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(Clonidine) dosing for opioid withdrawal

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Unregistered20

Guest
Hello all, I will be going through opioid withdrawal soon and would like to try and avoid some of the more unpleasant side effects, so I will be trying clonidine. What I was wondering was, in your experience, what is the exact dosage necessary for prevention of opioid withdrawal symptoms, and how long do I need to take it? Also, I was told that clonidine causes rebound hypertension when stopped abruptly, so will I need to taper it off after I am finished, or is the time necessary to use it so short that this side effect doesn't matter? I should also mention that I have been through opioid withdrawal before (several times actually), but this is the first time that I have considered using clonidine. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.
 
Generally Clonidine doesn't cause rebound hypertension unless it is used daily for long periods of time. 4 days to 2 weeks probably isn't long enough to severely disrupt your bodies blood pressure system.

Recommended dosage
ADULTS

The dosage will be adjusted to your individual needs.

The usual starting dose is 0.1 milligram, twice a day (usually in the morning and at bedtime).

The regular dose of Catapres is determined by increasing the daily dose by 0.1 milligram at weekly intervals until the desired response is achieved. A larger portion of the increased dose can be taken at bedtime to reduce potential side effects of drowsiness and dry mouth that may appear when you begin taking Catapres.

The most common effective dosages range from 0.2 milligram to 0.6 milligram per day divided into smaller doses. The maximum effective dose is 2.4 milligrams per day; however, this dose is not usually prescribed.

Expensive rehab facilities use the Catapres patches, which are applied on day 1, and stay on for 7 days.

Get a doctors advice, as combining Clonidine with other traditional symptomatic medications for opioid withdrawal (Benzo's, sleeping pills, etc) can result in dangerous or deadly side effects.
 
Dude...clonidine does not actually cure the w/d symtoms. But it does help deal with them. It can reduce some aspects of w/d..but its no magic cure.
 
.2 mg 3 times a day is what I need in HARDCORE wds (IE high doses bupe or heroin)
.1 3 times a day WORKS but not as well
.2 twice a day will also work but again not as comfortable but better than .1 3 x a day.
id take .2 in the morning, .1 midday, and .2-.3 at night so I could sleep.
in jail they ONLY give you .1 2 times a day.
it helps. definatly. but its miserable becsaue .3 even twice a day and almost NO misery :)
clonidine actualy DOES work people believe me on this this shit is GREAT and it gets you kinda benzo fucked upish
 
by the WAY
DONT
DONT-
did I say DONT Take .6 mg or even .3 mg even all at once your first time popping it. You will be walking around in MUD -VARY unpleasent, frightenting, worried if your going to die from TOO much downer or heart stopping, and uncontrolable Narcolepsy type shit honestly blacking out wihtout warning every couple minutes.
id make this mistake of taking 2 .3s at once the fist time I ever took the shit cause I was in BABBBBBBAAAADDDDD wds and oh god well at least it knocked me the FUCK shit right out but shit I couldnt even stand up all day hahah
peace and be CAREFUL with BP pills
 
It will likely get you quite fucked up, at least in the very short term, although tolerance builds rapidly to that effect, it did within a week or two at most of my starting tizanidine, which works through the same mechanism, although not so potent as clonidine, but it stopped being abuseable (with opioids) quite quickly.
 
If you have never taken Clonidine, 0,2mg will sedate you a lot (which is what you want during withdrawal).
At one point, it'll stop putting you to sleep, but it will still help a lot.

Here it only comes in 0,15mg dosage, I find it's a perfect dosage for everything...

If you need to increase your dose, because of tolerance: Just try not to take more than 1mg/day and no more than 0,3mg at once (and that's when you're really used to it, and you're gonna need to taper the clonidine once it' finished at that point)

Remember that Clonidine is a substance that needs to be tapered down once you stop using it, or you can get nasty rebound hypertension...
 
Hey, i started taking .1mg about 3 weeks ago to come off my sleeping meds (currently off the sleeping meds, now scared to stop taking the clonidine) should i taper that or does anyone think its safe for me to just stop taking it. sorry for pulling an old thread by the way lol.
 
start off with .1 at most take twice a day, that's just my opinion though. Catapres makes me very lightheaded if I take too much, yea it's kinda like a benzo but not really. I don't find it euphoric or enjoyable at all. I was given, promethazine, clonidine, flexeril, and xanax for my withdrawal and I still felt like I was dying. Just don't expect it to do a lot for you. I don't know the severity of your withdrawal but when I was withdrawaling I barely noticed the difference the meds made because I was feeling so bad. I also took them as prescribed. No point in trying to get high when your trying to stop getting high, that make sense? and IMO none of the drugs they give you for WD's are recreational. Unless you find Xanax to be euphoric...

Either way, your going to feel like ASS. no way around it
 
Clonidine helps abit but it mainly only helps the hot and cold flashes. Since i get them alot clonidine is pretty useful for me. It's just another weapon in my arsenal for opiate withdrawals.

I hate sweating like a pig one minute then being freezing the next. I usually take half a 0.1 tablet at first because i also take clonazepam 4-6mg's daily but more during withdrawal, gabapentin, zopiclone, OTC codeine, dimenhydrinate, a anti-psychotic like seroquel or zyprexa if i need it and sometimes tramadol. So with all that i have to watch my dose of clonidine.

I get rushes of blood pressure during withdrawal too and that really sucks. The clonidine helps stop that. So it is useful when combined with other meds. I wouldnt say it would do much on it's own.

Ive known people who take clonidine to help with sleep and anxiety and you really have to taper this med if youve been on it for awile. The longest ive taken it is for 4 days so ive never had to worry about rebound hypertension.
 
It made my w/d's worse when i was in detox and i took it off and it made me feel so much better and they told me that it did that to alot of people. PEACE
 
I've been going through WD now for far too long, with only relief being returning to my drug(s) of choice -which doesn't even really work anymore for some reason. I don't have health insurance--is this a viable option ? (clonidine or other aides)
 
I know how much people hate bumps but I just thought this was useful info.

I have health insurance and didn't even need to use it for my clonidine script becuase i have a $15 copay.

It was only $12.22 for 30 0.1mg clonidine (take one 0.1mg tablet 2x per day)

So with no insurance..this is a viable option (depending on how much the doc visit costs).
 
So I have taken catapres in the past and I only had dizziness as a side effect. It was prescribed to me for anxiety, and didn't do shit to help with that. I have recently acquired an addiction to 10mg hydros and I am thinking of using my old script for clonidine to help with the hot and colds, etc. I have read a lot of posts where people say it's not ok to take with benzos, however, I am an avid drug user and have combined all sorts of shit I wasn't supposed to in high doses with no ill results. For those of you who are realistic and not overly cautious- should I be concerned w/ interaction or not? I only plan on using the clonidine in emergency situations and with low doses, any thoughts/suggestions?
 
I can't believe my doc said clonidine is not habit forming. He also said the same thing about Trazodone. Both, specifically clons, are habit forming as hell because people are trying to chase away the demon but only to replace it for another, newer, slightly less one. Doctors and the people must be able to white lie and subcnsciousky forge about this lttle thing. I've been to one, they're so programmed that if drugs aren't utiized for treatment, which it rarely isn't in such aformetioned cases, people generally waste $200 just to have an imaginary friend to talk to and say anything that they'd repress otherwise. Since the doctor is a human being, is physically present, is usually situated in a higher position, in a nice office. And Furthermore, and most importantly, the field of modern (post Freud, Rank, Jung, Otto, Reich and others, whereas the modern field emphasizes so-called empirical knowledge, behaviorism, repetitive treatment like animals, etc .... Even the talking method is just the patient trying to communicate her inner-psyche to the doctor. There is NO Analysis, and this is what psychical help is: ANALYSIS. We lack it entirely today. The doctor knows what he's going to do, the patient goes through the motions, and maybe the patient will have a theraputic cathartic experience (which you don't need to pay 200 bucks for, I assure you, nor do you need Lithium or Prozac). All the doctor can do is ask questions about in distance and with a lack of orientation. At least Jung, someone I don't like nor did I take away anything from him discursively or influentially -- nothing at all) and his methods, archetypes, dream analysis, self-psychoanalysis, and multiple other approaches he was notorious for inventing with that spontaneous personality of his. I think Dr. Freud is the person to study, read, teach, search, be searched by (but in no way in a traditional or immidiete on-the-surface reading of his texts- it takes hard work to understand what he means by Oedipus complex - it can't be summed up in one paragraph, one class, one semester, one year, etc... ... Lacan as well should be studied.
 
Last edited:
.1mg Clonidine & 1mg Lorazepam is Amazing

Okay let me start off by saying SWIM is a 2 tour Iraqi Veteran (06-07 & 08-09) and while on tour swim was injuried. 1 bullet in chest and 1 bullet to the right knee also a double stacked IED to the stomach. After swim's injuires had swim back at Germany and it was discovered while gettin surgery that swim had stage 4 non hotckins lymphoma. Also swim has rheumatoid arthritis and was prescribed 30mg morphine with roxy 30 for breakthrough pain for years and that was the current dosage. After swim decidied that swim was tired of living with pills having to be apart of swim's life he went to the ER and talked to the doctor. The doctor was understanding and very cool. He prescribed swim the above dossage and now taking as follows to get off years of pills.

First Day
Clonidine (2).1mg 3x a day (9am, 5pm, 9pm)
Lorazepam (1)1mg 3x a as needed (10am, 6pm, (2)10pm)
***Very Tired All Day***

Second Day
Clonidine (1).1mg 3x a day (9am, 5pm, 9pm)
Lorazepam (1)1mg 3x a as needed (10am, 6pm, (2)10pm)

Third Day
Clonidine (1).1mg 3x a day (9am, 5pm, 9pm)
Lorazepam (1)1mg 3x a as needed (10am, 6pm, (2)10pm)

Fourth Day
Clonidine (1).1mg 2x a day (9am, 9pm)
Lorazepam (1)1mg 3x a as needed (10am, 6pm, 10pm)

Fifth Day
Clonidine (1).1mg 3x a day (9am, 9pm)
Lorazepam (1)1mg 2x a as needed (10am, 10pm)

Sixth Day
Clonidine (1).1mg 2x a day (9am, 9pm)
Lorazepam (1)1mg 2x a as needed (10am, 10pm)

Seventh Day
Clonidine (1)1mg 1xa day (noon)
Lorazepam (1)1mg 1x a day as needed (9pm)

Eight Day
Clonidine (1).05mg 1x a day (noon)
Lorazepam (1)1mg 1x a day as needed (9pm)

Nineth Day
Clonidine (1) .25 1x a day (noon)
Lorazepam (1).05 1x a day as needed (9pm)

Tenth Day
Clonidine (1).25mg 1x a day (noon)
Lorazepam (1).50mg 1x a day as needed (9pm)

Swim found that this routine is the best and easiest way to using the pills in a program for self detox. All you have to do is to to the ER and tell them swiy goin through opiate withdrawal and if swiy prescribed these medications you won't be flagged as a drug seeker so it helps you out too. I find that these are the best way to getting off any heroin or opiate pills.
 
That's crazy

I registered just so I could post how bad an idea that SWIM thing is. There r so many things wrong with that story. No doctor or nurse in there right mind would believe that. If the doc or nurse asks to see the scars what r u gonna say? Just stick with the truth and ur more likely to get help. As far as opiate withdraw goes, the thing that worked best for me was Adderral or a barbitiate like Fiorinal.
 
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