Harm Reduction Tapering Plan Mega thread - community project

[RusSoul]

Soooo.....WTF!
I can't find any definitive information on here about celexa,vyvanse, or most importantly ZOFRAN!!!
Why is that?!
After tapering off of 2 1/2 8mg suboxone strips (over a period of 5 years, with multiple relapses during the first 3 years)
i feel good! It's been 60 hours since my last tiny little piece of an 8mg strip, and I'm fine....well tolerably fine. Still functional! Still doing my daily thing, maybe not 100%, but getting out of the house during WD is tough enough!
I've been through extreme withdrawal many times in the past. The only difference this time around is... I'm taking half a zofran when I wake up, and half at bed. It's helping me eat. Which is helping me sleep, be active and also just be at ease. Zofran in combination with an anti-diarrheal really helps. Atleast for me. But it just makes sense that it would be helpful to the common opiad addict suffering with withdrawals. What's the hardest part? Can't eat, can't sleep, can't stop shittin, yup.
I have to add:
That my last time around, when taking the zofran, I was also prescribed to vyvanse. Which may or may not have been helpful. But I do know it helped me have energy throughout the day, which is imperative to dealing with WD. But you can't get up and do anything if you can't eat and you're shitting yourself. Therefore the zofran and anti diarrhea are imperative.
Bones hurt? Body aches? RLS? won't be nearly as bad if you eat, sleep and get some sort of exercise(physical activity besides flipping the remote). Aspirin and Tylenol...believe it or not, actually helps a lot! I know. Crazy right?! We don't need a Percocet to ease our pain!
Personally... I'm a drinker. So my last (successful) attempt to quit I used whisky and weed to ease the minor physical pain. But this time around it wasn't that bad. Probably because of my diet and exercise


blah blah blah wow this got really long.

K last thing.


be on your own.
completely on your own.


after you make the decision that you want to stop.
isolate yourself.
. Your need/want for food/liqour/weed/redbox will encourage you to get the fuck up and do it! Therefore getting you out of the house and get some physical activity! Instead of asking sexy Ralph to grab a Big Mac for you.




wait. Wtf.
This was suppose to be about zofran?!
Umm... Has this worked for anyone else? Zofran?

 

[jasperkent]

Please redirect me if there is a better thread for this question.

I'm on 8mg Suboxone film daily. I need to do a quick taper but I can't afford to miss work. Any suggestions for a good dose reduction schedule?

Thanks.​

 

[Weedo A. Corleone]

Hi guyz .
I've been using codeine (syrup with 10 mg codeine per 5ml) about 180-220 mg per day . I used to be addicted to methadone and extreme tramadol (long time ago) , and now this codeine thing does not give me the high I want only side effects mostly and I do take a shitload of benzodiazepines every day and I smoke weed heavily .
I don't want no more opiate . it's been a while maybe 2 month . how can I taper it down ?

Thanks A loT you guyz and sorry for poor English, it's not my native language

 

[Diana60]

Switching opiates to minimize withdrawal

My injured friend has been on opiates for 20 years. She is sick of the chains and lethargic life and has tapered from 140 mg of Methadone and percs to 20mg of Methadone.

She finished her methadone 5 days ago and switched to Morphine 30 mg ( chewing or plugging 1/2 a pill three X a day ).
She thinks that detoxing from Morphine and/or Vics would be easier on her aged and frail body.

She was blown away at how strong the Morph is. Thought 30mg was equal to 3mg of methadone.

She only has Morphine and Vicodin left and refuses to go on Subs.
Anyone with advice as to which is easier to detox from?

Thanks.:D

 

[mules51]

My injured friend has been on opiates for 20 years. She is sick of the chains and lethargic life and has tapered from 140 mg of Methadone and percs to 20mg of Methadone.

She finished her methadone 5 days ago and switched to Morphine 30 mg ( chewing or plugging 1/2 a pill three X a day ).
She thinks that detoxing from Morphine and/or Vics would be easier on her aged and frail body.

She was blown away at how strong the Morph is. Thought 30mg was equal to 3mg of methadone.

She only has Morphine and Vicodin left and refuses to go on Subs.
Anyone with advice as to which is easier to detox from?

Thanks.:D

Wow right on tapering down on the methadone, Ive heard its a hell of an opioid to come off of. Also regarding the equality of the doses, theres many varying factors that affect the effectiveness of the two, like how morphines oral bioavailability ranges from (roughly) 20-40%, where as plugging it ranges from 30-70%. & Methadone is a strange opioid because its potency varies depending of how long and consistently its been taken.
But if 30mg of morphine feels like more than where your tolerance sits, try less and less until youre just comfortable enough, but not quite 100%. Always gotta endure a bit of shittiness (; And when coming off any opiate/oid Ive personally found the half lives of said drug indicate what youre in for come time to jump, morphine has roughly a 50% shorter half life than hydrocodone (vicodin) so (In my experience with long and short half lives..) expect morphine to be quicker but a bit more intense of a wdrawal, & a bit longer and less intense for vics, although theyre both pretty quick acting opioids so the wd's will be bad, personally Id use up the vicodins as minimally and sparingly as you can, and then the morphine because it will keep you well as the hydrocodone is excreted and by that time since the vics are so much weaker you may not have to use as much morphine to stay well and thus taper to as low of a dose as you can and jump off. (Dont forget dose frequency builds tolerance over dose size) Im currently tapering off of IV hydromorph contin, and thats about as fast acting as morphine (MS Contin if you wanna stick with the same brand) but about 5x more potent than oral morphine. Check out the Equianalgesic table to get more info on opioids and theyre relative potencies if you want. Apologies for the essay, Ive been an avid guest for nearly two years but only now I decided to join, so its all pent up lol. AND good choice not going on subs, its just another terrible maintenance trap like methadone, just with a slew of different effects.
PS Im new so please dont hesitate to tell me what and what not to do

 

[benzos2016]

Benzo withdrawal question

Hello everyone, how are you?
My question is, if someone was taking benzos (Ambien, Lorazepam),and Etizolam regularly but at a low dosage (for example 5mg of Ambien per night, 1mg of Etizolam per day) for a few months or half a year and stopped, how severe would the withdrawal be?
Long story short I was prescribed many benzos and Etizolam for anxiety/insomnia/mild depression (nothing too serious but feel down a lot of the time) and for the first few months they were great for anxiety (and I still love Etizolam) but after reading all these stories online about the horros of benzo withdrawal I would love to stop using them asap. I started using them about a year ago, was really addicted for a while, spent some time in jail where I had to quit drinking (withdrawal was fine even though I was an alcoholic), ended up using them again when I got out at a low dosage, except for the occasional time (once every few weeks) where I would take 5-6, and take a few more for a few hours and just mellow out. I ended up with a tolerance to Ambien from doing this, I would pop/snort 9-10 pills for a while, run out for a few weeks, then get more from the doctor on the 1st.
Point being, I realized that lately much of my anxiety/depression seems to be coming from the benzos so I'm wondering how I should best get off them? (With ideally a few around in case I have a panic attack but that's all).
My health is not so bad, I stopped being an alcoholic about 6 months ago, I'm not against a toke but I don't do anything else because I know myself and I don't want to end up hooked.

 

[mike.vick]

xanax withdrawal and taper THANKS GUYS

I have been doing xanax for 9 months - .25mg, 4 times per day. I am tapering now, when do the withdrawals start, Under what timeline and how badly will they be? If you taper 10% per week, do they just hit you on the day of or after your taper day?

Thank you,
I have some xanax left and 26 2mg klonopins I am going to break into 16ths and 8ths

 

[ovo1024]

1mg a day for 9 months? Be a man and just deal with it. I'm not saying wd won't be uncomfortable to say the least but you can pretty easily taper with the benzos you have left.

 

[kleinerkiffer]

1mg a day for 9 months? Be a man and just deal with it.

Don't say something like that, there are people who have pretty horrible withdrawal after just a few weeks of use..

 

[ovo1024]

Don't say something like that, there are people who have pretty horrible withdrawal after just a few weeks of use..

Pretty horrible withdrawals after a few weeks of low dose benzos? That's very rare. They would probably feel a little rebound anxiety and some insomnia issues for a few days but that's it. I know this is a HR site but let's be real here.

 

[Raysu]

If you tapered off at 10% a week that's a decent way to ease off. Even 1mg a day can build up physical tolerance over 9 months of consistent use but I also doubt your wd will amount to much. I think rebound anxiety is a given and insomnia too. Don't hype yourself up though as that only adds to it. Stay busy and focused on other things, eat well, exercise, and try and keep a normal sleep schedule.

 

[Zerwas]

Pretty horrible withdrawals after a few weeks of low dose benzos? That's very rare. They would probably feel a little rebound anxiety and some insomnia issues for a few days but that's it. I know this is a HR site but let's be real here.

Being real here also means acknowledging that people react very different to Benzodiazepines and the discontinuation of whatever longer use.
Telling someone "to be a man and just deal with it" is just ignorant. And while 1mg/day is not a high dose, 9 months is a pretty long time of daily use.

OP: I think you are in a good spot with the Clonazepam as a longer acting Benzo to taper off. And I agree with raysuu about not psyching yourself out.
You got the right tools and the knowledge, use them wisely

 

[kleinerkiffer]

Being real here also means acknowledging that people react very different to Benzodiazepines and the discontinuation of whatever longer use.
Telling someone "to be a man and just deal with it" is just ignorant. And while 1mg/day is not a high dose, 9 months is a pretty long time of daily use.

Exactly

 

[mike.vick]

1mg a day for 9 months? Be a man and just deal with it. I'm not saying wd won't be uncomfortable to say the least but you can pretty easily taper with the benzos you have left.

Benzo dependence and withdrawal begins as little as 2 weeks of theraputic usage and is completely evident in 8 weeks of use. Any use over six months is considered a long-time and usually the advice after this is switch to a longe-acting benzo (klonopin, valium).
So yeah, you don't know much about this thing.

 

[Fizicks]

Hey man I feel your fear. At one point I was taking massive amounts of benzos (like 10mg Clonaz and maybe 3-4 loraz a day). This went on for about 3 years (non prescribed "off the street". I actually just trade a small amount of weed for it and everyone's happy haha) when buddy had to go off for vacation or something for over a month and really the worst part of it personally for me was the constant worrying from all those horror stories you read online that you alluded too. While I'm in no way qualified to help you quit benzos since I can't seem too I can only relay what happened on my C/T benzo "withdrawal". The first 3-5 days felt normal as normal can be. On the 4th or 5th night I had really bad insomnia that no amount of weed smoking was fixing but no panic attacks or anything. I kept anticipating something to happen and it just didn't aside from a couple of night's loss of sleep. I'm not saying the stories on here are bullshit but I'd like to see a linked peer reviewed paper on the causative effects of benzo w/d since maybe it's a matter of genes or physiology. Also there have been times he's gone camping for a couple of weeks and I went dry with no side effects. Hope that alleviates some of the fear. The longer the half life (like clonazepam, nitrazpam, diazapam) ones are less likely to give hard w/ds than the short ones (Xanax, Lorazepam) I'm not sure what the half life of ambien is. I don't think we have that in Canada. Hope this at least helps a bit.

 

[kleinerkiffer]

Hey man I feel your fear. At one point I was taking massive amounts of benzos (like 10mg Clonaz and maybe 3-4 loraz a day). This went on for about 3 years (non prescribed "off the street". I actually just trade a small amount of weed for it and everyone's happy haha) when buddy had to go off for vacation or something for over a month and really the worst part of it personally for me was the constant worrying from all those horror stories you read online that you alluded too. While I'm in no way qualified to help you quit benzos since I can't seem too I can only relay what happened on my C/T benzo "withdrawal". The first 3-5 days felt normal as normal can be. On the 4th or 5th night I had really bad insomnia that no amount of weed smoking was fixing but no panic attacks or anything. I kept anticipating something to happen and it just didn't aside from a couple of night's loss of sleep. I'm not saying the stories on here are bullshit but I'd like to see a linked peer reviewed paper on the causative effects of benzo w/d since maybe it's a matter of genes or physiology. Also there have been times he's gone camping for a couple of weeks and I went dry with no side effects. Hope that alleviates some of the fear. The longer the half life (like clonazepam, nitrazpam, diazapam) ones are less likely to give hard w/ds than the short ones (Xanax, Lorazepam) I'm not sure what the half life of ambien is. I don't think we have that in Canada. Hope this at least helps a bit.

There you have one http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21815323

Since the first report of benzodiazepine withdrawal seizure in 1961, many case reports have followed. Withdrawal seizures have occurred with short, medium, and long halflife benzodiazepine, if discontinued abruptly. Withdrawal seizures usually occur in patients who have been taking these medications for long periods of time and at high doses. Seizures have also been reported with less than 15 days of use and at therapeutic dosage. Almost all the withdrawal seizures reported were grand mal seizures. The severity of seizures range from a single episode to coma and death. Benzodiazepine dose tapering can be done faster in a hospital setting in high-dose abusers, but must be done more slowly in the outpatient setting in therapeutic dosage users.

@OP, a taper would be the best, google the Ashton manual

 

[Znegative]

I'm going to merge this and a few other threads with the Tapering Plan Megathread

 

[Humboldtgreen]

Heroin taper schedule

Ok so I searched a for a while and I couldn't find any specific answers on my question. Swim has 1.75 grams of h. Im trying to do a rapid taper sort of thing. I have will power and I think I can do it. I atleast gtta try. Anyways, right now I have made a schedule like this: (starting tomorrow) iv .3g for two days. Then iv .25 g for two days. Then. 2 for two days then 1.5 for two days. Then .1 for two days. Then I will do two cotton shots a day for two days. Then jump off and go cold Turkey from there. Any advice on changing the program or if I should reduce it by more every time I reduce amount? Or maybe doing the given amounts for one day instead of two days in the beginning of the taper? Any knowledge would be appreciated because I kinda made this up without any real knowledge. Ive done rapid detox with 8 mg suboxone before a bunch of times. And tapered a 3 xanax bar a day habit to .25 mgs by myself. So I have some experience. But never did heroin taper because of access to subs. I just tried to go cold Turkey off heroin just now and it was Fuckin bad so I decided a taper is worth a shot. Any info or feedback would be huge thanks guys. This is my first post BTW too.

 

[Fizicks]

There you have one http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21815323

Yeah this is what I was looking for. Maybe I'm just stupid but I can only find the abstract rather than the paper itself which would show the sample size, study methodology etc... but given the link, I trust NCBI. I'm more curious as to what percentage users have w/d, what their underlying conditions were etc.... So I could try to figure out why some seem to get some hellish reactions to benzo w/d. I know opiates I got sick as hell. Crack and meth were more psychological (I'm feel like I'm going to go nuts if I don't get more...I NEED IT, NOW, URGENT haha) but as I mentioned, after years of hardcore abuse (10 clonaz and 4-6 loraz a day) I can easily go a month or more without it and the worst I've had is a three night insomnia issue. Weird how people work so differently

 

[MDPV_Psychosis]

I have been addicted to high doses of Tianeptine for about a year. I started taking it originally in therapeutic doses with the best of intentions but my use quickly grew out of control (I am an addict, after all)

I have been addicted many times in the past, I am no stranger to this. The last time I was addicted to opiates, I stabilizied on suboxone and slowly tapered off. I was clean for a couple years before screwing myself over with Tianeptine.

About 3 months ago, I decided to stop taking all recreational doses. I stabilized my dose at 3g spread throughout the day/night. I have been slowly tapering and I am now currently at 1.8g per day.

I have been experiencing a lot of nausea throughout the day and especially in the early evening. I want to continue tapering but the nausea is making this difficult to go any lower. It feels horrible and occurs at difficult times like at work - it's kind of hard to explain to everyone why I always seem to be nauseous.

I need something to help with the nausea associated with opiate withdrawal. I live in the united states and would really like to find something OTC. I do not plan to take something every single day... I just need something that will help for the first few days each time I drop my dose a little lower.

One question about any medication that may be suggested: Will I experience any rebound nausea when I stop taking it(for example, after taking it regularly for 5 to 7 days... will rebound nausea kick if I suddenly stop taking the medication at that point).

Thank you for any advice.