Opioids Big and Dandy Loperamide Adddiction Thread

[ophelia_b]

irishgypsy- Thank you for your reply, I'm shocked to find out that any one else is experiencing this inconsistency with Loperamide. I mean getting sick for a few days then feeling great, actually high for a few days and then getting sick again. I know the obvious thing is to blame it on your tolerance, but I've been tapering very slowly the past week and I was too sick to go to work yesterday. I have no explanation other than the absorption of Loperamide in the intestines is not working. I think there is a "Goldilocks zone" with the speed of peristalsis in order for this drug to be absorbed properly, because if it's too fast or too slow, you won't get the amount you need. And it appears to be very hard to maintain. I have also not found a laxative that works when I am not sick, so I think that's contributing to the problem.

I'm guessing that our issue with this drug not working can be remedied by figuring out what the best way to achieve that optimal state of peristalsis is. We are pretty much venturing into uncharted territory here. If I find anything new about this then I'll be sure to let you know. That way we can get on with tapering and get off this shit without losing our minds in the process.

(PS I have no clue how to use this site sorry)

 

[irishgypsy]

Ophelia b, im glad to hear from you and hope you are doing well. You described exactly my situation. Im also amazed to find someone in this boat. Im down to 100mg twice a day. I hope you are having an easier time than me. Although I must say that I had a pretty good day today. Please let me know how you are doing. Maybe we can be an encouraging influence to each other.

P.S. I dont know alot about using this site either, ive only recently joined.

 

[Sorce]

I was wondering if anyone can give me input on how my withdrawals will be. I was on suboxone for a year...jumped off at about 4mg/day. I made it 7 days before relapsing on heroin. I only used it for two days but the withdrawals were pretty unbearable.

On day one off heroin I took 50mg of loperamide. It helped a lot. Day 2 I took 40. Day 3 I took 20. Day 4 I took 10.

I feel pretty damn good which is surprising. Should I just stop taking it now or try taking 4 mg then 2 then none over the next 3 days? Will my withdrawals still be pretty bad?

 

[irishgypsy]

Its hard to say, but I'd try tapering as low as possible. If your feeling ok at that low of a dose though id say you've about got it kicked.

 

[ophelia_b]

irishgypsy- glad to hear you're doing better, I haven't been sick in 5 days at this point and I think I have the situation under control for the time being. I'm now at 148mg/day. I would love to be at 100mg though, my problem is I dose 2x a day. I know this drug has a long half life so I'm sure I could stretch that out, it's just hard when I'm at work because I start getting sick right at 12 hours. I'm not sure if I should ease up on my tapering schedule to do so. Have you had any issues with spacing your doses out? one of the local grocery stores seems to have figured me out and no longer sells Loperamide in greater quantities than 12 packs hahaha!

 

[irishgypsy]

Oohelia b, Im also at twice a day. I guess I wasn't clear about it sorry. Im at 90mg twice a day now. I also start feeling bad at about 12hrs.
thats crazy about the store, you think they'd mind thier own business and just make a profit since your not doing anything illegal. I buy from sams, not sure if they have them where your at but they sell large quantities alot cheaper than anywhere else. You can even get a case there if you want...lol, I hope I never have to do that though. Im glad to hear from you and to hear your still tapering. Like I said im down to 90mg ×2 a day but its a slow frustrating process. Im tempted to go faster but I hate being sick, I have a low pain tolorance. Anyway, I hope you keep posting your progress.

 

[Sorce]

I'm down to 3 pills or 6mg per day feeling pretty good. Hopefully I can go down to 1 or 2 before stopping completely and not feeling any withdrawal. Anyone have experience with these small doses?

 

[irishgypsy]

Im so glad to hear your doing so well. It really gives me hope that I can do this as well. Ive sped up my taper some and am now at 80mg × 2 a day. I dont have any experience with small doses yet but would love to keep hearing about
your progress.

 

[TheRapperGoneBad]

Lots of people use loperamide to get opioid effects to combat withdrawal. I'm on the tail end of doing that now. And if taken in sufficient amounts, for many people, it does provide opiate effects. Personally I never got euphoria off of it though. Just a heavy feel. It's actually a little uncomfortable for me unless I'm withdrawing and then it makes the withdrawal about 90% gone... quite effective.

Yeah, it's marketed as diarrhea medicine, but it's an opioid. Back in the day morphine was marketing as diarrhea medicine too... and as just about anything else, and it was over the counter. Does that make it bullshit?

To answer the OP's question, I do believe loperamide has its own withdrawal effects, which basically consist of weak opiate withdrawals, pretty much isolated to the physical. I find that quitting opiates (which I did months ago), once the acute withdrawals are past, leaves you with a lot of excess energy which can sometimes become very uncomfortable and make it hard to rest. Loperamide gets rid of this. All I know is that whenever I have taken loperamide a few times in a row (36-48 hours between doses when I'm trying to ease withdrawal), minor physical withdrawal effects come back after the last dose, every time. It's hard to say but I think I have narrowed it down to loperamide actually having its own withdrawal (assuming it's affecting you in the way we're discussing anyway). But compared to all opiates I've withdrawn from (kratom, morphine, tramadol, poppy seeds/pods, heroin), it's by far the easiest, really just kind of annoying.

Now, I only ever taken about 60mg at a time, or less. So maybe at 180mg, it would be worse. So I'd try to just cold-turkey, and if it becomes unbearable, "cop" some loperamide and taper. It should be easy to taper since it's not really "drug-like" (at least for me... it just stops me from feeling uncomfortable withdrawal feelings).

Great post. Ill be attempting to taper with some of this tomorrow. Ill update with how it goes in case anyone is interested.

 

[irishgypsy]

I would be careful with staying on lope to long as that was my mistake. I used it to get off 120mg methadone and did so with no withdrawal but now 4 months later am still using lope. Im tapering slowly but if I try to just quit I get bad withdrawal that is as bad if not worse than methadone withdrawal. Anyway, hope to hear how your doing.

 

[Sorce]

its crazy how pronounced the withdrawals from just 6mg of an opioid that supposedly doesnt cross the BBB can be. i woke up this morning with classic symptoms (mostly the sweats and hot/cold), albeit much milder than i am used to. I did not seem to have the pain, mental anguish, and horrible RLS that i get from other opioids. its crazy how any withdrawals can feel horrible no matter how "mild" they are. I only took 2 pills (4mg) today and i cant believe how much better i feel. i think this drug is stronger than anyone realizes. despite being OTC.

hopefully if i can get down to just half a pill a day i won't have such pronounced withdrawals but we will see.

 

[clubcard]

I've heard horror stories relating to very large doses of loperamide. It's pumped out of the brain by the P-glycoprotein but I think at high doses, it overwhelms said glycoprotein giving a biphasic response-curve. US Patent gives a QSAR of related compounds. According to Patent US 3714159, x615 the amount of loperamide was needed for analgesic purposes compared with the dose for it's intended purpose. Interestingly, losing the -Cl reduced analgesic dose from 0.13 mg/kg to 0.01 mg/kg.

 

[irishgypsy]

Ive been sick for a couple of days now. I think its because of absorbtion problems so ive stayed at 80mg×2 a day. Im feeling better today and am going to try to start tapering agian. Would love to hear how everyone else is doing.

 

[hydrobliss]

I have been basically clean for a couple of years now and even now in my extremely opiate non-tolerant state (the opposite of what it was some time ago) I get zero effects from loperamide... I have experimented with it extensively.

Loperamide is an opiate, but it is not known to cross the blood brain barrier. If you are getting high off of it then you should be studied extensively by modern science... as you appear to have blood on the brain.

And before anyone says "but I hear people say that all the time".... yes I am aware of this... but I have to write it off as a placebo effect at best... unless I am missing something

 

[irishgypsy]

I used it to come off of 120mg of methadone that I had been on for two years and I had no withdrawal. I dont think that was placebo. There are countless people who use it like this. I respect your opinion but in my case and many others it just isnt correct.

 

[Timland]

I also have problems regarding muscle weakness. I collapsed, fully conscious, several times because my legs gave out. Alas, this effect is thankfully only active for the first 24 hours of ingesting 400mg or more for me.

I have been at the same dose of 300-400mg every 3 days for a year now. For some reason, my tolerance has screeched to a halt. Same effects over and over good and bad.

I havent lost consciousness while on them, but my legs and back cause issues ... like I walk hunchback and shit and legs give way and I cant stand back up for a min or two. I have timed my errands/chores to work around this problem.
But yes.. it is fucking scary. My back.. its like experiencing a pain attack in it without any pain but with the same muscle mush effect.

Might get on suboxone in January when I can afford it since ill have insurance again. dunno.

I also get the issues with the eye movement.... I find it sort of pleasurable though but yes, it definitely fucks with your facial muscles to affect eye movement.

I tend to dose a big 300-400mg before going to bed, because oh my god.. I dont wanna encourage but.. it feels heavenly to wakeup all narcotic-headed and shit. Sometimes with bonus opioid itchy heaven.

For the record, I don't do anything fancy when I take them. I just empty the bottle of pills in my mouth leaving 50-100mg in the bottle of 400mg, and chug water fast enough to force them through my upper GI quick. No GFJ or antacids and shit.
I just take generic Miralax 12-24h after taking lope and BEFORE I eat to avoid brick shit effect. I found that effects are reduced as well as onset if I swallow my lope pills after eating a large meal. Works best on an empty stomach or sometimes better at the same time of a small meal [but i dont recommend eating with it.. cause of hardened stools... need to wait til after Miralax to avoid pain in the.. lower GI yeah]

I had saw in one of your posts that you use adderall, did it help you to get off lope? Also, did you tell your doctor about your lope problem?

As an occasional user of amphetamines, mainly clandestinely synthesized, as well as a more than occasional MDPV user, I have found that psychostimulants encourage me to use opioids to offset paranoia and other common negative effects.

I guess it depends on how, psychologically, you react to amphetamines. Some can live with the inevitable psychological adverse effects, others its bothersome and they use other pharms to cover up the bad.

 

[dopemaster]

Lope always seemed to make me constipated even in wd's. It did seem to give me some comfort though but I never dared go past 20 mgs.

Usually when I kick off I don't get diarrhea right off the bat cuz I am usually a bit constipated from using opiates to begin with.

I really got to ask if anyone has got themselves in some deep shit in terms of constipation??? (ie impacted feces, tearing yourself a new one, unable to defecate)

 

[wantoffopies]

I am new to the forum, just thought I would give my story and offer some insight into myself and maybe gain some needed information. I have been addicted to opiates/opiods for about 2.5 years started off with hydros then went to oxys then to ms contin 100s tolerance was up to ms contin 100 2x per day and still could work function. Finally my supplier dried up and had to withdrawal. Did the methadone route for 2 months was 60 miles away from clinic and couldnt afford it anymore. So I c/t off of 60mg methadone. It has been like hell on earth. Did the c/t about 15 days ago and tried loperamide to relieve the withdrawal symptoms. The most I have been clean was 5 days for the last 2.5 years.Took 30mg and it did seem to help with the physical part of most of the w/d . I did all the research on cimetidine,quinidine,etc for the bbb issue and all the flaming about how it was all bs, but I only took just loperamide. I did more research and found this http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7438696 basically around 50 percent of people who took 60mg of lope identified it as dope so imo their is no question about it being a great aid for physical and some mental withdrawal maybe somewhat like codeine. Have had very little issue with bm as I take stool softners anyway. Well since my c/t off methadone, I have acquired some hydros occasionally over the last 5 days, and have been taking them off and on never over 25mg a day but it holds me, and there has been a couple of days that I didnt have any at all. I cant handle the mental aspect of withdrawal, i dont know what life is without opiates/opiods. I am going to the store tonight and get more loperamide, no it doesnt feel like an oxy or anything but it at least will dull my pain for a while. I also have bali kratom on the way friday and I am resolved that I think I will be addicted to something opiate like forever. I dont want to be, but life just sucks without them, I dont know who I am or who I was before I started taking them. My fiance thinks I am completely clean and doesnt understand addiction at all nor ever will. I wont take the loperamide for long, just until my kratom arrives, then after my 4 ounces is gone at 5G 3x a day I will go right back on the lope again for a few days and start the whole bs cycle of opies,kratom,lope again. I guess my resolve isnt strong enough to get clean. To those who are addicted to loperamide or any opiate/opiod, its all real and true, I feel for you and I hope that someone here can help me get clean, I dont feel like I can. I have no insurance, dont want to do the methadone route again, nor the suboxone one. Guess its just kratom and lope what a vicious cylce

 

[wantoffopies]

sorry my last post was all jumbled together not very grammatically readable. My first time on the forum, I will work on that.

 

[wantoffopies]

Just an update on my nasty cycle of addiction. I got ahold of some 5mg hydros after I took 30mg of lope. I took a cimetidine 30 min before the lope and took one of the 5mg hydros an hour after I took the lope, and 3 hours later, Im feeling pretty damn good. As I said my tolerance is 60mg of methadone or 200 mg ms contin per day, so I know this isnt placebo, just hope I can hide my highness from my fiance, she is so not understanding of addiction. So to all those that are flaming the whole loperamide scenario, I am an experienced opie user and this is not placebo, but I do wish to get off this merry go round of opiate/opiods at some point just dont know how. I have kratom coming in Friday, so I will ration my hydros and use the kratom this weekend, and then back on lope again with the occasional hydro. What a bad cycle. Wish I knew what to do.