Greetings - seeking feedback re: opiate taper

[uncle_jocko]

Hello my friends - I'm a new member here, but an old-timer as far as my relationship with opiates is concerned. I'll get straight to it: I battled with addiction ten years ago, went to rehab, did the 12 Step dance for 8 years, and had a relapse about six months ago. The good news - it didn't get THAT bad - I stuck to taking Percocet (as opposed to Oxycontin) ... and I've weaned down to 25mg a day. I'm a college professor, and quite simply, and can't do another rehab. I have a full load of seminars this year, etc. My plan is to taper about 5mgs every two weeks; therefore, next week I'll go to 20mg a day. Any feedback out there? I'm teaching in front of many students a day, I have a positive reputation at my college; and yet, I'm told by many of my old 12-Step friends that there's NO WAY a slow taper can work. I guess I'm wondering what other people have done to slowly taper successfully? I need to keep up the energy, need to be "present and positive" for lectures, and I can't afford to go through big withdrawals at this point in my career. Any feedback would be helpful - and thanks in advance.

 

[Mafioso]

A taper can work, but it's still going to be difficult and you might still get dope sick. The difficult part comes to regulating your own dose and sticking to the taper even as you start to go into withdrawal. I personally don't know anyone who has been able to stick to their taper schedule 100% and usually it takes way longer than expected. I'm sure you understand that struggle quite well by now. If controlling dosage was that simple people probably wouldn't get addicted to begin with.

Personally I would suggest taking a few weeks off and white knuckle your way through it. The withdrawals are more intense but you can get it over with much quicker. I know you have a lot of responsibility, but the added stress is going to make a lot of the symptoms worse. Dealing with opioid withdrawal alone can be a full task. Things like "keeping up the energy" and being "present and positive" seems contradictive to opioid withdrawal. Some of the withdrawal symptoms will make those goals nearly impossible... you might be able to be physically present and perform your duties but I don't really see a way to prevent it from affecting your performance.

I wouldn't suggest putting off getting clean, but if you're not successful this time around because of work maybe you'll have more success during the summer.

 

[user name1]

hi uncle_jocko and welcome!

my advice to you is not ideal and any 12 stepper will advice against.
subutex\suboxone treatment. you will have energy and probably could function a lot better than tapering or CT.

worked wonders for me but with a catch - when i was stabilized on bup i found that it's addictive but my life became manageable,
a lot less chaotic and didn't have to worry about the next fix all the time.
IMO NA is, to put it mildly, a cult and outdated. it lacks flexibility and was quite harmful in my experience.

hope i didn't offend, just offering my 2 cents.
best of luck,
jona