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Avoid benadryl while withdrawing from opiates.

OverDriven

Bluelighter
Joined
Nov 2, 2006
Messages
862
I had an interesting and somewhat unpleasant experience recently that led me to do a little bit of research. I was withdrawing from opiate use. My main symptoms I get during withdrawal are depression, coldness and RLS (restless leg syndrome). The RLS is often the worst part since it prevents sleep. I did the first day or two cold turkey. Sleep wasn't very easy, but I could get some. So the third night I decided to take some diphenhydramine (benadryl) to help knock me out. I took 50mg. This is very commonly recommended here on this forum. Well that night I could not sleep at ALL. The RLS was more intense than ever. It was pure torture. I thought it was just the withdrawal. I tried again the next night. Same thing. I didn't take it the night after that and it was much better. So I started to wonder if benadryl exasperates RLS. After a quick google search, I quickly found TONS of articles stating that you should stay away from benadryl and related drugs if you have RLS. Why? Because it makes the symptoms 10 times worse. If you want more info on it, do a search for RLS Benadryl. If you are taking the advice found here and take benadryl for RLS, you might want to quit. You are probably just making your problems worse. Just a little FYI for everyone.
 
I used to take around 150mg of dimenhydrinate to sleep during W/Ds. I found it helped me sleep. Maybe it did effect my RLS, but It was already so bad i didnt notice.
 
cymbaltra from your doctor or requip works great for RLS. It saved my life,cuz we all know those of us with RLS that it can be so bad it will almost drive u nutts!!!!!
 
Yeah both nyquil and benadryl did the same thing to me during withdrawals. The one thing that did work for RLS was an OTC medicine containing quinine. See if you can find that.
 
wow, and I always thought it was the decongestant component of cold medicines that did that to me!
 
I use benadryl alot during withdrawals in the day time. It helps alot with the runny nose i get during withdrawal. My nose gets really runny when im withdrawing from opiates and it makes the cough worse.

The clonazepam and gabapentin i take stops the RLS dead in it's tracks. Both of them also help withdrawals.
 
Thanks for sharing this info. It is useful for people with RLS. Although, your thread title sort of states that everyone should avoid diphenhydramine during withdrawal. The majority of the population DOESN'T suffer from RLS.
So benadryl can still help most people with insomnia. Personally, I try to avoid antihistamines and take other sleep aids during withdrawal or any other time, but I do use diphenhydramine or doxylamine as a last resort to help me sleep if I don't have anything better. It works for me, I just don't like the sleep hangover the next morning.
 
I hate RLS (for me it's more like restless arms, but it's the whole body actually) more than anything, the combo I found works for me is 1000 mg of calcium + 2000mg magnesium + 150 mg DXM. Needs to be all three for me, take one factor out of the equation and I still get it. Some people seem to just need the calcium+magnesium, some just need the dextromethorphan.
 
yeah good call. ive experienced this randomly (the diphenhydramine induced rls), especially if i take diphenhydramine after drinking.

good to know it's not a freak occurence. I'll remember not to take it during opiate withdrawal.
 
sonic said:
Thanks for sharing this info. It is useful for people with RLS. Although, your thread title sort of states that everyone should avoid diphenhydramine during withdrawal. The majority of the population DOESN'T suffer from RLS.
So benadryl can still help most people with insomnia. Personally, I try to avoid antihistamines and take other sleep aids during withdrawal or any other time, but I do use diphenhydramine or doxylamine as a last resort to help me sleep if I don't have anything better. It works for me, I just don't like the sleep hangover the next morning.

I'm confused- you're saying the majority of addicts withdrawing don't experience RLS? I find that dubius at best. Or rather the majority of the entire population doesn't experience RLS?

That I easily believe.

Also avoid things like Seroquel, Alcohol, Risperidone and other Antihistamine-type sedatives (obviously I'm not included EtOH in that list!)
 
Wow, Benydryl was always what I took if had nothing else available. And it did make me "drowsey" w/no problem, nothing close too a natcotic no matter how much you take.

I guess RLS is one symptom I never relley get(that bad). Its always the runny nose, buring eyes, sneezing, and my most hated WD symptom, the nonstop yawning :eek: .
 
Last edited:
Ham-milton said:
I'm confused- you're saying the majority of addicts withdrawing don't experience RLS? I find that dubius at best. Or rather the majority of the entire population doesn't experience RLS?

That I easily believe.

Also avoid things like Seroquel, Alcohol, Risperidone and other Antihistamine-type sedatives (obviously I'm not included EtOH in that list!)

I take seroquel regularly anyway and i find it helps alot with withdrawals. I never get RLS from it but thats probably because of the other drugs i take. I like the sedating effect it has on me when im withdrawing and it stops my head from being so loopy. I have bipolar and im loopy enough sometimes as it is.
 
After reading this thread I looked up RLS on wikipedia, and what do you know? Oxycodone is a treatment for it, according to wiki at least! =D
 
Any opiate can be used, but with pramipaxole now, it won't be used often.

It'll go Pramipaxole --> Benzo A --> Benzo B --> (Maybe a C or D, etc, possibly another GABAergic) --> Codeine --> Hydro/Oxycodone.

I talked to my doc once about it (I was withdrawing and was complaining about RLS), he said that's what he was taught when he was learning, though that was before Pramipaxole, so I assume that it's been put first on the list.
 
I will have to cry foul on this one. It helped me pull off of 17 years of 160 mg of methadone so people, do your research and make your own call.
 
rachamim said:
I will have to cry foul on this one. It helped me pull off of 17 years of 160 mg of methadone so people, do your research and make your own call.

You are "crying foul" because it's not the case with you? That doesn't mean much IMO. There are currently 6,602,224,174 other people on earth with different reactions.
 
sonic said:
Thanks for sharing this info. It is useful for people with RLS. Although, your thread title sort of states that everyone should avoid diphenhydramine during withdrawal. The majority of the population DOESN'T suffer from RLS.
So benadryl can still help most people with insomnia. Personally, I try to avoid antihistamines and take other sleep aids during withdrawal or any other time, but I do use diphenhydramine or doxylamine as a last resort to help me sleep if I don't have anything better. It works for me, I just don't like the sleep hangover the next morning.

Sonic, RLS is an extremely common symptom of withdrawal. From my experiences talking to others, it is safe to say that a majority of people do get it to some degree during opiate withdrawal.
 
i think there is confusion here because some people (like me) have RLS regardless of their opiate use, and during withdrawal it just gets magnified and is often the hardest symptom to tolerate. there are others who didnt have RLS before their opiate use who will experience restlessness during withdrawal, furthermore there are people that dont even experience it during major opiate withdrawal.. everyones withdrawal is a little different IME.

overdriven: one thing id like to point out is that it seems you took the benadryl on the 3rd day/night, which is commonly the WORST day of the withdrawal period. if i understand your post you took it again the fourth night, which is also typically pretty bad and didnt take any for the fifth night. well usually its around the fifth day that withdrawal symptoms begin to get better, so it could have just been due to the natural progression of your withdrawal that you felt such differering levels of restlessness, not the benadryl.

im not trying to deny your experience, just offering a different possible cause.
 
Mr Blonde said:
After reading this thread I looked up RLS on wikipedia, and what do you know? Oxycodone is a treatment for it, according to wiki at least! =D

haha yea that along with social anxiety are the reasons i began self-medicating with opiates in the first place.

..that and the awesome high. :\
 
during heroin wd i suffer from the most horrific case of RLS EVER ;)

i took diph regularly to "help me sleep and stop rls"

bullshit.

it made the rls WORSE and i could not sleep a wink AT ALL, it almost actually stimulated me. I tried doses b/w 12.5 and 150mg

fuck diph
 
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