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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Opioids Hydrocodone - Want to taper off hydrocodone

B

Bouebe

Greenlighter
Joined
Jan 9, 2020
Messages
1
I have been on 20 mg per day hydrocodone the past 6 months for severe back pain. 5 mg, 4 times a day or sometimes 10 mg twice a day. My doctor told me he is not going to continue to prescribe for me and to start tapering off. He is willing to work with me and said a month should be sufficient time to taper and get off. He did offer suggestion of dropping 20% every 4 days. I decided to first try just stopping to see how I could handle that but after going a day and a half without it, I woke up with pretty bad sweating, anxiety and very sick feeling in head, uncomfortable enough to convince me that I want to taper.
I'm looking for advice from someone who has actually gone through this on best way to go about this and what to expect. Appreciate suggestions from anyone who has done this or who has tapered from a similar dose. Or, I am guessing there may already be a conversation on this that someone could direct me to.
 
i can tell you i've been 'tapering' 3 opiates the last give or take 7-8 months, and feeling uncomfortable, anxiety are going to stick for quite awhile, that said, 20mg of hydrocodone is a lower dose so you have that in your favor compared to my 3 opiates that i take daily, try kratom, it'll probably work for you and likely may feel similar/better than your hydro.
 
@Zonxx , Thanks brother! i have the same issues as OP , but been longer, ( 5 years never over 40mg per day) , but stopping really sucks!! How the Fuck did the medical profession fall for OXY is not addictive?? must have been all those nice trips and $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
 
I've tapered successfully off of various opiates at different doses and lengths of use. I'll help you if you want.

First, I'll say that pills are easier to taper because the doses are precise. So you can measure out the amount you want easily at each step. Also, 20 mg/day of hydrocodone is not too high and 6 months not too long so this should be manageable.

Am I correct in that the schedule your doctor wants you to follow will reduce your dose by 4 mg every 4 days (20% of 20mg = 4mg)? So you're first taper would be down to 16mg, and then 12mg, etc? Because at that rate, you'll be off in less than a month.

I would suggest you go down 2.5mg every 4 days. That is half of a 5mg pill. By my.math, 20mg divided by 2.5mg = 8 reductions. If you did that every 4 days, it would take 32 days or about a month. If you can get your doctor to agree to this schedule, I think you'll be okay.
 
The smoothest way to do this is to take small portions off of each dose. If you are tapering stick to 4 doses a day. Start by dosing 2.5mg for your first dose and 5mg for the next 3. Do that for a few days then cut your first and second dose down to 2.5mg and so on.
 
falsifiedhypothesi said:
The smoothest way to do this is to take small portions off of each dose. If you are tapering stick to 4 doses a day. Start by dosing 2.5mg for your first dose and 5mg for the next 3. Do that for a few days then cut your first and second dose down to 2.5mg and so on.
Click to expand...

This is what I would recommend too since your not on an extremely high dose it's better to just slowly start lowering it as that will reduce the severity and hopefully length of the Post Acute WIthdrawals that are what really lead to relapsing.
 
Iceman1216 said:
@Zonxx , Thanks brother! i have the same issues as OP , but been longer, ( 5 years never over 40mg per day) , but stopping really sucks!! How the Fuck did the medical profession fall for OXY is not addictive?? must have been all those nice trips and $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Click to expand...
well reality is everything is addicting, even that morning cup of coffee.
 
Thanks :love:
OMG is that Am Coffee addictive. Right after my SSRI, I could not function without it
 
Has ur doctor give u a reason why he's not prescribing anymore? It seems totally wrong if ur still in pain!
 
Reducing your dose every 4 days seems too aggressive, it usually takes 3-5 days for your body to get used to a new dose before the sides go away, cuz you will get sides (albeit, light ones) everytine you lower your dose.

I would suggest reducing your dose by 2mg per day every 10 days. I get that you want to be off as soon as possible but trust me when I say, that once your down below 10mg you will definitely feel those 2mg disappearing. At that point I would suggest reducing by .5 every dose (4x per day so 2mg total) and stay at that dose for 10 days then reduce more.

if you can get lyrica Or gabapentin to use for the first 3 days every time u lower ur dose, this will help a lot. And you shouldn’t feel any sides the entire time.

I think if you reduce by 4mg you’ll feel it for sure, and the point of a taper is to be painless. I also think giving yourself 10 days between doses is better, cuz 4 days will just cause you to get sides that get worse every 4 days.

but try it and see what works best, I know I’m suggesting that u stay on the drugs longer and that’s the last thing I wanted to do when I was tapering, but a few extra weeks is worth it , if it means feeling nothing the entire time.

best of luck,
Cheers
 
20 mg hydrocodone for 6 months will be 3 days of withdrawal and done.

It will feel like hell for 3 days but will then be over.

Tapering is going to be a drawn out torture in my opinion.

I would get some loperamide (Imodium) for diarrhea, sports drinks, soup, some good movies and just stick it out for 3 days.

Just get through it. Keeping busy helps the time go by faster.
You can do this. It is not that bad for hydrocodone 6 months time.
 
I love the way people describe the withdrawals of a week opiate "take the ass kicking all at once. "
Yes it is doable, and will be unpleasant, but as addicts we do not want or Like pain or suffering, that's why we are opiate addicts, and not Masochists =D
Tapper is long and pain in the ass, and allows me to stay on the opiate hamster wheel 8(
Gabapentin , really does help. I do not want to have another, addiction or dependence, so use it lightly as well as Imodium, ( works well also)

All the "take the Pain quickly" advice is from people who have ridden the train further Down the Tracks!!😩
This does not get better!! We do not get better at addiction , It only gets Worse, and Much More Painful, on All levels, active as well as recovery!!

I am at 20mgs of Norco a day, 300 mgs of gabapentin/day, managable. Hoping to get opiate free, not sure that will happen? I am not going to ever be pain free, and age is a real equalizer. But I also will not ever let my addiction have its way with me ( It wants me to Hurt as many people as I can, and then Die a slow painful death)
 
Iceman1216 said:
I love the way people describe the withdrawals of a week opiate "take the ass kicking all at once. "
Yes it is doable, and will be unpleasant, but as addicts we do not want or Like pain or suffering, that's why we are opiate addicts, and not Masochists =D
Tapper is long and pain in the ass, and allows me to stay on the opiate hamster wheel 8(
Gabapentin , really does help. I do not want to have another, addiction or dependence, so use it lightly as well as Imodium, ( works well also)

All the "take the Pain quickly" advice is from people who have ridden the train further Down the Tracks!!😩
This does not get better!! We do not get better at addiction , It only gets Worse, and Much More Painful, on All levels, active as well as recovery!!

I am at 20mgs of Norco a day, 300 mgs of gabapentin/day, managable. Hoping to get opiate free, not sure that will happen? I am not going to ever be pain free, and age is a real equalizer. But I also will not ever let my addiction have its way with me ( It wants me to Hurt as many people as I can, and then Die a slow painful death)
Click to expand...

Hey my friend,

There is no shame in needing a small and reasonable amount of pain medication.
We are older and are living with chronic pain now.
You have fought cancer! Had painful treatments that have caused chronic pain upon you.

I never had an “addiction“ past , such as you with alcohol.
So, I can only speak from my point of view about this.
I do not know what that is like and if you really do feel this small amount of comfort medication will drive you to a very bad place then by all means, nip it in the bud now.

I get “judgement” from my family due to needing pain medication daily.
They do not live in chronic pain that is so severe it must be “managed” or the pain would kill me.

You do what is best for you!
I do not want you to suffer just because you had a past addiction!

With Love,
❤️💋🌹
 
thanks PO :love: my family is All for self medication, with any Means available :LOL::LOL:
I keep a very close and educated eye on my addictive tendencies . My pain are nothing like my DOC Alcohol!! I will drink till it is all gone, go get more, and blackout and get sick, then REPEAT ..
I have Never finished my script, I have always lowered the strength of the type of opiates I am prescribed, and cut them in 1/2 .

BTW; the issue of aging and needing more medication, does Piss me Off, but so very true!! Age Appropriate;)
 
Hey Bouebe! Welcome to Bluelight!! We're always happy to have new people with different takes and different experiences. I will give you the most straightforward explanation I can. I have withdrawn from Heroin, Morphine and Methadone 3 separate times. If you're not aware, Methadone withdrawal is essentially a weeks' long experience. I've picked up some useful tips on the way.

- Everything is relative, but you are on a relatively low dose of Opioids for your pain. Things that you've heard about people withdrawing from Heroin and the misery that entails should not apply to you.

- You're going to experience some discomfort. This part is a little bit inevitable, but I'm sure you can handle it.

- I would never step on your prescriber's toes ;) but myself and some of my comrades here have found success not in intermittent large drops, but in daily smaller drops. That is, you will go down 20% in 4 days, but I think you'll find the situation much more tolerable breaking that into 5% increments every day. Sudden drops like this are the enemy of stability and recovery. They can produce unnecessary fear and anxiety. Slow and steady. This is the key.

- There is a group of medications that are often referred to as "comfort medications". They are drugs that are commonly used to reduce symptoms of withdrawal, but they are more or less defined by their lack of abuse potential. It is not unreasonable to ask for something to help you through this process.

Clonidine (Catapres) - This is a blood pressure medication, but it can help with sleep and it can also reduce uncomfortable symptoms like general malaise or heart palpitations.

Loperamide (Immodium) - OTC drug used to control diarrhea. Not only will it prevent diarrhea, but it will also slow down that terrible churning and cramping of your guts when you're sick. It is sometimes used in high doses, however this has been found to be a dangerous practice and we don't like to condone it.

Cannabis (Ganja) - Appetite, sleep, reduction of anxiety

Gapabentin (Neurontin) - This is a silver bullet for stuff like excessive perspiration, restless legs, akathisia etc. It used to be quite easy to get, however, there has been some crackdowns on it. Some states have even put it into schedule IV. I don't think it would hurt to ask.

These are not all of my suggestions, but I thought you might want to start off with this and just let me know if you have any questions or you would like to know more about this process. I definitely don't mind helping you out. I know it's a stressful time, but it's gonna be over soon and on the other side is freedom from these pills. Talk to you soon!
 
"
Sudden drops like this are the enemy of stability and recovery. They can produce unnecessary fear and anxiety. Slow and steady. This is the key.
As Stated above: This is the first place to start!! It will accomplish The 1st Most important thing in mt recovery................................. lessened , then took away my FEAR of Recovery!! I wanted to be clean so badly, but not more than the fear of the Horrible POSSIBLE??? journey that I would have to take???
Well it was all just a big boogieman . Yes it is Unpleasant, ( I do not know your age??) but you have been through other Unpleasant things and survived, you will this as well !!
All is Well - ICE
 
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