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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Misc All drugs - Can you permanently mess up your opiate receptors?

S

Shant

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 28, 2019
Messages
301
I guess it’s a question for all receptors. I’ve heard the term “receptor up/down regulation” but not entirely sure what it means. Can you do permanent damage to your receptors to the point where I won’t even be able to enjoy a Norco or Oxy 10mg even after a year of total sobriety?
 
The unfortunate answer is yes, you can. I have without a doubt permanently changed or damaged my receptors across many drug categories.

Even after 9 months of sobriety my opiate tolerance still was much higher than it was before I had become addicted. I snorted 4 30 mg Oxycodone and wasn’t even nodding out or as high as I would have like to be. It was a very disappointing day.

I can never just take an oxy 15 or 30 like I could 8 years ago and be high for hours, those days are gone forever
 
I've had some 10 years of heavy IV heroin abuse. And after 5 years clean a 200mg tramadol would get me effed up. And my tolerance was definitely down to normal levels for other opiates as well.

But, even after a single day of opiate use I would have to deal with withdrawal, not really bad, but there and not pleasant at all. So those years of abuse for sure changed something in my brain/nervous system.
 
So you’re saying if you take one 200mg tramadol (that’s a lot for someone who’s totally clean btw), you would have to deal with withdrawal afterwards? Holy crap!
 
Hey again Shant. The answer to your question appears to be yes. There are various instances of long-term effects following people for a protracted period of time following dependencies upon different drugs.

If you're not familiar with the "Kindling Effect" associated with sedative-hypnotic dependence, I would definitely check it out. Here is some light reading on the subject. Hopefully the link works.

[/URL]

The Kindling Effect is most commonly studied in abusers of Alcohol, Benzodiazepines and Barbiturates, although the phenomenon appears to apply to some way in nearly all drugs that produce dependency. In short, it appears that the body adjusts either permanently or for an otherwise very long time following abstinence.

We still dont know a lot about many aspects or dug dependency and its long-term effects. You can pretty much be sure that long-term dependency will present you with long-term challenges, but some of the specifics of these phenomena are still mysteries.

I dont know if one dose of Tramadol would set me off at this point in my life, but if I were to take an Opioid for 2-3 days, I could be nearly sure of experiencing a full-fledged Opioid withdrawal syndrome.
 
Keif' Richards said:
Hey again Shant. The answer to your question appears to be yes. There are various instances of long-term effects following people for a protracted period of time following dependencies upon different drugs.

If you're not familiar with the "Kindling Effect" associated with sedative-hypnotic dependence, I would definitely check it out. Here is some light reading on the subject. Hopefully the link works.

[/URL]

The Kindling Effect is most commonly studied in abusers of Alcohol, Benzodiazepines and Barbiturates, although the phenomenon appears to apply to some way in nearly all drugs that produce dependency. In short, it appears that the body adjusts either permanently or for an otherwise very long time following abstinence.

We still dont know a lot about many aspects or dug dependency and its long-term effects. You can pretty much be sure that long-term dependency will present you with long-term challenges, but some of the specifics of these phenomena are still mysteries.

I dont know if one dose of Tramadol would set me off at this point in my life, but if I were to take an Opioid for 2-3 days, I could be nearly sure of experiencing a full-fledged Opioid withdrawal syndrome.
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Yeah, 2-3 days of continuous use I could definitely see you having to deal with withdrawal. Hell thats true for first timers too. But one tramadol after a year of sobriety?! Holy Christ!
 
Shant said:
So you’re saying if you take one 200mg tramadol (that’s a lot for someone who’s totally clean btw), you would have to deal with withdrawal afterwards? Holy crap!
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Yes that's how it works after you've used opioids for a long time. I can stay clean for years, use oxycodone one night, require a higher dose than a opioid virgin, and wake up to mild withdrawals the next day. If I use two days in a row withdrawals will come back full force like they were at the height of my use.

I hadn't taken morphine in years the last time I plugged some. I plugged 60mg, this would make me nod for hours when I first started using morphine, now it will get me high but I would require much more than that to nod. The day after I used the morphine I was a sweaty irritable mess.
 
My experience is pretty similar, but I require at least a couple days of usage before the sickness really becomes apparent. I've been clean for varying periods of my life. 18 months. A year. I got seriously drunk a couple of months ago, but other than that I've been clean for a while.

Anyway, after each of those periods of abstinence, even over 18 months, it was like I had never left the life at all.
 
I think it depends on the individual cos if I stop taking opioids for a long perioid of time and then take say 20mg of Oxy it would smash me like it did before I took opioids. Receptor Regulation (up/down) is what tolerance is and that happens in everyone. Your opioid receptors "up regulate" when u stop taking opioids which basically means ur body is creating more opioid receptors. When u take opioids ur body "down regulates" which means ur body is removing some of ur opioid receptors. Receptor Regulation is the scientific term for Tolerance.
 
I see, that’s a great definition, thanks. So it’s not a permanent thing. Is there a name for the permanent thing?
 
dalpat077 said:
Fuck. I thought of you first thing this morning when I saw another thread having being started re: benzo. withdrawal and possible permanent and long lasting damage. Posted on there and immediately came over here to post about the Kindling Effect mentioned courteously by @Keif' Richards on the other thread. But I see he's already posted here about it i.e. beat me to it! Lol!

Anyway. Looks like to me there's the answer you were looking for yesterday (and that I couldn't provide). It's (possibly: maybe if only in part?) addressed an issue that I've been wondering about for the past few months myself (as detailed on the other thread mentioned).

So there you go. Never too old to learn something new. And you learn something new here every second day or two! Lol!
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Well don’t worry I don’t care for benzodiazepines, really only take enduring withdrawal or coming off a stimulant (which I stopped doing a few years ago). But on the opiates I sure hope it goes back to normal. I’ll tell you this: my brother was just as bad a fiend as me...maybe worse. He got clean for a yeah and unwittingly took a 5mg Vicuprofen and he couldn’t believe how good he felt.
 
dalpat077 said:
Yeh listen up. One thing I DO know is that we all react differently to different drugs. That's something that I think is overlooked sometimes. Maybe you're like me. There appears to be no limit to the amount of shit I can consume (with the exception of Fentanyl that is). Been like that my whole life (doesn't matter whether it's booze, Coke, antibiotics, painkillers, you name it). When my girlfriend cannot sleep or has had a bad day she cuts one of my 1mg Alprozalam pills into a 1/4 (0.25mg) and within a half hour she's fucked UP and wakes up in the morning slurring. She'd be out for a month on 8mg. I know I could take 8mg and go to the shops no problem. And that's not even due to tolerance. I ASSUME, in your case though, that this is LEGIT Xanax i.e. that could also be a problem if it's street pressed shit.
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Funny thing is Xanax used to have the exact same effect on me. I know it makes no sense but they stopped working like that after I got onto methadone. These are straight from the pharmacy so I know they’re real. I started with 3mg because that’s usually plenty, but an hour later I took the other 5 I had left figuring that would have to do the trick. They just never kicked in. So odd...
 
Shant said:
Uggghhh...and how long had you been using? And what exactly?
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Just under 10 years. I mainly used oxycodone but I dabbled with oxymorphone, morphine, a couple of uses of heroin, hydrocodone, and many other opioids. I was at the point I would take anything to keep the withdrawal at bay. My usual dose was 40mg of oxycodone to be content, 60mg (plugged) of morphine to obtain short nods. If I took the same dose of morphine orally it was barely enough to hold withdrawal at bay.
 
I'm definitely not an expert, but I wonder if ODing has anything to do with downregulation of receptors. I know mine aren't very sensitive to begin with or I have some kind of unusual inborn tolerance to opioids and opiates that prevents me from using them often; even though they do work I always need more than what's considered safe just to notice it

It's hard to believe that anything is permanent but in the case of severe OD, maybe it does change the way your body responds to these drugs
 
Gormur said:
I'm definitely not an expert, but I wonder if ODing has anything to do with downregulation of receptors. I know mine aren't very sensitive to begin with or I have some kind of unusual inborn tolerance to opioids and opiates that prevents me from using them often; even though they do work I always need more than what's considered safe just to notice it
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You probably have a history of opioid use in your family. I have a similar problem with natural tolerance that I never understood until I found out my Great Grandparents on both sides were heavy users of opium and later morphine. In those days it was cheap and you could pick it up legally. Lots of people used morphine back then without knowing it because it was in so much patent medicine.
 
HeadphonesandLSD said:
You probably have a history of opioid use in your family. I have a similar problem with natural tolerance that I never understood until I found out my Great Grandparents on both sides were heavy users of opium and later morphine. In those days it was cheap and you could pick it up legally. Lots of people used morphine back then without knowing it because it was in so much patent medicine.
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Definitely not, but my paternal great-uncle used to be a heroin addict so maybe there's something there genetically
 
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