Opioids Will re-dosing comprimize quitting?

[Altered Perception]

This is a tricky question to explain but I hope someone out there will be able to follow my train of thought...

I am quitting a 100mg oxycodone habit after 5 years of daily use for chronic pain. I used to take 1 single dose of 100mg instant release oxycodone once per day.

I halved my dose to 50mg but but on day five I was unable to maintain that lower dose due to severe withdrawals. A few people here advised me to keep a steady blood level of opiods in my system and because Oxycodone is short acting I then began to multi-dose by taking 50 mg oxycodone during the day and then 50m during the night, but then it occurred to me that by doing so I ended up taking the exact same total dose of 50+50= 100mg throughout the 24 hr period. So technically ive made no progress as I've still ended up taking the very 100mg i was trying to cut back on.

Now this is where my question begins... A person who is quiting will relapse if they binge , now whenever i have successfully reduced my dose down to 50mg but then slipped up just once by taking 100mg again, i find that it compromises my quitting by throwing me back into withdrawals, so my main question is will taking 50mg in the morning and 50mg at night be just as bad as taking 100mg in one go?

I am not looking for tapering advice , i just need to know whether every time i take a secondary dose if i am ruining my hard work? The secondary dose is not very high, only 50mg but what worries me that in total it still adds up to 100mg throughout the coarse of the day. So i guess what i need to know is : is taking multiple mini-doses as bad as taking 1 single massive dose during your quitting phase?

God that was hard to explain, i hope u guys understood what im trying to ask here, hopefully someone can re-articulate my question more clearly.

 

[DrugOmen]

I think it is the same man. The only difference is every morning when you wake up the withdrawals wont be as intense but essentially will get to the same intensity when the night hits. You should try taking 100 mg one day then 50 mg every other day and gradually lower it and that should help you. Taking another 50 mg the day after you only take 50 mg wont send you back to square one, it all has to do with your blood levels.

 

[Altered Perception]

Thanks for your reply. Actually I am finding that everytime I take 100mg it gets harder to quit and the withdrawals get worse so thats not something I want to do.

I am glad you understood my question but i just wanted to calrify i am not just taking 50mg one day and 50m the next, I am taking 50mg in the afternoon at 12pm and then redosing 8 hours later with 50mg again so thats why im worried. Theres an 8 hours difference but is that just as bad on making me relapse? thats what i wanted to know?

 

[DrugOmen]

Ya i got that but what i was trying to say is it would be a good idea to dose like that as far as quitting. And yeah i think it would have the same relapse potential because you are still doing the 100 mg and when night time hits and you want to sleep it will be very hard.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

The point of taking 50mg 2x a day instead of 100mg 1x a day is that it should be easier to taper. If tapering is your plan, it should be easier to go from 50mg 2x a day to 40mg 2x a day than 100mg 1x a day to 80mg 1x a day and so on. If you went from taking 50mg 1x a day to taking 50mg 2x a day yes that will set you back a bit, but it isn't as bad as taking 100mg 1x a day. Try to lower it down to 40mg 2x a day for starters, or lower if you can handle it.

 

[Altered Perception]

i think it would have the same relapse potential

That's exactly the word I was looking for..'relapse potential' so essentially that was the question, whether taking 50mg twice a day cause the same "relapse potential" as taking 100mg once a day. And thank you for your answer.

 

[Altered Perception]

If you went from taking 50mg 1x a day to taking 50mg 2x a day yes that will set you back a bit, but it isn't as bad as taking 100mg 1x a day.

That is exactly what I was asking. thanks so much for clearing that up for me.

You also managed to help me devise a formula to tapering down. I was actually planning on tapering from "50mg 2x a day" to "50mg 1x a day" but you made me realize i can infact start cutting down simultaneously from both the night and day dose so that i end up taking " 40mg 2x a day". This is great advice.

The reason i made this post is because I have been trying to quit for a year aand failed due to relapses after binging, so i have to eliminate the 'binge' factor to succeed and i really needed to know if my current multi dose of "x 2 a day' is having the same devastating effect or "relapse potential" as my previous episodes of binging with a large "X 1 day dose"

There I finally managed to explain it properly 8(

 

[Second Skin]

When are the withdrawals worst for you? When you wake up the next morning after taking 100mg 24 hours ago? Or right before you would take your second 50mg dose after taking your first dose 12 hours before? Which ever is easier on you is the best way to go. The less you feel bad, hopefully the less you'll think about taking more meds. You might need to just do some experimenting, but you probably already have enough experience to know.

 

[Altered Perception]

When are the withdrawals worst for you? When you wake up the next morning after taking 100mg 24 hours ago? Or right before you would take your second 50mg dose after taking your first dose 12 hours before?

Good question. I find that after a day of binging with 100mg it actually fills up my tank to full so it keeps me going without needing to refuel for 24 hrs. Binging total increases my opiate blood level to its most satisfying level but then i pay for it later as i start to decrease my dose.

So to answer your question its the days that follow 100mg as my tank starts to run lower and lower the withdrawal get worse and I find that one 50mg just doesn't seem to cut anymore, and right at that point I introduce a secondary additional 50mg, but then i end up with the dilemma i face now.

 

[shreddedlettuce]

I am not looking for tapering advice , i just need to know whether every time i take a secondary dose if i am ruining my hard work?

It's not a tricky question, but the answer sucks.

And the answer is yes, yes and yes.

You're almost rewarding yourself for cutting down on the dose by taking more, cause you deserve it, for lowering your doses so well.

It's that simple, it will become a "withdrawal cycle" 24/7, and that is no way to live.

I'm sure some people who suffer from chronic pain will give you, or already have given you, advice, but what I have said above is very real, try looking at it from a different point of view.

Good luck.

Edit: Sorry man, I read your opening post and started replying immediately without looking at the other responses.

 

[Altered Perception]

You're almost rewarding yourself for cutting down on the dose by taking more, cause you deserve it, for lowering your doses so well.

Thanks for your response. I should clarify though, the secondary dose of 50mg does nothing in terms of giving me a buzz or getting me high because my tolerance is tuned to 100mg so taking half the dose has no noticeable buzz effect other than to minimize the withdrawals. The 50mg doesn't even offer me pain relief, the only reason I take the additional 50mg is so i can get through the day easier without feeling too incapacitated by the withdrawals.

 

[RedRum OG]

Opiates can vary greatly person to person in terms of dose/time variants. For myself if I take the same dose all at once, it's more physically addicting than if I took smaller doses spread out. Say I did 100mg oxy a day too, if I did three doses of 34mg spread out instead, I would feel sick all day


However if your body is used to one 100mg a day dose covering your whole day, stick with that and slowly lower the dose. IMHO cutting it in half and such will just complicate things. Schedule very slow e.g. Lower 5mg every other day. So day 2 down to 90, day 4 85, day 6 80.... And so on. I would strongly recommend keeping the one dose a day thing going, unless you know for a fact that taking 50mg every half day keeps you just as well.

 

[thelastclubkid]

i think the resounding theme that anyone attemtping to quit/taper should understand is that there is *no* way to avoid paying the piper... e.g. detoxing is going to be a miserable experience no matter what *but* you can decide how much pain and over how long... so if you taper effectively you are actually experiencing a small amount of WD's as you body adjusts downward but over a long period of time... the advantage is that you can be functional the whole time of the taper... or you can just quit CT and get all the WD's at once for 4-7 days.. or do a faster taper and have the symptoms be somewhere in the middle..

 

[stivsmegg]

by taking another 50 in the 24hr period instead of 100 at once it will actually prolong the w/d's. its really that simple....at least for my body(and most people i know). hope that helps at all.

 

[DooMMooD]

Yes it's just as bad IMHO. If you do something similar to what SwimmingDancer said, it might be a bit better.

Sorry to say it, but you're going to be uncomfortable, at minimum. If you're not? You're doing it wrong.

i think the resounding theme that anyone attemtping to quit/taper should understand is that there is *no* way to avoid paying the piper...

by taking another 50 in the 24hr period instead of 100 at once it will actually prolong the w/d's. its really that simple....at least for my body(and most people i know). hope that helps at all.

Both of these guys are spot on.