Is Opiod withdrawal easy?

[endlessnameless]

Uh, yes? I've used daily and I banged that shit, so yeah, I do know what I'm talking about. I stand by what I said, a lot of opioid users are just whiny babies imo

I'm trying my very best to understand where you're coming from...so help me out some, wont you please.
Now before I ask my questions, I'll agree that there are a lot of 'whiny' opioid users out there but that does not at all mean that everyone who experiences difficulty - extreme difficulty - during the withdrawal process is a 'whiny baby'.

How much were you shooting?
What kind of opioid was it?
How long was your habit at its maximum dose?

 

[Burnt Offerings]

I admit that my post was partly trollish in intent lol. It was intended to provoke. Nothing against anyone here (although I do 100 percent stand by the "a lot of opioid users are just whiny babies" remark...none of the fine folks here of course but...) you'll also notice that the operative words were "a lot", not "all"



Anyway, the main ones were heroin (BTH and ECP), morphine (60 mgs IR) and buprenorphine. I used less in my shots than a lot of other people I've been around so maybe "true WD" has been something that's eluded me due to...having more self-control than most?



I just get really irritated by people whinging about opioid WD honestly, it's a pavlovian feeling of queasiness that developed due to being around so many insufferable people in "the scene"

 

[endlessnameless]

Suspected as much.
Didn't notice the aforementioned operative word initially, as being in the midst of opioid (heroin) withdrawal myself I find focus eludes me. Appreciate the clarification. How long was your longest run?
Moaning about it doesn't make things any easier so I've never bothered - and likewise I've met many who do whinge and ball about it. Perhaps it could be the notion of impending withdrawals, perhaps it could be the stark onset of dark memories they were trying to escape.

My philosophy on it has always been that if I cant get it for a few days (considering I'm not working) then so be it - I shouldn't be doing it anyway and I'm much happier without it (having seen the withdrawal process to its end). I certainly hope this will be a quick CT for me - I begin a new job in two weeks and have no intention on scurrying around for smack the night and/or morning before each day like I had been doing for the last 10 months.

Did you notice much of a difference (particularly but not specifically in terms of intensity) during the withdrawal process between BTH and ECP?

 

[TheUltimateFixx]

I just get really irritated by people whinging about opioid WD honestly, it's a pavlovian feeling of queasiness that developed due to being around so many insufferable people in "the scene"

Can't stand whiny junkies either. My motto is, well you know what the game is and that it comes with a price. Heat, kitchen, etc.

Though on the other hand WD can definitely make you feel absolutely horrendous, and some people get it worse than others. You can generally tell if someone's in a truly bad way or if they're playing it up. Severity tends to be in inverse proportion to the amount of moaning. XD

 

[Eligiu]

If opiate withdrawal were easy, we wouldn't have any need for opiate replacement therapy to stop the physical withdrawal would we?

Coming off anything but benzos and meth is a world away from it.

 

[Deru]

I admit that my post was partly trollish in intent lol.

glad you can admit that. i appreciate it and although i don't understand your intentions, respect you for being transparent in this regard

Can't stand whiny junkies either. My motto is, well you know what the game is and that it comes with a price. Heat, kitchen, etc.

to a point. i was 17 years old when oxycontin exploded everywhere. none of us knew what an opioid even was and thought we were safe using a pill from a pharmacy that was prescribed by a doctor. ultimately yeah we're all responsible for our actions for sure. but i don't think the vast majority of us start out our opioid slavery sentence by jamming a needle into our arm with heroin.

idk...i'll gladly admit i was a "whiny bitch" when i was dopesick. it kept me a slave for over a decade. wish i could have been stronger. whatever the case, glad i escaped it.

 

[Deru]

hundreds of people die everyday from their opioid addiction. considering this is a harm reduction website your comments probs just wont' hit right. know your audience and everything as they say.

 

[JustferFun]

I admit that my post was partly trollish in intent lol. It was intended to provoke. Nothing against anyone here (although I do 100 percent stand by the "a lot of opioid users are just whiny babies" remark...none of the fine folks here of course but...) you'll also notice that the operative words were "a lot", not "all"



Anyway, the main ones were heroin (BTH and ECP), morphine (60 mgs IR) and buprenorphine. I used less in my shots than a lot of other people I've been around so maybe "true WD" has been something that's eluded me due to...having more self-control than most?



I just get really irritated by people whinging about opioid WD honestly, it's a pavlovian feeling of queasiness that developed due to being around so many insufferable people in "the scene"

This is off topic but I'm just curious.......What's the purpose of being trollish and trying to provoke people? Do you get something out of it?

 

[BourbonMac]

Not easy but it can certainly be aided with natural supplements. Magnesium being a big one, and black seed oil, the latter especially. It tickles the mu-opioid receptors just enough to help a lot of people with wds, and potentiates opioids. Just never take benadryl hoping to sleep, the RLS will be so much worse lol. Learned the hard way.

 

[Pissed_and_messed]

sometimes whiny motherfuckers have other pain. They just don't know what to do about it, so they gladly whine dopesick, something they understand better.

 

[fastandbulbous]

bro you must have superhuman genetics. be grateful you never have to experience opioid withdrawals like us regular humans do.

He didn't state whether he included himself in that description.
I have ti take 120mg of dihydrocodeine a day, to keep phantom limb pain to a tolerable level (well that and enough pregabalin as well). Withdrawing from that is fucking awful, as to go with the discomfort of withdrawal, the pain come back like a steam train.
If you don't know the cause of opioid use (pain, both physical and psychological), comments like the "whingy babies" group everyone together without bothering to find out why (a touch of empathy goes a long way) angrys up my blood - how Homer's dad described old time sasparilla!

 

[TheUltimateFixx]

but i don't think the vast majority of us start out our opioid slavery sentence by jamming a needle into our arm with heroin.

That's exactly what I in fact did.

.. And I've been through some very bad withdrawals. My attitude is just that if I focus on just how awful it's gonna be that won't exactly make it easier. The strategy I adopted for myself is to treat the process like I just caught some crappy illness and there's nothing I can do about it except push through.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I've been through stimulant and benzo withdrawal and I could never imagine thinking or saying that opiate withdrawal is "pretty easy."

It's not stimulant and benzo withdrawal, it's hardcore alcohol withdrawal.

I've talked with hardcore heroin addicts people that have withdrawn off of methadone and pills and heroin at the same time about alcohol withdrawal which I have suffered through more than once.

They all agree that alcohol withdrawal is the worst f****** withdrawal you can go through

 

[nznity]

The best way to get off opiates is to first slowly taper to the lowest dose u can(although that's impossible if ure ivin heroin cause the purity varies so u can't do a proper reduction, u needa switch to a pill. I'd say oxy or morphine instead of methadone or bupe, their half lives are too long)
After getting to the lowest dose possible, jump and take 20mg of loperamide along with gabapentin/lyrica as needed, a benzo too preferably clonazepam or diazepam.
The loperamide for the first 5 days or so,the gabapentin or lyrica max for a week and the benzo just as needed and to sleep max for 2 weeks.
Even With these meds you're still gonna feel like shit, there's no magic cure but it makes WD bearable. A lot of will power is needed aswell, relapses are common so dw guys just keep going till u get it. And plz, stay the fuck away from opiates after quitting, such a waste of time, money and only brings u pain and misery.
Cheers guys. Stay safe
Nico xx

 

[plumbus-nine]

Nope, the best way to get rid of an opiate/opioid habit is by harnessing the power of dissociatives, specially memantine. We have a few reports of success with that route around here, including mine. I quit 600mg/d morphine with pregabalin and memantine without having to go through the misery of withdrawal. Honestly, if I had absolutely needed, I could have gone to work during the withdrawal.

 

[BourbonMac]

Yeah there's definitely a lot that can help, but I stand by things like magnesium and black seed oil being heavily underrated tools over other drugs in general. You can't knock it till you try it. BSO is known to reduce opioid tolerance but it helps a lot of people in withdrawal as well. If it was a heavy dope habit probably not so much, kratom is really a better bridge there probably with the BSO on the side. Magnesium glycinate in particular since it won't make you shit your soul out. Magnesium itself is good for relaxing muscles but the glycine also really helps. Overall there are just a lot of aids to come off opioids, but even then, many have cravings for a very long time, years or decades after they quit a strong opioid.

Every addict brain is different but I have a friend who quit heroin 10 years ago and still thinks about it all the time. However he's a very strong and inspirational person who's became the face of coming back from total Hell and helping keep people sober. He actually managed to get Brandon Novak up here last Fall for a special event since we all know Novak was a serious addict. That friend of mine has largely stayed sober with the help of music, that's his new profound addiction, one for me as well. Though I know I'll at least always be addicted to THC. It's a drug that has too many benefits for me in terms of dealing with PTSD, anxiety and otherwise helping me stay creative in writing poetry, music or playing guitar. I always jam better stoned, it just puts me in the right frame.

Having just read Burnt Offerings post that's pretty terrible to read honestly to say that many who experience opioid withdrawals are whiny babies. Even if it was trollish, that's a pretty awful thing to say as a moderator on this site full of people struggling with addiction and withdrawals, and he's still only partially joking. Opioid withdrawal can be some pretty serious shit. There wouldn't be people out sucking dick to get dope or ending up homeless if they weren't truly going through hell on Earth.

I haven't used more than kratom but when I first had withdrawals from it after months of heavy use the withdrawals were absolutely outrageous. Some people don't get it that bad, but I did. Extreme depersonalization/derealization, a feeling that all happiness was erased from my brain, suicidal thoughts and my entire body restless like ants were under my skin, freezing cold whilst living in a house with a broken furnace at the time and to make matters worse, my grandfather died suddenly later on in the day. This didn't make the withdrawals worse but it made the horrifying depression worse. I would've been stronger about it otherwise because I see myself as a strong person emotionally. I had never felt at a lower point in my entire life, he was one of few people in my entire family who cared about me and we had just spoken to each other days before this.

The only difference is that kratom withdrawals go away much faster, but they can easily be as bad as something like Oxy. I didn't even expect to have withdrawals because so many people on reddit talked about them not being any worse than coffee, so when I ran out I just thought ok, time for a tolerance break. Some people might not have had withdrawals as bad as mine, but that was individually me. I still use kratom and would taper when I find my time to quit. This one is at least easier to taper off.

Even the amount Burnt used, it's not common to not have some withdrawal with daily use like that. Either way it's very difficult for heavy users and regardless not everybody is you, most people would experience some pretty strong withdrawals from that amount of use, just like many might not have had kratom withdrawals as bad as I did, everyone is different. But if you can't even relate to the withdrawals, how would you know how bad they are or can get? You don't. But whatever. That's just the worst couple of messages I've read from a moderator on this site, and really wasn't providing any useful input whatsoever. Opioid withdrawal is not easy, you chiming in and saying it was for you or snarkily implying you have better self-control provides nothing, get off your high horse. The whole time I've been on here I haven't read anything so irritating, this forum has felt like a safe haven from generally egotistical behavior that is so common in just about any forum or any subreddit. But at this point I'm just venting and not providing much more input myself.

Anyway, to those of you who do suffer with it very badly, you can always find help on this forum. Support emotionally or with strategies to help come off whatever it may have been easier. Sometimes more drugs just aren't the right answer, but I do think kratom can be a good bridge coming off something like Oxy or dope. Using benzos doesn't seem like it would lead anywhere good and could just become a traded addiction to a more dangerous class of drugs, at least withdrawing.

 

[Xorkoth]

Opiate withdrawal gets worse the more times you've experienced it. To anyone talking shit about opiate addicts being weak or whatever, I challenge you to spend 20 years of your life on and off of opiates, come back and tell me how it was when you cold turkeyed. That shit is 2 weeks or more (yes it also gets longer and longer) of every moment being hell, struggling not to feel suicidal, total inability to sleep the whole time, too, which makes you crazy in and of itself. In short, it fucking sucks. Dick. It's the worst.

Of course the first 4/5/6 days opiate withdrawal is torture physically, similar goes for nicotine

Strangely, I have never gotten even the slightest bit of physical withdrawal from nicotine, and I have had many periods of vaping 24/7 from the moment I wake up, to the moment I fall asleep, waking up and hitting it in the middle of the night, at the strongest nicotine level. Or smoking a pack a day, or dipping a can a day. I definitely consider myself lucky though, I know many people who get physical withdrawal that they describe as horrible. My "withdrawal" consists of intense cravings but that's it, not even a trace of physical. No idea why this would be.

I wish I could trade that superpower with the inability to feel opiate withdrawals.

 

[Xorkoth]

A week ? Depending on the dose of sub which I’ll assume 8-16mg you should be totally fine to use in 24hr, at 8mg you can use 12hr after induction…

Not my experience, the dose that sub saturates your opiate receptors is 2mg, and its half life is about 38 hours, so theoretically, at 8mg, it would be after 2 half lives that you would start to be able to feel a tiny bit of another opiate (~70 hours, almost 3 days). But even then, you wouldn't be able to really feel much of it for another half life. In my experience, even after 2mg of sub, it's 36-48 hours before I can fully feel another opiate again. After 8mg, it's a lot longer.

 

[Las Veghost grower]

Not my experience, the dose that sub saturates your opiate receptors is 2mg, and its half life is about 38 hours, so theoretically, at 8mg, it would be after 2 half lives that you would start to be able to feel a tiny bit of another opiate (~70 hours, almost 3 days). But even then, you wouldn't be able to really feel much of it for another half life. In my experience, even after 2mg of sub, it's 36-48 hours before I can fully feel another opiate again. After 8mg, it's a lot longer.

It’s been a while since Iv taken a sub tbh, but I remember getting on sub for a week or so then relapsing and smoking 12hr after that sub dose and being able to get high, not full effect but definitely high, maybe different opioids are more or less effective at bouncing the sub off the receptors? So I can really only speak for BTH , but I’m sure fent would be similar….but then again I remember when I was on sub I would start getting sick around 10hr after a sub dose, I would need to dose twice a day

 

[BourbonMac]

Opiate withdrawal gets worse the more times you've experienced it. To anyone talking shit about opiate addicts being weak or whatever, I challenge you to spend 20 years of your life on and off of opiates, come back and tell me how it was when you cold turkeyed. That shit is 2 weeks or more (yes it also gets longer and longer) of every moment being hell, struggling not to feel suicidal, total inability to sleep the whole time, too, which makes you crazy in and of itself. In short, it fucking sucks. Dick. It's the worst.



Strangely, I have never gotten even the slightest bit of physical withdrawal from nicotine, and I have had many periods of vaping 24/7 from the moment I wake up, to the moment I fall asleep, waking up and hitting it in the middle of the night, at the strongest nicotine level. Or smoking a pack a day, or dipping a can a day. I definitely consider myself lucky though, I know many people who get physical withdrawal that they describe as horrible. My "withdrawal" consists of intense cravings but that's it, not even a trace of physical. No idea why this would be.

I wish I could trade that superpower with the inability to feel opiate withdrawals.

Yeah same, when I quit smoking I didn't have any withdrawals. I think I was maybe a little anxious for 1 day but otherwise it didn't bother me. I wasn't a heavy smoker but I partied hard between 19-22 in particular when I smoked, started shortly before I turned 18. My dumbass friend and I were doing tobacco rips from a bong to get as fucked up light headed as possible. It's like tripping on nicotine.

Looking back, ugh, it's so fucking gross and the feeling was pretty awful, I don't know what we were thinking. It just had this rush that although we didn't entirely like, craved. When I got drunk I'd go through a pack in like an hour, sober I hardly cared about smoking them unless it was after a smoke sesh. I still smoked enough to be able to have withdrawals I think, and none of my friends have ended up quitting. I quit on 12/31/2016 and don't miss it one bit. I have hit friends vapes occasionally just to see how the flavor is and then I get so dizzy and feel like shit, reminiscent of the bong rips.