Guide to quitting opiates cold-turkey...

[Secretly Addicted]

Secretly Addicted

I am going cold turkey of oxycodone after 7 yrs. of this not so merry- go- round. I am doing it alone. No one knows. I have lost almost everything from this drug. My logical thinking has gone out the window. I think things are one way when they are not. I definitely have turned very angry and negative. I say it's time to get back to the real me, the smart me, the one who cheers everyone up, the nurse.
My addiction turned me into an introvert. Hating people. Always wanting to be alone. Agoraphobic. Many days spent wanting to commit suicide. I come from a family that doesn't even care about me, never wanted me, so I have lived my life on my own. Many people acting like they want to be my friend, only to have a hidden agenda.
Now.........I have been living in my van for about 5 yrs. as my logical thinking on opiates told me " that's normal" "you just don't want a room mate and you have so little income." I have been popping, chewing 50 to 70 mg oxycodone a day for 7 yrs. I decided to quit 2 and 1/2 days ago. No one knows. I slept in my van for the last two days, taking Lyrica, Gabapentin, 800 mg ibuprofen all for the pain which was severe , and also 20 mg Ambien, 6mg Melatonin, and some OTC sleep mend along with Ambien. I fell asleep with my engine running to cool off with the air conditioning, and the engine was over heating after having burned half a tank of gas. (25.00). I woke up two or three times, trying to get to the front of the van, so I could turn it off and was too weak. I kept passing out. Finally, I drug myself out of the bed in the back, I got myself dressed, combed my dirty hair and talked myself into going through a drive through to eat as I hadn't eaten in a two days. I took multivitamins, ate one protein bar the previous night and now I am very dehydrated but no stomach issues. Only muscle pain, bone and joint pain, depression to the point of suicide and anti social to the max. I started coughing and having flu like symptoms, so i took some Alka Seltzer cold medicine for two days. This oxycodone game is no good. I say, get off anyway you can, people are all different , so avoid the other suboxone or methadone , because then you will just have to go through withdrawal again! Just make up your mind, brace yourself for the pain and the serious drag that is about to happen and I am on day 3 in the evening and I am feeling way better than day one. I wish all who do this cold turkey withdrawal thing all the best in the world. You can do this. I have no one to help me or encourage me, and I wanted to just give up. SERIOUSLY. Don't give up. You can do this. Blessings to you all.
P.S. I have 3 fresh scripts for three months of 10 mg . oxycodones in my possession and I get one filled in two days. I hope I am strong enough to not take them. What I will do with them I don't know. I keep telling myself that I will just keep them "in case". I will keep them if I want to "pull the plug". I will keep them just to keep them. I have no clue what my future holds....but I can tell you that my mind feels clearer now in this 3rd day of cold turkey than it has in over 7 yrs. on oxycodone. Peace to you all.

 

[Secretly Addicted]

sorry, it just seemed like you were making fun of us. No offense meant. Still in withdrawal mode.

 

[keeping]

sorry, it just seemed like you were making fun of us. No offense meant. Still in withdrawal mode.

no at all, quitting opiates isn't a joking matter.

and you don't understand, you don't become addicted to subs if you do a rapid bupernorphine taper; the whole point is to switch to subs as they have a much less steeper withdrawal curve due to the length of their action.

so you replace, say, oxy with subutex, level out to the point where you aren't high just not sick and stabilize on that for a few days and begin tp cut down your dose by around a third or a quarter of your starting dose. you reduce, stabilize, reduce, stabilize util you get to around 0.1mgs and make your jump from here.

it takes about two days for the subs to finally leave your body from the last .1 and during which time you might have a few, minor aches and you may have one night of poor sleep but this is nothign an ibprofen and a ambien won't solve. the whole process lasts about a week and during that whole time you can sleep, you don't ache, the sweats are bearable, you aren't being sick or shitting uncontrollably - i went to uni, took girl on a date, hung out with my friends and cooked a meal every night of my detox, could you do anything?

yeah, it takes longer than if you just CT it, but that's because the symptoms are lessened by being drawn out over this lengthened time period.
look i've got respect for you if you just decide to CT it, i've done it before and i know it fucking sucks, but i have shit to do, i can;t just lie in bed for 5 days straight. sub detox is the smart option, CT is admirable, but if you had the option to RSD and didn't take it, that's just foolish.
oh, and sub maintenance isn't what i'm talking about; i am wholely opposed to opioid maintenance ༼ ༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ༽l

Keeping is a homie and means well. He wouldn't intentionally say anything wrong. Just like most of us BLers. Can you explain what you mean by this?
and I personally can vouche for Keeping. His posts are legit. For anyone wanting to detox, look into suboxone rapid detox.

 

[360 Nut]

There is some really good advice from the OP. Definitely when I came off and eight year Dihydrocodeine addiction a lot of that helped (I live in the UK and apart from Morphine that's the strongest you'll get here). I relapsed on Tramadol and after a few months my supply dried up so CT off them. Horrendous. The worst thing about that withdrawal was the depression and anxiety kicked in straight away. Saw my doc, told him and he put me on Sertraline for four months. It really helped, that and exercise (always had that habit even in full addiction), healthy eating and vitamin supplements. That was five months ago and been off everything so whilst an SSRI may not help everyone it can certainly help some of us. Feeling like I did before I became a pill popper with no cravings too. The exercise thing is important though, even if it's a 20min walk a day. Good luck all.

 

[Jr1zzle906]

In response to the OP, your wd timeline is about dead nuts accurate, I've been down this road with opiates time and time again, the hardest part for me personally is the boredom and depression that come post wd and make me want to use again. Luckily I am now on a regimin of wellbutrin 300mg once in the morning, it's she only so called anti depressant I've been able to deal with, kinda reminds me of tramadol without the opiate feeling.
Anyway, I also found a wonderful doc willing to start me out on 90 valium 5mg and 90 gabapentin 600mg to deal with my g.a.d. and assist in wd, which they both have helped tremendously with.
Also, I have my medicinal marijuana and some very compassionate caregivers so having good flower, killer wax and usually edibles and or tincture helps.
Although right now I'm coming off of buprenorphine and not real opiates, I've come off them all at one time or another... but my successful regimin this time around has been valium, gabapentin, aleve and thc along with some anti diarrhea pills have made this wd a walk in the park (in comparison to past wd's, it was still by no means easy)

 

[clubcard]

http://michaellinnell.org.uk/michael_linnell_archive/mc_dermotts_guides/pdf/M2 DIY detox.pdf

 

[motownmojo]

Recovery is a hard ugly process but it can be done. With me yeah the WDs sucked, but the depression afterwards is what killed me. Life was dull and sometimes unbearable. Like I snuffed the light out of my days.
I tried over and over to "take this to make" it a little better and eventually ended right back full circle in addiction.
If you are reading it is because you have the desire to stop, put the same zeal you put into your addiction into something beneficial. Whatever interests you boating, exercise, music, art, whatever you are into. Distraction, distraction, distraction is very underrated. You are going to need to force yourself to get up and do something beside sit and Jones. It's going to be really fucking hard but us addicts are soldiers when it comes to enduring hard times!
Whatever works for most to get thru WDs is fine but have a plan to ride this thing out from the start. Talking on here and other sites helps a lot too. Just be determined to beat this shit, force a smile, and make it happen. There isn't a instant fix. Eventually your dopamine will work back to it's normal levels and in the end you might find you enjoy your new positive habits as much as you did your old ones. Just never count yourself short, you can do this.