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Opioids The Opioid Withdrawal Megathread and FAQ

Giving back. What worked for wd for me.

I have been a long time lurker and have gained lots of knowledge here. It's time for me to give back some.

So the short version of my story. I have been using opiates for the past two years daily besides those dreaded times I had to wait to get paid or wait for them to come in. Of course when I first started using my tolerance was a lot less than it was this past year. Over this past year I was using 250-300 mg of oxy/roxi daily, sniffed, or whatever other pill opiates I could get my hands on. I knew it was time for me to take a break however the wd were physically too much. The mental aspect has never really been an issue for the most part.

I used a short term methadone detox. This is what I did. I got 11, 10mg methadone.

The first morning I had half an 80 op to keep the wd at bay until I could got get the methadone.

Day 1. 8pm 20mg
Day 2. 8am 20mg, 8pm 10mg
Day 3. 8am 20mg, 8pm 5mg
Day 4. 8am 15mg, 8pm 5mg
Day 5. 8am 15mg
I took 50mg of trazadone every night to make sure I slept. I knew I had to sleep so my body could rest, and recuperate.

I also started taking a multi vitamin, one in the morning and one at night. I drank lots of Gatorade also. I ate what I could but my appetite wasn't that much at first.
I of course had some minor wd symptoms but could still work, be a husband, and be a dad. I was a bit worried still once I stopped the methadone but nothing happened besides not sleeping as well.

I thought this went very well for me. Plus my bank account and wife are a lot happier now too.:)

Hopefully this helps someone. I'm just a regular guy that enjoys getting high. I'm by no means a dr or provding medical advice, just what worked for me.
 
day 3 no opiates

hi. im on day 3 of withdrawing from hyrdocodone. i was taking 100+ mgs a day.for a long time. i am rxd 40mg a day for my true pain. its just not enoughso i would overtake and thenget it other ways . i am due to refill this week. and i made an appt to see doc next week. my question is its been been 3 days since i took anything i have pain in my legs not
normal and my chronic pain I'm
dealing... is it gonna get worse????

anything anyanything
 
Day 3 is usually the peak of withdrawal for people that take them daily so it should be getting better with each day after this. I suggest taking some loperamide (generic imodium) which should help a lot. Start with 10-12mg and work your way up until you feel comfortable, but I wouldn't go above 20mg or so. Some people do but I think it's too much.
 
If you're not having runs then maybe the withdrawals haven't peaked yet. Actually I've had a few kicks where I didn't have them that bad, but there's usually a day or so of having them by day 4 or 5, usually at the end. Anyway, it also helps with your appetite, and some other symptoms. If you think you can do without it then go ahead, but a lot of people use it to fill the gap between prescriptions or paychecks if they are copping off the street.
 
hmmm. i have a stomach problem so my stools are usually not affected by much. i have some tho if i need it. im still taking muscle relaxers and neurontin.
 
Say I've been taking suboxone for about 6 months straight as manteinance - started at 4 mg and slowly went down to 1mg. A week ago, I started doing oxycodone. How long does it take the body to become addicted to the oxy rather than the suboxone? As in, when can I use the suboxone to come off the oxy withdrawal for the 4 days and stop?
 
OTC Drugs
There are many drugs which are often available over the counter (without a prescription) that can do wonders for helping alleviate certain symptoms of opioid withdrawal. Some of the more commonly used ones are listed here.
  • diphenhydramine (for sleep)
    Diphenhydramine (Benedryl) is an antihistamine which is used to treat allergies. It is also used off label as a sleeping aid and just a few pills will help you get to sleep. Taking too much it acts as a psychedelic deliriant and there is no need to go much beyond the recommended dosage. Some other antihistamines, including promethazine and diphenhydrate, have this property as well.

  • naproxen sodium (for muscle aches and pains)
    Like other NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) naproxen (Alleve) is a pain killer which can help treaet pain in your muscles caused by withdrawal. Ibuprofen and aspirin are other drugs in this category which could be used instead though naproxen is often preferred for withdrawal. These drugs should not be used beyond the recommend dosage as they can cause intestinal issues and should not be mixed.
    Acetaminophen is also a non-narcotic pain killer but is less effective for muscle pain.

  • dextromethorphan (opiate action)
    DXM (a cough suppressant) has some opiate action and can be used to help reduce symptoms but is not active enough to be considered a drug you can taper on. It is more commonly used to potentiate other opiates thereby allegedly preventing tolerance. In higher doses it is also a dissociative which people experienced in it's own recreational use find helpful to reach while in withdrawal.

  • lopermide (opiate action) Loperamide
    Lopermide (Immodium) is a very strong opioid. However in low doses it does not cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and therefore only acts on your peripheral nervous system and not your central nervous system (CNS). In lower doses it is extremely useful for limiting diarrhea and related symptoms, and in high doses it actually does somewhat cross the BBB and can almost completely eliminate withdrawal and can actually be used to perform a taper of its own.

Prescription Non-Opioids (benzos etc.)
Although the OTC drugs listed above do help with some symptoms, there are more potent prescription drugs which would be considered preferable; if you can get your hands on them. The most notable of these are benzodiazepines which, depending on the specific one, can be a combination of a sedative, hypnotic (sleep-inducing), anxiolytic (anti-anxiety), anticonvulsant, and muscle relaxant. Benzos are often prescribed by detox clinics and are definitely a good thing to have.
Some others include:
  • muscle relaxants (eg. carisoprodol) to help with muscle aches
  • alpha blocker (eg. clonidine [prescribed for opiate withdrawal]) lowers blood pressure and limits hot/cold flashes
  • beta blocker (eg. propranolol) lowers heart rate and blood pressure
  • ondansetron - a 5-HT3 antagonist which has been shown to treat opioid withdrawal


Just wanted to say I can agree to most of this. But i wanted to add that Loperamide Hcl is does in fact pass the blood brain barrier, it just gets pushed out just as quickly. Now before i say this I can say i have honestly done this. After being clean for over a year I took a 9mm luger to the foot. It went right through. I tryed to walk in the house and pull it out not knowing it was in the ground. Whoops. Anyway me being me took the 4x10mg oxys a day while i was layed up. When i went back I said start weening me off and they helped. BUT. When I used to get high and i was pretty low on funds. for 9 bucks at wallmart you can get 148 2mg loperamide pills. Personally I would take 80 pills the first day. NOTE: you cannot take this kind of ammount every day, it last for two days, trust me. You will not need it. than go down to 60 pills 24 hours from the first dose. than 40, 20, 10. I'll also add that If you can get ahold of some Adderoll stayin a little tweaked will keep you busy and some benzo's.. Especially valium since its a very nice muscle relaxer as well. Now your thinking so im not going to shit for 2 weeks? no you sure will. unless your tweaked out prob not but oh well. You could even save the speed for after the loperamide hcl. Anyway this is how I've done it in the past. Benzo's are pretty easy to get prescribed and adderoll i get for college so im sure thats pretty easy to get a scrip for as well. Just drink lots of water, if your not tweeking eat. the loperamide will completely take your sickness away at that dose. Personally I've taken 120 pills at one time. Its not all that but youll be scratching your nose and feeling fine on those 80 pills. Just dont keep taking them. Or your then addicted to them. Duno if anyone brought this up but thought I would add it
 
You are going to want to wait at least 24hrs or when the withdrawal starts to hit its peak (but still minimum is 12-18 hours).

Don't jump the gun because if taken too early you will be in a world of hurt in terms of precipitated withdrawal, when occurs when someone takes buprenorphine too soon after taking full opioid agonists (like oxy). Because buprenorphine is only a partial agonist, taking it too soon causes the most intense withdrawal any opiate addict can experience.

Be careful and PM me if you have any further questions...
 
I used methadone from March 2010 until 2 weeks ago. I can't cope with the withdrawal. I am also addicted and tolerant to benzodiazepines, I had been prescribed 4mg clonazepam / day for some time before all this happened. If it's too much reading (I know it is), just skip it and go to questions in bold.

I tapered down but my schedule definitely wasn't perfect. I needed split-dosing because methadone held me for ~16 hours only. I tapered down a bit too fast and spontaneously, one reason for this was doses like 6mg - 4mg didn't help me any more so I rushed (why put more of it if it doesn't help any more?). I will list a few recent weeks to show you how I did it wrong and how I possibly caused myself hell of a withdrawal:

Code: 
1. 14mg - 8mg 2. 13mg - 7mg  3. 13mg - 7mg  4. 12mg - 7mg  5. 12mg - 7mg  6. 12mg - 7mg  7. 12mg - 7mg
8. 12mg - 7mg 9. 12mg - 7mg 10. 11mg - 7mg 11. 11mg - 7mg 12. 10mg - 6mg 13. 10mg - 6mg 14. 10mg - 6mg
15. 10mg - 28mg 16. 11mg - 9mg 17. 9.5mg - 0mg 18. 9.5mg - 5mg 19. 9mg - 4.5mg 20. 8mg - 4mg 21. 7mg - 4.5mg
22. 40mg in total 23. 38mg in total 24. 9.5mg - 4mg 25. 8mg - 5mg 26. 7mg - 4.5mg 27. 6mg - 4mg 28. 6mg - 4mg
29. 6mg - 4mg 30. 5mg - 4mg 31. 4mg - 3mg 32. 4mg - off

47. 450mg codeine phosphate intramuscularly

As you see above less than 2 weeks before I tapered off I took 2 "big" doses 2 days in a row, I guess this was the problem. The other mistake is I tapered too fast later. I've got just one week before I have to get back to my university, that's why I wanted it fast, also I jumped off it just like that because I started feeling sick on day 27.

I didn't go to a psychiatrist until the 7th day of being off. He prescribed me mianserin (30mg before going to bed for 6 days, I should take 30mg in the morning today as he wanted me to go for 60mg / d eventually) and ketoprofen. Mianserin just made me a bit sleepy for like 3 days, that's all, and aches from methadone withdrawal are so strong that ketoprofen doesn't help a bit (it did help in the past when I was off morphine or heroin cold turkey). It was so bad that I called the hospital to find the doctor and he told me not to increase clonazepam from 4mg to 6mg. Well, it's no difference to me, e.g. today I haven't taken clonazepam at all, my addiction lasts 8 years so I don't feel any high from e.g. 20mg, it doesn't make me sleepy or amnesic. It's obvious but I mention it because the increase in daily dose was supposed to be simply psychological.

Yesterday I had a second visit (14th day of being off). Problems? Elevated blood pressure (120/80, my normal BP is 100/70, low), feeling of my heart sky-rocketing (only 72 BPM while lying in bed), terrible sweating (I've never had such a problem with this kicking morphine or heroin cold turkey - 10 days and I could go out; now I have to change my T-shirt every 30 seconds so I wear nothing), feeling cold (no hot or cold flashes, it's a constant feeling), goose bumps, shivers, diarrhoea, insomnia (I sleep 4 hours a day at most and it's usually 2 hours at night and 2 hours on the afternoons from exhaustion), and of course terrible mind-fuck (embarrassing memories from the past, inability to think about the bright future without opioids, I can only think about things connected with my previous lifestyle), panic attacks, anxiety...

I asked the psychiatrist if there is any medication that could decrease sweating and help with my heart (sweating and feeling cold are actually 2 symptoms that I can't take any more, that's why I took 450mg of codeine to chill...), he replied "no". Nonetheless, I told him "well, I won't pretend that I'm as green as grass in this field, I know clonidine is used to help withdrawal symptoms". He said that clonidine is an old drug and nowadays when we have methadone or tramadol, such drugs are very rarely used, besides it could cause bradycardia easily in my case. He asked me if I still have some methadone - he wanted to suggest going back on a low dose if it's so severe - I replied "yes, but I don't want to touch it seeing how I'm freaking now because of it".

I know it's all typical for opioid withdrawal. Yesterday I seemed "happy" when leaving and definitely I was better mentally. But last night was terrible, I woke up at 2 AM and couldn't sleep any more. I was very anxious and nervous. I can't stand being alone all day and that night upset me even more. I just see my mum for like 8 hours. I don't have anyone to open my mouth to and I'm freaking out, minutes are like hours, hours are like weeks, weeks are like months... And I did it, I injected 450mg of codeine intramuscularly at 1 PM, it helped for sweating, I even felt it in in my head but my hands were still cold. Anyway, 1 PM means I don't have much time before withdrawal starts again and I guess I will move back in time. - the question is by how much I extended the withdrawal?

I've got a few questions:

1) By how much could I extend duration of withdrawal?

2) Is it normal that withdrawal from methadone lasts 2-3 weeks (physical part of it) even if one decreases doses? (I know I didn't do it right but I didn't quit cold turkey from e.g. 30mg, right?) I guess the key part here is that I ingested methadone for 2.5 years.

3) It's clear that I can't cope with anxiety and sweating, that means even these 2 things alone will drive me crazy. The psychiatrist said that the withdrawal from methadone can last up to 3 weeks and physical symptoms like feeling cold and sweating will stay for much much longer. This means sooner or later I will take again like a idiot, just what I've done today with codeine.

4) I've been addicted to opioids for 8 years. Is it still possible I can live without substitution? The doctor didn't suggest anything, even temporarily so I can study. And it's clear that even if I hadn't taken codeine today, I wouldn't be in a good shape in a week (on the 25th day of being off methadone).

5) Should I ask for Suboxone? Taking it would guarantee I wouldn't take any opioid agonists, also, buprenorphine never gave me foggy thoughts, to be honest I was more active, more sociable, and less depressed (I don't know if it's mianserin or not, but now I even think about getting morphine and going for the last hit...). Anyway, getting on Suboxone is time-consuming (just like methadone). First, a week on the detox ward to get me on the right dose, and then I would have to collect it every day for like 2-3 months (the act on substitution states that one can't get a 1-week supply right after entering the program).

Should I ask for tramadol taper-down? If he agrees, let him prepare the schedule so nothing goes wrong this time?

Also, there's an extended release medication with dihydrocodeine here but Polish law doesn't state that this medication (or dihydrocodeine itself) can be used for detox / taper-down (it doesn't state that tramadol may be used for detox / taper-down but I know this doctor uses it for taper-downs outside the detox ward, he once prescribed me tramadol starting with 100-100-100-100 but then I had a 200mg morphine / 40mg levorphanol problem so it was useless, now it would seem all right if 450mg of codeine brought me relief for 4-5 hours (I guess, I'm starting to feel cold).


I used Cannabis (Indica) twice a day (once during the day and once at night, otherwise I couldn't fall asleep even with mianserin). Mianserin should be a great drug for opioid withdrawal looking at its action in CNS but it doesn't do much + gives me suicidal thoughts... Antagonism/inverse agonism on some 5-HT receptors could help with the thoughts and eating problems but it doesn't, I feel anorectic and nauseous when I put any kind of food into my mouth, acting on alpha-adrenergic receptors should be calming but it's too weak there. I stopped using Cannabis as I thought there could be rebound effects from smoking twice a day like more perspiration and anxiety (only Cannabis helps me for sweating, it just stops it by reducing anxiety totally). Now I know if I smoked in the morning, I wouldn't inject codeine. It helped me the same way on the 11th day of being off methadone, I calmed down and decided that it would be stupid to take any opioid if I survived 11 days.

Thanks in advance for any reply, this withdrawal is a shock for me and every option seems bad except waiting for the end of it which I'm not capable of (I didn't think much, there was just a thought and there was a codeine shot).
 
Made it thru 7 days! Wanted to post and let y'all know I got thru this so easy I almost don't wanna take anything tomorrow. I plan to take as prescribed and I think I can do that now! wish me luck!

My only symptom was increased chronic pain and burning in my legs! In the past I've had it bad after only 1 day!
 
i made it thru 7 days! thanks for all yalls advice:) the worst i experienced was burning in my thighs. and didn't sleep to well but hey i made it and now im taking my meds for their intended purpose pain relief! lol. i hope i can do it. i took 40 mgs thru out the day and i felt pain relief right away!
 
I am sure this has been posted MANY times but I can't quite navigate trough forum right to find it. If anyone can give insight on this or direct me to the right place for the research that would be great! I've heard taking the Imodium with Zantac can create a small euphoria?? Is this true and what's this I came across using this DXM?? With Imodium as well to help with withdrawals?? Yes, I am a rookie to this as I have been addicted to Lortabs since I was introduced them just a year ago for headaches by my doc. He seemed to give an endless amount and I knew I should stop and it was taking over but the addict in me had other plans. Now it seems I'm going to he forced into it as I tried to pick up my Rx a few days early and the pharmacist decided to take it upon herself to contact doc about how the Rx was prescribed. I don't think he had any intention calling off any rx's but since the pharmacist contacted him I suppose he thought it was the "right" thing to do by no more lortabs. Now I get the good ole fiorecet. Boooo. I know it's a blessing in disguise, knowing i need to stop while Im ahead but with the abrupt cancelled Rx I am forced into nasty withdrawals. I wasn't taking anymore than 6 7.5/500 (that was a lot and not the norm but what i worked up to here at the end) a day so I was hoping to avoid harsh withdrawals but I think withdrawals are withdrawals and they are the inevitable. I'm now looking for something to soften the blow as I have two small kids to tend to. Help.
 
Just coming off of lortabs you will have a few shitty days but by day four you will start feeling better...stop now while you're still ahead. I started and maintained my addiction with Vicodin for a long time which is why l don't view these weaker opiates as harmless...norcos turned into heroin in the span of three short years...Imodium will help with the diarrhea which is all its ever done for me but maybe l didn't take enough. I can't imagine how much of it you would have to take to get buzzed...and that shits kind of expensive!
 
If u go back to page 5 on this very thread, you will see what someone suggested to me about the Imodium how much and what it will do. I restarted my pain meds Saturday and so far I have been really good, they are so much more effective after 7 days of not taking them! The worst I got was burning in my thighs and I was takin at least 100 mg of hydro per day.
 
hey so ive been using opiates for 3 years (not consecutively, ive had some clean time here and there, maybe the most was 6-9 months) anyway i spent the entire summer clean, just over 3 months, and the day i got home i picked up some kratom like an idiot. that was three weeks ago and while ive used mainly kratom for the three week period theres been maybe 4 days (not in a row) that i used 30-60mg oxycodone

anyway i have 2 questions, are former opiate addicts more prone to withdrawal than just some regular dude off the street. like considering my recent clean time am i still more susceptable to going thru withdrawal than someone who's never used?

and i know thisll probly piss alotta ppl off but can anyone tell me how long the physical w.d symptoms might be if i stopped today? ive been using this pretty good thai kratom in capsules from my local headshop, lately ive taken 5g with the past few days i cut down to 2.5-3.5g twice a day. i also wanna add that ive been starting to think theres some extract in the capsules, the people at the shop deny it but they also know very little about the kratom theyre ordering imo
 
Yes those who have been through physical dependency before are more prone to wd easier when they pick up again, depending on how long the clean time was

In your case I think you'll have some minor to rough symptoms but not too bad and shouldn't last but a week or two and you'll be feeling better
 
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