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*MERGED* Guide to narcotic withdrawal

PhreeX

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Nov 14, 1999
Messages
10,526
Guide to narcotic withdrawal

Narcotic withdrawal - a junkies guide for survival

You are waking from the warm fuzzy dream.. you're supply is depleted, your 'guy' is out of town, and it's a good 4 weeks before you can refill your script.. you're going to suffer from NARCOTIC WITHDRAWAL - So what can ya do about it?
Drag yourself to your local pharmacy with this for a shopping list –

1) Imodium AD - and get the SYRUP - you can also get the pills or gel-caps as they will come in handy later.. you can get the generic shit too, just make sure that the ONLY active drug is loperamide hcl .. get a big bottle, hell, get 3 or 4 .. and no, it doesn't have a "pleasant cherry taste" .. this brings us to the next item –

2)
Fruit juice - carbonated beverages won't do ya a lot of good... I have done this many times, and I find some apple juice to be the drink of choice ..

3)
Aleve (or generic - you want naproxen sodium) .. this will help with the muscle aches and pains ..

4) Sominex (or generic - you want diphenhydramine).. this is an OTC sleep aide that *WILL* knock you out! Now if you have benzos or some other type of tranqualizer, thats better as they have other properties that we desire - but still, pick some of this up because without it you will just toss and turn all night...

5) Soup - whatever you like, it taste the same comming up ..

Some people recomend DXM, but I don't think it does much good when one is going through withdrawal - it *CAN* help reduce ones tollerence to opiates/opioids - pick up a bottle, remember, you want DXM ONLY .. you can try this, but I found it never really did anything but make my feel 'trippy' in higher doses (NOT pleasureable when you're kicking) ..

Ok, first off, there is no magic cure for withdrawal that DOESN'T involve some type of narcotic - thats what withdrawal is - the condition resulting from the absence of opiate/opioids in your system... in other words, don't think you can go on a 3 month heroin binge and walk away like nothing happened - BUT - I have been through this many, many, many times before - and I can help you reduce the pain and suffering to *ALMOST* nothing ..

Now, how bad will it be? Well, that depends on a few things:
*) HOW MUCH were you taking? Someone who mainlines a gram of heroin every 16 hours is going to have it a LOT worse then someone who pops a few Lortab every day..

*) HOW OFTEN were you taking the drugs? Again, if you made opiated bliss a full-time job, then you're going to have it a little harder then the occasional pill poper..

*) WHAT were you taking? If you liked to take codeine every day, you will probably suffer a little less then someone whos drug of choice was black tar..

I will assume that our subject falls in the moderate to heavy use catagory - could be considered an 'addict', or 'independent self-medicator'..
Withdrawal can set in within hours, depending on the frequency of your opiate/opioid intake - an IV heroin user who would fix every 4 hours is going to feel the kick comming a lot sooner then someone who eats Vicodin after work each night ..
I wont get into the psychological aspects of narcotic withdrawal, as thats a book in itself...

IMODIUM AD - OTC METHADONE!

I can't say enough about Loperamide - this shit is truely amazing.. it is really like OTC methadone .. so I think I will say a little about it;
Back in the day, Jansen (pharmacuticals) was trying to tweak out the fentanyl molecule - loperamide and fentanyl have a lot in common in terms of their structure.. anyway, they came up with loperamide in hopes it would be some incredible opioid - sadly it wasn't... so it was placed in federall schedule V - then, for some unknown reason, it was knocked out of C-V and made an OTC drug - you know it as Imodium AD .. there were some studies done on morphine dependent monkeys, and loperamide halted the withdrawal with as much success as methadone - so hey, don't write it off as a "junkie trick"...
How to use it? Well, ideally you want to take it prior to the onset of physical withdrawal - hence the reason for the liquid - it is rapidly absorbed into yer system .. for a dose I recomend about 4mg-6mg - yes, more then recomended by the FDA .. this can almost totally halt with physical aspects of withdrawal - it does little for the mental cravings though .. you can 'maintain' yourself with the pills/gel's but the syrup is FAR better - still, I find it's easier to pop a few pills at work then to bust out with the economy size bottle of an anti-diarrhea medicine..

For a moderate user, loperamide will just about kill *all* the physical symptoms - but for the heavy user, or for a good portion of the moderate users, there is that one physical effect that persists - muscle aches .. enters the Aleve (naproxen) .. take 500mg every few hours ..

Ok, so you are now narcotic free, and maintained fairly well with the Imodium and Aleve - is it that easy? No, not really.. while the above can help, you will still suffer from SOME physicl effects - I will list them.. some, all, or none may apply to you:

1) Cold sweats
2) Nausea
3) Diarrhea
4) Vomiting
5) Muscle pain
6) Insomnia
7) Depression (I wont get into it)

The severity of the effects depends on how much of what you take and how often you did so..
How long does it last? Overall, the worst is over after about 3-5 days, and from there it's just a matter of dealing with some minor annoyances .. the first few days are the worst, and I don't advise doing any more then you have to - lay in bed, keep a trash can nearby, and have a good stock of toliet paper .. food is a good thing, but you might not be able to keep it down - but THIS IS IMPORTANT - diarrhea and vomitting cause you to lose a LOT of water, so you WILL dehydrate - hence, you MUST maintain a good intake of fluids... thirsty or not, drink a cup of something every hour or so ..
Sominex will help you sleep, and benzos are wonderfull!

Everything else is a matter of personal opinion - do what feels good.. some people find sex is a good way to make a bad situation good, I personally don't want to do anything sexual when I am going through withdrawal.. I like to be as clean as possible - it really makes me feel good to take a few hot showers a day, but others can't take the water - YMMV, find out what works and go with it!

Thats most of the general advice I have...
Prevention is really the best way to go - TAPER YOUR DOSE when you're running low (yeah right) .. a nice alternative is to keep some narcotics on hand that wont really fuck you up, but will keep the withdrawal under control - ie codeine - it wont make you warm and fuzzy, but it may enable you to avoid missing a few days of work/school ..
 
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- BUT - I have been through this many, many, many times before
uhm...you mean, monthly, right?! =) heh...
dave...i love it when you mention bowel movements. thanks!
 
I strongly ask that anyone else reading this add to it. I'm working on a project where this would be an excellent FAQ. Thanks Phreex, anyone else got real insight?
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"Sometimes the best way to get someone to change is to become them for a minute." - Thanks liquidocean ;)
 
great info, i'd like to add........
that if you decide to wean off you need to give yourself two weeks or you will still feel like ass and take baby steps cut your dose then spread it apart dont do both the 1st day or two(i found out the hard way theat even doctors are mostly clueless about how long it takes).
another good help for the back pain and muscle aches is to take as many hot as you can handle them baths, use hot hot water and when it cools drain and refill.
DO NOT try to kick benzos and opiates at the same time.
also to the list of opiate withdrawl symptoms id like to add my least favorite hallucinations, they only last the first few days but drove me nuts (this was while being detoxed under medical advice for long term morphine use, but the dr. was clueless and cut my dose way to quickly)
 
DAMN GOOD post PHREEX!!!
one thing i learned that does NOT help withdrawal is EPHEDRINE or ANY TYPE of STIMULANTS..yes,an hour or so after i took them i felt ok and charged up a little,but after it wore off,i could hardly stand to be awake..i was irritable as all hell,twitching like crazy,and just all over ANXIOUS..not a good thing when you dont feel like doing anything..
for PEEPS trying to quit NUBAIN,go for TRAMADOL..it works great..it helps ALOT with the physical withdrawal and the SHITS..
IMODIUM AD??sounds like a GODSEND if i would happen to run out of my "STASH"...
 
Listen.
The key to surviving narcotic withdrawl is simple....
Don't run out of narcotics.
smile.gif
 
You must also ask yourself why you are using so frequently that you chase it and need more. I would think if you look at narcotics as an experience and not a habituable drug you would be fine. Pain management is another story, its true that in chronic pain people sometimes use doses way higher than even a recreational addict with a large tollerance would, and it is completely safe, you just need to realize what you have here is called dependance, you physically NEED this certain substance in order to keep from getting those horrible effects and to ward the pain off. This isnt like addiction which is partly mental, dependance can be taken care of without a hitch you just need to plan for when you will run out, if you will , and what you are going to do to ween off, or supply you somehow. Every time i hear about opiate addiction i always think about the fact that in the med community they know how to deal with it without much discomfort, and then people in the news and anti drug places continue to knock on opiates for the addiction and dependance potential nevertheless spreading propaganda. Loperamide seems to be the best choice OTC as DXM doesnt even affect the receptors i believe it only affects the NMDA's making it pretty useless. Loperamide was studied for a comparison to codeine at 60mg loperamide compared to 120mg codeine and less than half liked it if i remember correctly. It IS an opiate just very weak and without abuse potential, usefull for withdrawl though. anyone know of any closely related molecules that are active? could you rearrange or change the substituton to make it active? hmmmm
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"As your attorney i advise you to rent a very fast car with no top, and you'll need the cocaine."
My AIM: Thetripdoctor (im always on, Trust me)
 
roofies and weed.
still feeling the withdrawal symptoms? pop another roofie.
smile.gif

and weed is always good, so just smoke it too.
 
Thetripdoctor- i have to disagree with you on the medical communities knowledge of opiates.
personnaly i had one doctor, a psychiatrist at that, who at 16 had me taking over 10 mgs of xanax a day, and then when i said i dont think this is working added klonipin....granted this was 10 years ago but 10mgs is now considered toxic amounts of xanaxand adding another benzo was not going to help, and to top it off never once did he talk to me about addiction problems that come with extended use of benzos,
at the same time i had my medical doctor prescribing me large amounts of assorted opiates for headaches and was not keeping count of what he gave or how much, and when i got sick after a 3 week straight stretch on stadol he was surprised that a level 4 drug would cause any withdrawls, now fast forward a few years and an addiction later i was in a car accident and due to my tolerance i had no choice but have long term morphine, with the help of a pain management doctor aka anestisiaologist (Sp?)he knew the correct amounts to give and the correct wa to detox me once i was ready to come off, due to other circumstances i was hospitalized and another MD tried to detox me and did it too quickly, thus i became very sick and had to wait until i was released from this hospital as my doctor was not on staff to get the dosage adjusted.
my story is not unusual and many others have been detoxed by doctors who have less then 3 credit hours of pharmacology in college.
most doctors only know what the drug reps teach them and this is a scary practice.
 
I feel for you man, but im talking about medical knowledge not any or all doctors, written just about everywhere in medical texts concerning the topic of withdrawl, it lists that opiates need to be continued in smaller doses for a while to avoid withdrawl, i agree wholeheartedly that almost a large portion of doctors dont know shit about pharmacology. Knowing pharmacology to a very deep extent ive corrected a few doctors in my time and they get mad when you know somthing they dont
smile.gif
they also usually fuck around with opiates far too often for how concerned they seem to be with them, i think any doctor who doesnt keep track of the amount of opiates they give you ought to be removed from the licensed community (not to say i wouldnt mind having a doc who handed out Opiate scripts) but they shouldnt mislead you into taking a wreckless amount, nor should they even come close to shortening the time you take to come off a dependance, im talking a week or 2 of tapered dosing, these guys try a few days and think its gonna keep the shakes and the nausea and the anxiety and everything away. Im moving away to a country that isnt so cock assed. Sorry to hear about the long term morphine thing, have you considered a lawsuit against the doc who gave you all kinds of shit?
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"As your attorney i advise you to rent a very fast car with no top, and you'll need the cocaine."
My AIM: Thetripdoctor (im always on, Trust me)
[This message has been edited by TheTripDoctor (edited 29 March 2001).]
 
Thanks Phreex.
Peace.
[This message has been edited by n1nja (edited 30 March 2001).]
 
I have to go on methadone. It works, it's just close to impossible to get off. I have my dose down to 12.5 Mls after 1.5 years, and lost some teeth to it. I now have major dental problems I never got from heroin.
 
Im a she
wink.gif
and no the doctor who gave me morphine knew his shit it was the prior two dr's who got me all screwed up. the pain management doctor gave me morphine because for chronic pain it actually is better and safer. When you need long term (as in 3 months or more) medicating you do become "addicted" (as in physcially need) to the morphine but it is very controlled there was no way i could of been taking more then perscribed without him knowing.
morphine works better then say vicodin or tylox as they just alter how your body perceives pain, morphine blocks the pain from happening, so you end up with no pain not an altered mental state. Also with morphine you dont need to up and up the dosage to get relief.
and the doctor who gave me anything and everything was nice but you can only go like that for so long, needless to say the doctor who weaned me off all the stuff turned him in and suddenly he no longer is in this state.
i cant blame any of the doctors any more then i can blame my parents and then as i got older, myself for taking such vast amounts of medication withut researching them 1st.
 
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Umm, morphine doesn't prevent the pain from happening. It is JUST like vicodin and tylox as they all are opiate agonists that alter the body's perception of pain without diminishing the presence of the pain. The only difference is that morphine probably more addictive than tylox and vicodin.
 
Hey, PhreeX can you post mirror this to the FAQ forum please?
Thanks,
Griff
 
Last request PhreeX, if you don't move it yourself, I may have to move it for you. It would look much nicer under your name, but I'll use mine if I have to.
Something like this doesn't deserve to die in the bowels of OD.
Griff
 
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|Don't fuckin' threaten people Griff. Asshole. (
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Anyway.. Trip Doctor-
I was talking to PhreeX about the potential of abuse for Loperamide... he mentioned that a skilled chemist could make something wonderful out of it... Something "Fentanyl-ish"... Upon his reccomendation I looked at both molecules...it's amazing how similar they are.
 
^
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|Don't fuckin' threaten people Griff. Asshole. (
wink.gif
)
Anyway.. Trip Doctor-
I was talking to PhreeX about the potential of abuse for Loperamide... he mentioned that a skilled chemist could make something wonderful out of it... Something "Fentanyl-ish"... Upon his reccomendation I looked at both molecules...it's amazing how similar they are.
 
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