Hi everyone, I thought I would share my experience as I'm in day 6 of being free of opiates. I was taking 60-80 mg oxycodone a day for 2 years. Only swallowed, never snorted, smoked them or anything else. I did not realize that I was actually physically addicted, I thought I was just partying and having fun. It made work less stressful, made me enjoy talking to people, basically thought it was a big improvement on my quality of life. On the darker side, I was forced to associate with undesirable elements to get my supply and had to wait, car idling, in some of the worst neighborhoods in Milwaukee while my dealer went in to crackhouses to pick up my stash. Also terrible was that I could not continue to maintain a $30 to $40 a day habit and had gotten myself in to about 10,000 credit card debt. So, I decided to just "stop" when I went on vacation to Mexico. I thought it would be no big deal.

WHOA. On the second day I felt like I got hit by a bus! By the third day, uncontrollable sneezing, horrendous diarrhea, aches and cramps all over that went to the BONE, but the worst was the inability to sleep for days on end. I broke down and went to the resort doctor, told her the truth, and like a saint, she loaded me up with scripts for codeine and morphine and told me to get help upon my return home. And that is exactly what I did. I called one of the local medical giants, and the people on the phone were talking crazy about me joining a group and it meets all day every day for 6 weeks and that's the only way they would allow someone Suboxone. I protested that the whole purpose of me kicking the habit was to improve my life, not to damage my professional career. Then they said the only other way was to check myself into the ER and get started on Suboxone with one of the doctors on call in the hospital. The sub was like a miracle. It ended all w/d pain and made me feel like a normal person again. But maintenance required monthly visits to a clinic, or "suboxone mill", at $130 a pop that consisted of a urine test and a 5 minute consult with a very nice doctor. The doctor started me on 16 mg, which I found to be way too high of a dose - I was having dizzy spells and felt like fainting constantly, but he would hear none of it. So I kept filling the scripts (at $400 a month) and only took half of what was prescribed. Over time (I went to this clinic once a month for just over a year) I cut my own dose down to 4, 2 and then 1 milligram. By now I had amassed a stockpile of unused meds, so I stopped going to the clinic and began planning my own person D-Day.

Fast forward to now. I made sure I had nowhere to be for 9 days, a big bag of pot and a bunch of Soma and Klonopin. I had my roommate lock the rest of my subs in a safe. Today is day 6, and I feel better than I have in a long time. I find that the days are OK if I keep busy, but the nights are when the cramping limbs and flailing around in bed make me want to go mental. Overall, sub w/d, while it certainly sucks, is a walk in the park compared to the w/d off of Oxy.

I know what you're thinking - I am aware of the dangers of benzos and once my w/d is over, there will be no more kpins for me.

This is what worked for me so far. It's been a long, arduous, and expensive process - thank goodness for insurance.

A question I have is - has anyone else experienced this paradigm of good days but miserable nights? What length of time does this nightly RLS have the potential to last?