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Opioids What can opiate withdrawal be compared to?

Ampheta-me

Bluelighter
Joined
Nov 22, 2003
Messages
504
I've used many drugs but I am not very experienced with opiates and have no idea what withdrawal feels like. Most drug use that I've seen portrayed in the media has been very inaccurate. I'm curious if heroin withdrawal is really the unbearable experience that it is made out to be or is it just as hyped up as the high itself? Better than 1000 orgasms....

I've been told you feel like you want to jump out of your skin, have flu symptoms, can't get out of bet, etc. What other high/comedown/feeling/experience could it best be compared to for an unexperienced opiate user to understand what the feeling is about? I'd like to understand what people are going through :(
 
If I can get out of bed to turn on the computer, I'm going to write exactly how I feel this Sunday.
 
Ive never done Heroin but Hydrocodone withdrawals suck enough for me. I keep quitting and keep starting back. I always have 3 days of hellish feelings then it starts to taper some. Ive started doing the step down method and it really helps alot. I try to keep around 20 for dier emergencies when im withdrawing but I love them so much I take them all before I even start withdrawing. Ive heard people say that Benzos help alot with withdrawls but Ive never tried any.
 
Mononucleosis + Diarreah + Depression/Boredom


Thats about as accurate as I can get, though Id rather have those three up there than opiate wd.
 
Imagine how you would feel the day after you got the shit beat out of you, youre whole body kicked and stomped on. Plus diarreah like some really bad food poisoning. Plus depression. Lack of sleep...
 
Projectile vomiting, and other severe e-coli like physical symptoms, but with a incredibly deep suicical depression. Then the skin crawling feeling, that can actually feel like being covered in bugs. Also you feel quite delirious, sort of like a fever dream, but more negative in nature because of the hopeless depression, and can include vivid hallucinations. With normal semi-synthetic opiates like oxycodone and heroin, the worst physically is over after 5 days, but the psychological aspect lasts subjectively longer. With things like methadone, it feels different than normal opiates, the vomiting feels more intense and worse in general. But this could of been because of does........
 
William S. Bouroughs always compared the effects of yage to those of withdraw. Cramping, vomiting, chills ect... Ironicly he sought out yage in hopes of using it to cure his heroin addition, to some success. While I have never experieced heroin withdraw, even sickness from say fentamine is enough to point out the similarities to me. Yage seems to have a purging effect which forcefully pushes an lingering substances out of your body. The result is intense vomiting, sweats and such. Fortunatly yage rewards you for this purging;) This may have been a little off topic, but I thought I'd suggest something different than the standard "it feels like fucking hell" Although it really does in my limited experience.
 
It can be compared to feeling like your head is going to explode/migraine with sickness and vomiting.That is if you have a good habit.
 
A nightmare, but do-able if you can taper a bit . Easy with bupe/subutex.

Although opiate WD isnt anywhere near as bad as valium withdrawal.
 
At least with me, the worse effect withdrawl is the horrible anxiety and subsequent depression. The rest I can deal with.
 
Feels like a severe bout of the flu. Aches and pains, nausea, cold sweats, boiling up, extreme restlessness, so tired you can't sleep and when you do nightmares and when you wake you feel like you've only slept 15 minutes. It all depends on the sevevity of your habit and you current health at the time.
 
I hate the cold feeling so much, you can put a thousand blankets over you and you still frezze, and just the second you thing you feel warm , it gets so intense hot that sweats almost floods out of you. And you always thing what is this shitty life for why do all the shit, nightmare depressions. This discription doesn´t nearly cover 1/10 of all symptoms. :(
 
Bottom line: it SUCKS! I wouldn't wish it on anyone except those right-wing assholes who think all junkies belong in jail.
 
trip407 said:
I hate the cold feeling so much, you can put a thousand blankets over you and you still frezze, and just the second you thing you feel warm , it gets so intense hot that sweats almost floods out of you. And you always thing what is this shitty life for why do all the shit, nightmare depressions. This discription doesn´t nearly cover 1/10 of all symptoms. :(

Thats weird. Since september I cut down my opiate usage to just weekends, monday, and tuesday. I found on the days that I dont do anythingI get those exact symptoms about being freezing cold, and then extremely hot. I'm just freezing cold all the time, its horrible. I always thought that was the adderall, but it makes a lot of sense now.
 
Between methadone and heroin withdrawls i've had, i'd rather not talk about it. Do yourself the favor and don't get yourself in a predicament like that.
 
hell, your legs just feel like they need to keep movina and hot and cold flashes hardcore. Insomnia, diarreha, basicaly like you want to kill yourself or get high.

peace
 
All of the above posters got it pretty much down. The severity of WD's are really going to depend on the type of substance(s) used, the length of use, how often one uses, and the amount of drug abused. Also, WD's are individual, in that most people will experience vomiting, or hot and cold sweats, but it seems that each person gets their own special 'treat' when it comes to WD's. I get hot flashes, like you would not believe, no chills, just sitting there for a second, and then I am covered in sweat, and this surging feling of heat can last minutes, very unpleasant.

And even though the physical aspects of WD suck ass, it is nowhere near as bad as the mental aspects. Confusion, extremely short temper, depression like you have not experienced, and the all-encompasing desire to do more, just to make the pain stop. It can get ugly man, and IMO, without a decent supply of benzos, you are fucked if you have a decent habbit, and need to kick. The best thing one can do is space their use of opiates (ha ha ha 8) ) as far from one session to another. Funny, is it not, that even though all of us who have gone through WD's, and you will if you use long enough, always seem to go back to opies, thinking, "it was not so bad, I can control it this time...".
You can't say you have not been warned. And may The Gods help you if you happen to WD at work....not a good time, to say the very least.
 
The physical aspect is easy for me. It's the feeling that i'm gana get up and smack someone that scares me.
 
Take your shittiest day of your life, add a horrible leg cramp (charlie horse) that wont go away for 4 days, and the flu, and then sit in a room which is cold enough to see your breath, while wet and naked, and thats what opiate withdrawal is like. Oh, and have relief 60 seconds away but just out of your reach.

The most interesting thing is I often confuse hunger with withdrawal and withdrawal with hunger! the 2 seem remarkably similar. If you ever run out of food or can't afford to eat, the timeline is almost identical to withdrawal, at about the same point I'd be physically hungry, the craving sets in and feels alot like craving food. The hunger progresses into a horrible ravenous feeling in the stomache and a dizzyness and weakness in the rest of the body.

Yep, fun stuff!
Strangely enough I've been through it 5 times but I still find myself doing opiates, and I even tell myself its worth it!

I suppose Im glad I am not one of the contributors to www.atwatchdog.org 's "Methadone Withdrawal while in Prison" project.


Something strange I've begun to notice is that certain psychedelics/stimulants share certain characteristics with withdrawal, and I've begun to have a difficulty ever using them due to the reminder. For example: 4-aco-dipt has the same skin tingling, provigil has the same leg pains and shivers, methaphetamine has the same cold feeling, mdma has the same yawning.

Of these, I can only ever bear to use in combination with an opiate now, and provigil was even horribly unpleasant at 50mg in combination with 100mg codeine and 1.6mg fentanyl 2 days ago!
 
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