Just finished reading this whole thread, and am currently 68 hours into the withdrawal process. Just thought I would share my story to add to the collective knowledge base.
Background: I have used opiates sporadically for the past seven years. Mostly pharmaceuticals, but I used high-grade powder H a few times as well. Never had any addiction issues until I tried smoked BTH, though. Something about the rapid administration had me hooked instantly; it was incomparably more psychologically addictive for me than even extended periods of insufflating other opiates, including stronger opiates like oxymorphone. After 16 days of VERY heavy use, I decided I needed to quit, and left the state to stay at a friend's place where I had no connections for the hard stuff. Cold turkey was a bitch to say the least. When I returned home, the acute phase of the withdrawal was over, but I had lingering PAWS and was kind of desperate for something to fill the emptiness that was I was left with after the cessation.
In early January, I tried Kratom three days in a row at a friend's place and was blown away. I never would have expected that a natural opioid could be this pleasant, and it completely eliminated my PAWS, something that codeine and gabaergics had failed to do. I decided to buy a bunch of high-grade plain leaf for myself, and began taking 7g doses every morning. I definitely liked it more than weak to moderate morphinan opioids like Codeine or Hydrocodone. The once-per-day habit quickly escalated to twice-per-day, and by the end of the month, my dosages had climbed from 7g to 9g. Once it got to the point that I was chugging over 20g of plain leaf per day, I got tired of the process, and switched to "enhanced" blends, which ranged from 1.5x to 2x the potency of the ultra-grade plain leaf.
My tolerance continued to build over the following two months, to the point that I was consuming about 20g of the enhanced blends daily, probably equivalent to about 35g of plain leaf per day. I finally decided that it was time to call it quits, didn't place a restock order, and took my last dose on Wednesday evening. By Thursday at Noon, I was definitely in a state of opioid withdrawal. All of the symptoms were there, and while they were definitely not as severe as cold-turkey on the BTH, it was certainly not pleasant. I had stocked up on things to counter the effects of the withdrawal, which generally worked well.
For muscle pain -- 330mg naproxen every 12 hours + 10mg Cyclobenzaprine every 8 hours (which had the added benefit that it helped me sleep). Together they were very effective, and when taken on schedule almost completely eliminated my muscle soreness.
For insomnia and anxiety -- 1mg Etizolam in the morning, 1mg mid-day, and 1mg right before I wanted to sleep. I had no trouble sleeping. This was only moderately effective at quelling the anxiety, however.
For GI discomfort -- 1000mg Ginger extract twice per day + 4mg Loperamide twice per day (this also had the effect of reducing the overall withdrawal because I am prescribed a medication that inhibits P-glycoprotein)
The first two days of withdrawal were pretty severe, despite the medications for symptomatic relief. Today was significantly better. I actually forgot that I was withdrawing for the first minute after I woke up haha. I stopped the etizolam today, but I plan to continue the other meds at least through tomorrow night. Hopefully by Monday, I will be completely though the acute phase of withdrawal. Hoping that this doesn't leave me with PAWS like the BTH withdrawal did, but I guess I will know for sure soon.