Stimulants Will Amphetamines help Opiate withdrawal?

depends on your personality. Might as well geek out if you do try it though, you'll at least feel good for a little while.

helps but depends on the day and what has been eaten and just all that.... the person is a highly important variable too.

for me it can help, whereas sometimes its no good the whole entire time.

the comedown is the main part. depression you want, depression you will get.... its worse than a train wreck.... its like a train and airplanes all 9/11 disasters that day in one fucking tornado. no disrespect to that tragic day of events just a comparison, its hell. I could not take my add meds until i got on the methadone medicine. Sorry for not capitalizing and shit punctuation I'm looking on here to seek help today for withdrawal from methadone but then saw this thread and had to contribute. The ADD medicine is great for therapy value now with the maintenance meds for opiod dependency....

And to who said remove all firearms and sharp objects from reach before that comedown hits you during PAWS especially... so true... so fucking true. This week alone I can say even not while WD from opiods the comedown from amp in any level and losing sleep in any amount and not eating right comboed with the tail end of being on methadone for me made me snap into a psychotic angry episode... I feel so ashamed of how I acted and lost some loved ones this week and may be suffering in the near future because of other things that this episode will now cause me to face... mainly i just lost my mom from talking to me and financially helping me at this difficult stage... I may have to Cold Turkey next week from 110mg methadone and I am so scared...

All this because of amp comedown one day...

Be very fucking careful. Anger is so scary especially if you let it build and snap on someone and now they are scared of you and other people also become upset and won't want anything to do with me....

please be careful. i am about to post something somewhere seeking help for what I may be about to face next week with PAWS if I have to cold turkey.... I am so scared guys don't let to anger from the comedown take control of you. I am just lucky I could stop the impulsiveness enough to not hit anyone or hurt anyone. I scared a lot of people including myself. And now I cannot even look people in the eyes in public with christmas time being here and I am just so ashamed of how I treated my grandfather... even though it was with words it was still physical in a way. He forgave me but my mother whom I did not even talk to besides texts that night, then snapped on her for saying something to me in return.... I need help. I'm very sad, very scared, and don't know what to do.

Be careful before mixing these two... especially while WD on opiods or just anything be careful. Please.

Like you said, it depends on the person.

I never get depressed on amps, just spastic, but that's a given ...tranquilizer.

DexterMeth said:

Like you said, it depends on the person.

I never get depressed on amps, just spastic, but that's a given ...tranquilizer.

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yes the person is the most independent variable with all drugs no matter what

I actually start raging the most when I'm on benzos and/or alcohol.

Back when my doctor and I were trying out different opiates for pain, he would make me take the drug for at least 2 weeks before switching, and would make me not use for 48 hours before switching drugs. The trend soon ended because I have a natural tolerance to opiates and they didn't help AT ALL for pain. Strangely enough though, once stopping an opiate I would enter opiate withdrawl (what shit, dont get any intoxicating or analgesic effects whatsoever but still withdraw >_<), weed was my best friend. A few hoots of the bong would keep me good for 1.5-2hrs after the effects of the marijuana had passed.

If you don't mind me asking you, what kind of pain, how strong and what seem to be the types of strains that help you the most?

Woah, me personally, speed amplifies EVERYTHING. So that "voice", that feeling that screams for opiates just gets stronger, faster and louder.. Its all bad..

Idle hands, stay busy, etc.....

Serotinergics (especially MDMA, which is at its core an amphetamine) take away all discomfort when I am in WD. Some add to the anxiety of WD though, particularly the research chemicals.

HOWEVER, sometimes when I dose too much of an entactogen that it's too tweaky I get an intense craving to dose an opioid to "take the edge off" so err on the side of too little if going this route.

Hm has anybody realized that when you take more Opis to stop withdrawal your only stopping withdrawal temporarly just like with Adderol only difference is stimulants would seem to make shit worse but than again depending on how much Opis you take ya could theoretically make stuff worse if ya had not relapsed. Point is whether you get more pills or Heroin w/e that in itself will only work for awhile and when it wears off you BETTER get some more. It does not matter what you do really only Benzos and other downers sleep eating food if you can and time will HELP.

jesus christ, amphetamines are a huge help. The depression is finally gone.

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During real physical withdrawal or after that? I read that it help some people in PAWS time. Actually I think comig down from stimulants will be horrible during opiate withdrawal.
How much did you take? How did it help? What did you take? Gave you more energy? Helped with depression? What else? Any help for withdrawal symptoms like pain, nausea, flu-like syndroms, diarrhea, ...?
Amphetamines work on some neurotransmitter like dopamin and norepinephrine, I think. That could have positive effects during withdrawal. But it cold also make it worse, I think.
More norepinephrine in Locus coeruleus is probably really bad during opiate withdrawal. But I don't know where which neurotransmitters are produced by amphetamines.

The following study says that it probably has no effect:
Derik Hermann, Eckard Klages, Helga Welzel, Karl Mann, Bernhard Croissant. Low efficacy of non-opioid drugs in opioid withdrawal symptoms. Addiction Biology Volume 10, Issue 2, pages 165–169, June 2005
But I would think that there should be an effect. Either really positive or real negative because it works on dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine.

And the other thing is: Insomnia. This is a great problem for me. I know that some people can sleep during opiate withdrawal. For for me withdrawal means total insomnia. I'm too tired to stay awake but too sick to fall asleep. And after acute withdrawal it really takes a long time for me until my sleep patterns normalize.
When I take good (meth)amphetamine in the morning, I cannot sleep at night. And when I take it in the evening it is even harder to fall asleep at night, of course. So I believe it will increase insomnia problems.

I never tried it during withdrawal. I was afraid to use it during PAWS time, too. When I come down, I probably want to take some heroin in order to calm down and to sleep. So I didn't use it.
But I would be glad if some more people would write about their experiences. Please write from what opioid you were withdrawing and how much and how long you used it. And tell what kind of amphetamine you took and how much and in what way it helped (or made it worse).
The best thing I'd like to see were clinical studies. But I couldn't find any on stimulant use during opiate withdrawal. The only thing I could find is the aldready posted abstract of this one study. If somebody has a link to some studies - that would be better than personal experience reports.

BTW: Some people advice really you not even to use caffeine during opioid withdrawal because it could make it worse.

And what about restless legs? Did it help with that or made it worse?

Frankly, when I used amphetamine salts when I once kicked to stay productive, I didn't experience any side effects, more or less, from the amp - just the normal w/d shit. Everybody's different tho, and safe to say I never took more than 20mg and always in the morning.

this is a very interesting topic. IMO i think amphetamines in any form would be horrific during opiate withdrawls. HOWEVER, i have only experience mild opiate withdrawls.

I have talked to heroin addicts who say injecting meth during wd's does in fact help....but when the comedown comes....dammmmnnn

I went through a month or so of cold turkey vicodin withdrawals because the VA didn't send my medicine because they thought I already took it...idiots. I would not recommend this to anyone because it is the most horrible way to feel. I worked sick as hell... I came home and just laid on the bed until work the next day. I shit my pants I don't know how many times and the worst part is the pain your body makes you feel to try and get you to take some more. I can tell you as wierd as it sounds, solid chocolate helped with the stomach portion and cold mountain dew stung the back of my throat and was a great distraction. I would try to get something to wean off and not go cold turkey. It can give you a stroke or heart attack or even a seizure. The key is once you get off of them, stay away from any pain opiate....it will hook you as quick as crack.

Ephedrine seems to have maybe positive effect on opiate withdrawal.
There are some herbal opiate withdrawal "medicaments". Most of them are based on Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Some of them have probably no effect other than making the producer rich. But there are some capsules that really seem to help.

There is the "Chinsese Formula". If you search online, you'll find discussions in some drugs forums where people tell that it really helped them.
And there is another remedy that is called "Xuan Xia" or "Xuan Xia Qudu Jiaonang" (Chinese name) or Weinicom (Western Name). This also seems to help and there are clinical studies which prove that. Here are some examples. But there are some studies to find:

Hao W, Zhao M. A comparative clinical study of the effect of WeiniCom, a Chinese herbal compound, on alleviation of withdrawal symptoms and craving for heroin in detoxification treatment. J Psychoactive Drugs. 2000 Jul-Sep;32(3):277-84.

Kang L, Li B, Gao L, Li S, Wang D, Hu M, Li J. Tai-Kang-Ning, a Chinese herbal medicine formula, alleviates acute heroin withdrawal. Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2008;34(3):269-76.

Xiaoqi SHENG, Wenpu WANG, Feibao SHAN, Zhimei WU et al. A Randomized Comparative Study of the Effect of Xuanxia, a Chinese Herbs Compound, on Alleviation of Acute Withdrawal Symptoms of Heroin


Both preparation seem to help (of course no wonder cure but it helps to alleviate withdrawal symptoms) and in both preparations is a herb that contains ephedrine.

The "Chinese Formula" contains Ephedra sinica and Weinicom contains Sida cordifolia. Both are plants that contain a lot of ephedrine.

I don't know if they add just a little bit of a ephedrine containing herb in order to help when you have absolutely no power during withdrawal.
But maybe they add it because ephedrine has positive effects on withdrawal.
A friend told me yesterday that he got 7 grams of good methamphetamine. The started taking a little bit and stopped onlay as everything was gone. He told that he felt no heroin withdrawal although he didn't take any heroin. After 48 hours when the speed effect left, withdrawal began.
He told me that this did not work last time as he just took a litte methamphetamine but with that really big amount it helped until he came down from the speed.

So maybe those ephedrine and pseudoephedrine can help during withdrawal.
In the abstract of the study "Derik Hermann, Eckard Klages, Helga Welzel, Karl Mann, Bernhard Croissant. Low efficacy of non-opioid drugs in opioid withdrawal symptoms. Addiction Biology Volume 10, Issue 2, pages 165–169, June 2005" it seems that amphetamines will not help too much (nearly nothing).
But those 2 herbal remedies help with withdrawal symptoms. Maybe ephedrine can help better than (meth)amphetamine. Or it's the other herbal components that help. But it seems that ephedrine has at least a little effect (maybe only together with the other plants).

Has anybody tried to take ephedrine/pseudoephedrine or better ephedra tea during opiate withdrawal?
Any experiences with that?

Very interested to see this thread...I was just about to start a new one on a very similar topic.

Here's my situation: I've been taking kratom daily for quite a while now...the odd break, but basically 30-40g plain leaf/day for about 3 years or so. Those odd breaks weren't particularly fun - I don't want to get into a debate about whether or not kratom is an opiod, or how much less severe than opiate withdrawal kratom withdrawal is, but in my experience withdrawing from a large kratom habit is comparable to withdrawing from a small opiate habit.

Anyway, I'm on day 1 of another kratom-holiday now (a few overseas trips coming up, don't especially like carrying large bags of brown powder through airports etc, so I intend to cut down drastically, beginning with a few days cold turkey). The difference this time is that I have also recently been taking speed regularly. Just plain old European amphetamine sulphate powder, and no binges - I've been swallowing a dose in the morning most weekdays along with some kratom (there's a combo which makes you hyper-functional), and eating/sleeping/exercising as normal. This also means no comedowns or crashes - I'll stop for 2-3 days out of each week and feel a bit tired, but that's all.

Anyway, today I have had no kratom, and have taken amphetamines for the last few days. I am feeling somewhat tired and weak, but do not have that nasty turkey skin, shivers, goosebumps, sensitivity etc which I would have expected by now from the lack of kratom. I thought about this, and it occurred to me that these are very similar to symptoms produced by amphetamines. Perhaps having depleted stocks of adrenaline/dopamine from taking speed will lessen the symptoms of kratom withdrawal?

This would make sense - amphetamines stimulate the adrenergic system. I believe that it is adrenaline which causes those chills and goosebumps (similar to a "spooky" feeling, or one of revelation, but much more protracted, and not especially pleasant I find). Similarly, clonidine - which dramatically lessens these kind of symptoms in opiate withdrawal - inhibits the adrenergic system, which makes me think that adrenaline might also be responsible in this case.

This is all very unscientific! And it might just be pure junkie wishful thinking. But might taking amphetamines regularly (but not binging and crashing) prior to quitting opiates mitigate the withdrawal symptoms?

Sounds like a solid idea, the comedown might be bad, but who thinks that far ahead? I've never tried it myself ( maybe because the idea never occurred to me) I reckon the amps should mask the wd's if not completely then they should decrease significantly. Like I said it is in theory, I have never actually tested it. You have to weigh up how your going to feel dealing with the wd's and a comedown on top

Well...this is partly the point. As I mentioned, I don't suffer comedowns, as I don't binge, and I sleep/eat etc normally. Rather I have a fairy steady intake of relatively small doses of amphetamines. The only comedown to speak of is general tiredness when I take a break, and it would seem that would be almost beneficial in the later, restless, stages of withdrawal...