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Increased pain sensitivity after maintenance

ellua

Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 21, 2006
Messages
1,192
Looking for any experience with pain after years of chronic use or maintenance, once there has been some time clean. I have always expected that my pain tolerance will be much lower, and I know that thought alone is enough to make it true, so I will work on positive thinking... I am 3 years off of subutex after 7 solid years on. Facing a couple root canals and labor in the next few months.

Has your perception of pain changed? How do you handle it?
 
Sorry, ellua...I wasn't on maintenance long enough to have any insight on your question (only about 1 year). But maybe you could clarify: with your upcoming procedures/events, are planning to forgo pain medication?
 
Well it isn't exclusive to maintenence I suppose, anyone who has used opiates long term really. I plan to take any meds available to me, I still see my sub doc regularly for other reasons and he will def keep me in check. But my anxiety over the perception of pain being forever altered by my past use led me to wonder what people's experience has been. Maybe I'm over thinking it. Quite likely.
 
I found that my pain was greatly increased after I got off of methadone the first time. I had severe back pain, where I am missing half a disc. I got hip pain and sciatic nerve pain so bad I couldn't walk and had to be helped make it to a subway counter once and then I developed plantar fasciitis soon after. This was all in my first 6-9mths of sobriety and I literally thought my body was going to be fucked forever.. as the pain was so bad from the plantar fasciitis that I wasn't comfortable doing anything but laying around after work... Then as quickly as the firestorm of pain came it then left.

I also must add that I was very sedentary before this and that my using pattern would have greatly exacerbated my bodies breakdown because at the end of my using I would run out of methadone 2 weeks early out of every month and would be withdrawing so would not really be eating or sleeping for those 2 weeks. This pattern went on for years so you could see why my body was so trashed the first time I got clean from methadone.
 
Studies have shown that long term opiate use decreases natural tolerance for pain.
 
Yeah, I can imagine! It took me a full 12 months off of sub before any trace of the 'yucks' were gone, and I know 'done is even harder. Our bodies cry out so hard for so long in protest of our abstinence, even with tapers and comfort meds.

I've had 2 babies on sub and am actually excited to experience things without the fog this time. The freaking tooth I'd just have pulled if it wasn't in the front.

I suppose it's only natural that increased sensitivity is yet another payment we have to make to the piper, like property taxes when the mortgage is paid off. Fuck you, piper!!
 
I have notice that after making it through methadone withdrawal and whatnot, I have a great tolerance for certain types of pain (such as body aches and various stress related discomfort). Other kinds of pain, particularly very sharp electric sensations of pain (such as with teeth) I seem to be a bit less tolerant of.

I might be be an outlier, but it seems like over all I am better able to manage pain. That might have less to do with opioids though, and more to do with my mindful awareness practices/meditation really getting solid over the last few years. That has definitely been helpful when working with pain, both prior to stopping opioids, while tapering and kicking and post cessation. Sometimes I feel like a walking advertisement for mindfulness based practices... 8) :)
 
That's encouraging to hear, TD. I will definitely focus on more positive thinking reinforcement and mindfulness practices each day. It seems to fall away when I don't have a "big" goal to work for but that shouldn't be how it is. I used to mark a tiny plus sign on my wrist daily to remind me to keep my thoughts positive and in the light. Whatever works right?
 
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