Misc How to Survive Work During Withdrawal?

[516CAZ]

Hello,

I was going to a pain management clinic & was switched from Tramadol to Vicodin to Percocet to Dilaudid to Percocet in the span of about three years. I fought it for all of those three years not to abuse my prescription, but I started taking more than I was supposed to, running out early, blahblahblah. I saw myself going down a road of addiction that I didn't want to repeat (was briefly on the illegal types- not that it's a whole lot better- when I was younger) & told my new pain doctor to F---orget it. I don't want to do it anymore & she was a jerk to me anyways. So, I ran out of my last script of Percocet & turned to an old script of Tramadol that I still had in my medicine cabinet. Instead of tapering that down, I ran out/went cold turkey. That happened yesterday. Last night was absolute hell. I've never had withdrawals from anything like that EVER. Didn't sleep, had to call in sick to my new job this morning. I've been researching different things I can do to ease withdrawal symptoms. I happen to have some kratom. I've been taking that all day today. I thought it was making me feel better until I went to the grocery store just now. The kratom all of a sudden made me feel loopy & I'm back to feeling RLS-like, nauseated, etc. How the hell am I going to survive going back to work tomorrow? How the hell am I going to even drive there? I have a highly involved job that is fairly fast-paced & requires me to be functional. Please help. Any advice is greatly appreciated...

 

[Nether Animal]

There's always loperamide when you are in a pinch.

 

[treezy z]

I honestly don't know what to tell you, I kicked in February and claimed flu for four days (I had switched from subs to kratom which has short withdrawal.) It's not flu season though.

 

[024liakam]

This honestly isnt the best suggestion but definitly helps. During any WD I go thru I found that good shards takes away almost all symptons of mine and youll have the extra boost to work

 

[trip407]

Thats true also amphetamine can give energy to work, but the comedown is absolute hell if don't K.O. yourself with benzos. I was working in withdrawals often times when i wanted to stop and vaccation had a long way to come. I preferred lyrica and clonidine and a little chunk of diazepam to combat side effects from the large amounts of coffee. On the positive side, if you work, time passes MUCH quicker, then when sitting in Rehab. There you aren't allowed to leave the building and there was nothing to do except your own depressive thoughts.
Damn soon i'll have to face this terrible time again, but for now my request for rehab was denied.

 

[dopemaster]

If you want opiates for good and HAVE to keep is discreet I would go with a drug psychiatrist.

I doubt I could ever kick even incarcerated. I know the system well and it is all downhill once you cut ties with pain cliinics if you relapse especially into something a bit more cheaper and stronger.

So make a decision but it is hard to get back in a clinic after maintanence but I have pulled it off, not easily, not without pulling favors and such.

 

[kleinerkiffer]

There's always loperamide when you are in a pinch.

This
Small doses of lope and maybe a benzo (or, if you can't get any, more natural anxiolytics: L-theanine, chamomile tea, valerian root etc. )for the first few days to ease the anxiety

 

[Keif' Richards]

Do your research before making this decision, but Loperamide can be a life-saver in a pinch. In moderate doses, it can mitigate many of the symptoms of withdrawal, not just diarrhea. The only problem is that Loperamide is also potentially cardiotoxic in that it prolongs the QT interval of the heart, which can lead to palpitations, arrhythmia and even death, especially when combined with other QT-altering medications and there are a lot of them.

If you can get in to see a Doctor somehow, there are several non-narcotic, non-controlled medications that can greatly reduce your level of suffering without setting you back at all in terms of your progress through detoxification. Clonidine can reduce heart palpitaionts, temperature intolerance, perspiration and other physical symptoms of anxiety. Gabapentin (Neurontin) is a miracle worker in terms of withdrawal, mitigating almost all symptoms in my experience. Cannabis will help with insomnia, appetite and nausea among other things. Antihistamines like Hydroxyzine (Vistaril, Atarax), Promethazine (Phenergan) and Diphenhydramine (Benadryl, OTC) are often indicated/prescribed, but for many, myself included, they actually can greatly exacerbate many of my symptoms, but mainly RLS/Akathisia.

Do a little bit of research and try to get an appointment with an MD and tell them what you're going through. You're presumed innocent in the eyes of the medical community in that you were actually prescribed Opioids, so you might get looked down upon and judged much less than your average recreational user.

 

[Ilove2nod]

Oh yeah withdrawing at work is awful. I have done this before a few times and had to leave early, claiming to my manager/boss that I must have caught some kind of virus and they let me leave. But it doesn't look good to do that, especially more than one time. If kratom wont work, try something like the people who posted above me mentioned, loperamide aka Imodium will take away most opiate w/d symptoms if you take enough of it, it is actually an opioid itself but offers no recreational value at all since it doesn't cross the blood brain barrier like most opioids do and give you that euphoria and analgesia they do, that is why it is OTC. Don't let yourself get addicted to that though as it can happen. If that doesn't work you might want to consider some kind of opiate replacement maintenance or a taper, with subs or methadone if worse comes to worse, those are a bitch to come off of though especially methadone if taken long enough, and sub isn't any walk in the park either. That is why is say to try something like loperamide first or any of the meds people above me posted about, which I haven't ever tried so I wouldn't know. I highly doubt using amphetamines or meth will make your symptoms better either like a couple people suggested above me, if anything I would think that would make opiate withdrawls way worse. Low doses of long acting benzos will help too either diazepam or clonazepam if you have a lot of anxiety and cant sleep. Hope you find something that works for you.

 

[keeping]

lope can be a lifesaver if you're in a pinch
:D

 

[xivixive]

if you can find it or get a prescription to it - pregabalin (lyrica) i believe to be the most effective of all opiate withdrawal medicines... for me it eliminates every symptom, and gives you a buzz to boot. it amazes me that it is not prescribed for opiate withdrawal as you can use it for about a week and by the time you are done you're past the physical withdrawal... definitely big pharma pushing long term bupe dependancy instead of a miracle drug when used for the purpose of kicking even hard and heavy dope habits.

 

[Ksa]

Hello,

I was going to a pain management clinic & was switched from Tramadol to Vicodin to Percocet to Dilaudid to Percocet in the span of about three years. I fought it for all of those three years not to abuse my prescription, but I started taking more than I was supposed to, running out early, blahblahblah. I saw myself going down a road of addiction that I didn't want to repeat (was briefly on the illegal types- not that it's a whole lot better- when I was younger) & told my new pain doctor to F---orget it. I don't want to do it anymore & she was a jerk to me anyways. So, I ran out of my last script of Percocet & turned to an old script of Tramadol that I still had in my medicine cabinet. Instead of tapering that down, I ran out/went cold turkey. That happened yesterday. Last night was absolute hell. I've never had withdrawals from anything like that EVER. Didn't sleep, had to call in sick to my new job this morning. I've been researching different things I can do to ease withdrawal symptoms. I happen to have some kratom. I've been taking that all day today. I thought it was making me feel better until I went to the grocery store just now. The kratom all of a sudden made me feel loopy & I'm back to feeling RLS-like, nauseated, etc. How the hell am I going to survive going back to work tomorrow? How the hell am I going to even drive there? I have a highly involved job that is fairly fast-paced & requires me to be functional. Please help. Any advice is greatly appreciated...

Are you crazy? You can't withdraw during work...you need to do that when you take a week vacation...get some opioids dude Jesus. You lost your mind or something?

 

[Rachella666]

if you can find it or get a prescription to it - pregabalin (lyrica) i believe to be the most effective of all opiate withdrawal medicines... for me it eliminates every symptom, and gives you a buzz to boot. it amazes me that it is not prescribed for opiate withdrawal as you can use it for about a week and by the time you are done you're past the physical withdrawal... definitely big pharma pushing long term bupe dependancy instead of a miracle drug when used for the purpose of kicking even hard and heavy dope habits.

Agreed with pregabalin (Lyrica), it's a miracle drug for opiate withdrawal, I'm prescribed the top dose 600mg daily and I'm saving them up to come off the H next week xxx

 

[516CAZ]

Thanks for everybody's advice. I ended up going to Urgent Care where they were actually very gentle & understanding. They insisted that I needed to go to the emergency room due to my vitals being very high. I was lucky enough to be seen very quickly at the ER, but was there for quite a long time because the nurse kept forgetting things... They gave me clonidine, ativan, & zofran. I felt a little better, & was hopeful that I finally felt tired.


Once I got home, I fell asleep right away. I got a few hours of rest before my alarm went off & I instantly knew there was no way I was going to be able to go to work. I contacted my manager who was also very understanding (that I was sick for an unknown reason). I got only about an hour more of sleep & was still quite nauseous. I'm just glad the creepy crawly feelings are still at bay (I think that was the clonidine). And, of course, my back is absolutely killing me... I was prescribed 4 tablets of clonidine & 6 tablets of zofran, & a few ativan. The ER doctor seemed to think that the withdrawal wouldn't take more than 6 days & that last night was probably the plateau. I REALLY hope he's right. A lot of people on here are saying that it will take longer. *fingers crossed*

I take gabapentin normally, so I have that for bedtime along with melatonin. The doctor also recommended Benadryl if I still had trouble sleeping. I was really out of it (groggy feelings mostly) most of the morning, but doing better since the afternoon. My goal is to take the least amount of meds that I can to pass as functional tomorrow. Today was definitely better than yesterday, so I'm feeling hopeful.

 

[Tinker55]

How long you suffer acute withdrawal is entirely individual-I go to work because it distracts me. Pregabin, small amounts of lope and a couple of benzos usually eases the suffering. Hydration and extra electrolytes also help. If you have a bathtub available, baths with magnesium salts also help.

For some reason, I don't have the kindling effect-w/ds are actually less severe for me now than the first time.