^which asteroid? the last biggy? if the PT one didnt hit we could miss the reptile stage altogether and be giant intelligent toads living in underwater cities.
i agree with Ksa, you really can't taper and not feel it physically or mentally at some point, the oxy taper from opiophile sounds nice but i would be surprised if that worked for 100% of the population 100% of the time. there are waaay to many variables that come into tapering, your biological make-up and predisposition, how long you've been using, how hard, how long the half life is for the drug your tapering on etc. ive done about 8 withdrawal/tapers off opiates and everyone of them has sucked in someway for some length of time. twice when i only used for 2 weeks straight it was pretty easy with the help of codeine CWE's but coming off half a gram of h a day after a couple of months using sucked arse and coming off methadone made me want to blow my brains out. i ended up chickening out and switching to bupe after 5 days because it was so unbelievably bad, i was on 25mg a day when i jumped. once you get below about 30-50mg a day on methadone (about 50 for me, i have a fast metabolism) you will probably start to get withdrawals about 15-24hrs after your last dose. i would wake up sick a hell, drink my dose in bed and feel like king of the world when i got to work and start feeling miserable around tea time. im actually coming off bupe now, i initially jumped from 20 to 12mg in one go without any noticeable effects other than the headaches i had been getting (from the naloxone maybe?) had gone away then tapered slowly from 12 to 2mg. once i came below about 3-4mg a day i started noticing withdrawals at around 15-18hrs after my last dose. now ive just had my last tiny orange .5mg and am about to embark on the long and painful codeine CWE withdrawal trail, its not perfect but its the best way i know how, at least it gives you a small amount of relief for some of the day. im at the stage now where .5 of bupe does very little, i feel okish for about 3 hrs or so then i feel like total shit. im also coming off a reasonably fast taper from 10mg daily of diazepam, i stepped down to 7.5 for about 2 weeks then 5mg for 4 days now im on 2.5mg with 3 days left because i didnt manage to get a doc app in time to fill my script (plus im broke) and i kind of want to see how i go. its been pretty shit so far, the combined opiate-benzo withdrawal isn't fun. i almost have to say benzo's are worse to come off than opiates, ive had a really bad headache, sore sensitive eyes that are blood red and dry when i wake up, an unpleasant anxious body load and insomnia and fatigue. i had to go a week without earlier this year when i was misusing my script, withdrawal from even 30-40mg really really sucks, easily as bad as opiate withdrawals.
anyway my suggestions to help you get through is to definitely taper and taper slowly, eat well, drink plenty of water and herbal teas and try to at least go out for a walk every day (i like to ride my bike), also i cant recommend hot baths enough, they may seem like a bit of a pain but once youre in you start to loosen up and the stiff back and legs and anxiety subside at least for a while. whoever recommended sauna's is probably right on the money, i bet they would help even if for only an hour or so. stay the hell away from stimulants including coffee and dont drink alcohol, it might seem like a good idea at the time but it wont feel that way for long. i find weed utterly useless as well, it just increases the anxiety and head fuck-edness (thats just me though). drugs that do help are things like diphenhydramine and doxylamine (drowsy antihistamines) for sleep, clonodine for body aches and anxiety (be careful though its also addictive), beta-blockers for anxiety (also mildly addictive), cyclobenzaprine for body aches and anxiety (addictive), ibuprofen, APAP or paracetamol depending on where youre from, valerian root extract can help with relaxation and insomnia too, i find its good to only use the drugs when you really need them and to try to keep everything on a bit of a rotation so you dont end up with another addiction. i would add benzo's to the list but honestly theyre just not worth it, if you maybe take valium or xanax once a day (before bed maybe, remember not to mix with other sleeping pills or you might not wake up) for the 3 worst days of a short half-life opiate withdrawal (say days 3,4 and 5) and then definitely stop that would help but trust me they are not a good trade off as far as addictions go, benzo addiction and withdrawal fucking suck and from what i hear it lasts for fucking months if you have a bad habit. i also think that either switching to or using a less potent short-acting opiate for withdrawals could really help some people. if you've only been on low dose bupe for a month and have tapered cleverly then you could definitely tough it out but with methadone you have to be a tough bastard, it totally broke me. codeine works a treat if you can get it in your part of the world, i like it because i dont find it at all recreational, its just a stop-gap for withdrawals. however i have friends who love it and had pretty nasty withdrawals from a high dose. if you cant get codeine then maybe try hydrocodone or eek even loperamide (i havent tried it, ive heard it works but it sounds sketchy, there is a risk of seizures with high doses from what i understand, definitely something that needs to be well researched and treated with care. apparently it really helps with the shits if taken at its recommended dose). with codeine i start at 150-200mg orally that i get from a cold water extraction to get rid of the APAP-paracetamol/ibuprofen (check out how-to guides on BL if you havent tried them, they can be a godsend and if you're popping things like perc's regularly like i did when i was in the states recently it'll save your liver, kidneys and stomach a hiding from APAP and ibuprofen) level out on that for a week, then drop by 30mg every 3-4 days until im at 30mg at which level i jump of and usually completely painlessly. thats not to say i dont get rocked by withdrawals, the first week is usually pretty rough for 2/3 to 3/4 of a day but the codeine helps, it at least gives me a kind of reprieve from the withdrawals everyday so i can sleep or get through work and it really doesnt seem to make the withdrawals last any longer than they usually would if done right.
theres also the kind of untalked and underrated mental aspect of withdrawal which is way harder to offer constructive opinions on, everyone deals with shit differently. i personally go through waves of feeling more mental anguish for a few hours and then ill become more physically fucked. i think the main thing is just to stay tough, everyone is way tougher than they really think they are, don't cave in and try to remember why you're in withdrawals in the first place. towards the end of the withdrawal the mental side is probably really going to take over and start dredging up some painful emotions and memories and you'll probably feel really ashamed, guilty, irritable, depressed and anxious and bored through parts of the day, this is when so many people end up using again. i personally find im always on the verge of tears a lot of the time for what feels like no real reason, i think its just your bodies way of saying 'as a gift for fucking up have too much of this unpleasant emotion and lets see if you can really embarrass yourself in the restaurant..' you have to find ways to deal with the mental stuff constructively, on one hand you need to ignore it when its really beating you but pretty soon you need to deal with it face to face or if you're me and most others on here you'll end up right where you are again. you have to acknowledge that you fucked up at least a bit, you have to see that it really does hurt you and most probably a few other people who care about you and you have to find ways to distract and stop yourself from using again. im going to get back into old hobbies that ive since forgone for getting high and get back in touch with old friends more, ive become a hermit since getting on h and the rest. ive also managed to stay well away from heroin and triggers that make me want to use. like quitting smoking its really tough to stop something when everybody around you is still doing it and its easy to get and use again. i also play a distraction game when i feel as though im going to cave in and use (like this morning). i make myself think about the consequences of what ive done and what im going to do about them and that generally sobers me up real fucken quick and distracts me from my stupid ranting monologue from swindling some lame excuse to use again. thats just something i do, it reaffirms my goals and gives me a reality check but sometimes can have the opposite effect, if i really feel beat i sometimes just block it out and use to forget which is stupid but thats kind of how the opiate blanket works i think. ive been on methadone and bupe for over a year now and benzo's for 6 months, im ready to get clean, im tired of the endless cycle of abuse and having to rely on a stupid orange strip and a few pills just to go about my normal day, its a pain and its money that i really dont have. i read a great little proverb on the australia drug discussion board last night "This too shall pass" - its a good reminder that its all just time, time is our worst enemy but its also our best friend and we need to think about everything from the awful dreams we had in the 1 hour we slept last night to how we deal with the rest of today to how we want to spend the rest of our lives, i definitely dont want to stay living below the bread line, using behind my girlfriends back, tired and too sick to even work and living a dangerous, cheap, sad little junkie life. theres way to much awesome shit to do, like learn about asteroids and spaceships and shit. goodluck guys i really hope it works out for everybody!
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