Is opiate tolerance permanent?

[bingey]

Basically yes

if you stop for long periods your tolerance will go back down to (almost) baseline


but after using a few times (like 2-3) your tolerance will shoot up back to where it was

 

[bupemonkey]

I would have to say "YES" to the physical opioid tolerance never going back to normal - based on personal experience and from reading various neurochemistry articles, sites, blah, blah.

There are these inconvenient things like receptor upregulation that happens with prolonged and escalating opioid agonist use. Once you stop, those sites go inactive, but they never disappear.

Ergo, if I quit for a year and then go back on them like trying to control my pain with 10/325 percs, I could get, for instance, a 70% response of the original pre-opioid me. And then I would get physically dependent/addicted much much faster. I.e. addicted in a couple days vs. couple weeks for opioid virgins.

This whole receptor site deactivation that have been upregulated is why people get PAWS after they quit opies. It just takes time to shut them down by the cellular mechanisms involved. So, from what I read new receptor sites (those new mu receptors, for example, on your nucleus accumbens) just get inactivated, but never go away. Which is why we can never again be opioid naive virgins.

The only hope may be the use of either low dose naltrexone or ultra/nano dose naltrexone to activate the inhibitory opioid system.

I doubt that people fully understand how this stuff works at a level sufficient to create specifically targeted drugs that dock with specific opioid receptors like our own endorphins do and not cause the damage that these fakers that come from the opium poppy do. By drugs in the previous sentence I mean new and improved-upon endorphins - i.e. polypeptides with a transport protein all in a pill form that are man made and make you feel awesome and don't cause any addiction Wouldn't that be great. You wanna feel like you are in love back in 5th grade, here is a blue pill - feeling lasts for 3 hrs, then goes away, no side-effects.

 

[kadaj]

i'd say no in terms of the perceived high and how hard it hits you if you take a decent break. i'd say yes in being able to take your normal dose and generally not OD (even though it hits you much harder if you're clean) as well as there being a minimum amount you have to take of a certain opiate once you start using regularly to get high. if that makes sense...

 

[blase deviant]

Damn, I snorted a 8mg dilaudid 9 min. ago, and am afraid that if I were to snort another 8mg, I'd OD.

 

[orrierex]

I have been on and off 10mg hydrocodone many many time time. If I go 2 weeks, The buzz returns but not as good. One month even better. 6 months almost like a new med. But I think if you have been on any opiates for a extended period of time the best high is gone for good.

 

[Le Junk]

I've been on a permenant regimen of 10/325 hydrocodone for probably two years now. I'm an everydayer, but to keep the tolerance down, I adjust all the time. Some days I struggle and take only 20 mg.s, others as high as 50-60 mg.s, but the high has always been there. Every morning I start my day with a nutritional regimen of a multi-vitamin, a 10/325 hydro and a Mountain Dew. By the time I'm out of the shower, a big smile comes uncontrollably across my face. BAM, there it is, everytime! And this is two years now. I simply refuse to go above 60 mg.s a day, and I think that has made alot of difference in being able to sustain my tolerance. Just my .02 worth.

Le Junk

 

[edarrin]

Then you have a psychological tolerance, for lack of a better word.

I think you are referring to what is termed 'subjective experience' in studies and whatnot. Just means their own opinion of an overall drug experience.

I agree that never returns to baseline.

 

[blase deviant]

I had to use 16mg dilaudid to get high and even then waxn't nodding. This tolerance due to pain in my hip sucks. I think I'm going to try Neurontin.

 

[Ultiman]

Physical tolerance with time will completely go away. From personal experience pyschological tolerance with time goes away by about 50% but will never return to baseline ever. Once you experience anything whether it be drugs, sex, rollercoasters etc. enough times they lose their magic permanetly. Those first few times is what its all about and by the time people realize this its over and done with.

 

[StayinAwake]

I was just wondering this today. I have been terribly sick and I have some cheratussin cough medication. It has codeine in it and I can't even tell. Bummer.

 

[theWorldWithin]

This is just another reason to not be stupid and chose to use every day. Most drugs really are rather harmless if you use them sporadically, not to mention a lot more fun. Of course some people have unfortunate circumstances that force them into pain management daily and there is little you can do about that besides resolve to not abuse your meds at all.

Reguarding permanent tolerance, benzos and amphetamines. Fitting that these two go hand in hand for abuse purposes. It is very important to check yourself when using these drugs.

 

[Moonmixer]

Physical tolerance with time will completely go away. From personal experience pyschological tolerance with time goes away by about 50% but will never return to baseline ever. Once you experience anything whether it be drugs, sex, rollercoasters etc. enough times they lose their magic permanetly. Those first few times is what its all about and by the time people realize this its over and done with.

I disagree. I try to (and am pretty successful at) limiting myself to smoking weed once per every two weekends, preferably once a month. So far (for about a year), I have been doing this, and the highs are just as good recently as it was the first time. I still haven't smoked as much weed as a lot of people on this forum and that I know have, probably within a half-month time span. Regardless, I still enjoy it. Almost complete abstinence works for me.