Assignment Symptoms and Experiences Associated with Substance Withdrawal

A

AMSkane

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Hello,

My name is Angela and I am conducting a research assignment. I’m looking to recruit respondents for a survey regarding the symptoms and experiences associated with substance withdrawal and recovery. We are primarily looking for respondents who have experienced some form of substance withdrawal, but this is not a criteria for participation.

The survey is hosted on SurveyMonkey and can be taken here:https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SQ3VPDMhttps://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SQ3VPDM

We estimate the survey to take roughly 5 to 10 minutes to complete. The majority of the survey is multiple choice. Questions that require long-form answers are optional, but I would certainly appreciate your insight if you're willing to provide it. Respondents will be anonymous.

Please feel free to contact me with questions at [email protected]. I'll also do my best to answer questions posted as a reply to this thread.
I'd also like to invite forum members to share any stories or experiences with withdrawal as a reply to this post.

Thank you for your interest in the project!

Best,
Angela
 
All done. I would love to see the final results of this if you are able to post them here.
 
steewith2ees and Slash5331.
Thank you both for participating! I really appreciate your contribution. If you have any feedback or recommendations on how to improve the survey, please feel free to let me know.

*EDIT*
While I'm here, I thought I'd include some additional details on the assignment.

This survey was designed to examine a few different factors surrounding withdrawal.
I wanted to look at how perceptions of withdrawal and severity varied by age, gender, substance, and demographic.

Some factors I am looking to collect data on include physical vs. emotional symptoms, sources of support, methods of recovery, and misconceptions related to withdrawal.
 
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Withdrawal from benzodiazepines is awful. They call klonazepam "pins" for a reason. When in full withdrawal it feels like hundreds of pins stuck in your face. Your eyes hurt, restless, no sleep, i had to go to the VA ER in 2010 while in withdrawal because I was dangerously close to putting a bullet in my head. Spent 7 days in psych ward detoxing in agony. Once you break through though, after about 10-14 days, it starts to get better. Hope this helps.
 
Done. Some of the substances in the options didn't make much sense: cannabis, "hallucinogens*". Cannabis, OK, somebody may find it difficult to stop using weed and experience some withdrawal symptoms, but psychedelics? You'd have to be crazy to keep redosing psychedelics day after day, because tolerance to them builds up incredibly quickly. I've also never heard or read about "withdrawal from psychedelics".

I understand that this survey is mostly aimed at illegal recreational drugs, but I think including other drugs that may be hard to come off would be a good idea. Antidepressants (e.g SSRI/SNRIs) for example. Antipsychotics (paliperidone etc). Nicotine?

*the widespread term "hallucinogen" is a misnomer that usually refers to psychedelics (and maybe to dissociatives), few of which actually produce real hallucinations. DMT and friends may be the exception, but generally they just produce visual and/or auditorial distortions and interesting patterns. Real hallucinogens come from the anticholinergic class of compounds, like atropine and scopolamine (found in Datura plants) - however the trip those substances produce is much more intense than those of classical serotonergic psychedelics a la LSD, and they are actually dangerous to take, which makes them unpopular (but fun for the risk-takers!).

Just another friendly critique about the classification of substances: make it more organized. The list presented in this survey could have worked in the 80s, but nowadays we have research chemicals and stuff of all kinds. For example, instead of having "heroin" and "prescription opioids", condense it into just "opioids", and then a follow-up question elaborating on what kind of opioid we're talking about. For example, I take OTC codeine, which doesn't fit either category. Somebody taking RC fentanyl wouldn't fit either category either. Research cannabinoids definitely reserve a mention as well, since all the horror stories of Spice and K2 and whatever.

Otherwise interesting survey, hopefully some useful information has been provided.
 
belligerent drunk said:
Done. Some of the substances in the options didn't make much sense: cannabis, "hallucinogens*". Cannabis, OK, somebody may find it difficult to stop using weed and experience some withdrawal symptoms, but psychedelics? You'd have to be crazy to keep redosing psychedelics day after day, because tolerance to them builds up incredibly quickly. I've also never heard or read about "withdrawal from psychedelics".

I understand that this survey is mostly aimed at illegal recreational drugs, but I think including other drugs that may be hard to come off would be a good idea. Antidepressants (e.g SSRI/SNRIs) for example. Antipsychotics (paliperidone etc). Nicotine?

*the widespread term "hallucinogen" is a misnomer that usually refers to psychedelics (and maybe to dissociatives), few of which actually produce real hallucinations. DMT and friends may be the exception, but generally they just produce visual and/or auditorial distortions and interesting patterns. Real hallucinogens come from the anticholinergic class of compounds, like atropine and scopolamine (found in Datura plants) - however the trip those substances produce is much more intense than those of classical serotonergic psychedelics a la LSD, and they are actually dangerous to take, which makes them unpopular (but fun for the risk-takers!).

Just another friendly critique about the classification of substances: make it more organized. The list presented in this survey could have worked in the 80s, but nowadays we have research chemicals and stuff of all kinds. For example, instead of having "heroin" and "prescription opioids", condense it into just "opioids", and then a follow-up question elaborating on what kind of opioid we're talking about. For example, I take OTC codeine, which doesn't fit either category. Somebody taking RC fentanyl wouldn't fit either category either. Research cannabinoids definitely reserve a mention as well, since all the horror stories of Spice and K2 and whatever.

Otherwise interesting survey, hopefully some useful information has been provided.
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Couldn't agree more. I've smoked weed for years on end then quit cold turkey due to a job opportunity and had no physical discomfort whatsoever. Minor moodiness that stopped within a few days. As for psychedelics? No such thing as withdrawal. If you're dosing 500 micrograms a day of LSD for a year after a month it would hardly affect you. You have to continually take more to get desired affect. Stop cold turkey after that and the only withdrawal I could imagine is reality becoming more real. Knowledge, understanding of the human experience. Take that much LSD and you have all the answers...;-)
 
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