How Long Until I Enjoy Things Before Opiate/Drug Use?

[kanyeknievel]

Hi, I know this is a stupid question.. but I just want reassurance from people that have been through it.

Everytime I have been off of opiates, the main drug I have used, I always am in a -meh- mood. Sometimes better , sometimes worse.. but nothing is really as fun, enjoyable, or happy feeling as they should be.. I know I have done damage that my brain and body need to repair, but how long... I am afraid to ask this but, you DO feel back to normal after a while right?

It's just like.. things are just alright, somethings are more fun than others.. but things I want to enjoy and do, I don't feel that way right now.

To give you an idea of what my drug abuse has been like to help answer the question:

I started smoking weed at 17 and smoked everyday all day for 2-3 years. I then got arrested and stopped and I had depersonalization from smoking too much after not smoking. So I then was clean from EVERYTHING for 8 months. Then I smoked occasionally.. not really sometimes . I then started to use percocets, vicodin, oxycontin. Then I started to use Heroin and sometimes cocaine. But heroin was my on and off again thing. I did it on and off for a year.. binging then stopping for a few weeks then doing it again. After that I got onto suboxone and was on that for a year.. then used Kratom to get off of that and I'm still taking Kratom currently.

So I am 21 now, almost 22. So the past year I have used a FEW times but nothing really, but my last time using was this past month.. taking fentanyl patches and wearing/chewing them . I did cocaine a few times the past year, pills once or twice, heroin was almost a year ago. I drink alcohol with friends and don't get drunk unless i am with friends and out, I drink a beer or so if I am home sometimes.


So with all of that.. how long and will i feel like I did before drugs? Enjoy things naturally and how I should.. I know a lot of people feel the same and others have been through this. So I wanted to ask. Thank you !

P.S - I am very very serious this time to no go back to opiates and get clean and not do drugs again. (except maybe smoke a LITTLE randomly and drink alcohol). The past 5 days I have been clean and the first day sucked.. terribly, then the next days I didn't feel so good but force myself to do things, go places, and work out a bit throughout the day. I am trying to be as positive and optimistic about things as I can, but it is just tough at the moment

EDIT: I forgot about Ecstasy. I did ecstasy every week about, sometimes more than once a week during a few month period of time.. but I haven't touched ecstasy or MDMA in... 3-4 years?

 

[neversickanymore]

Hey kany.. It will take a little bit for you to feel like you did before drugs.. but the first step to that is getting of the drugs. daily twenty four seven use of opiates, including suboxone and kratom commonly produce some apathy or the inability to feel much. You will need to get off the kratom and give yourself the time to heal. During this time you will likely experience PAWS but there are many things you can do to lessen the symptoms and speed your recovery. It can take from a few weeks to two years for you to feel completelly normal again. IMO two years is a really long estimation and I wouldn't worry that it will be that long. I used allot harder and for allot longer than you have and It didn't even take me a year. But I also promoted my recovery really hard.

Why We Don’t Get Better Immediately: Post-acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS)

Post Acute Withdrawal (PAW) Excerpted From “Staying Sober” By: Terence T. Gorski

Post-acute-withdrawal syndrome Wiki

Hey I thought the grey matter of ADD could chew on this....

EXERCISE AND MOOD


I hope some of this helps.. and nice work in your recovery so far

 

[kanyeknievel]

Hey kany.. It will take a little bit for you to feel like you did before drugs.. but the first step to that is getting of the drugs. daily twenty four seven use of opiates, including suboxone and kratom commonly produce some apathy or the inability to feel much. You will need to get off the kratom and give yourself the time to heal. During this time you will likely experience PAWS but there are many things you can do to lessen the symptoms and speed your recovery. It can take from a few weeks to two years for you to feel completelly normal again. IMO two years is a really long estimation and I wouldn't worry that it will be that long. I used allot harder and for allot longer than you have and It didn't even take me a year. But I also promoted my recovery really hard.

Why We Don’t Get Better Immediately: Post-acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS)

Post Acute Withdrawal (PAW) Excerpted From “Staying Sober” By: Terence T. Gorski

Post-acute-withdrawal syndrome Wiki

Hey I thought the grey matter of ADD could chew on this....

EXERCISE AND MOOD


I hope some of this helps.. and nice work in your recovery so far

Thank you so much for the reply, I just wanted to hear people say that they have done as much as I have, as long as I have and they felt back to they did without drugs. Enjoying things as much as before.

I just wanted the reassurance is all. It is hard to always be optimistic and positive, every day all day. I try my best but it is hard ya know?

Thank you again for the reply, I';; check the links out in a little!

Also, after you stopped.. did you drink alcohol AT ALL? What about Cannabis? If not, why not either of those? I am fairly sure I am going to go an out-patient rehab type place.. I am hoping to get from that all the skills I lost or lack, coping and making the best of life without drugs.

I use Kratom because I don't want to withdrawal.. and I know after taking suboxone for a year and then kratom for a year after suboxone.. It will be really hard, and I want to try to taper down off of it and not get off it at once. I have read it can be pretty bad.

 

[VerbalTruist]

It took me two months to feel "normal". For what it's worth, it does get better.

 

[itsALLfake]

It's all relative to your perception. I had a great time in rehab and transitional living, coming cold turkey from 5years of Buprenorphine with insane levels of it and Alprazolam in the last year. My 5th-7th month was a bit rough, but I had a pregnant girlfriend to deal with, and I'm living with my parents. Regardless that those months were rough, I still enjoyed my life, and it gave me a lot of things to look at that I needed to address in fixing..

 

[neversickanymore]

As far as use after recovery I would not use anything until you are able to recover fully from the PAWS. I think a year or real clean sobriety is a good thing to shoot for. I think the use of anything can hold us in PAWS, as we need that neural system to level the hell back out and allow us to feel better. After that year is over then you can revisit this question and determine what is anything will likely have a positive impact on your life and will not put you in danger of relapsing on a drug that will ruin your life again. Often times when we think of not using for ever it makes us outright freak out so the old "one day at a time" thing works for allot of people. So I would just encourage sobriety for at least a year and then you can evaluate this.

 

[Feelin-u4ia]

Honestly I hear u op, I'm in like day 5 and I muscle on thru it just sucks tho, life just seems so much better in opiates but truth is we are much better of without them, what I do is, as stupid as it sounds but when I start feelin odd I just talk to my self and remind my self how good life is how lucky I man to be alive and healthy and on this world and not in jail or on a death bed, and that usally helps me get a little more positive about everything. I just want to keep telling it self positive thoughts, literarly bombard your own brain with positive thoughts. Best of lic to you op, message me if u want a lot more ways of how I deal with it