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Opioids Opiate withdrawl Help!

Addict1986

Greenlighter
Joined
May 14, 2014
Messages
2
I will be starting my withdrawal from Hydrocodone 10/325 roughly 8-14 per day on Friday. I have a doctor that has prescribed a few medicines to help but I would like to know what is the best benzo to take for the withdrawl? I've been prescribed clonidine and Phenergan already. I go back Thursday to get the rest of the prescriptions. What else should I get and what all should I do? Any advice is greatly appreciated. I've been trolling here for months, finally got the nerve to post and will continue to post throughout my journey.
 
Any benzo will help, but ideally you want one with a long half life like diazepam. That is what is most commonly used as a detox aid in inpatient facilities. The clonidine will be a big help for sure. Between that and a benzo, for a hydrocodone habit, you should be totally fine. Was tapering down on the hydro not an option before hand? Hydrocodone withdrawal, especially at that dosage, and being a very weak opiate, is pretty minimal in the grand scheme of things, but no matter what you're taking, tapering down to the lowest dose possible will help a lot.

Good luck.
 
Thanks for the quick reply! No tapering tried it and could not do it.... He said I should take Ativan but I don't know if that will really help .... Any thoughts on that?
 
Lorazepam will deffinetly help in the depths of withdrawal.

But it's not a long acting benzo, which as we mentioned earlier, isn't optimal.

But deffinelty something that can help in this situation.

It'll help with RLS and sleep in general (and a host of other symptoms). Edit: duh, and the anxiety.

But be very careful, you don't want to trade one addiction for another.
 
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I've gone through withdrawal in every situation possible. The most useful tool each time was having someone you can talk and be honest to and who will listen. Sleeping pills are great, but even they don't work when it feels like your skin is doing its best job of seceding from the integumentary system! Good luck
 
Mindset will play a monster role for you, plan on not sleeping after about night one thru five , being mentally prepared for the insomnia is key, sleep anxiety suuuuxxxx!!! The comfort meds u have will help tho, be careful with the clonidine. Get a bp cuff if possible
 
^^

Yes that's a good point. A positive mindset and being mentally prepared really is the best thing, and more helpful than any drug. You have to really want to get clean, be prepared and ready to feel shitty, and remain positive. The mind is an incredibly powerful thing, and with the proper headspace, you can make your withdrawal a lot easier. At the same time, with a negative mindset, you can also make it a lot worse.

More than any drug used for detoxing, it is your mindset and attitude that ends up being the real deciding factor if you're to be successful or not.
 
I'll repeat: mindset is key. You really have to want to do it.

Secondly, if you have a doctor who is helping you then ask for a sleeping aid like Zolpidem,. These are often forgotten about but crucial to success. I worked with a doctor and used a combination of lorazepam, clonidine, and zolpidem.
 
Pretty much any benzo imho, some kratom, imodium ( loperamide ) and weed is all I really need for opiate withdrawal.

Google " loperamide for opiate withdrawal" and " kratom for opiate withdrawal"

Hope that helps and good luck!
 
I second the weed thing to take the edge off but only if you are a smoker, if you don't toke much it can make you racy and that really Sux. Also, I wanted to touch on the sleep aid thing, for me at least , there was nothing short of a sledgehammer that was putting me to sleep while I was peeking wd and even for a bit after the worst had past. One thing that did work was low dose seroquel, like 25mgs. It was hit or miss tho and when it didn't work I was kinda worse off than I was before I took it.
 
^^

Yeah seroquel was the only thing that helped me get any sleep at all during my last detox, and still it was only after day 7 or 8 of zero sleep at all. I took 100mg's and it allowed me to get a few hours of sleep a night, which after a week of not even a wink, felt amazing.
 
iv just done my methadone detox and the main thing that helped me was britlofex, im in the uk so not sure if its available in the u.s. i did it in jail and got no sleepers or anythin but i managed to get a few ten mil diazepam which were a god send, and a few sleepers but not much will get u a full nights sleep tbh. expect a few hours broken sleep at best! im not familiar with the drug your comming off but a methadone detox is about 3/4 weeks as it being more 1/2 weeks off the heroin. it was mainly the full body shivers that drove me mad towards the end and the sleep depravation but i wanted to do it from the start so that makes a BIG difference. if you want to do it ul find it alot easier than having it forced on you!! stock up on as many ten mil blues, and the strongest sleepers u can get also tonic water will help as it has quinine in. stay positve and good luck!! p.s sorry if this message appears twice i struggled to send the first one.
 
^^

Yeah seroquel was the only thing that helped me get any sleep at all during my last detox, and still it was only after day 7 or 8 of zero sleep at all. I took 100mg's and it allowed me to get a few hours of sleep a night, which after a week of not even a wink, felt amazing.

Scag, I am wondering if u coulda got away with a lower dose of quinidine, I find it far more sedating at lower doses, oh well, maybe next time..lol!

Sometimes in my clean time I will take it when I can't sleep and 25mg has me waking up drooling after 8 hours .
 
I've never understood the love for Xan, I've always been a Valium type of gal. Be careful with any of them, as they can also be addictive and deadly with some combos. Would your dr. give you something like suboxone or subutext to taper? That would help more short term. Good luck. Xoxo
 
Scag, I am wondering if u coulda got away with a lower dose of quinidine, I find it far more sedating at lower doses, oh well, maybe next time..lol!

Sometimes in my clean time I will take it when I can't sleep and 25mg has me waking up drooling after 8 hours .

I tried a lower dose at first, but my insomnia was so brutal (I was coming off of a really big habit at the time, stupidly not tapering down at all before entering detox), that even the 100 didn't work until the bulk of the acute withdrawal was over.

Now that I'm not in withdrawal obviously, if I took 100mg's, I'd probably be out cold for 3 days. Hah.
 
As for benzos during w/d I also concur with diazepam, though if it is still difficult to sleep you might want to also ask for a few temazepam just for taking before sleeping because they are a hypnotic benzo and work great for sleep.

If you are able to stomach them, multivitamins, amino acids, protein shakes and black seed oil.

Also, though it is easier said than done and helps if you are already somewhat fit at least, I've always found that when I sweat profusely just prior to going into w/d and again on day 2 (I force myself to exercise with a sauna suit on and then hit the sauna/steam room and then later at night a hot epsom salt bath with sauna suit), the withdrawal symptoms are significantly reduced in severity and definitely helps ease the hot flashes and involuntary sweats (not to suggest they still won't happen).

If fitness aint your thing then try just sitting in a sauna and leeching out as much as possible, remembering to hydrate continuously throughout of course and pay attention to your body signals while baking...
 
Just for the record, even during the first five or so days of opiate withdrawal, and I consider myself sort of an expert all be it stupid for being one - there can be residual central nervous system effects from the opiates remaining. Adding Benzos to that can result in respiratory failure (again, I am sort of an expert). Small doses of Valium can help with RLS and restless sleep but BE CAREFUL. Klonopin is less effective and more dangerous because of that fact. I've found that for the majority of the symptoms, Imodium AD (generic loperamide) is most helpful for the skitters and RLS. Adding Tagamet (generic cimetidine) can enhance the process of binding with receptors but neither will cross the blood-brain barrier and get you high.

The first time I went down this desperate path it was after finding a video on YouTube recorded by a strange looking guy with a squeaky voice that talked about very high doses of loperamide and cimetidine. That scared me because I was already on a daily routine to combat constipation so chugging the recommended 50-100 Imodium pills seemed very illogical even though I had been suffering from the skitters for several days.

I found my withdrawal cycle to be about 12 days beginning 48 hours AFTER running out of opiates (in my first instance it was oral Morphine Sulphate). I started a modest intake of the imodium and tagament, about 20 pills each on the fourth day when I couldn't work and the RLS was making me tear my hair out. My results have been marginal but it is different for each individual. It is far better to ask the doctor for Clonidine which beats the OTC routine hands down. As a side note, I used to use a strong dose of Fentanyl transdermal patches (225ug/hour total) for chronic pain and I would routinely change them every 48 hours not the recommended 72, and I would cut the used patches into strips and chew them for the extra effect and I never had withdrawal problems even if I ran out early at the end of the month. The doctor switched me to oral Morphine because of a new HMO policy requiring blood-measurable dosing not possible with transdermal delivery systems and ever since I will go into full-blown withdrawal within a day or less of running out if I can't get a refill on time.

In general prescription opiates really suck ass but when you have inoperable severe chronic pain as in my case there is little choice. It is certainly a rotten catch-22...

-peace
 
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