I read probably 75 posts from 2 or 3 threads on loperamide. I decided to post my experience with this drug. In 2003 I was addicted to opiates and decided to quit (again). While researching what helps, what to expect, etc. during withdrawals (again) I came across a blog touting the benefits of using loperamide for the symptoms. The writer used the term "over the counter methadone". Here it is 5 years later and I have gone back and forth from rx opiates to Loperamide. This is embarassing, virtually impossible to get help for - no professionals have ever heard of or believe it - and for me, has been impossible to kick - due in part to it's price (one writer said $15.99 for 196 pills - the warehouses carry it even cheaper - and the fact that for me, the symptoms of wd are closer to methadone than hydro, etc. I don't know about the blood brain barrier and all that chemistry stuff (I've read it, but it's Greek to me). All I know is I do take ALOT of pills anywhere from 20 to almost 100 daily and occasionally have taken more. I've never done heroin, so I don't know if it's like that, but for me, it is similar to the painkillers I abuse. That is how bad my addiction is.
Moderator Note: In the past, we have has issues with loperamide threads. Any form of doucebaggory and flaming will get you warned, and eventually banned. I have unapproved a few posts in here, so consider this your warning. This is a harm reduction site, and we should try and help eachother out as productively as possible.
I was in the same boat as you for the last few years. I am 18 months clean from everything now, but it was fucking hard to get there. Loperamide, a lot of people didn't take it seriously around here last time I was around these parts, but they're all wrong. It is fucking addictive, without a doubt, and the withdrawals are intense. At my peak, I was taking 200 tablets a day, or 400mg, to keep the withdrawals from heroin at bay. I did this for close to 3 years. When it came time to get clean for real, it was a nightmare.
I went to an inpatient rehab, and like you said, the doctors think you're out of your mind when you tell them you are withdrawing from Imodium. They refused to give me Suboxone to detox with because they didn't believe I was really sick. I went through 4 days of extreme pain, sleepless nights, and vomiting and shitting like crazy. On the morning of the 5th day, I went to see the doc for my usual morning checkup. I could barely stand up straight. I could barely talk because it took too much energy. He took my blood pressure and I was 77/40. He finally believed me. Put me on 4mg of Suboxone that day.
24 hours later, I was already feeling much better (though "much better" is relative to how incredibly horrible I was feeling before). I took 2mg of Suboxone that day, 2mg the next, and then stopped. I have been clean ever since.
When I first discovered that loperamide worked, literally like an OTC methadone, it was a god-send. I had been having trouble finding Suboxone at that time and did not want to detox at home. I started with maybe 30 pills a day at that time. I could have, and should have, tapered down from there, but I went up instead (the thing about loperamide is it takes a really long time to build a tolerance, if at all; I kept increasing the dose because I actually started to like the way it made me feel. It wasn't a high, but it was nice none-the-less). For three years, I took loperamide every single day. I also did heroin on top of it for periods of time. I'm starting to ramble on, so I'll get to the point: loperamide can help with withdrawals, but it's just as risky as Suboxone or Methadone if your not careful.
Oh, and as for the comments saying "I bet you never shit!" - No, that's not true, at least not for me. In the beginning of my use, it blocked me up, but every couple days I'd "get it all out" so to speak. After a while though, you become so accustomed to it that you start shitting almost on a daily basis. That's not as often as it should be, but it wasn't what a lot of you seem to expect.