Opioids Everything you could want to know about VIVITROL

[Edjack727]

Did it work? This month is my 5th month and because of insurance issues I'm almost w weeks overdue and have been using. I am scared of getting sick when I get my shot. I used up til the day I for my shot on the 3rd and 4th month and was fine but I got it on time. I'm worried about the lapse in time and how it will make me feel.

 

[Edjack727]

How did you feel after the shot?

 

[Edjack727]

So I have been on vivitrol 5 months now. Before my first shot I was smoking around 4 days before the shot and I was ok. This was everyday use for like maybe 3 days. month 4 I tried drinking some codene caugh syrup on day 28, felt nothing. Now it's month 5, tried smoking and shooting like day 33 approximately and felt like maybe 10% of the high, or maybe it was just placebo effect I'm not sure. But I waited 6 more days and tried shooting again and I felt like almost 100% of high, I started w about .1, felt it right away (smoking it wasn't really doing much), then I did another .1, and then about .2 shot. I did it like this because I know is dangerous to tu to override vivitrol and I knew my tolerance would be way lower after being clean for 5 months. I didn't get like a knod or that feeling where you can't even keep your eyes open, but definitely felt high, euphoric, little bit of pins and needles, and felt the rush. It was pleasant I gotta say. But now I'm supposed to get another vivitrol shot (because I'm way over due and everyone's freaking out). Tonight at 11pm it will have been 24 hours since I used. Do you think I'll be ok to get my vivitrol shot tomorrow? I could try to put it off till around 2pm when it will have been 38 hours.. Maybe it will be ok since I only used once? And it was only .4? Anyone have any experience w this? I'm 24, female, 140lbs if that helps. Also it been drinking lots of water and taking adderall because I know that speeds ur metabolism, possibly helps get drugs out faster. Anyone have advice? :/

I don't know how to work this page so forgive me if I keep posting the same thing. Just really wanna know how you felt after the shot.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I don't know how to work this page so forgive me if I keep posting the same thing. Just really wanna know how you felt after the shot.

How long have you been using for? If you used for a day I don't think the vivitrol would precipitate withdrawal (or at least anything serious) because your body is not physically tolerant to opiates. If you've been using for 3-4+ days then I would worry and definitely STOP using any opiates for at least 7 full days before getting your shot.

One thing some doctors do is the "Narcan Challenge" where they first give you a shot of narcan, to see if WDs are precipitated. That way, if they are, then you will only be in withdrawal for a few hours and not weeks. Might want to ask your doctor if he can do that for you.

I'm on vivitrol and it's a godsend, but only if you want to stay clean and could use the help of the crutch that is vivitrol for the first year.

 

[knonymus]

I know the thread is old, but throughout the past 9 months that I have been off and on the vivitrol shot I have had burning questions that I have not been able to find definitive answers for on the internet and abroad, so me being the curious cat I am, I used the scientific method to test my hypotheses. First question I had was can you feel the effects of suboxone while on the shot? And the answer is quite simple. After my last injection I was dirty for my shot and went into PWD, and had a nice case of PAWS to top it off. I was in agony. Bought a 8mg suboxone strip and used (IV), and it helped tremendously. Even got a nice buzz. So yes, you can feel at least IV suboxone while on the shot. At least I can. My second question was, exactly how long does it take for the shot to wear off? Well this one is tricky. I think it depends on a few factors. Obviously your individual metabolism and overall health is big, but also something that no one really mentions. Where the shot is administered, in my experience, is a HUGE factor in how long it has a hold on your receptors. In my outpatient program we have a nurse that administers the shot regularly to hundreds of people, and he will correctly give the shot in your ass cheek, as its supposed to be given. While I was in this program receiving the shot from this nurse, I could always use after I "missed" my shot, within 3-4 days. Equals out to about day 31-34. This past month I got the shot from a different source (kicked out of IOP for using) and the nurse gave me my shot in my lower back area, above my left ass cheek. It is now day 33, there is STILL a lump where I received my shot, and I cannot get any sort of euphoria. If I feel nothing by my pay day (5 more days), then I can conclude at least for myself, that an injection in the "wrong spot'" can add extra time onto the already agonizing 28 days. A few more notes, not really questions I've had, but answers for some people who may have these questions in their run with vivitrol. For the sake of science. There's is minimal buildup on your receptors from multiple months of shots. After my 5th shot I missed my appointment, and used 2 days after and experienced a satisfying rush. In my outpatient program I was forced to give urine samples twice a month randomly. On these UA's they give ng levels of drugs in your body, including the infamous naltrexone. On my last UA I read the levels (since I had been using I was curious) and noticed that I STILL had naltrexone in my system, but had also been using. The amount of naltrexone in my system was minimal, nowhere near the amount I was giving in earlier screens. The point is that I was definitely getting high, rush and all, while still technically on naltrexone. My theory is this; the shot (380mg) is supposed to administer itself intramuscularly throughout a "28" day period, which equals out to 15mg (give or take) a day. I think that it releases in stronger amounts in the earlier days, and after a certain threshold of time, the amount dwindles lower and lower. So instead of 15mg every day for 28 days, its more like 25-30 mg in the first two weeks, and gets less and less as the days go by until its nonexistent. The shot definitely does its job, the earliest I've been able to get any sort of high was on day 31. There's no reason to waste your hard earned monies. I've heard and read accounts of people using way too early into their shot and claiming they got high, which is bs. I'm telling you its a placebo, and don't get your hopes up by reading their accounts. I am a 6ft tall male weighing at 160 pounds, lean, in shape, with a faster than normal metabolism and still have to wait the entire length of time and then some to get high. Like I said, its day 33 as of today and I used this morning and felt maybe 5-10% of the high that should have put me on my ass. I said in the beginning. If your cravings are THAT bad, get your hands on a suboxone or two to give you the itch you've been craving, if you're early into your shot. On the bright side though, I have found that when you first experience any sort of high from opiates while on the tail end of vivitrol, as the days pass you will feel more and more of the high you seek. Example, if on day 35 you feel about 25% of the high, the next day will be 30%, day after 40%, etc. They SAY the half life is 5-10 days. I have hypothesized that its more like 10 days at the beginning, but dwindles down to five throughout the length of the shot. Because at the tail end the rate of excretion is exponential. I was UA'd on a Thursday and again the following Monday (I missed my shot the Thursday I was tested) and on that Monday the results showed that almost half of what was there was excreted in almost 3 days. Your body wants it out as much as you do, give it time. Do things to increase your metabolism. Eat healthier, take multivitamins, exercise. If you truly want to be clean and sober (as I did when I first started the program) the vivitrol shot is a godsend. Cravings won't be too bad because you truly don't want to use, and you have the failsafe of naltrexone blocking your receptors. For those not ready to quit, and forced Into getting the shot (as I also was this past month because of probation) its really not for you. PAWS is no joke. You ask, "how can someone really be that depressed and suicidal just because they can't get high?" and I felt the same way until I got the shot when I was still in active addiction. I felt like my life had been stolen from me. I was mad at the world, pissed off that someone could force me to get something that prevents me from getting high, when I'm an adult and can make my own decisions. But some girl at a desk can make me get it, or risk going to jail? I went through a day or two of anger, and then another day or two of basically sadness. Mindless using to no avail, just wishing i could get some sort of buzz, and wasting TONS of money. Like I said I didn't mean to post on an old thread, but since I'm at the end of my run with vivitrol, and do not plan on receiving another injection, I figured I'd post my experience to hopefully answer questions some lurker may have about the drug that is vivitrol. I hope your month is shorter than mine has been, and happy hunting.

 

[knonymus]

Update: its now day 35 and I was able to surmount the naltrexone blockade with a fairly minimal amount of substance.
To anyone who may be considering getting the vivitrol shot,
If you truly and full heartedly want to be clean and sober, and experience what life on the other side had to offer you, then I would highly recommend this drug for you. For those of us though who aren't quite ready to quit cold turkey and have a medication completely alter way of life, I would recommend you stay far away from this drug. Its not for people who aren't ready to quit.

 

[Tom I am]

Update: its now day 35 and I was able to surmount the naltrexone blockade with a fairly minimal amount of substance.
To anyone who may be considering getting the vivitrol shot,
If you truly and full heartedly want to be clean and sober, and experience what life on the other side had to offer you, then I would highly recommend this drug for you. For those of us though who aren't quite ready to quit cold turkey and have a medication completely alter way of life, I would recommend you stay far away from this drug. Its not for people who aren't ready to quit.

I got the shot about a week and a half ago... Like many I had tried the sub route. Would end up selling them to get high. Then went methadone route. That shit just made me feel like a slug and a low life waiting in a zombie line. I mean no offense.. Anyways fast forward to the shot. They told me to get down to 30 milo grams of methadone. I was smart and stopped at 50 so that wasn't horrible.. First time I met with the doctor. He sent me home with 2 ibuprofen 400/2 2 milo gram zanax and two immodium.. Twice a day.Said if I came back in a week clean of opiates he would give me the shot. Well the week slowly passed by and I was excited to get shot. But the doc said he was still worried about the methadone and didn't want to administer the shot. Instead he sent me home with the same rations before. But this time gave me six days of naltrexone pill.

Boy I'm glad I didn't get that shot. Because even though I didn't get deathly I'll it made me very very angry.. I guess I was expecting a suboxone relief. Instead the pill just kicked any and every happy cell off my brain receptors... Each day got better. And I went back to the doctor and got the shot. I haven't drank for alost a month but I still get cravings for H. And two days ago fell to the pressure of a "tester". It did little to nothing.

What I'm getting at is if you know you don't want to get clean the poster above is 100% correct. Don't do it.

But for me personally I realized I was powerless over it and figured it was now or never.. plus I was tired of forking over 100 a week for methadone. My insurance paid for all the med and the shot. I plan on staying on the shot as long as needed.. I know it won't be a quick fixs.

I won't lie I am worried about my temptation to use around the day 24 mark. I had a friend who almost died on me trying the same shit.

 

[simco]

I'm not trying to proselytize, but I thought I'd mention that folks who are committed to cleaning up and who have a good support system might also think about oral naltrexone (i.e. same stuff in vivitrol but in pill format). I've been taking it for almost two months. I started it b/c my doctor would only put me on vivitrol if I could tolerate the pills for a month. But now that I'm in it, I have no plans on switching to the shot. Why? Two reasons:
* The pills cost <snip> per month with my insurance, and my insurance won't cover vivitrol, so I'd be looking at <snip> month for that.
* Since the pills are taken daily, there's no end-of-the-month temptation. I'm always covered. Obviously, this brings up issues of compliance. Luckily, my
wife supports my recovery, so she administers my pill each day. Without someone to help in this way, the shot is obviously far superior.

I also believe that the pills (since they lack the extended release mechanism of vivitrol) are less prone to complications, but I'm not sure about this.

Nevertheless, for folks who have someone who can help them comply (and who are really committed to staying clean), naltrexone pills have a lot to recommend them.

Good luck, everyone!
Sim

 

[Blkstarrouge]

Vivitrol injection

So I had my first shot 18 days ago. I have not used heroin in those 18 days. I consumed two beers 5 days after the shot with no intent of feeling anything. Around day 15-16 I consumed a decent amount of liquor and I must report that there were dissernable effects. I have been consuming Benzos of various varietys and they work fine. I have taken suboxone on day 11(8 mg) sublingual, no dissernable effects. Day 14 I consumed 4mg Bupe via insufflation, 12 mg bupe sublingual. The effects were extremely minuscule no euphoria though. Cocaine has worked just fine throughout. So now the cool part. Today I decided to try and shoot some heroin. My guy told me to be careful, which he has never once said in 5 years. I fully expected to not feel anything from the heroin, I just picked one up for the hell of it as I was buying my girl. So I did the shot of heroin after a little coke and I know the feeling of opiates. I did not get a great rush but I definetly without question felt that damn heroin. So.... The conclusion I have come to is the shot varies for everyone on terms of duration.

 

[Dr.Mambo]

I got on vivitrol in august, had been in a sober living house since February. Still had cravings, dreams, etc. I felt deceived. The DR's and counselors told me I wouldn't crave or have dope dreams and wouldn't want to drink. I'm not a drinker but getting drug tested often for my towns vivitrol program I drank. I left the recovery house in November. Got off the shot. Will probably get on sub's, go to my good Dr and get a script for pain pills or say fuck it and start doing dope again. Hopefully I can get on sub's tho.

Also, the program I went through required you to do group therapy nine hours a week for 4-7 months plus one hour one on ones. I got sick of it after so many months. But I know people on vivitrol who're doing great but a lot of "sober" people I know are full of shit

 

[jreyno91]

Were you able to get high right after the shot?

 

[Tom I am]

I have heard you can get high directly after first shot. But the high will only last for like 30 minutes and then u will be sick.

I just got my third shot and used two days prior. So one day clean. Drank a lot of water and didn't feel sick at all after shot. I assume that's because I had already had two prior injections.

 

[kleinerkiffer]

^You can't get high for a long time, but taking opioids will still lead to respiratory depression

 

[Jerseysick94]

So I have been on vivitrol for the past three months. I am about to take my fourth shot today but for the past two weeks or so I have been using. The first week was light. Maybe once a day with two or three days off. The second week was a little heavier, every day sometimes multiple times a day, my thirty day point is in a week but my doctor is going to give it to me tonight. Will I go into horrible withdrawals?

 

[kleinerkiffer]

^If you've been using for two weeks odds are you'll experience withdrawal

 

[ambermarie]

So has anyone figured out if metabolism or weight affects how long the shot last? I weigh roughly 103-104 pounds, would that mean it would leave my body quicker or no?

 

[Faith$]

So I take vivitrol and have for 4 months. I am 6 months sober. My question is , I have knee surgery on the 25th of may and my last shot was the 4th so that is 21 days, if they use fentynyl during the surgery will I be ok? I will not be taking anything after for pain. I will suck it up

 

[subotai]

So I take vivitrol and have for 4 months. I am 6 months sober. My question is , I have knee surgery on the 25th of may and my last shot was the 4th so that is 21 days, if they use fentynyl during the surgery will I be ok? I will not be taking anything after for pain. I will suck it up

Naltrexone will block just about any other opiate from working for at least 28 days, and probably more if you've gotten 4 in a row. You should look into alternative, non-narcotic pain relief at the hospital because at least they could help somewhat.

One of of the few opioids that can actually get past Vivitrol is, ironically enough, buprenorphine (Suboxone)

 

[subotai]

Ok just to clear some things up:

- you cannot get high on opiates for around 4 weeks after getting the shot. You can shoot heroin if you want, and get a slight depression in your chest, but there is no high. It's not worth it, at all. The only opiate that you can get high off of is Suboxone because it has a higher affinity for your receptors than naltrexone does.

- alcohol is kind of in the same boat, although you seem to be able to get drunk after a lesser amount of time passing than opiates take. If you drink, you still get the physical effects (bloated feeling, general shittiness, have to piss), but none of the feel good feels that alcohol should give you. Waste of time as well

- Any other drug will still work fine.

- it's a shot of this weird mixture of powder and water that is frozen for some reason, and then allowed to thaw to this weird viscosity before injection where they will shoot it intramuscularly into your ass cheek. It's like any shot, if the person doing it does it right, its not too bad. You will have a pain in your ass for about 2-3 days though

- it doesn't prevent cravings, you just can't get high. I guess if that alone makes you not want to get high then in a way it does prevent cravings. Most of the time, people wind up looking up when it wears off tbh. It's not like you get Vivitrol and just never want to do dope again. It doesn't work like that

- it's pretty expensive if your insurance doesn't cover it

- looks pretty good to bring papers to court saying you got it

- if you still have opiates in your system upon getting it, you will go into precipitated withdrawals, HARD. One of the worst experiences of my life. Not saying you gotta be 10 days clean, but at least 4 is a good idea. Look at it this way, if you'd still fail a piss test for opis, DONT get the shot yet. Seriously, if you don't get anything from this post but that, GET THAT. Don't do it. Don't be a hero

- all in all, I think Vivitrol is an extremely situational tool to be used by addicts with specific circumstances that should require them
to try and acquire around a month's clean time however necessary. It doesn't make you forget about opiates, and it is not something I see much point in getting unless it helps you lessen the hit on some legal charge.

 

[KrazyKevo1978]

^^Don't even worry about it man, to me Vivitrol is just part of the whole AA/rehab complex, which doesn't give a shit about you, they just want your money. Rehabs won't keep people on suboxone maintenance and AA treats maintenance as using--yet they wonder why the "relapse rate" is over 90%... Whole industry is bullshit, why would you pay $1000/day for what's basically a shitty vacation, since they tell you the first day only like 5 in 100 make it to 1-year...



Why did you even bother to post? You clearly have no idea what you're talking about.
1. There are junkies that don't give 2 fucks about life and haven't for a long time.
2. OP is clearly not forced to live a sober life, seeing as he still shoots heroin.
3. He's not even mentally sober the rest of the time, because he's always craving.
4. "any good addict is going to try his best to get high anyway, it's what we do" is bullshit (besides, in the sentence before he's "living the sober life")

Ya well in a couple weeks imma be part of that 5 percent BC I've been cold turkey off sub's for a month and a half and its like going to battle withoit a riffle and ammo!!! Its been a long bumpy road still withdrawling and severe fatigue!!! So I am gonna go get that 2in needle in the ass!!! And I without a doubt will not be having extreme withdrawal symptoms or an of the ugly stuff!!!! And I'll be happy to take the 1,000 shot and stick with it without doing any other opiates BC I'm headstrong to stay off all the dumb shit BC I want a drug free life!!!!