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Opioids Efficiency of "cold turkey"

rules

rules

Bluelighter
Joined
May 4, 2012
Messages
503
Location
New Jersey
Just out of curiosity, how many of you have quit doing an opiate or an opioid cold turkey, gotten through withdrawals, and NEVER relapsed? hehe..this should be interesting.
 
I could have done it cold turkey if I knew back then to move out of town, change my number and ask for support. The times I tried to do cold turkey I was living right next to my dealer, hanging out with the same people and I didn't tell anyone who didn't already know (ie: drug friends) that I was quitting so that didn't work too well.

Most people I know who tried cold turkey don't realize that you have to do more than just stop taking drugs to really stay clean. If people knew that, maybe it would work.
 
no one quits cold turkey. that's the point i'm trying to make. if this thread stayed on the main page for three weeks i bet it wouldn't have anyone who quit cold turkey successfully.
 
Effuzion said:
Most people I know who tried cold turkey don't realize that you have to do more than just stop taking drugs to really stay clean. If people knew that, maybe it would work.
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Ha! Except that is WAY WAY WAY easier said than done! And I don't believe that is true, people have to deal with the reasons they were using opiates in the first place. You yourself said you think you would have been able to do it IF you had gotten support and made some major changes in your life. Please don't oversimplify things :-)


Personally I have never known anyone who was able to quit cold turkey without relapsing soon after. I'm sure it can be done if the person is truly and completely ready and extremely motivated, but that doesn't mean that most people can do it.
 
I know someone who went cold turkey off methadone after years of opiate addiction. She didn't sleep for months but stuck it out; she said she was crazy for about a year. That was over five years ago and she hasn't used since. I think they're rare, but they do exist and are unlikely to be reading posts on bluelight.
 
NeighborhoodThreat said:
Not me. I've gone through cycles of opiate addiction over the past five or six years.
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mr.scagnattie said:
:\ ........
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Effuzion said:
I could have done it cold turkey if I knew back then to move out of town, change my number and ask for support. The times I tried to do cold turkey I was living right next to my dealer, hanging out with the same people and I didn't tell anyone who didn't already know (ie: drug friends) that I was quitting so that didn't work too well.

Most people I know who tried cold turkey don't realize that you have to do more than just stop taking drugs to really stay clean. If people knew that, maybe it would work.
Click to expand...

rules said:
no one quits cold turkey. that's the point i'm trying to make. if this thread stayed on the main page for three weeks i bet it wouldn't have anyone who quit cold turkey successfully.
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mr. mudd said:
I know someone who went cold turkey off methadone after years of opiate addiction. She didn't sleep for months but stuck it out; she said she was crazy for about a year. That was over five years ago and she hasn't used since. I think they're rare, but they do exist and are unlikely to be reading posts on bluelight.
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YES! I love this thread. Good way to prove a point.

It IS possible. But VERY difficult and requires almost always complete seperation from your enviorment like detox or even moving.
 
My point is that the question can't really have an answer other than "no". 95% of people are gonna relapse until they're in a casket no matter how many times they try and quit. The 5% of people who are motivated enough to make it almost always ask for help (which usually means rehab, which is required by law to medically detox you) instead of go through the trial and error of seeing what works and what doesn't work.
 
Effuzion said:
My point is that the question can't really have an answer other than "no". 95% of people are gonna relapse until they're in a casket no matter how many times they try and quit. The 5% of people who are motivated enough to make it almost always ask for help (which usually means rehab, which is required by law to medically detox you) instead of go through the trial and error of seeing what works and what doesn't work.
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wait, what? the question CAN have an answer other than no. all that would be required is someone who quit cold turkey forever. it's not like it's a myth...right? right.
 
Sadly I don't know many people that have kicked opiates for good, but the only people that I know that have, have done it cold turkey. Stopping cold turkey has resulted in a lot more clean time than I have gotten by tapering.

rules said:
Just out of curiosity, how many of you have quit doing an opiate or an opioid cold turkey, gotten through withdrawals, and NEVER relapsed? hehe..this should be interesting.
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And how many people have quit by tapering and never relapsed? :\
 
mr. mudd said:
I know someone who went cold turkey off methadone after years of opiate addiction. She didn't sleep for months but stuck it out; she said she was crazy for about a year. That was over five years ago and she hasn't used since. I think they're rare, but they do exist and are unlikely to be reading posts on bluelight.
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How much methadone was she on? And did she taper it down first or just go from taking 100mg/day to 0mg/day? Plus I thought we were talking about quitting heroin or one's other opiate of choice/addiction, which is not really the same as quitting methadone maintenance after years (which she presumably went on to quit heroin?).

I am in the process of stopping methadone myself right now, I have tapered down from 100mg/day to 8mg/day and I feel fucking miserable all the time, but I never had any addictive behaviours surrounding methadone, it is just a physical dependence to me and completely different from using heroin. I am just weaning myself off of it because I would probably have died if I stopped from 100mg cold turkey and I am trying to make the withdrawal symptoms just bearable (although sometimes calling it bearable is a stretch, lol).

I think being on methadone for a long time without using heroin enables one to work on the reasons one was using heroin in the first place, get some stability in one's life and get a period of time clean from dope behind you. Plus if you're on the right dose it doesn't make you high at all so you have to get using to feeling normal and using healthier coping mechanisms.

However I would never want anyone to think methadone is at all easy to get off of, the withdrawal is WAY WAY worse than heroin and lasts forever, so I wouldn't recommend methadone to anyone unless they absolutely can't quit heroin any other way and are truly ready to quit and have fully researched methadone and understand what they're getting into.
 
Swimmingdancer said:
Plus I thought we were talking about quitting heroin or one's other opiate of choice/addiction, which is not really the same as quitting methadone maintenance after years
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yeah, i wasn't really including methadone or bupe...those were created to be used, then tapered, then stopped.
 
Tommyboy said:
And how many people have quit by tapering and never relapsed? :\
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Tapering heroin? No one I know. It's very hard to taper, it's so easy to think "I'll just do one more bigger hit to get high one last time" and then go right back to your regular use. (*EDIT: Although I do know of some people who live in countries that offer heroin maintenance through their doctor who were able to quit by eventually tapering off heroin, along with counselling, life changes, support, etc. But I don't know of anyone who was able to do a self-taper where prescription heroin is not available).

But tapering methadone or buprenorphine? I do know several people who were able to do it. They were all on it for a long time and made other changes in their lives.
 
rules said:
tapering what? the drug of choice? or bupe? if you mean bupe, then i know at least ten...
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I mean switching from their DOC to suboxone or methadone, and then slowly getting off the subs or methadone.

Come back in a few years and let us know if they are still clean. I know plenty of people that quit for several years, but one way or another they ended up relapsing.

Related reading
 
Tommyboy said:
I mean switching from their DOC to suboxone or methadone, and then slowly getting off the subs or methadone.

Come back in a few years and let us know if they are still clean. I know plenty of people that quit for several years, but one way or another they ended up relapsing.

Related reading
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if you're clean for a year and then relapse...i just don't understand that. it makes no sense to me, personally. how can someone successfully fight psychological dependance for a year and then fall? makes absolutely nooo sense to me. i relapsed 2 days after all withdrawal symptoms were gone after quitting cold turkey. why? because psychological addiction is a bitch. but how can you fight it off for a year and then possibly rationalize relapsing? makes no sense to me. sorry.
 
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