Opioids What can opiate withdrawal be compared to?

[elixir1]

being beat up from the inside after a weekend of binge drinking

Reading this has made me feel better. A lot of what I've read is EXACTLY how i feel. I've been on Lortabs daily for about 2 months... and not even all that much, in my opinion (compared to many opiate addicts)... probly an average of 80mg hydrocodone per day. I finally decided I was spending too much money on it and I just need to stop. It is the most horrible thing i've ever felt. I can't imagine what the worst of the worst could be like (being addicted to VERY high doses of VERY potent narcotics or severe alcohol or benzodiazepine W/D from what I've heard). It has been 2 days since I took anything and I am finally starting to feel some relief (I say finally b/c it's felt like a lot longer than 2 days!!)

The worst part, for me, are the cold sweats and chills alternating rapidly with getting really hot (hot baths help a lot). It is impossible to get comfortable while sleeping, and I am even on Ambien 10mg and Seroquel 50mg (which helps, but trying to sleep STILL sucks!) You toss and turn and moan in agony and it takes everything you've got just to get out of bed, even though lying there is HELL!! Also, the pangs of hunger without being able to keep any food down is horrible. Having to work and go to class is soo hard. I don't want to see or talk to anybody. I don't want to go anywhere. I just feel like dying.

Another thing that has made it worse is this: I am on Ativan 2mg t.i.d. and I have a psych appt tomorrow. I had ONE Ativan left as of yesterday when the worst of the opiate w/d set in. I split the one pill for today and tonight but I am used to 3 a day. So i am probably going through opiate and slight benzo w/d at the same time. Tomorrow I will get my script refilled and expect much more relief.

I agree with the statements I've heard that the hardest part is knowing how easy to be to get a hold of some pills that will make it all go away for a little while, but then you have to go through this all over again.

 

[DeLee]

insomnia is going to be a problem 100% weed wont help you sleep. ide throw back a coupple shots of whiskey and get in bed. OR you can try zanax. that will knock you out. BUT DONT mix the 2. it gets messy.....

Thanks for youre reply man. The whiskey did me good and i kept smoking, being drunk on my ass prevented me from thinking to much on the pain.
Benso's is out of the picture, ive abused them years ago and i dont go there again.

I wrote in my earlier post that my last dose was on the 19th of saturday but ofcourse i meant sunday.
So im about 10 days clean now, over the weekend i had medium pain and full restless legs but im so glad it only lasted
from friday to monday.
Monday evening the pain went away, still have very very minor restless legs.
Mentally i have not felt any depression or change in mood, quite the opposite actually.. even when i did hurt i fel ALOT better mentally. Thats interesting.

Ive been drinking whiskey and beer from monday to today and ofcourse smoking hashish and it helps me get 6-8h of sleep.
This withdrawl was really easy, i thought i would feel alot worse from a year of suboxone use. I didn't even step down on the dosage.. went CT.

My energy is quite drained though but its returning and im eating pretty well, but since im getting drunk that steals alot of energy.
Its interesting, some years ago i IV'd subutex for about a year and that time i had full blown withdrawl.
It was up there with my heroin and methadone withdrawls but when i only snort or take subutex/oxone sublingual its so much easier.

This time it actually felt like having a bad cold and not like going to hell and back.
I really hope i wont fall back again on opiates, now i got my alcohol and coke urges to deal with.

Good luck to all other addicts that visit BL.

 

[Snakebasket]

I hate the cold feeling so much, you can put a thousand blankets over you and you still frezze, and just the second you thing you feel warm , it gets so intense hot that sweats almost floods out of you. And you always thing what is this shitty life for why do all the shit, nightmare depressions. This discription doesn´t nearly cover 1/10 of all symptoms.

QFT

If I stop, I usually get super chills on day 2. Ill be freezing and have goosebumps all over but somehow be sweating and restless at the same time. that plus diarrhea like every 2 hours.

No will to do anything but sit, extremely bored in bed.

 

[Sentimental]

I haven't experience the full-out physical withdrawls from opiates, but the psychological pain is enough...It's like having chains wrapped around your mind, and the only way to break them is by using more.

 

[DopaMan]

HIGH dose = hell, low dose = HELL. WDs suck so bad because you always know that you can make them disappear in a few seconds, no matter what the dose or the symptoms. My cravings when I went through some severe detox (sweat dripping through a whole futon cover) to slight discomfort in early Percocet abuse can equally drive you back into the vicious cycle of addiction.

 

[ClubbinGuido]

One thing about withdrawals that is actually positive. If you listen to your favorite music while wd'ing, it will sound spectacular and you'll get emotional over it. I've heard other people say this too. So, listening to good music will help some because you're really enjoying the music.

I always get depressed and sad when I listen to music when I'm going through withdrawal. The music makes me think back to the good old days and I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach from the nostalgia and sometimes I just breakdown and cry because my life is shit. I wish I was able to experience positive stuff from music like you do when going through withdrawal...

 

[NJ2NYC2NJ]

Going on a month for me... And I'm still experiencing chills, decreased appetite, insomnia, generalized anxiety and depression. I even get the sneezes and intermittent diarrhea, which is something that I always imagined would be gone after the first week of withdrawal.

Honestly, I'm going to hold out for another month. If I'm still feeling shitty at that point, I'm going to fucking go crazy... I might just lose it completely and cop something illicit.

 

[NJ2NYC2NJ]

I always get depressed and sad when I listen to music when I'm going through withdrawal. The music makes me think back to the good old days and I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach from the nostalgia and sometimes I just breakdown and cry because my life is shit. I wish I was able to experience positive stuff from music like you do when going through withdrawal...

Holy shit, this is so totally what I do. I won't go into details, but I definitely isolate myself, turn on Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" and totally sob for like an hour or two. Alcohol intensifies this process by several orders of magnitude.

Fuck me. I need to get the fuck out of here.

 

[ClubbinGuido]

Going on a month for me... And I'm still experiencing chills, decreased appetite, insomnia, generalized anxiety and depression. I even get the sneezes and intermittent diarrhea, which is something that I always imagined would be gone after the first week of withdrawal.

Post Acute Withdrawal Symptoms (PAWS) are a fucking bitch to deal with.

Alcohol intensifies this process by several orders of magnitude.

Same here. I almost went about committing suicide one night after turning on some music and sitting down with a bottle of vodka. Luckily I fucking passed out.

 

[NJ2NYC2NJ]

Same here. I almost went about committing suicide one night after turning on some music and sitting down with a bottle of vodka. Luckily I fucking passed out.

Yeah, my most recent episode involved the consumption of a liter of Absolut, which I drank in about two hours or so.... I then proceeded into a blind, drunken rage, breaking all sorts of shit all over my house... Leaving a trail of vomit along the way... Only to wake up laying down in the shower in the middle of the night, with cold water showering down over my shivering body. I honestly have no recollection of anything beyond the bottom-fifth of the bottle, and only learned of my drunken house-smashing trip by "discovering" the physical evidence the following morning. Completely fucking surreal experience.



Say what you will about heroin... I ain't never broke nothin' or vomited all over my place while floating high on diesel, no sir, not once, not never...

 

[tokin']

Well, for me, it's a total living hell. I've got 22 days clean and i'm still experiencing major cravings, anxiety, insomnia, general fear of leaving the house, major depression, restless leg syndrome, upset stomach and some serious back pain. My lungs are hurting like shit today - i think that's from the smoking, but i could be wrong. This stems from a 5 year addiction starting with fentanyl, then oxy 80's and then IV smack/dilaudid.

All else aside, it's a pure living hell within your own hell. You keep going, it sucks, you stop, it sucks. I feel like there's no way to escape it, but that's not advice...just how I feel.

 

[chemanthony]

pain in every joint of your body and just wanting to curl up and die for real its hell, the least painful way is suboxone, almost painless

 

[edarrin]

but i went just a few days to long and ended up getting w/d and had to keep taking the shit so i could work now i have to take it or i cANT work i want to get back to 2-3 days a week but man its been so long

That's basically what's happened to me too. I have to work and in order to work at peak eficiency I have to be on opiates.

I am considering taking 6 months leave from work and go to rehab and work on being able to sleep 'normally' again if possible. If not I gave it a good go and I'll accept that I may have to take either an opiate or a benzo for the rest of my life. There are a few complicating issues as well.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that this is the second time in my life I've become addicted. From'91-2003 (or thereabouts) I was 100% clean then I started back on the road where active addiction takes you. Although this time hasn't been so bad to date because my material situation is different now. But I can't control opiates. Not for long anyway. This time I lasted about 2 months 'chipping' before I caved in to the inevitable ( for me at least). I've been through about 10 detoxes and I can say that either my habit is progressing or each w/d is getting harder to take. Likely a combo of the 2.

In short to the OP: it sucks ...I call it dead man walking. Take your worst flu you've ever had and multiply that by 5, adding in the factor that ,unlike with influenza yu're body wants to sleep to get better,, you are awake for pretty much the duration while the worst of the physical symptoms play out. That eases of after a while but it takes a long time to feel 'normal' like before you took opiates.

The truth is they're better off left alone...but people are people

 

[monstanoodle]

Alcohol intensifies this process by several orders of magnitude.

Large amounts definitely do. But a shot every now and again can be helpful.

 

[ih8beez]

everyone's said pretty much all that needs to be said. I just wanted to say what helps me get through w/d's (i have done it countless times). I get HOT showers, sometimes up to 5 times a day, it is the only time that i feel even close to normal (I know that getting up to the shower can seem like running a marathon when w/ding, but it's worth it). I like listening to music, it is the only way I am able to get my mind away from those horrible thoughts of pure despair. I also like driving, I know that some people on this site have said that driving is awful while w/ding, but I like it, it passes time and keeps your body occupied.

 

[DeLee]

Allright, soon been a month without bupe.
I started smoking hashish to sleep, it worked quite well. Beside the paranoia and i could feel the pain more precise. But i did sleep. If u could call it sleep but u know what i mean.
Then i started drinking and smoking hashish and that got me to sleep every night, felt very good.

Now one month later i am still drinking and smoking, i have also picked up my old benzo habit. Im doing about 6mg of Clonazepam a day.
I dont know whats worse, being hooked just on bupe or this...
On bupe i lost all my friends because when im on opioids i only care about myself and never call my loved ones.

But today i meet alot of people again (no shit) and i have good relashionships(spelling) but at the same time i lost my
spot and my university when i came there high on coke, alcohol and bensos.

I guess im gonna keep doing this. Then when i need to get of alcohol i use my clonazepams.
//Addicts statement

 

[crazyjake]

Having the worst flu of you life physcial part while seeing the preson you love most in life being killed in front of you mental part

 

[Atlien3]

cancer

 

[OverDriven]

I've been through withdrawals from a variety of opiates. The worst habits I had withdrawals from were methadone and pods. Methadone withdrawals are not really your typical opiate withdrawal. It's a VERY long withdrawal period. The last physical symptoms didn't go away for about a month. The worst part of that withdrawal was the RLS. Sleep was impossible for almost a month. It was torturous. Other than that, it had less mental effects than other opiates. I didn't have any depression from it. If anything, I felt better mentally.

Pods...that's a monster. The depression and out of control emotions are intense. I'm talking pure hopeless despair along with a feeling of impending doom/dread. It's really indescribable. You feel that you will cry at any moment. RLS is intense and you feel cold constantly. You also feel delirious, as if you are living in a nightmareish dream. Everything seems very surreal. The whole thing lasts about a week.

 

[dwg52378]

All this info is all over the net.