves.. but the high is never as strong and never as long lasting and it's difficult to get attached to something so.. trivial. But it helps with the withdrawals, and it keeps the cravings at bay.
Kava. Never heard of it? I hadn't either. It's a root.. and when mixed with water, it taste like dirt. It's extremely popular in the fiji islands, and acts kind of like alcohol. It's a sedative.. only when you're drinking it, you remain completely aware and alert. No hangover the next night or anything.. it's just a very mellow feeling.. and it lasts for days afterwards. The best part about it? It has a reverse tolerance. Meaning the first couple days you drink Kava will be the most you drink.. ever. Example: the first week you've had kava, you've had three shells, once a day, three days for a week. The next week, you may only need two.. or one shell of a more potent kava. I'm telling you now, it's disgusting. But drink it down like a shot and chase it with a soda and you're good to go. Probably the best thing that has ever come into my life. Hard on the liver, but as long as you're only drinking the roots and NOT the stems, you'll be fine.
Pot. I've never in my life been a big pot smoker. I'm still not to this day.. but man, on those nights when I couldn't stop moving my legs.. when I was sooo, so, so, so tired.. but I couldn't lay still for more than a couple of seconds.. a few hits and I was out cold. Calm. Collected.. and at peace. I don't know why it's still illegal. Every rehab should give people going through DT some bud.
Immodium. Seriously? This stuff is OTC and you can buy the offbrand wal-mart whatever kind of anti-diarrhea pills and it not only keeps the cravings at bay, but it calms the stomach. The science behind it is easy to understand, and I'll keep it simple. There are chemicals in immodium that bond to the opioid receptors in your body. Specifically, in your stomach. The reason it is OTC is because the chemicals almost never cross the blood-brain barrier, and therefore never gives you the high of a pill. You can take these when you're going through WD and you can't overdose. The worst thing that will happen is when you're through your DT and WDs, you'll have to wean yourself off the immodium or face having some raging diarrhea for the next couple of days. It's easy, it's quick and it's legal.. and it makes you feel -at least- 70% better. They're pretty cheap and you can find them anywhere.
Tylenol/Advil/Ibue PM.. No one wants to believe these things actually work.. but if I didn't have any pot, I'd take one of these and be knocked out.. and able to wake up the next morning, 7 hours later with almost no slugishness. Zquill (made by nyquill) is also extremely useful. I would only use these towards the end of your WD symptoms.. when you're nearly there, but need that extra little push to get through the night.
Hope all of this helps.
The Kava and the Kratom you can google and buy online. It's inexpensive and it's a wonderful way to get you through your WD symptoms.. without having to deal with addiction to another substance.
Good info.My wife is in w/d's from duragesic and percocets.I knew about the non narcotic analgesics but didn't think about the Zquill,as she has trouble sleeping due to restless legs.I'm still have reservations about the pot though.I work in the medical field and would worry about my license.Good luck.
So here's my tale. I started reading this forum in day one of my wd's. It helped me immensely, and I am 8 days in (or out) now! I am a 38 year old man. No kids, and a GREAT girl friend. I was a good kid growing up. Didn't drink often, smoked a little weed once in a while, always on the honor roll, lots of friends, ect ect ect. When i went away to college, I got a little crazy. I played around with hallucinogens, smoked a bunch of weed. nothing too serious, though. Then came junior year. I did a bunch of coke my junior year, took a year off from school and did a stint with H, like roughly 8 months or so of snorting 1-5 bags per day, depending on quality. I came home one day and found my girl at the time in bed with the dealer. It was rough, but probably saved my life. I walked away and seemingly never looked back. I remember drinking like a fish and smoking a TON of reefer but don't have any clear recollection of withdrawal. Two years ago my girl got a new job. Turns out one of her coworkers had a pretty solid hook up for percs and vikes. It was fun at first. Take one here or there and make everything seem better. Even fun activities are MORE fun high. This continued to spiral until we get to December of this year. The girl and I decided we had enough. The financial toll we were paying was just too high. While our addiction is light (30 mgs or so a day each of oxy, hydro, dilaudid, what ever we could find) it was still pretty expensive, and definitely still an addiction. We decided to taper down fast and give quitting a shot. I stocked up, and we went on a week long taper from 20mgs a piece down to 5. That was working all right, but on christmas day we found ourselves home with the rest of our supply (2 8mg Dilaudid , about 60 mg of perc and two 10mg vikes). Needless to say, we blew what we had left that night. The next day started out OK, but we were both pretty sick by nightfall. The day after that was bad, and Day 3 was even worse, and day 4 was the worst BY FAR. Days 5 and 6 got a little better, as did day 7, and now day 8. I honestly don't know if I am quitting for good or not. I know at the very least i need a LONG break to make me feel human again. If I can make it last, all the better! For me, the anxiety is the worst aspect. I'm a naturally anxious person anyway, so it fu(ks me every time. The diarrhea is obviously no fun, and neither is the RLS. The insomnia is no picnic either! Here is what worked for us 1. Just freakin do it. JUMP! You're not gonna quit by scoring more before you are even out. 2. Baby yourself. We bought all our favorite foods and planned this for a time when we were both off. Couldn't eat at first, but when the appetite comes back, its nice to have what you want. 3. REEFER. I've always been fond of pot, and it has helped me personally with EVERY symptom. Not massive bong-loads, mind you. Just a puff here or there. 4. Keep reminding yourself of WHY you're doing this. Plenty of reasons to quit, find one that matters to YOU 5. Movies. We've watched a lot of movies through this time. It helps take your mind off things and eases you a little. I recommend comedies. Action movies seemed to make my anxiety worse. 6. If you have a quitting buddy, take turns taking care of each other. Its nice when you are receiving care, but its also nice to bring comfort to someone who you KNOW feels as bad as you do. I've heard Kratom works. There's a guy on here who SWEARS by it (yes, G-shakes, I'm looking at YOU!) haha, but I couldn't score any the first few days, and I think I am close to being out of the woods now, so I have elected not to try it right now. I've read enough independent testimonials to believe in it, though. I would have REALLY liked to get my hands on some benzo's as i KNOW they help with the anxiety. I'd have just asked my doctor, but he's been after me about the high BP lately, and has NO clue as to my pill issues. There seems to be a LOT of misinformation out there about tramadol. Don't think for a second that this will be a helpful tool to ween you off the ope's. Its just a synthetic opiate. While it never produced a "high" for me (I took low doses as prescribed for pain) when it wore off it always seemed to make me a little crazy. Teeth grinding, wanting more, ect. I have also heard that Tramadol withdrawal is a bear to go through. Seems like a high price to pay for no gain. Well, i hope someone can find something useful here. I know its felt better to read all of your stories, and it felt great writing mine just now! Since there has been a music theme to alot of these posts, go listen to The Ballad of Love and hate by the Avett Brothers. Its a sad song, sorta, but always makes me feel better in the end! Good Luck!
How are you doing? I hope you are well, let us know
Hi everyone!!!!! Georgia, I hope your move is going well or went well. I am sorry for leaving everyone hanging. I am doing good I miss the support I had on here. I have jumped off subs and am hoping to stay off. Love you all!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!
How are u?