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  • TDS Moderators: AlphaMethylPhenyl | Eligiu | deficiT | paranoid android

Need Advice On Detoxing from Percocet

Smoky said:
Good to hear you have a plan for the Klonopin Lovecraft … :)
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Thanks Smoky. Yeah I wasn't planning on going from opiate cold turkey right into benzo detox but I guess that's how it is. I'm getting myself psyched up for this fight now. Man I'll be happy when this is all over.
 
neversickanymore said:
How are you feeling today lovecraft?
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Stable but definitely not 100 % by any means. Thanks for asking. I'm pretty sure I've kicked the percaset by now. This is mostly benzo related. My wife stabilized me since I went down too fast.... I was really bad off in a way I'd never been before. Now we're slowly going down a quarter mg every five days instead of the every two days the way I was doing it. It should take about 3 weeks if all goes well. She tapered off a (doctor prescribed) much higher dose that she'd been on for a couple years with the help of her doctor. So she has some experience. Her doctor was even nice enough to prescribe me some trazadone to help me sleep when I need it.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how long a cold turkey would be for me off the Klonopin after using it every 2-3 days for about 3mpnths then consistently the last couple weeks to get through the opiate withdrawal? In the every two or three days period I'd take 1-2mg only at night for sleep. Then when I was kicking the opiates, I took the same dose, maybe a little higher a couple times, but every night and then started to taper towards the end, but again, way too fast. This is my first time being dependent on a benzo.

According to the Ashton Manuel, if you've been on a relatively low dose for less than a year you can taper a bit more rapidly than someone else who's been taking higher doses for a few years. But I'm still curious how long a cold turkey would be if I just stopped now.
 
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So, over the last couple days, I got to feeling pretty stable...not great but OK. So today was my first day back to the dose of klonopin that I was at when I first started to do the super-fast taper a few days ago which got me feeling really bad. I should've stayed at that dose for a few more days than the two days that I did. Actually, I was feeling OK the last time and only started to feel something when I went down again two days later, and then even worse when I went down again two days after that. So now I will stay at this dose for at least 5 days before going down again. I didn't feel all that bad today...we'll see how tomorrow goes. As I said before, benzo dependency is a new territory for me...one that I don't ever want to get into again (Look out opiate addicts who quit using benzos). Anyway, as I've been reading in various sources, for the amount of time I was on them, the new taper schedule that my wife and I created should work with out making me feel too bad. As long as I can get at least 4 hours of sleep at night and don't start having any psychotic symptoms, I think I'll be just fine.

Again, pray for me.
 
Yep its a really good feeling.. just keep moving forward and you will get there in no time. :D

Have you considered going to see a physician and explaining to them whats up and asking them to put you on the taper thats in the ashton manual. I would consider bringing a copy of the part of the manual into them.
 
neversickanymore said:
Yep its a really good feeling.. just keep moving forward and you will get there in no time. :D

Have you considered going to see a physician and explaining to them whats up and asking them to put you on the taper thats in the ashton manual. I would consider bringing a copy of the part of the manual into them.
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Yes I did. But the manual only seems to address tapering after long term use. It does say that for use of benzo under 6 months, that tapering can be more rapid, I think I read over the course of 2-3 weeks. In any case, I have plenty of klonopin on hand and it's been so far so good. But if I run into trouble, I may have to go that route.
 
Keep pushing on.:)

Obviously different speed tapers work for different people but I think there's a lot to be said for just listening to your body and not trying to push beyond the realm of what it wants to do relatively comfortably just for the sake of getting clean a few days sooner. Sounds like you're more going down this route this time.

If you want to do an Ashton Manual type taper it's worth pushing for it, you have the right to more than one opinion. I was lucky in that my old drug worker was extremely receptive to my input and essentially let me go at my own speed (pretty much ashton manual), getting someone like that onside is a massive help.
 
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THECATINTHEHAT said:
Keep pushing on.:)

Obviously different speed tapers work for different people but I think there's a lot to be said for just listening to your body and not trying to push beyond the realm of what it wants to do relatively company just for the sake of getting clean a few days sooner. Sounds like you're more going down this route this time.
Thanks for the encouragement. And yes, I am going more down the route of listening to my body. I would've done so earlier but I honestly didn't think I had built a dependency to the klonopin. My wife, bless her heart, was the one who said that I needed to go slower and listen to my body. She's been great. She got me stabilized from the horrible shape I was in when I tried to stop too quickly and by giving me a bit extra then I had been taking before I tried to taper on my own and now we have a plan...not set in stone. But so far so good. We're taking it day by day, but I have been doing some research on this and from everything I'm reading, it's not advisable to do an extremely slow and drawn out taper when you've not been taking the benzo for that very long. It could actually be more difficult because you'd be spending more time tapering than the actual time you were on the drug, which would not be a good thing since it could needlessly extend the time you are on the drug.. From what I have seen, most taper schedules don't last as long or longer than the amount of time the person was on their maintenance dose. And I haven't been able to find any detailed taper schedules for short-term benzo use. Everything, including the Ashton Manuel deals with people who've been using them for long periods, like a year or more with tapering taking 6 months or longer. So I'm just going to have to see how it goes and listen to my body.
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This time round I was only using full bore for 3 months or so but I've been tapering for about 8 months now. It's not ideal but it is what it is, I had a long way to come down from and there have been things along the way that have stopped me from going any quicker so I've just taken it easy and accepted that it will take as long as it takes. If I'd had a bit more time to recover from my last detox before the beginning of the academic year I would have just gone quick and got it out of the way but I've had to change plan and I think being flexible and going slower when I needed to go slower (so I could function at uni) has been the best thing for me.

There's no right answer really, but imo it's better to do things slowly and do them once than try to go too fast and come down low on your dose then have to bump it back up again because it's too low and then stabilise and then come down again and.....you get the picture.
 
THECATINTHEHAT said:
This time round I was only using full bore for 3 months or so but I've been tapering for about 8 months now. It's not ideal but it is what it is, I had a long way to come down from and there have been things along the way that have stopped me from going any quicker so I've just taken it easy and accepted that it will take as long as it takes. If I'd had a bit more time to recover from my last detox before the beginning of the academic year I would have just gone quick and got it out of the way but I've had to change plan and I think being flexible and going slower when I needed to go slower (so I could function at uni) has been the best thing for me.

There's no right answer really, but imo it's better to do things slowly and do them once than try to go too fast and come down low on your dose then have to bump it back up again because it's too low and then stabilise and then come down again and.....you get the picture.
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I agree, better to not yoyo the taper. I've been going full bore on a low dose for a couple weeks. Prior to that it was once every 2 or more days for a couple months. But definitely I'll be thinking along your train of thought.
 
Good luck Lovecraft! I built a dependency fairly quickly on diazepam with some Xanax mixed in once. I was able to see an emergency psychiatrist briefly, one visit only ... that switched me over to a very long acting benzos called Cloazepate. He also prescribed Gabapentin. It was difficult but doable... I did a rapid taper. The gabapentin really helped me ... And when I took the last dose I was okay following this method. I was addicted for a couple months to the benzos.
 
Smoky said:
Good luck Lovecraft! I built a dependency fairly quickly on diazepam with some Xanax mixed in once. I was able to see an emergency psychiatrist briefly, one visit only ... that switched me over to a very long acting benzos called Cloazepate. He also prescribed Gabapentin. It was difficult but doable... I did a rapid taper. The gabapentin really helped me ... And when I took the last dose I was okay following this method. I was addicted for a couple months to the benzos.
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Thanks Smoky. Would you mind telling me if you were on a high dose and how long your taper took?
 
Smoky said:
Good luck Lovecraft! I built a dependency fairly quickly on diazepam with some Xanax mixed in once. I was able to see an emergency psychiatrist briefly, one visit only ... that switched me over to a very long acting benzos called Cloazepate. He also prescribed Gabapentin. It was difficult but doable... I did a rapid taper. The gabapentin really helped me ... And when I took the last dose I was okay following this method. I was addicted for a couple months to the benzos.
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Thanks Smoky. Would you mind telling me if you were on a high or low dose and how long your taper took?

Back a couple years I started taking tramadol but for short lengths of time... Maybe a couple months or so. That's another drug that's difficult to get off of. However I would taper off of it quickly with little discomfort. Eventually though I stayed on it for a year and a half and then it was all of a sudden extremely difficult to get off of. It took me 3 months of tapering, which was probably too fast then another 3 months of feeling crappy when I got off.
 
Hi Lovecraft,

I wasn't on too high of a dose, like 15-20 mg a day, I usually took at night, sometimes midday. Never in mornings. I would say a medium dose.
Diazepam is quite long acting, but Clorazepate (Tranxene) is even longer acting. The longer acting, the easier to taper, ime.

Anyways, I was indeed semi dependent, cos when I tried to stop I had withdrawals symptoms,BUT, luckily I wasn't on it too long, and didn't meet the FULL criteria for dependence on benzos like I did opiates, thus - a rapid taper was suggested, and worked.

About 2 weeks (taper). I went from:

2 clorazpate pills a day for 4 days,
to 1 pill for 4 days,
to 1/2 pill for 3 days,
to 1/4th pill last 3 days… then jumped off.

(i would have to look up the dosages but they equated the diazepam, just different # and length of 1/2 life)

My point is you might be okay with a rapid taper, or semi rapid. It's truly up to you. Benzos are sneaky little pills, and they do get us, but it's always important to remember as you mentioned, the amount you take, how many times per day, duration of use within 1 year, and so forth, as well as the original reason they were prescribed, as those symptoms might re manifest.

~ Smoky :)
 
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Your not taking enough right now that quitting cold turkey would kill you. Believe me I've done it and I'm a small girl. I say freeze that bird pain is only weakness leaving the body!
 
The fact that you have done something and survived is no evidence of it being a good idea. I've gone cold turkey from ~200mg of diazepam a day, but I would never recommend it.

I'm fairly sure that 2mg of clonazepam is a high enough dose to represent a danger if you go cold turkey.
 
I'm not /can't go cold turkey. I tried. But I'm gonna get it done as fast as reasonably possible. Again, my mind and body will dictate the pace: as long as I get some sleep every night and am not having psychotic symptoms, like I did when I tried to go too fast, I can manage.

Can you believe this started out a percaset detox thread? Wow, what addiction can do.
 
so true, what addiction does. i was polysubstance dependent for a long time before. started with one, then used another to deal with the first drug, then yet a 3rd on top of that. cocaine, valium, vicodin… and tons of ssris/mood stabilizers mixed in. oy!

really awesome, you are done with the perks! it will make it easier when you taper in a way so you are not dealing with 2 substances. :)
 
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