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Opioids How bad is opiate withdrawal ?

physical withdrawal is pretty bad, and the worse part is knowing exactly what would make you feel better.
 
Ancient_Hippy said:
I have just finished reading a book called Romancing Opiates by Dr Theodore Dalrymple in which he claims that withdrawal from opiates including heroin is no more than a minor discomfort.

Doctor Dalrymple has worked in what he describes as a slum area and the prison service and has a lot of experience with drug addicts.

According to the doctor addicts greatly exaggerate the suffering of withdrawal to con doctors into prescribing opiates.

But the book contains contradictions as it also describes the desperate measures some addicts will go to get a fix. Why are they so compelled if withdrawal is such a minor thing to endure.

Never having been addicted to opiates I cannot make a judgment about the accuracy of the book.

I would be interested in the views of people who have been through opiate withdrawal - has the doctor got it right or is he wrong?
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well this doctor sure doesn't know his ass from first base or anything about opiates.

Opiate withdrawal feels like the worst flu you've had, x100, while at the same time feeling like your dying of bone marrow cancer, suicidal depression that makes normal depression look like a cakewalk, a horrid slimy clammy feeling all over your skin that is cold to the touch, with vomiting and diarrhea that makes your insides feel like their tearing apart inside you. You are hypersensitive to any pain and stress. Anxiety is amplified 100x. Sleeping is horrid and painful. Eyes feel like their gonna explode. The feeling of wanting to die rather than go through this enters the mind many times.


That is the most accurate I can get. At times if I had a choice of having my leg broken with a bat, or bad heroin/opiate withdrawal, I would chose the bat. Because its the mental effects of withdrawal that are beyond horrid.

Watching people go through withdrawal almost brings tears to my eyes now. Because it brings back the memories of those horrid hell-like times. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy
 
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Colmes said:
W/D from Subutex was absolute hell. The worst of it lasted nearly 3 weeks.
I suffered from SEVERE depression, anger, lethergy, body pains, horrible restless legs, difficulty sleeping, feelings of hopelessness, flu like symptoms, although, I did not have much GI problems. I thought it would never end. I punched an end table during the worst of my w/d, breaking the legs of the table. This was the worst I have ever felt in my 23 years of life, worse than any flu, or stept throat, or even when I had Scarlet Fever.

all in all. BEWARE. The mix of the psychological torture and physical torture of opiate w/d is terrible, and I made it through. It was very very difficult. Goodluck, and I sympathize with anyone going through w/d. Take care.
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I find the withdrawal syndrome from Buprenorphine to be the worst I've encountered. The kappa agonism of Bupe is my best guess why this is. Depending on your current mental state and history of any mental illness or social/physiological problems (depression, anxiety, agorophobia, suicidal ideation, etc) Buprenorphine will seriously fuck you up.

It certainly doesn't help to go through the literature and find doctor after doctor, study after study all saying, "There is no significant withdrawal syndrome to Buprenorphine abstinence". Then come the individual reports of people having it very rough. New drug application, unknown problems.
 
Tchort said:
I find the withdrawal syndrome from Buprenorphine to be the worst I've encountered. The kappa agonism of Bupe is my best guess why this is. Depending on your current mental state and history of any mental illness or social/physiological problems (depression, anxiety, agorophobia, suicidal ideation, etc) Buprenorphine will seriously fuck you up.

It certainly doesn't help to go through the literature and find doctor after doctor, study after study all saying, "There is no significant withdrawal syndrome to Buprenorphine abstinence". Then come the individual reports of people having it very rough. New drug application, unknown problems.
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Word for Word - Amen.

Bupe is not annnnnnnnnnnyyyy easier to get off of than "bad person opiates". The fact that a doctor prescribes it, makes a ridiculous amount of money, and its FDA approved for opiate dependence, makes someone believe that it is more of a medication than anything, and, medicine isnt supposed to be as bad is it? I know it helps people to get off drugs like heroin, which are cut with all sorts of shit, and lets people live their lives instead of scoring H all day, but bupe is really not an "easy way out".

Tchort is absolutely correct in saying that any mental problem you have, and, if you're in deep shit with opiates you probably have depression of some sort, certainly anxiety, ALL of these mental anguishes are multiplied exponentially when you come off.

To anyone going through it - it does eventually end, its just such a long acting drug, and as Tchort said, the kappa agonism, not to mention its effect on your adrenal glands (the levels directly influence mood) really keep the w/d long and harsh.

But, its better than heroin as far as what your productivity will be while on the drug, and being able to get it from a doctor rather than a drug dealer (i've never been a heroin user specifically, but I'm sure this is true, tried pretty much all pharm opiates too many times) What ultimately helped me with depression and cravings for Opies.....Tramadol, worked for me? ;/ ;)

Goodluck
 
I'm withdrawing from opiates as I type....

By the end of a 2 year binge, i was taking 12 lortab tens a day (I preferred the speedball affect of hydrocodone over the sedating affect of oxys and heroin....because I had a full time job; on my feet all day)

Then I began taking 2-6 mg suboxone per day to quit the tabs, now I'm coming off those.

In the past 2 weeks: Chill bumps that would last for hours, puking, insomnia, ears ringing, cold sweats, muscle spasms, panic attacks .....the first one made me think i was going to have a heart attack, my arms and legs were tingling and numb, and i couldn't move them and my heart was about to explode.

Think twice before you get addicted to these.
 
marti1317 said:
I'm withdrawing from opiates as I type....

By the end of a 2 year binge, i was taking 12 lortab tens a day (I preferred the speedball affect of hydrocodone over the sedating affect of oxys and heroin....because I had a full time job; on my feet all day)

Then I began taking 2-6 mg suboxone per day to quit the tabs, now I'm coming off those.

In the past 2 weeks: Chill bumps that would last for hours, puking, insomnia, ears ringing, cold sweats, muscle spasms, panic attacks .....the first one made me think i was going to have a heart attack, my arms and legs were tingling and numb, and i couldn't move them and my heart was about to explode.

Think twice before you get addicted to these.
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I feel for you. Do you have any clonodine or benzos? Clonodine helps with the pressure and anxiety. Maybe even a little codeine if it gets unbearable.
I remember sometimes before going through a withdrawal I would start an antidepressant bout a week beforehand. It helped greatly with the mental effects.
 
The first time I went through withdrawals was by far the worst experience of my life... I remember on day 3 I lied in the floor and starred at the ceiling for about 6 hours straight with the worst restless limbs ever.... I puked everything I had eaten in my life up and it lasted about a week and a half before I started feeling normal again...

The second time though I smoked week (which I NEVER do, I hate it) and it was the greatest for withdrawals, I don't even remember 1 unpleasant day at all... I smoked it every day for about 2 weeks and then stopped and everything was fine, I felt normal.... This time though I chose to go with Suboxone to FINALLY quit for good...

But NO DOUBT opiate withdrawals are no walk in the park... they are HORRIBLE!!!!
 
pillpopper187 said:
fentanyl wd > oxycodone wd > herion wd (morphine)
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You know, I think Fentanyl is probably the only pain medication I have never tried.. Is it completely different from oxy and hydrocodone?? I know they come in patches so I'm assuming it's more along the lines of morphine?? anyone know a good comparison?? sorry to jump off subject but I was just wondering and I don't remember seeing a Fentanyl mega thread... of course if there is one I'm sure I'm about to get ridiculed like hell :)
 
subisjustokay said:
You know, I think Fentanyl is probably the only pain medication I have never tried.. Is it completely different from oxy and hydrocodone?? I know they come in patches so I'm assuming it's more along the lines of morphine?? anyone know a good comparison?? sorry to jump off subject but I was just wondering and I don't remember seeing a Fentanyl mega thread... of course if there is one I'm sure I'm about to get ridiculed like hell :)
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i have wd'ed from long term fent use, i am on the patch and switch every 48 hours

i stopped cold tukery and it was hell

fent crosses the blood brain barrier faster then herion or anything else.

i also stopped oxycodone cold turkey two, i'm used to that.

i'm also on klonopin and valium and have been for 19 months, wd from that is pure hell, worse then fent as it lasts longer

but i was never on a higher dose then the 25mug/h patch
 
subisjustokay said:
You know, I think Fentanyl is probably the only pain medication I have never tried.. Is it completely different from oxy and hydrocodone?? I know they come in patches so I'm assuming it's more along the lines of morphine?? anyone know a good comparison?? sorry to jump off subject but I was just wondering and I don't remember seeing a Fentanyl mega thread... of course if there is one I'm sure I'm about to get ridiculed like hell :)
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it is 81 times stronger then morphine and it is a synthetic opiate


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentanyl
 
yea withdraw i something that is really bad i have not did anything today and i'm sick as fuck so i guess depending on how bad you are on opiates will determing how bad your withdraw is i've puked all day so i'm thinking if i don't do anything today that tomorrow i will start to hurt but i'm not going to let that happen i'm going to go get better right now lol
 
Ive been clean for a couple months (go me!) but the depression is the worst. I have never had problems w/ depression but after i WD i would be so bad, i can understand exactly why people w depression kill themselves. my most recent WD personally wasnt that bad, but i owe it 100% to SUBOXONE for getting me clean and keeping me clean.

When i WD w/o SUBOXONE, it was absolutely horrifying and I wanted to die.
 
Colmes said:
Word for Word - Amen.

Bupe is not annnnnnnnnnnyyyy easier to get off of than "bad person opiates". The fact that a doctor prescribes it, makes a ridiculous amount of money, and its FDA approved for opiate dependence, makes someone believe that it is more of a medication than anything, and, medicine isnt supposed to be as bad is it? I know it helps people to get off drugs like heroin, which are cut with all sorts of shit, and lets people live their lives instead of scoring H all day, but bupe is really not an "easy way out".
Click to expand...

Yeah but you can taper off bupe, and my doctor says I can take as much time as I need. unless i mess up and get cut off, then I can taper down slowly over a period of months. Bupe (suboxone) has at least allowed me to lead a normal life without having to spend hundreds or thousands a month.
 
Argh.. opiate withdrawal is absolutely hell, one of the worst things I've ever endured.. and I'm only 30 hours into withdrawal off of 100 mg oxycontin habit. The worst will be tomorrow when I wake up. I personally am just going to deal with it, and wait for the screaming pain to subside. Time is key here, but when you are in WD, you'll want anything to put off the inevitable. If only my hook didn't dry up... but I feel like it's better in the long run..
 
PetersKeys said:
I feel for you. Do you have any clonodine or benzos? Clonodine helps with the pressure and anxiety. Maybe even a little codeine if it gets unbearable.
I remember sometimes before going through a withdrawal I would start an antidepressant bout a week beforehand. It helped greatly with the mental effects.
Click to expand...

Yes, i'm on klonopin (2 mg per day) and lexapro (10 mg). I've been on them for a little less than 2 weeks, The dr wants me to taper off the klonopin starting next Tues, down to 1 mg a day....I really wish he wouldn't because the dosage i'm taking now doesn't get me high, just makes me feel normal and more able to sleep and eat....i had stopped both before i got these scripts.

But yeah i could tell when the lexapro started working (today actually). I agree it's helping me a lot.
 
I find withdrawal's to be hell. I've been on and off suboxone for four months now but for some reason I feel like I withdrawal from that too! I recently started using heroin again also, today was the first day I had taken suboxone because I'd been binging on heroin for the past three weeks daily. Opiate withdrawal is hell, I'd wish being dope sick on no one.
 
Heroin withdrawal was the worst sickness and feeling I have ever experienced. I only made it to the start of day four before I gave in. I ended up getting on methadone instead. I never want to go through that again.
 
dchlight said:
Heroin withdrawal was the worst sickness and feeling I have ever experienced. I only made it to the start of day four before I gave in. I ended up getting on methadone instead. I never want to go through that again.
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The methadone withdrawals are 10x worse than heroin withdrawals IME. I have never puked from being dope sick but puked like hell off of methadone WDs. When I puked up everything there was to puke the dry heaving would start. Ugh, fuck that shit.
 
I'm finishing 11 days cold from domes and I wish to god I could've just afford h or jams this is by far the worst w/ds I've dealt with. Just when you think you are making it thru some new symptom (for me RLS the last 4 days) drives you nuttier than squirrel shit. I had had enough w/my clinic and (they gave me somebody elses dose 4x fuckin morons) and I had had enough of being in cabin fever having to hit that line at 6:30am 365 a year - they wouldn't even give me a take home on xmas for the past three years even if i had clean urines cuz i would miss a group or some shit...I prolly would be dead at the rate I was going so I do owe a lot to methadome but it is by far the worst opiate w/d imo
 
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