Opioids Appetite problems; opiates or cannabis causing the problems?

[Tooner]

I tried cannabis and opiates pretty much at the same time 2 years ago. Since the first joint I have used cannabis daily, and did I LOVE eating with cannabis. It got to the point that I needed cannabis to eat at all, I was ok with that though.

I then began to use opiates progressively more frequently. You know the deal, started off at once or twice a month, every weekend, and now i'm at the point of 2 times a week.
Well now I feel almost as if opiates are my crutch for an appetite, which is strange to me and very alarming as I used to become nauseous after dosing.
Have I crossed the line of mental dependence to physical dependence with opiates? I experience no withdrawal symptoms that I can Identify as of now besides maybe this curious lack of appetite. I take a nice dose of oxy and by the end of the night i'm munching down hard on any piece of food I find.
Use between 100mgs - 150mgs on one of those nights.

 

[woamotive]

I find it odd/hard to imagine that you only use opiates twice a week - and your dosing is so high. One would think you'd have to be taking it more frequently than twice a week to reach such a dose (in order to 'feel it'). How long exactly have you been on the opiates? 2 years ago just like the weed?

I'd say the lack of appetite is from the opiates, or nausea source. They do that to me, as well. Weed helps me out, as an opiate addict - allowing me to get some food in during the day (as I'm already alarmingly underweight ).

 

[Tooner]

I find it odd/hard to imagine that you only use opiates twice a week - and your dosing is so high. One would think you'd have to be taking it more frequently than twice a week to reach such a dose (in order to 'feel it'). How long exactly have you been on the opiates? 2 years ago just like the weed?

I'd say the lack of appetite is from the opiates, or nausea source. They do that to me, as well. Weed helps me out, as an opiate addict - allowing me to get some food in during the day (as I'm already alarmingly underweight ).

The tolerance is due to a buddy in highschool having easy access to his mother's stash of OC80s. Very fun times though I regret.

It's not so much opiates causing the lack of appetite that i'm worried about. It's that they boost my appetite.

 

[~Longevity~]

I recently quit smoking marijuana (2.5 months to be exact). After having smoked it literally everyday for 15 years. I am also an opiate addict. Back when i was smoking, I would only eat after having smoked. I never ate any breakfast, and was very trim weighing 140 @ 5'11''. Since quitting smoking I have gained 28lbs, and i now eat breakfast everyday and find myself eating a lot more. I average about 120-300mg a day oxy habit, and/or about a 1.5-2 bun a day heroin habit. I have been taking breaks though, usually 2-3 days a week because i entered myself into a methadone clinic to try to detox and cut down a bit, so the methadone keeps me from being sick while taking them breaks. In conclusion, i used to believe that smoking weed gave you the muchies and made you eat a lot, but now i realized it curbed my appetite and actually made me eat less. As far as the opiates, whenever i ingest them, i have no problem eating and tend to eat a lot more, especially candy.

 

[ss2brandon]

its funny how the opiates, at first, make you forget about hunger. as tolerance and addiction progress, the opposite presents itself. you need the opies to eat. we love to put the cart before the horse.

 

[rangrz]

It's not so much opiates causing the lack of appetite that i'm worried about. It's that they boost my appetite.

thats sort of odd given their pro-emetic effect...hell opiates make me more food averse then stims.

could it be psychological, in a way that you are dependant on being high, be it weed or opiates, to enjoy eating?..conditioning from the reward of both the substance's euphoria and enjoyment of food sort of becoming related?

 

[burn out]

I find it odd/hard to imagine that you only use opiates twice a week - and your dosing is so high. One would think you'd have to be taking it more frequently than twice a week to reach such a dose (in order to 'feel it'). How long exactly have you been on the opiates? 2 years ago just like the weed?

I'd say the lack of appetite is from the opiates, or nausea source. They do that to me, as well. Weed helps me out, as an opiate addict - allowing me to get some food in during the day (as I'm already alarmingly underweight ).

You can definitely build up a tolerance like that using only twice a week. I have. I use opiates every third day so that works out to about 2-3 times a week and occasionally I take breaks of a week or two. Despite that, in just the past 4 months I have seen my tolerance jump up tremendously.

 

[Tooner]

thats sort of odd given their pro-emetic effect...hell opiates make me more food averse then stims.

could it be psychological, in a way that you are dependant on being high, be it weed or opiates, to enjoy eating?..conditioning from the reward of both the substance's euphoria and enjoyment of food sort of becoming related?

Could be psychological, I suffer from mild social anxiety so maybe I just tend to let things run amok in my head.

 

[poppyplanet]

I found this thread interesting because I, myself, sometimes need opiates to eat. Whenever I would go cop in the city, my friends would order a large bag of fries right after we shot up. I never understood why until nowadays. I find it so frustrating that right after I begin to feel my opiate, I start getting hungry. I can only contribute this to the malnutrition I put my body threw while withdrawaling.

 

[Oxide]

I'm kind of in this same boat. I find it hard to feel hungry without opiates or cannabis. I've lost a bunch of weight, and find it hard to put weight on. I've started drinking protein shakes to help supplement my poor nutrition, I'll let you know how it works out.

 

[TheLostBoys]

I wish I could enjoy opiates w/o constantly eating an hour or 2 later. I hate that but opiates make me very hungry.

 

[onlytheblue]

Opiates have always suppressed my appetite....I was on them for 10years couldn't gain weight for shit...soon as I got off them I gained like 30 pounds. Which is a good thing cause I was like 150 pounds before lol.

 

[Vaya]

Resurrecting an older thread, but I found this by searching for the topic and am, frankly, amazed at the number of people who posted the very same experiences that I had always dismally looked at as anomalies unique to me. It's nice to have company, sometimes

Moving on...

Could be psychological, I suffer from mild social anxiety so maybe I just tend to let things run amok in my head.

I, too, suffer from anxiety (and, on occasion, symptoms of panic disorder). My anxious symptoms are largely under control thanks to progress I am making in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, as well as 2mg Xanax XR BID (...unfortunately, I know).
However,
Despite the fact that it is under control most of the time, one of its biggest triggers is cannabis. And I can only smoke cannabis whilst on benzos and/or opiates. Yet, sometimes, the deleterious, destructive effect that pot can have on my anxiety seeps through the painkillers and tranquilizers and I still find myself responding to it.

My long-winded point is that I relate, entirely, to what you said earlier and I think what I quoted you as saying is the truth.

I'm kind of in this same boat. I find it hard to feel hungry without opiates or cannabis. I've lost a bunch of weight, and find it hard to put weight on. I've started drinking protein shakes to help supplement my poor nutrition, I'll let you know how it works out.

I'm also in the same boat as yourself. Any word on how the protein shakes worked? Are you combining them with some kind of fitness regiment so all of the protein is properly used in your body? It's tough... I've tried and failed many times.

Lastly, I wanted to add my thoughts on that phenomenon that opiates eventually stimulate one's appetite (at least it's a phenomenal reality in my life). This is based purely on personal anecdotes, but when I am not physically tolerant to opiates/opioids, my physical reactions to thoughts of food or attempts at eating food are tidal waves of nausea and dysphoria.

I really wasn't aware others experienced this, but; conversely, when I am in the throes of severe opiate/opioid physical dependence - which has happened more times than I have fingers and possibly toes! - I *love* food. I thrive on it, and I tend to spend my pre- and post-nod periods eating a lot. I don't recommend trying to eat, by the way, during the nod!
As if that weren't enough, I, too, don't find that pot stimulates my appetite. But this only happens when I've developed a true physiological addiction to opiates.

I want to run elements of this discussion through a library, possibly wikipedia and definitely pubmed to see if I can't learn more. If I do, I'll most certainly post it up!

Great topic, OP

~ vaya