Immodium for opiate withdrawal. Will it lengthen withdrawal timeline?

[Sparrow144]

Hey guys, I'm 2 days into a pretty bad opiate withdrawal. Used suboxone for 10 days to taper down and then jumped off.

Ita worse than I thought So I've been reading up on immodium for relief.

The question is, based on loperamide being an opiod, will it just lengthen the withdrawal process in general, almost like taking smal amounts of opiates or subs or kratom?

If I use it for a few days will the wds come back just as hard and continue on longer than they would have?

Thank you

 

[lovemissile66]

Hi! I've been where you are right now, too many times to remember. In my opinion, Sub is worse to withdrawal from than the dope I was using daily. Whenever I couldn't get my hands on heroin, and thankfully it wasn't often, I would take crumbs of Sub. Its potent stuff and less is more. I do not know much about lope, except what I have learned here. Seems like a possible new withdrawal situation.

I guess dependent on how much lope you use. What are you coming off of? And how much? Sub has a long half-life, so any withdrawals you feel kinda creep up on you. Just keep moving forward
and find any healthy distraction you can. It really is a minute by minute thing.

Listen, I've been on heroin for close to 20 years. I have 27 days clean today. First time since 2013. If I can do this, so can you. The psychological part is what always brought me back to the dealer.

Can't contact that person, so 75% of my battle is over. I had clonidine, gabapentin and my xanax. The worst was just the first week. I had tapered my dope use way down also. Once you get past that
week, and I know it can feel like a Herculean deal, it really does get easier.

Best of luck to you. I am sure some more BL'ers will hop on at some point with better advice.

Don't Give Up. And if you do, don't knock yourself down.

 

[Jabberwocky]

unfortunately i find all opiate related drugs, including lope, to draw out withdrawal. use as sparingly as possible. the WDs won't come back full strength but you'll find you're still having symptoms long after you'd have stopped if you'd toughed it out. they can be an absolute lifesaver though, just be careful not to needlessly prolong your pain.

what help are you getting for the psychological side? are you doing any meetings? any therapy? its vital to figure out whats driving your using otherwise when you've finished your rattle you'll be in the same place you were before, but without your crutch, which makes it v easy to relapse if you don't have a pln in place.

 

[Sparrow144]

Damm thanks guys so it sounds like the immodium thing is just using another opiod which obviously makes the withdrawal better but only because it's prolonging it.

Not sure why so many people recommend it for withdrawal if that's the case. Unless maybe those are people not trying to get clean but just can't get their drug of choice for a period of time?

I was hoping it would merely take the edge off like xanax or something.

Really wish I hadn't taken it now. I took 8 mg total.

Luckily, in life I've been mostly sober for a long time. The last 2 years I've been doing kratom, and while I was doing a lot of it, I was maintaining a somewhat healthy and functional lifestyle, so I have lots of support in my life and a great life to get back to.

Does anyone have any stories of using like 8 mg immodium per day to get through the 7 hell days and then stopping the immodium on the last day and being fine? Not having to go through another drawn out withdrawal from the immodium?

I didn't learn until after I took it that it was something like an opioid, just still pretty confused why so many swear by it yet I hear nothing of any potential consequences for going through a whole extra withdrawal week after the drug of choice detox is over.

Thanks so much for everyone's input, sincerely appreciated

 

[negrogesic]

You won't experience too much of an issue if you do say a 7 day loperamide taper, for instance something like (in milligrams):

14
12
10
8
6
4
2

The question is, how much will it help.

 

[Sparrow144]

You won't experience too much of an issue if you do say a 7 day loperamide taper, for instance something like (in milligrams):

14
12
10
8
6
4
2

The question is, how much will it help.

Thank you! Took 8 mg last night and it took the edge off about 20 percent which was enough for me. I'm fucking sick of being on opiates and trying to be as strong as possible to handle the pain of wd but damn is it hard.

Thanks for the advice I'm going to keep the dose low, taper, and just deal with it.

 

[DeucerPro]

Hey guys, I'm 2 days into a pretty bad opiate withdrawal. Used suboxone for 10 days to taper down and then jumped off.

Ita worse than I thought So I've been reading up on immodium for relief.

The question is, based on loperamide being an opiod, will it just lengthen the withdrawal process in general, almost like taking smal amounts of opiates or subs or kratom?

If I use it for a few days will the wds come back just as hard and continue on longer than they would have?

Thank you

It was not for me and I took lope for three years high dosage when I tried to jump off I went the other way because I enjoyed the feeling and ended up for a while taking 400 loperamide a day believe or not.

I was terrified of that three day half-life because the original instructions were every time I began to feel withdrawal symptoms which should’ve been about a 36 hour half-life then I’m supposed to cut my dosage in half and do it again until I was done.

I was told it’s the easiest possible way to ever step down and get off of opiates. Well since I took them for three years I just knew I was screwed but fortunately somehow I really didn’t have any withdrawal effects to speak of. Now I have to put in one thing I did go to jail and I’ve noticed that by going to jail I no longer miss cigarettes cause I know they’re just not a possibility so certainly the same to be true for loperamide. I mean if you know in your mind there’s no way in hell you’ll ever get a loperamide for God knows how long there is a chance after the first time at least if you ever go back again that the same thing can happen whereas you just don’t even think about it because it’s not an option.

Yes I was a little bit tired but that’s all we had was three different lockdowns in a row so nine days straight of transferring from holding cell to holding cell.

Still when it was all said and done I was so freaking grateful of something I had been so terrified of at least in that situation, needlessly. I just wish I knew for a fact whether or not it had anything, partially, somewhat or nothing to do with the fact that I had no access any longer to really high numbers and how it’s possible that because of that situation I’m not really aware of any withdrawal effects from the loperamide.

I have never again had a desire to take loperamide although I probably could use it at this time.

 

[negrogesic]

I mean if you know in your mind there’s no way in hell you’ll ever get a loperamide for God knows how long there is a chance after the first time at least if you ever go back again that the same thing can happen whereas you just don’t even think about it because it’s not an option.

If i understand you correctly that is an interesting way of thinking about it. Perhaps withdrawal in jail is not as bad simply because you can't crave something as much, knowing that it impossible to obtain anyhow, so you crave it less. Not sure if that is what you meant but thats how I interpreted it.

 

[lovemissile66]

If i understand you correctly that is an interesting way of thinking about it. Perhaps withdrawal in jail is not as bad simply because you can't crave something as much, knowing that it impossible to obtain anyhow, so you crave it less. Not sure if that is what you meant but thats how I interpreted it.

I had to withdraw from my heroin habit in jail. I told the deputy I was suicidal so that I would be put in a pod by myself, and also to spare the other women that were crammed into one cell until moving to general pop.
I was put in a turtle suit. Basically this ugly fucking thing that has no apparatus for hanging yourself or doing harm. Spent three days puking until it was just green acid coming out of me. The pyschological aspect to this is HUGE!!!!

I knew I could not obtain heroin in jail. That really is the biggest hurdle to overcome. The physical stuff went away after a week. I still couldn't sleep for shit, took about a month to string together 4 or 5 hours. But I just let it go. I did experience some very vivid drug dreams, upon waking from was deeply depressed. In my dream I had pockets FULL OF DOPE !!! Woke up staring at a fucking gray concrete
wall

Anyway, if you can't get it, you can't get it. Jail and prison saved my life and gave me the opportunity to experience life again without heroin.

Good Luck to you

 

[Shannon1]

Man

Hey guys, I'm 2 days into a pretty bad opiate withdrawal. Used suboxone for 10 days to taper down and then jumped off.

Ita worse than I thought So I've been reading up on immodium for relief.

The question is, based on loperamide being an opiod, will it just lengthen the withdrawal process in general, almost like taking smal amounts of opiates or subs or kratom?

If I use it for a few days will the wds come back just as hard and continue on longer than they would have?

Thank you

I hate to say it but Immodium just helped with the shits. If Immodium was a viable treatment, then everyone would be doing it. I had my doctor give me a scrip for Clonidine, which helped, especially with sleep. I also have some muscle relaxers that helped keep me from tensing up from the WD pain and spasms from being dehydrated. Some lorazepam keeps you a bit calmer as well. Good luck

 

[Kenified06]

I tried subs once for 8 days to get over oxy detox and all it did was delay the withdrawl that 8 days

 

[w1t3ph0sph3r0us]

Man

I hate to say it but Immodium just helped with the shits. If Immodium was a viable treatment, then everyone would be doing it. I had my doctor give me a scrip for Clonidine, which helped, especially with sleep. I also have some muscle relaxers that helped keep me from tensing up from the WD pain and spasms from being dehydrated. Some lorazepam keeps you a bit calmer as well. Good luck

Clonidine can be very helpful but be aware if you're taking citalopram. It will poison you if you take them together and will slowly get more lethargic until not waking up. You could pass out. which could be dangerous depending where you are.

 

[plumbus-nine]

Loperamide is an atypical opioid which gets so fast pumped out of the brain that it is devoid of central activity below some heroic dosages like 50-75mg at which it acts as a full agonistic opioid with some additional dangers e.g. for the heart but when used at low normal dosages to relieve diarrhea and nausea it doesn't really prolong withdrawal. And a bearable withdrawal for 10 days is better than horror for 5, so I'd go with it.

But what I can't stress enough about is the interaction between opioid and NMDA receptors, because of this dissociative drugs like memantine or DXM can reset your opioid tolerance without going through withdrawal, so basically allow you to skip the misery. Just that the dosages required aren't the lowest, in papers they used 60mg memantine and I'd agree with that this is required. Pregabalin+memantine allowed me to get off 600mg/d morphine without notable discomfort. Just when I made the mistake of doing a bit of what was left of the morphine, withdrawal instantly came back, not full strength but it needs time to heal. Still, dissociatives aren't just helping, it's another level than all other meds maybe besides pregabalin as long as one isn't already tolerant to it.

Clonidine didn't help me much but it is used clinically to aid with withdrawal.

If you can't get pregabalin nor memantine then kratom is helpful as well, it's a 'real' opioid though which will prolong withdrawal but it's also only partially cross tolerant to opiates and only a weak partial agonist like bupe but with less affinity, so if it does help you, go for it.

 

[lovemissile66]

If i understand you correctly that is an interesting way of thinking about it. Perhaps withdrawal in jail is not as bad simply because you can't crave something as much, knowing that it impossible to obtain anyhow, so you crave it less. Not sure if that is what you meant but thats how I interpreted it.

Very true!!! I have firsthand experience, fortunately/unfortunately. I spent 9 months in a tomb-like jail cell. It was literally like being in a stainless steel and concrete basement. No sun for those nine months. Definitely fucks with your mind/body. I went through 3 days of just puking until I had nothing left inside myself except green acid. Strangely, I had never puked before when withdrawing. Anyway, I knew there was no way in hell I could get heroin in there. That was 85% of my fiending lifted away. I just saw a similar post I made on this same subject. Bottom line, if you cannot get it, you cannot get it. And so your mind focuses elsewhere.
And there is plenty to focus on in jail. Those nine months gave my body and mind a chance to heal before I was sent 'up the road' for 2 years. I wish I could have
held onto that wonderful feeling of being free of the gorilla on my back. I never stopped thinking about using the whole time i was locked up. The volume in my head wasn't as loud, but it was still there. Anyway, my ass needed to be put down for a minute. Being incarcerated was the only way I could get clean.

 

[lovemissile66]

Clonidine for the restless legs and sweats. Gabapentin for?, but I take it. xanax, prescribed, but it really doesn't do much. The clonidine has saved my ass more times
than I can count. The trick is, you MUST WAIT THE FULL EIGHT HOURS BETWEEN DOSES. I made the mistake once of not being very patient (ha), and I took too much and it made me think I was having a heart 'event'. Its just a godsend for chilling your body out and managing that gross fucking sweating.