Opioids Brain damage from opiate use

[BrokedownPalace]

I did my detox at home this time, out of compassion for any possible roommate. The snoring/apnea isn't bad in detox, but I literally can't lie still for about three hours when I lie down--STILL--and I'm abstinent almost four weeks. Trying not to wake up the roommate just makes the RLS worse.

Ok, so it wasn't just compassion for roommates--I also have a healthy hatred for detox rules. Every other wing of the hospital lets you have a tv, ipod, cigarette breaks outside--SOMETHING to pass the time. The detox wing here doesn't allow any of that so you have nothing to do but think about drugs. Goddamn human rights issue if you ask me. The rationale is that we might hang ourselves with our ear pods or something, or we might watch something inappropriate and set someone off. Yet visitors are allowed.

Odd that the upper body is fine in detox. Kicking junk would be far easier if I just amputated my legs. Hmm...

Yeah man I totally agree. I detoxed in the hospital that time I mentioned, and it was exactly the same as you described. Couldn't have phones, iPods, anything. No television in our rooms. They had ONE tv in the 'lounge' as they called it. Which obviously doesn't go too well since there are 25 other people who all want to watch something different.

Also we couldn't go outside to smoke, or AT ALL for that matter. We were allowed visitors for like 1 hour a day. Horrible.

I don't get how locking someone up in the top floor of the hospital is therapeutic or beneficial at all. Sure, I didn't do dope/methadone for about 10 days, and also got cut off of klonopin cold turkey.. I was barely able to sleep 1-2 hours a night, since all they gave me was fucking trazadone.. No suboxone, no benzos, nothing.. Every night lie in the fetal position praying for sleep, swimming in a pool of sweat. Hot/cold, hot/cold, hot cold.. Miserable.

At the end of my stay I was still having bad withdrawals from benzos, and dope. I convinced them I was well enough to leave, so I could get the fuck outta there. I was still so destroyed from detox, that about 3 minutes after they released me I was on my way to Newark.

I swear on my father's ashes that if I need to go to a detox facility in the future, I will NEVER go back to the hospital wing. Such a sham.. The 'psychiatrist' and counselor/nurses were basically incompetent. It was more like a zoo, a cage to lock up the bad/sad pandas.

Totally the wrong way to go about getting off of drugs and re-habilitate. THey did NOTHING to help me with my DIAGNOSED depression, anxiety, and insomnia issues. No wonder so many people fucking relapse.

 

[Pegasus]

Such a sham.. The 'psychiatrist' and counselor/nurses were basically incompetent. It was more like a zoo, a cage to lock up the bad/sad pandas.

Totally the wrong way to go about getting off of drugs and re-habilitate. THey did NOTHING to help me with my DIAGNOSED depression, anxiety, and insomnia issues. No wonder so many people fucking relapse.

Sad but true. It is such an illogical way to do things.

Medical science seems so primitive at times! Many times, there doesn't seem to be any more of a connection between a patient and doctor than there is between an animal and veterinarian.

 

[BrokedownPalace]

Sad but true. It is such an illogical way to do things.

Medical science seems so primitive at times! Many times, there doesn't seem to be any more of a connection between a patient and doctor than there is between an animal and veterinarian.

Heh yes that's true. But it seems like a lot of people are definitely more compassionate towards animals, than their fellow man. Atleast if you're an animal, you can potentially get fat shots of ketamine. Nom nom nom nom.

 

[kokaino]

I'll be honest, I didn't read any of the links the OP posted. But I am skeptical of opioids directly causing brain damage. It could be a result of long term respiratory depression (low levels of oxygen going to the brain overtime could possibly do it).

 

[burn out]

I don't think there's any significant brain damage.

 

[Sara Marie Obama]

One thing i do see is that heroin user genaraly look and act a few years younger then they are. So i think it sure slows down develpment a bit. Exp i'm 28 people think i'm 25/24. Do more heroin users notice the same?

Absolutely. While I've never used heroin and any drug IV/IM for that matter, while I was in a PHP for marijuana use, a lot of the "junkies" in that particular setting were girls that didn't act their age. Granted, some of these women were abused and products of a drug-dependent lifestyle, but regardless, 26-34 year old women acted socially, emotionally, and mentally as if they were between 17 and 21, at best. It was very strange.

 

[i are spectre]

opioids->smoothe muscle relaxation = couch potato syndrome of diaphragm.
therefor: opioids->less o2 intake (if affects resp)
note: delta o2 is insignificant for most of us, but always there, to some degree. so is all the shit in your house because you don't change your furnace filters (delta o2).

 

[muie]

I am a 7yr user (daily) of narcotic opioids, and about 8-9yrs of total use (mostly occasional).

Never injected fortunatley but I got up to chasing 1 gram of very good Canadian East Coast heroin (not as good as the heroin in Vancuver B.C. but not far from it). I was also using 200mg of methadone per day sometime double/triple dosing.

I am also a firm beliver that opioid use, even if taken in pure form without any adulterants such as acetaminophen in pills or impurities in street heroin, can still be harmful in the long term. I am not an expert but something HAS to happen from long term constipation (normal people take a shit at least once a day..usually several times) & what it carries with it such as gastrointestinal problems relating to appetite, urine retention (while awake and also when sleeping you don't feel it as much due to the drug but its there), dehydration as opioids do dry out the body, flunctiuations in body temperature (the hot/cold flashes) can cause the immune system to weaken...these are just physical changes that I can name off the top of my head in 2 minutes. Mentally there is the factor of motivation, since you release a lot of dopamine when high you need to fill back up on it and the higher you go the biger the fall.

Anybody that is denying these type of evident/proven things are in denial, however I will admit there is some truth to narcotics being safer in nature and effects than alcohol (daily use) or daily use of most of any other drug other than cannabis & the psychedelics.

 

[mr. mudd]

I don't think anyone is denying that long-term heroin use isn't great for your health. The question is whether it causes brain damage.

 

[OxyChem]

Vinpocetine is a nootropic that is known to support brain metabolism by increasing cerebral synthesis of ATP and by IMPROVING/INCREASING the utilization of Oxygen in the brain! Imo, it's something to think about using for anyone who is concerned about potential brain damage from opioid usage. Vinpocetine also increases the synthesis of several neurotransmitters that are known to have beneficial affects in critical brain functions such as memory recall, ability to focus, as well as mood support. Vinpocetine is also rather cheap.

 

[knobsandstuff]

I have been wondering about this issue for a very long time. It is widely accepted that opiate use does not cause brain damage directly; but I have always known oxygen deprivation causes brain damage and that being on the nod and going to bed under heavy doses could potentially be quite dangerous even in a non-lethal manner. I will definitely read all of these when I have the time. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[olskoolrollrz]

My wife and i have been on opioids for 6 years..mostly insufflated...i have sleep apnea pretty bad and we both have gained weight..also she is no where as sharp as she used to be so all this seems to make perfect sense in our case...luckily we are determined to make changes and are tapering now, i wonder if after we have finally gotten this Monkey off our backs if we will"go back to normal"?..
it would be nice to get horny once in awhile,ya know

thanks for posting these interesting links......Olskool

 

[smackcraft]

There was one time when i used to smoke heroin in a pipe, and it was very large quantities at a time, i would make a beetle with about a £40 bags worth and smoke it all in a pipe so i was getting crazy amounts of smoke in me at one time compared to chasing it on foil but i was smoking about an 8th to a 1/4 a day ... anyway one time i had scraped the pipe and put on a beetle and the oils from scraping and smoked it all in a matter of minutes and i thought i was having a stroke, when i tried mentaly to move my arm in one direction it would go the opposite and the same when i tried to walk, if i tried to walk left i would go right..

i was freaking out big time and went to my parents to take me to hospital but they talked me out of going

I actually wish i went cos i know they can only reverse it is you go there within a certain amount of time

Anyway for a few days my functions were way off and i couldnt feel my finger tips for months although the walking and my arms movement were back to normal within a day or so

I still never found out what exactly happened to me but a doctor said it was not a stroke

 

[smackcraft]

Alot of people that are on high doses of methadone need to smoke especially lasrge amounts like that due to the tolerance the methadone gives them , ive seen people IV stupid amounts of gear while on high doses of methadone, i really dont know how they get away with it

As for the constipation i agree there is definatley got to be some bad results from that especially if its causing you to bleed every time you go to the toilet, i was bleeding alot when i had to go and the doctor thinks thats why i am now anemic as since i started using laxatives my iron levels have stabalised but something i spoke about in another thread is every morning i wake up and my stomach feels absolutely rotten and i believe its due to my digestion system being so slow that anything i eat before going to bed is sitting there and making me feel that way every day

just hope i dont get the monsturd back again http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwZBbAw8BSU

lmao xD

 

[DeLee]

I believe that long term opioid (ab)use doesn't affect ones brain more than a prescription for benzos. I don't think it causes braindamage - atleast not if one uses pharm grade opioids.

A "street junkie" who lives on the street and dissolve their heroin in rainwater from the ground will most def get health issues. Even those living good, has a good social life and all that but use "street heroin" will at some point suffer from some health issues because of all the shit dealers put in the mix to dilute it.

But say a lifetime on pharmaceutical morphine/heroin/Methadone I personally don't think will affect you to the point of brain damage.
But that is just my humble opinion.

 

[villian]

I believe that long term opioid (ab)use doesn't affect ones brain more than a prescription for benzos. I don't think it causes braindamage - atleast not if one uses pharm grade opioids.

since benzos can cause functional and possibly structural brain damage that isn't saying much.

 

[DeLee]

since benzos can cause functional and possibly structural brain damage that isn't saying much.

OK not the best comparison.

 

[thereddfoxx12]

I don't think it causes brain damage. I have observed that people who use a lot often act younger then they are though. It is something that implies to drugs in general though, I don't believe it's actually an intelligence thing. I think when people avoid problems that often, they tend to not mature. It's not that I think their brains physically stop growing, I just don't think they allow themselves to emotionally mature.

As for opium causing brain damage, I believe that it doesn't. The brain is like a muscle, and if you spend all your free time just nodding out doing nothing. Well I think that causes you to lose any skills you learned, and to become less sharp due to not using your brain enough. My theory is based on the fact that some countries have much higher iq's, due to cultural rather then physical differences.

Actually come to think of it I have an example of how I highly doubt that it does. My sister used heroin very very heavily for 15 years and is still on 80mg of methadone. She was a genius before she started, and remains one of the few people who knows about the sheer amount of topics I know about. Hardly an example of brain damage, and she has overdosed many times, so if anyone could get brain damage from it I am sure she would have.

 

[adder]

I have found out quite a few subjective effects from my 7-year addiction.

It's definitely memory, I seem not to be able to memorize as much information in the same frame of time as I used to. This may be just subjective for at some point I stopped attaching importance to my grades at school, let's say I discovered adult life a little earlier than an average person. I always seemed to be misunderstood by people of my age. I stuck together with older people than me. However, I was able to learn a language after getting addicted and it didn't take me more time than for other languages. The other thing is I sometimes forget words like I have them on the tip of my tongue.

I've been constantly on methadone for over a year now. One dose doesn't hold me the whole day. I both split-dosed and took a higher dose to fight this. Sometimes I woke up in the morning feeling I wasn't well anymore and I needed to dose right now. I felt like going from a light daze from methadone use to half-sobriety. It's a really strange feeling after all these years, i.e. looking at some situations from the past taking a totally different shape.

Well, whatever they have discovered and whatever they will discover, I think opioids like morphine and its semi-synthetic derivatives can be good tools to work with oneself. I'm not really proud I'm chained for life probably but somehow I know it would have ended up the same no matter what. And to be honest, I know some psychiatrists (especially private) sometimes prescribe various opioids for depression or anxiety and it's not like a patient tells him to do so but it's just a last resort to treat refractory diseases. On one hand the treatment helps, on the other hand tolerance and dependence appear (double effect).

 

[Love In Vein]

It's from oxygen deprivation caused by opiate use, so yes the brain damage is caused by the opiate use.

If anyone is aware of what happens when you nod off and lose oxygen to the brain, it's me.

However, as far as low oxygen levels, I would really like to see the comparison between opiate users and Triathlon swimmers who actually take hypoxic training so far as brain damage is concerned. Or even people with sleep apnea or a deviated septum.

I'm not at all going to say it's safe. Especially if you are getting the point to nodding off, because your breathing is obviously shallow. But I have a hard time believing it's anymore dangerous than many common activities and ailments.

However, you absolutely WILL suffer from hypoxic brain injury if you nod out in a sitting position and your chin falls towards your chest.