Opioids Finally quitting, planning on using Pregabalin for w/d..

[SaosinEngaged]

I've been taking Oxy for about 4 months now. Mostly for injuries I sustained, but also recreationally. Dosages ranged from 45-80ish mg's per day. Also about 100mg of Tramadol /day just taken to give a slight boost to my Oxy doses.

The pain management doc I've been seeing has been giving me constant Lyrica prescriptions, but I haven't been taking them because it always sounded like a sketchy drug and the percs were controlling my pain fairly well.

I just had a final procedure done on my back that has significantly reduced my pain and I'm making the decision to get off opiates, since I have a propensity to abuse them (and love them way too much), I've used/abused on and off for over 3 years now.

Through the WD from the Oxy, I'm going to up my Tramadol consumption to about 300mg / day and take 250-300mg of Lyrica 2/3 x a day for a few days. I've heard Lyrica can REALLY help with WD, and now I'm kind of glad I have about 5 untouched bottles of it.

My question is this; I'm honestly a little nervous to mess with Lyrica. I've read the side effects of the drug and there's some really sketchy stuff listed on there, such as heart failure and ventricular fibrilation. Especially the thought of taking higher dosages of this stuff, which I'm assuming would likely increase the chances for severe side effects.

I am aware a LOT of people are prescribed Lyrica, but then again I'm sure a lot of people were prescribed Vioxx...

What do you think guys?

 

[SaosinEngaged]

Oh, it's imperative I do this as painlessly as possible. I have a very busy week ahead of me.

I was kind of expecting the combination of Tramadol and Lyrica to at least keep me functional. Does that sound reasonable? I don't have much to taper with, I was due for a re-script this week but I feel if I go and get that filled, I won't quit. Tapering for me is impossible, I'll just end up taking them as I want.

That's why I'm gonna try to keep my hands off Oxy and use Tram/Lyrica if I can.

I'll worry about getting off the Tramadol at a later point, because I basically have an infinite supply of it.

I am honestly a complete wuss when it comes to putting things in my body. It took me a long time to become comfortable taking oxy (knowing exactly what it does to me, how much I can handle, etc), and even longer with a sketchy drug like Tramadol (I swear the first hundred times I took it I was convinced I was going to have a seizure).

 

[Tommyboy]

The withdrawal from tramadol is worse than that of oxy is many ways (mostly it is a lot more mental, as well as being a longer withdrawal) so I would suggest you just withdraw from the oxy. I would recommend getting some loperamide (Imodium) to use in conjunction with the lyrica for withdrawals.

Your dosages aren't that high, and you haven't been on the drug for that long, so I suggest planning it out that the peak of your withdrawal is on your days off from work. Do you know how long it takes you to experience withdrawals? If you do, then plan accordingly to stop at a time that will result in your withdrawals peaking on your days off. It should only be 3 days of withdrawal, 1 of which will be the worst, and the day before and after the worst day aren't so bad.

You can always get the oxy script filled, toss the majority of them right away [or even just get a certain amount filled (you can tell the pharmacist you only want a certain amount)] and taper with them like that. This way, you don't have to worry about self control.

 

[Vaya]

The side effects of Lyrica really don't start to manifest in a troublesome way until you've been using it, daily, for months and developed dependence to it. I would not worry about that.

My suggestion is to begin with the smallest effective dose of Lyrica to ease w/d symptoms. Pregabalin has been established to ease most opiate w/d symptoms. I myself have used it for this purpose many times. Problems lie within those who use dosages at or above 150-200mg daily (I was up to 1,250mg/day at one point and feel as though I'm still recovering months later...).

You'd be fine beginning with 25-50mg, though given the dosages you listed for the opioids you've been abusing, which arent that high comparative to some others I've seen on here, I would give 25mg a go. Re-dose approximately every six hours. 3-7 days of this type of pregabalin use should not affect your life very much at all. And if it does, it will feel something along the lines of mild cognitive clouding and will dissipate rather quickly.

Good luck on your taper - coming from one ex-addict to another, let's try and make this your last one
If you'd like, report back in a week or a few days and provide an update on how it went/is going!

~ vaya

 

[Vaya]

The withdrawal from tramadol is worse than that of oxy is many ways (mostly it is a lot more mental, as well as being a longer withdrawal) so I would suggest you just withdraw from the oxy.

Good advice, Tommyboy; I feel like I should point out that tramadol not only tickles the mu-opioid receptor, but releases serotonin and is an SNRI, which carries a whole host of its own withdrawal effects. Tread with caution if attempting to stop both altogether; personally I'd get off the tramadol first and then carry out a conventional opioid w/d from the oxy.

~ vaya

 

[evilimmortal]

I have used pregabalin for pain that opiods/opiates did little against. I was on 10mg ketobemidone (ketogan) and tramadol up to 500mgs per day. Ketobemidone is at least twice as potent as morphine and I was on them for years. Since the pain was still there me and my doc took me of opioids and titrated the pregabalin up to 600mg/day. It did however take me a week and a half to feel somewhat normal and if it wasnt for the pregabalin I would have felt alot worse.

Nowadays I am off pregabalin too but It really helped. I switched to neurontin for a while before quitting. Pregabalin can give wierd effects if dosed over 800mgs a day, but with 3-600mg you'll be fine most surely. Sorry for bad spelling havent wrote in english for a long time. Take care!

 

[Acidtek]

Im currently using pregabalin to go through a slit sub wds, its working great for me at the moment, my rls have gone and I feel a lot happier and talkative! Combined with hefty dose of zopiclone and I'm able to sleep, which is always half the battle! I hate waking up at three in the moring and not being able to go back to sleep because you can't stop tossing and turning because you can get comfortable! That's a good time to take some more pregabalin because it helps you go back to sleep!

I also get to pick up my olanzapine tomorrow as well, so this withdrawal isn't gonna be too bad when I have all these meds scripted, they are always great to fall back on when I've been on a bit off a binge!

I can rest, socialise, sleep and work through withdrawal with this combo of meds!

Anyway pregabalin is a wonder drug for opiate wd, all mg pain and mg social phobia disappears!

 

[makaveli777]

didnt read the entire thread but try loperamide (immodium) as well. Take about 10mg. It'll do wonders. But only use it for a couple of days.

 

[InterzoneAgent]

Lyrica takes away opiate WD's completely for me. Aside from other opiates of course, nothing compares to the help it gives. I have used it in tapering down from about ~280-300 mg a day oxy habit. Tapered first down a little for few weeks with tramadol, codeine and buprenorfine tho. But it still eased the oxy withdrawls very well before even the aforementioned tapering. What was said above about tramadol withdrawls being pretty bad and longer is very true, as it affects other receptors too aside from opioid ones. (never had them myself, but have heard so many times). And lyrica WD's are even worse than any opiate WD's i think, so using as small doses for short time as needed is wise. + Lyrica tolerance rises really fast.

 

[volp]

When I have to WD, because i have run out of my script for whatever reason. I use a combo of lope and either gabapentin or pregabalin. (whichever of the two i have available). It works well. I'm not a huge opiate user currently. I have abused oxy plenty in the past. But due to chronic pain I have tried to maintain on just my scripts. So I'm taking about 80 mg of hydrocodone and 400 mg of tramadol a day. I'm also suppose to be taking gabapentin or pregabalin as well. But I tend to hoard those meds for the days I'm short on my other meds.

I have not had any significant problems with either pregabalin or gabapentin. However, if I'm taking it at high doses, I do not trust myself to drive. And it is long lasting. I also have an arrythmia which I take a beta blocker for. And I have noticed no impact, so far, from prebabalin. I found the combo of pregabalin/gabapentin and lope enough to counter the short term WD effects. Though I don't know how effective it would be for a long time. I would caution against tramadol. I wish I had never been prescribed it. And have plans to taper off of it when I can.

 

[Vaya]

I have not had any significant problems with either pregabalin or gabapentin. However, if I'm taking it at high doses, I do not trust myself to drive.

Awesome insight, especially for those reading this who are considering using pregabalin for w/d but who are otherwise unfamiliar with it. When I first began taking it I narrowly escaped the consequences of a number of inadvertent lapses in attention due to Lyrica. Sorta similar to operating a car with an Ambien hangover 8(
In other words, nooooo good!!!

 

[SaosinEngaged]

About to endure a pretty decent W/D...

I've used opiates for a long time. I W/D about 6 months ago from a 40-60ish mg/day habit of Oxy and got through it effortlessly with Kratom. I didn't even throw up once, or anything for that matter.

Now the game is different. I've been in pain management for four months, constantly having my dosages increased and put on more and more medications. I was taking about 12mg of Dilauded/day for a while, but managed to get off that simply with small increases to my daily Oxy dose. Now I've been taking about 120-140mg of Oxy with 100mg of Tramadol per day, but this dose has only persisted for about 2 weeks. The past two days I've taken 80mg of Oxy and 30mg of Oxy as sort of a last ditch rapid taper when I realized I'm going to be screwed. I had planned to ween down on my own terms since I had established a source, but we all know how reliable that can be.

See, what happened was my pain doctor wanted me to sign on for a procedure that I wasn't comfortable with. I called him a few days before the procedure and told him I just wasn't comfortable with it, and he kicked me out of the clinic for "showing signs of addiction." My ass, I didn't want to risk his damn procedure and explore other options. It's MY back and MY life. Plus, I've been feeling better and even mentioned it to him that I was almost ready to start coming off everything. But apparently, for this particular doctor's clinic, when you sign up, you also sign off on accepting his course of treatment and denying any one of the procedures indicates "drug seeking behavior." I honestly think that's such a crock of shit. The risks/possible complications of what I was going to have done had me saying no from the word "go."

Regardless, it forced me to go through other channels, and I was able to sustain my doses for a couple weeks and slowly reduce my dose from 140, to 120, to 100, to 80 yesterday, and a mere 30 today. It's about 12 hours since my 30mg dose and my anxiety is ramping up and I'm honestly significantly afraid of what's to come. Whether that makes me weak or not, I'm simply being truthful.

With the tramadol in the mix, I don't want to take Kratom. I don't like mixing Tramadol with ANYTHING really, because of that damn seizure risk. I have a couple bottles of untouched Lyrica at my disposal as well as Tramadol and Immodium. Between these three chemicals and a good multivitamin, do I have a chance at making it through this without screaming for mercy? This is my first time coming off such high doses, and I'm going to make a significant effort to make it my last. Some of the treatments I had for my condition greatly improved my functioning and I was almost ready to get off the meds anyway.

I know there's a bazillion threads on W/D and I've probably read them all, but they're no substitute for the personal touch of responding to my specific scenario (and the psychological comfort that goes along with it).

I appreciate any recommendations/advice/support. Thanks.

As one last note, my family has a history of panic/anxiety disorders that was unfortunately passed on to myself, and I'm really, REALLY upset and nervous about this whole ordeal, hoping the meds I have at my disposal will, at the very least, make this tolerable. I'm also debating just seeing a different doctor and explaining the situation, but I'm not looking to have more opiates prescribed and the cycle repeated, so I'm not sure what they could do for me outside that. To my knowledge, Lyrica also reduces BP same as Clonodine.

 

[DexterMeth]

Don't touch the tramadol imo. Stick with the other kratom and lyrica imo, and watch your dosing with the lyrica.
If you have the means, you could always brew up some poppy seeds (like at least 4 pounds though). Poppy seed tea would keep you well, and if they're really dark and earthy smelling, instead of light grey and pre-washed, you could easily get out the withdrawals, possibly while nodding a bit too.

No pain no gain, imo.

Someone else chime in.

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

SaosinEngaged, you started a nearly identical thread about WDs a few days ago, I've merged your two WD question/discussion threads together for you.

 

[SaosinEngaged]

I did and I apologize, the reason being the conditions surrounding how this was going to happen had changed significantly. My situation when I made that topic was different than where I'm at now.

And tbh, I completely forgot I made that topic. Been under a lot of stress.

I do apologize but the post is still my current situation.