Opioids Advice Needed: Tapering Off Of Oxycodone

[bluesteyes]

I am currently taking 65-70mg of Oxycodone for pain per day. Over the course of the next 3 weeks, I am hoping to taper down to 25mg per day. I don't have enough prescription to keep taking my tablets at the current rate, but I have more than enough (I hope) if I get the tapering process started this weekend. I have seventy 10mg tablets (700mg total). I swallow them.

I am going to be getting off it completely during the month of July. My doctor and I have agreed to start taking Lyrica and maybe another non-narcotic drug in order to squash my pain.

For those posters who have tapered off of Oxycodone before....do you have any advice on how to taper while minimizing withdrawal symptoms? Should I do something like cut 5mg per day? Or should I cut 5mg, wait a couple of days, and then cut some more? I am not sure if there are any general tapering guidelines.

I am going to try to dose 3x per day. Right now I am all over the place.

For some odd reason, I find Oxycodone to be stimulating. I don't get sedated on them at all. In fact, sometimes I have to take Benadryl after I have taken an Oxy (or with it) in order to calm down and relax. As you might imagine, the biggest dose that I take (20-35mg) is in the morning when I first get up. I have grown to rely on them as my morning "wake up" pill. I feel miserable before I take my morning tablets. It doesn't matter if I take my last dose an hour before bedtime (which should prevent withdrawals so long as I sleep no more than 8 hours). I still feel miserable. So my morning dose will still have to be the highest amount I take all day.

I expect to experience more pain and more cravings for the drug in the coming days. I just want to be able to continue to work and do normal activities while reducing my intake. The withdrawal symptoms that I just cannot stand is all the sweating, cramping, agitation and restlessness. I wish to minimize this. I have already tried to kick cold turkey, and I failed. However, the good thing about the cold turkey experience is that it might help me be disciplined during the tapering process. I know what it is like to not have ANY script left, and it ain't fun.

FYI - I am going to be getting sixty 1mg Lorazepam tablets on Sunday. Hopefully they'll assist in the process, although I have some tolerance built up. That being said, I haven't taken many Lorazepam pills the past 2 weeks.

 

[Znegative]

If you reduce your dose by 1/4 every three or four days it will probably be relatively painless. So if you're taking 20mg dosages 3x day (just trying to make the math simpler, I know you said you're taking 65-70mg/day, decrease it to 15mg 3x day, and then after adjusting to that dosages after a couple of days reduce it by a quarter again, and so on. You don't have to do it that fast, I would go with what feels comfortable. To do this you will need to get a pill cutter obviously. Also the lorazepam should help a lot, other good WD medications are clonodine and gabapentin, and clonodine will help with inter-dose withdrawal as well because you're going to find at lower dosages that the oxycodone will not hold you as long.

 

[Erikmen]

I think it's best to stop using at once and treat the withdrawal accordingly. Doing it everyday a little less can make you crave towards the end, when you start feeling more vulnerable. As Znegative mentioned lorazepam could help but other meds too. Oxy is short acting and a it makes you a bit euphoric making the tapering process counterproductive.
Good luck!

 

[bluesteyes]

Would it be best to take the Lorazepam with the Oxy, or maybe in between Oxy doses? I know taking benzos with opiates is a general no no, but I wouldn't take anything more than 1mg with the Oxy. I used to combine the 2 drugs regularly, but I had no issues because I never went past 1mg of the Lorazepam.

I cannot just quit cold turkey. I have to work and I have other responsibilities I cannot get out of.

Don't get me wrong....I don't expect this to be a cake walk. I expect a lot of "mind games," - I just want to minimize the physical symptoms of withdrawal. I only need to taper down to 25mg. At that point I will be getting a new script from doctor which will reflect where I am at. Maybe I get down to 20mg and cold turkey on out.

 

[Raysu]

For me when I have come off oxy I could drop pretty quick simply because wd tends to be progressive so the first ones were mild in comparison. I was on clonazepam at the time so the lorazepam will be helpful. I would dose in the mornings too primarily and feel up on it rather than nodding out and I'd only redose when/if needed throughout the day. I was up at doses much higher than you and my major drop was down to 5-10mg per dose. My energy was down but other symptoms were not bad. Wd today is not so kind to me. So I'd say if you can take advantage of a faster drop because this is your first one I would. If it doesn't work you can go up and find relief within an hour. If it does work you have more doses in case the symptoms pop up when you go CT and can start a gradual slow low taper then.

 

[Invisible Helper]

I'm in a similar situation I take .4-.5 IV blk tar daily with benzos (which I just quit benzos recently completely ) but the opiates are what I can't control at all ... I'm taking gabapentin 600-1200 mgs and it completely makes me feel better by 80% no exaggeration I'm not here to bullshit seriously if u can find gabapentin or maybe if you never abused benzos take any benzo it'll help similarly and smoke weed when you're kicking late night alone watching a movie it'll help I'm in the same boat I just cut my dose in half immediately down to .2 today and took 1200 mgs ganapentin good luck to both of us

 

[mazda01]

your taper plan sounds reasonable but i wouldn't suggest using the ativan at the same time as your oxy. only use the ativan at night when you have trouble sleeping. and try not to dose every night as it's very easy to become physically dependent on benzo's.

good luck

 

[ShroomySatori]

Hi there, good luck, I hope you make it through! So first off you need to get on a regular pill taking schedule if you are all over the place with that. What I did, was take one 5mg percocet every 4 hours, and that got me down to 30mg from 60mg. It was torture for me and after 10 days I was still fucked psychologically but it's different for everyone, I've been in pain management for years and I'm mentally ill which makes it harder. It depends how long you have been on the meds too for sure. You will recover quicker if it hasn't been like years of daily use.

For me personally, this was too steep a drop. It was enough to keep me out of the most severe wd, but I was still bedridden for 10 days before I decided to head in the other direction and start using more pills. My tolerance went up 4 times as fast as it went down if it even budged. I couldn't take care of myself whatsoever during this time period, I stopped exercising and eating healthy. For now, I'm sticking with my higher dose because I simply can't function without it, but I would definitely drop 5mg per week personally, or maybe even 2.5 mg per week - but that's what I would do, you have to weigh how long it will take versus how much you want to torment yourself.

I was low on pills which I guess was the problem, I didn't actually want to stop.

The worst part for me is right after the physical symptoms are basically gone, at like day 10 or so. That is when my back pain flares up really bad because I haven't been taking care of myself in withdrawal (I am too weak to brew a cup of tea let alone get out on my bicycle). But the withdrawal is so bad now I normally can't feel my back pain. It really does get worse every time... the aching muscles an bones, restlessness, skin crawling, insomnia, nausea, panic and depression kicking my damned feet (my gf calls me 'thumper' and it upsets me because she doesn't understand I can't control it) it's just all too much for me. When she calls me that I will immediately relapse because I am under so much stress to begin with, so try and avoid conflict. During the second week is when I get cravings and cave.

I actually tried to do pretty much exactly the same thing. I'm still not giving up, but I'm gonna keep stable on 60mg for a while before I start a second, much much slower taper. My body got shocked by the first one so I need a break. Next time, I will be going down in 5mg or 2.5mg increments for sure. I am literally trying to do the same thing and failing hard so it would be cool to hear if you were successful. It's ok when you're feeling like shit but watch out for the second week in! You will have to start all over again. It is quite the pickle. Just make sure to commit to it long term because otherwise it's pretty much futile.

I don't really have any tips for you but you are def not alone in this. I smoke weed compulsively in the withdrawal but I'm not sure if it helps much or if I'm just looking to escape. I do think it helps moderately with the nausea and restlessness, but I'd be thinking more about healthy food than more drugs. Healthy food, staying hydrated so important for the agitation. And sunlight, exercise will help a lot if you can do it. I just couldn't barely eat or walk.

 

[Bliss26]

Hi, I'm in the same boat, I just posted my taper schedule which is a little ambitious but given my current dose and amount of Ned's left I don't have much choice.
I start my taper today, today jumps about 60mg so I could make the math work, I'll be taking 10 X 20mg, and go down by one pill daily (so 20mg a day). I expect a mental nightmare but really have to do this. My tolerance just shot up and it's becoming too much of a problem.
It's only day fing 1 and I already took my morning dose, no sleep.

I might accelerate it more at the end if I find its not working . I'd consider it a victory as long as I don't buy extra, and that the end result is the same (med free).