It would be good if you could tell us the daily average amount (in mg) of percocet you've been taking. You keep giving us very unspecific numbers, such as 51/61 "in a short time" which tell us really nothing.
Figure out how many pills you take a day on average, multiply that by the MG per pill, and then tell us that number. We will be able to give you a more accurate idea of what is in store, relative to our own experiences.
From what I am understanding, you are NOT taking an "high" amount; I mean to say that you were not taking several hundreds of milligrams of oxycodone per day, which is what many of us have gone through (for extended periods of time) and withdrawn from. Having said that however, it is sort of relative. What that means is that the withdrawal for you will feel so bad because it is the ONLY withdrawal you've gone through: you will have no frame of reference to compare it to, so your brain might think it is worse than it truly is.
What I believe you are in store for, if I am guessing the right average daily dose for you, are some fairly mild withdrawals. It will effectively feel like you have the regular old flu. Opiate withdrawals are routinely compared to the flu, and severe ones are effectively the worst flu possible times about 1000 with a whole slew of other additional effects that the flu does not present (psychological, such as mood swings and emotional sensitivity, the desire to do more, etc).
At the amount youre taking, expect the psychological aspect of CRAVINGS, along with the flu. If my assumptions are correct, for you it will feel like the flu with a strong desire to take more, nothing more. It will NOT be fun, thats for sure, but it will not be as horrible as doing a bundle of heroin a day, or 200mg/oxyMORPHONE daily. You will "be sick with the flu": that is what you should tell people, as for you the effects will be virtually identical save the fact that you can end being sick by taking more pills.
That is going to be the hardest part: knowledge that you can end your suffering. Imagine if, when sick with the flu, there was a pill you could take to instantly make the suffering end. That is the scenario that will be presented: you will be feeling a bit under the weather; nose will be running; your back will ache a bit; etc. Once again I will stress it will not be unduly bad for you: if you've ever had the flu before, thats basically how you will feel. But the knowledge that you can END your feeling bad by simply taking a pill makes it inherently worse. There is a very easy, simple, solution to end your pain, and effort is needed that you do NOT take these pills; you in essence have to CHOOSE being sick because in the long term it will be better. Something insanely difficult when you feel that way, as we humans enjoy immediate gratification.
As the above poster said, taking some to rid yourself of withdrawal, unless done via a well thought out, well executed taper (good luck doing that....), will only prolong the inevitable. It will make you "not sick" for a little while, and then? Then you are back to square one.
As tempting as it will be to rid yourself of the sick feelings, it will in fact only make you sick for a LONGER PERIOD OF TIME, as your body will have to "start over" both by ridding itself of the opiates, and start endorphin production over back at 0. There is a complex explanation involved, but in laymans terms: your body stops making endorphins ("happy chemical") while on opiates; you stop taking them, your body is not producing more, and it takes X amount of time to start up again. If you keep taking opiates, even in miniscule amounts, your body does not ramp up production of natural endorphins
to the same extent, and it will just keep pushing that day back further and further and further.
If you have no intentions of getting off the opiates, then this advice is really irrelevant. This is only relavent if you seek to lower your tolerance and/or get off the opiate train completely. If this is your desire, make it easy on yourself by making it harder on yourself. What this means is: do not take opiates just to rid yourself of the pain.
If you seek only to get by till your script gets refilled, by all means, take whatever to make the pain stop. If that is the scenario you are in, then you are only trying to "get by" until then, nothing more. In this scenario tolerance is irrelevant, it does not matter whether or not you do so because you will get more again. BUT once again, if you DO seek to lower your tolerance, and lower the amount of drugs you take daily, then you gotta push through those few days.
Now, as for what you can do to ameliorate the withdrawals, there exist a SLEW of threads on making them more bareable. I have in fact written quite extensively on the topic myself in a few threads, and I will post a link to one as well as a quick bit of my own personal input here:
-advil. Specifically a med containing
ibuprofen
-Cold medicine that contains DXM
-eating whatever you can. Some people will say to ONLY eat healthy, ONLY eat this and that, I say bollocks: eating is hard enough in withdrawals, don't make it harder by limiting what you can eat. eat anything you can keep down: candy, ice cream, apples, vegetables, bread. Whatever you can keep down, get it down. You need the energy regardless of the food source
-stretching
-hot showers
-EXERCISE!!!! I know its hard to exercise when you feel horrible, but even if you can get up and walk for 10 freakin minutes, do it. It is so vital that honestly its almost a requirement to kicking opiates. Generally speaking, people who fail to start exercising as they take less and less opiates simply end up taking more again. Exercise ramps up those "happy chemicals" that I previously talked about, and will get you feeling better MUCH more rapidly. Plus, the exercise
tires you out so that you may...
-sleep. Depending on the severity of withdrawals sleep can either be impossible, or merely difficult. Sleep as much as you can because a) while youre sleeping you're skipping that much time of withdrawals and b) because its so hard to come by, your body NEEDS it in order to get healthy faster
I know its counter intuitive to suggest exercise and sleep. But the exercise
makes the sleep possible if its out of your grasp.
Hope I've been of some assistance. Good luck, stay strong, and remember: redosing puts you back at square 1. If you are not seeking to get to square 10 then it really doesn't matter, redose at will. But,
if you seek to loosen the chains the opiate demon has around you, then fight that urge.
Opiate withdrawal thread. Click here.
