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Heroin How to counteract the low drive and motivation caused by long-term opioid use?

H

Hexenstahl

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Joined
Jan 4, 2022
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Initially this was something I only experienced during withdrawal from Heroin. No motivation to do anything but the most basic things, no energy, etc.
The problem is that I recently started to get these symptoms in between my regular doses and not just during wd. In other words: I do some Heroin in the evening, feel completely fine, but the next morning until evening I have symptoms that strongly mimick depression. I used to read a lot, especially textbooks. I liked continuous studying and personal development, but since a while I can't get myself to do these things anymore. I read like a page or two and then feel mentally fatigued. I also eat less and my affect regulation has also worsened. I feel like I'm stuck and can't move on to do the things I once liked doing. I'd like to know if this is a natural consequence of long-term opioid use, or is something entirely else going on? If the former is the case, what do you guys do/take to feel motivated and energized again? I tried decreasing my dose and jumping off of Heroin for a while to find out if this is really caused by my opioid use, but after a couple of days of tapering I lose control and go back to my normal dose due to intense craving.
 
How are you sleeping? You mentioned that you eat less, which will inevitably result in less energy to do things.
Same with sleeping and getting stuck in routines that keep you inactive.

I'd make sure those boxes were checked first.

Do long term opioid use cause lethargy and low motivation?
Based on what I've experienced myself and seen in others, yeah. I don't know any sporty heroinists.

Hexenstahl said:
Perhaps low-dose amphetamine could help?
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Perhaps momentarily, but once you're out of speed, you're likely to feel worse (side effects of doing amphetamine usually include sleep deprivation and even less appetite for food).
 
Yeah not much you can do. Getting into the groove of a regular exercise routine does help alot. Gets the lymphatic system flowing and brings some activity back to the vagus nerve. Also stimulates testosterone production.

Of course im sure everyone hates that answer...."yeah, sure asshole thanks for the suggestion, I'll exercise right after I finish this plate of vegetables"

Aside from that, amphetamines will help a bit, but only to a certain point.
 
As others have said, apologies it just a waiting game. I'm no saint either so I understand. Getting over the physical stuff is one thing but trying to reach acceptance and "normality" especially cognitively will just take patience. I like to read and study too but I can go long periods without any motivation to pick up a book after using for a while. On H though, I am super motivated so the contrast can seem intense for a while.
 
If we talkin' about sex drive-some herbs do the trick raising testosterone levels.As to motivation-just follow our dreams(me&wife)....and it all goes well...,.but now we got war,which can let out of control&worsening financial situation.....so i don't know what we gonna do(apart from growing potatoes and buy a few hens for eggs&meat.Gonna survive somehow 'cause of the child
 
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Are you a guy? Did you get your testosterone checked? Opiates messes with testosterone levels. To the point where my testosterone was lower then a women while on Suboxone. I'm on testosterone replacement therapy ATM because of Suboxone. All your symptoms are very similar to what I was experiencing before and trt really helped.
 
Guy.almost 50.would survive low testosterone level,if ad effects are still there.that's why i take this shit.thete no other painmed for me,which affect so good depression.Use herbs to combat this lack of sex drive&it works a little bit.Justbdon't make sex everyday.Everyweek at more...even less frequent.Here isn't such thing like testosterone replacement therapy....it's like third world in many ways-Southeast Europe
 
@Hexenstahl were you sufferring from depression before using h? I have very similar issues as yours but I was deeply depressed also before h, I'm a little better with h now. As for sleeping try find a job, course, sport whatever to make your ass vertical early in the morning, I did it and now I even wake up before I need to, like 600 630 I'm up... it's good man, in the early morning one has to wake the fuck up!

As for appetite it is normal to have none when using h, when I wasn't doing any activity I almost ate nothing all day, now by doing activity at least I have breakfast and some lunch even though later I prefer h than dinner.
 
After hard work...or sometime even without I like to eat....only shitty speed fucked my appetite.Good food...the taste,smell,even how it looks good food-raises endorphines.....well,not like drugs,but it buzz the reward curcuit
 
Hexenstahl said:
Perhaps low-dose amphetamine could help?
Click to expand...
Adding more dopamine wrecking drugs into the mix will be a disaster.

You should switch to a longer acting maintenance opioid like subs methadone that will leave you with a more constant level of opioid rather than the up and down of heroin.

There is no solution and using hard drugs has these types of consequences
 
Ya, I also got a script for IM depo-testosterone 200mg / every 2 weeks ….from 10-15 years of prescription opioids, started loosing interest in sex, soft erections, low energy, etc

After my first 200mg IM injection a day or two after I felt like the man of steel lol, both in mind & body lol
 
This is most definitely a testosterone issue. As been said, long term opiates will crash your hormones.

Buprenorphine is much less damaging of the hormones and can be a good stepping stone to getting healthy again. I’m surprised my T levels are where they are after all these years, but I take low 1mg of bupe and eat very healthy/exercise daily on top of a physical job. In other words I work for it.

-GC
 
Yeah, opioids do downregulate/suppress testosterone production quite heavily and long-lasting. This can become so bad that even amphetamine is just edgy and unnerving but doesn't provide any more real energy. But at least do seem opioids to keep people slim (Idk why, I put on belly fat while on morphine but all the folks in substitution center were lean).

A short term fix can be provided by NMDA antagonists but a) chances are that you'd end up with two addictions like myself which isn't what you want and b) they can't mask the testosterone drop completely, after some time you'll become even more tired,
 
After 3 years of daily kratom use I've noticed that my tendency to procrastinate (which has always been a problem) has gotten worse.

I make great to-do lists for my days off and then when those days come I'm totally unmotivated. I end up lying around and doing nothing. Of course the things that need to be done then multiply, making the chores seem overwhelming. It becomes a vicious cycle.

I've found that the only way to combat this is to force myself to get up and do something.
Anything. Even the smallest task gets me moving--- and an object (me) in motion tends to stay in motion. The trick is in getting off my ass in the first place. Once I get started it's not so bad.
 
Dextro .45 said:
Ya, I also got a script for IM depo-testosterone 200mg / every 2 weeks ….from 10-15 years of prescription opioids, started loosing interest in sex, soft erections, low energy, etc

After my first 200mg IM injection a day or two after I felt like the man of steel lol, both in mind & body lol
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I've always been interested in steroids but they are the one drug I've never done.

I injure very easily and don't get into as good of shape as I should be for the amount of excercise.
.
I just have bladder cystitis I worry it would irritate it for some random reason. Also have some mild gyno which I worry the roids would make worse
 
No_more_evry_monday said:
Maybe just general depresion and chaos in the World.. i know Sober People (non users) that are going thruw same shit kinda
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Sometimes this is difficult to tell apart, but what I can tell is that opiates do downregulate testosterone and that this does induce depression. It will be worse in people who had depressions before but I wouldn't write it off as purely psychological, specially if libido and stuff like tolerance to coldness is gone as well. Getting some bloodwork done can't hurt and tells you what you're at. My testosterone was on the lower end of the scale (which is said to be too low for my age, they adjusted the scale for the masses of men with low T, ...) and prolactin was 4-fold increased. This from SSRI and specially morphine.
 
jasperkent said:
After 3 years of daily kratom use I've noticed that my tendency to procrastinate (which has always been a problem) has gotten worse.

I make great to-do lists for my days off and then when those days come I'm totally unmotivated. I end up lying around and doing nothing. Of course the things that need to be done then multiply, making the chores seem overwhelming. It becomes a vicious cycle.

I've found that the only way to combat this is to force myself to get up and do something.
Anything. Even the smallest task gets me moving--- and an object (me) in motion tends to stay in motion. The trick is in getting off my ass in the first place. Once I get started it's not so bad.
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Don't you have impairing WD after 3 years of daily use when you take days off???

I don't take much (like 8gr a day) and when I When I run out of course I don't do anything the days off Lol, but it's mainly because I'm physically dead tired Because of WD.

Actually, when I was not using kratom for some weeks I was actually very motivated to do shit. Kratom makes me "ok" with a boring life and doing the same things...one of the reasons I would like to not use daily btw...seems it slowls my progress in life
 
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