Is this a high dosage (dilaudid)?

So I'm trying to come to terms with tolerance and understand how my body is reacting after a year and a half of daily opiate use (perscribed for back pain).

As it stands now, I use approx 32mg of dilaudid daily (8mg in the morning, 16mg when I get home from work (my "end of day stress relief" dose) and another 8 before bed.

Would this be considered a high amount? A sort or "dude you are seriously overboard" amount?

I'm curious because it seems like I simply can't enjoy the euphoria or nods I once had. Yes, I know that tolerance develops, but I always thought that a higher tolerance simply means you have to take more to get the same results.

With me, if I try to take a higher dose to "enjoy" my meds, it still doesn't work. I've gone as high as 40mg in a single dose (plugging) and I barely feel anything.

Is this normal? Why does a high dosage not produce "higher" results?

That is a really high amount of one of the most potent painkillers out there. If you have pain, you really shouldnt look for any enjoyment or euphoria, because chasing after it will get your tolerance to the point where you can't even treat your pain.

40mg plugged is really fuckin high. Thatd kill me without a doubt

With over 300 posts made (by you) I find it hard to believe that you don't know (already) that 'yes' it is a high dose of dilaudid. You mentioned you were prescribed opiates in the past: are you currently prescribed the dilaudid or are you getting it elsewhere? If the former, is your doctor aware of how much you are taking --if so, I'd be amazed.

Be careful, man. Oh, and why are you not getting the results you want? Probably tolerance.

Thats quite abit of dilaudid and is more then enough to cause some rather hellish withdrawals. I was IVing over 60mg's a day and quit cold turkey and OMG did that ever suck. If i didnt have my shot within 6 hours of the last one id get sick as fuck.

Dilaudid in instant release form is not a good opiate for chronic pain in my opinion atleast. It's just way too short acting no matter which way you take it. Tolerance to dilaudid builds rather fast as well.

^It's good for breakthrough but not all around chronic pain management... However unless it's IVed I find it useless.

Violenza666 said:

^It's good for breakthrough but not all around chronic pain management... However unless it's IVed I find it useless.

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Yeah i used to take it for breakthrough pain and it is excellent for that. But as a sole painkiller for chronic pain it's just way too short acting.

I would disagree with the widely held statement tthat it's only good when given IV. Sure you can only get the famous rush when you IV it but snorting it is good as well. I used to snort it for years before i started IVing it. I wish i had stuck to snorting it as that shit is the crack of opiates when you IV it.

^LOL @ the crack of opiates.. hahaha

i would call that high, with no tolerance i get decent effects from 4mg

Fuck yeah that's high. I have no opiate tolerance to speak of, and 8 mgs is dilaudid IV knocks my dick in the dirt. If you don't feel 40 your tolerance is off the chart. I withdrew off about 40 mgs a DAY and it was bad. Don't even want to think about about coming off the doses you're on.

It doesn't matter how long ive been a member here or how many posts I have, until I actually discuss it with others and compare notes I have no way of knowing if 32mg a day is "way high" or not.

And I hope everyone read my post carefully that it's 32mg a DAY, not 32mg every time I take it. My statement about once trying 40mg at once just to see if it would get me high was just that, a one-time experiment.

I still cant understand why taking more doesn't work; I thought the higher your tolerance was the more you had to take, I haven't read before about ceilings or some sort of threshold where at some point no matter how much you take it just won't work anymore.

Is that normal?

Also, keep in mind I have always had a high tolerance for opiates, which is why my doc put me on dilaudid to start. We first tried vikes and percs, but it took 3 pills to have any effect on me, and that was my first time EVER trying any opiates, so obviously my body chemistry seems to need about double the dose other folks would need to have similar effect.

32mg a day doesn't FEEL like I'm over doing it. It still works for pain and, at the very least, I refuse to up my dosages in the pursuit of recreational use (except on weekends, which is the only time I iv my drugs, since iv does allow me some measure of "fun," even with my tolerance). I started the iv thing about 6 weeks ago and I have kept my promise to only do it on weekends.

Yes, my doc knows exactly how much I am taking and continues to script me 180 pills a month (the max insurance will allow). In a sense that keeps me from going too far overboard, because if I ever started to take more and ask my doc for more I'm sure he'd begin to question things.

Of course he doesn't know I plug or iv!

32mg's a day is still quite abit. Why are you on dilaudid as a primary painkiller if you have chronic pain anyway? Why not a long acting suspended or extended release opiate like MScontin, oxycontin or hell even the fentanyl patch? Granted id recomend saving the fent patch for last. With one of those youd have around the clock pain control instead of about 2 hours of pain control. Also you might be able to get away with a lower dose if your lucky.

Im not trying to preach here but you might want to do yourself a favour and stop trying to get high off your pills especially via IV. If you only started doing that 6 weeks ago now would be a good time to leave the needle alone. I went from a guy who was scared shitless of needles to shooting up about 6 times a day in the span of a month thanks to IV dilaudid.

You really won't get much if any euphoria from dilaudid after you reach a certain point. That is unless it's the first dose of the day or your sick. I spent alot of time chasing that rush but no matter how much i did in the run of a day i only got it from my first shot. Other then that i just kept the high going and my tolerance sky rocketing.

Wow! I know someone in stage 3 ovarian cancer who doesn't even get scripted that much a day. That's a very high dosage. Sounds like you can't get high anymore b/c you've increased your tolerance too much.

I don't know much about dilaudid, but it killed my friend about a year ago from OD'ing on it. Just be careful.

Do you have any idea HOW your friend died from it? I understand wanting people to be careful but it's a hell of a thing to play the "someone I know died from it" card unless you can share any details.

I mean if he died from swallowing 40mg a day then yes that is a major wake up call. But if he was doing a lot of other drugs and IVing dilaudid 10 times a day and THAT killed him, then it wouldn't really be a huge surprise.

To OP:
That dose is ridiculously high. I can snort 2-3mg of dilaudid and i'll be fucked (though my tolerance is nil these days). As everyone said, your tolerance must be off the chart.

You should seriously consider tapering down, maybe no quit, but ween yourself down to a more manageable level.
Oh and, i don't mean to sound like the bad guy here, but, to conserve your pills, you should pick a different ROA like snorting. I won't suggest IV/IM though, pills + veins never end well in the long-run.

Cface said:

To OP:
That dose is ridiculously high. I can snort 2-3mg of dilaudid and i'll be fucked (though my tolerance is nil these days). As everyone said, your tolerance must be off the chart.

You should seriously consider tapering down, maybe no quit, but ween yourself down to a more manageable level.
Oh and, i don't mean to sound like the bad guy here, but, to conserve your pills, you should pick a different ROA like snorting. I won't suggest IV/IM though, pills + veins never end well in the long-run.

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This

I already mentioned a few times that my ROA is plugging. Snorting is ok but I find plugging works best for me, as far as pain management and the overall feeling it produces.

I agree, tapering down would be a good idea. But as I said, a "manageable level" is different for everyone - the whole reason I'm on dilaudid in the first place is because of unusually high natural tolerance to opiates.

I mean if it has ALWAYS taken a minimum of 4mg for the drug to have any effect on me, even from the very first time I used it, is 8mg at a time really that high a dose, relatively speaking?

When I first started this 18 months ago, I was at exactly half the dosage. At the moment, there is no way I reduce my morning dose, since 4mg is never going to get me through the day at work (4mg in the morning used to be sufficient but that's when I wasn't working).

My evening dose of 16mg can def be cut in half, since I freely admit that one is largely recreational. My before bed dose can also probably be cut in half, since that dose is mostly about keeping withdrawals away so I can sleep.

So, without too much trouble, I should be able to reduce my daily intake from 32mg to 20mg, a fairly significant reduction. I guess force of habit and the hope that the pills we take me to a happy place is what's kept me at this dose more than anything else.

If I follow through with this reduction, am I likely to reduce my tolerance enough so that, if I decide to ocassionally up my dosage for recreation, it will actually have the desired effect?

Anyone else reading this ever been in a similar situation? What happened?

I mean if it has ALWAYS taken a minimum of 4mg for the drug to have any effect on me, even from the very first time I used it, is 8mg at a time really that high a dose, relatively speaking?

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I just think it's kind of bizarre you have to take a minimum of 4mg to feel anything (assuming this dosage was amount needed before you started taking opiates regularly). Makes me think you take other opiates.
Anyway, taking your natural tolerance into the equation, it is still a little high to take 8mg at a time... i'd think 6mg would be more reasonable.

If I follow through with this reduction, am I likely to reduce my tolerance enough so that, if I decide to ocassionally up my dosage for recreation, it will actually have the desired effect?

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In time, you're going to be a bit uncomfortable for a little while during this taper. I'd say in 2-3 weeks you could try taking a "recreational" dose of 16mg.

TBH, OK'ing that high amount of dilaudid as "recreational" to you makes me very uneasy...

hey john, i know exactly how you feel and how frustrating it is to have such a high tolerance to pain medicine, both naturally and from previous use of other medicines. I, too, take about that much of dilaudid every day, probably even more. I have the 4mg pills and I sometimes take 4 at a time. I swear it does nothing for me, and sometimes it DOESN'T even help my pain ( chronic kidney stones etc ) I personally prefer plain ole vicodin as far as how it makes me feel, but I would seriously have to take like 8 at a time to feel anything.. who does that? i guess probably more people that i realize. oh, and i am a 25 yr old female, medium build, so sometimes i think tolerance is just natural for some people. anyways, how are you doing now on the meds? I admit I have often wanted to try another way of taking my dilaudid to see about a rush or something, but i can't bring myself to all those other ways like snorthing etc. I just swallow the pills. I wouldn't know how great dilaudid can be if I never had it in the hospital, but I did, and it sure felt great for a couple minutes. haha. I hope you get things settled. let me know how you are doing and what you think of my doses too. I am afraid to tell me dr, but soon he will know because they make you bring in your bottle of pills to the appt. thanks!