Is Opiod withdrawal easy?

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Opiate/opioid withdrawal is possibly the worst thing you can inflict upon yourself.

The lyrics to John Lennon's 'Cold Turkey' pretty much nails it.


"Temperature's rising
Fever is high
Can't see no future
Can't see no sky

My feet are so heavy
So is my head
I wish I was a baby
I wish I was dead

Cold turkey has got me on the run
My body is aching
Goose-pimple bone
Can't see no body
Leave me alone

My eyes are wide open
Can't get to sleep
One thing I'm sure of
I'm at the deep freeze

Cold turkey has got me on the run
Cold turkey has got me on the run

Thirty-six hours
Rolling in pain
Praying to someone
Free me again

Oh I'll be a good boy
Please make me well
I promise you anything
Get me out of this hell

Cold turkey has got me on the run."

Except for the line "Thirty-six hours rolling in pain". The pain felt from withdrawal is severe, but it pales into insignificance when compared to the psychological trauma endured. Plus, it lasts much longer than 36 hours.


Take my word on this, as you really don't want to find out for yourself

 

[BourbonMac]

Yeah the psychological aspect is possibly the worst part. It's a reaction to your physical symptoms but also they're their own thing, which for me was severe detachment from reality. At one point I thought I was going to just straight up start hallucinating. I got so fucked just from kratom withdrawal that I was scraping up bits left around my table and shit, but then I got the bright idea of cutting open a used bag and licking all the residue, and it did work alright. Not everyone gets fucked on kratom like that but many do, I'd been taking it for 6 months at that point, gradually upping my doses till I was taking 10g a day. People have taken way more, why it fucked me up so bad I'll never know, but damn was it bad.

Crawling body, flu like, happiness sapped, want to die, can't feel attachment to reality at all. When smoked some bud it made it waaaaay worse, at least the strain I had. I got some purple trainwreck from my brother and it actually helped quite a bit. But I didn't sleep for like 2 days regardless. Night of day 2 I was noticeably better, slept OK, woke up feeling like I was gonna puke and then suddenly I felt great. I could've left kratom alone there but I didn't and am still addicted to it. But I know the time will come when it goes away especially if it gets banned. It does provide a great sense of comfort and helps me when I have severe headaches and shit.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

When smoked some bud it made it waaaaay worse,

Definitely. I love cannabis, but smoking in withdrawal is just like adding fuel to the fire.

 

[BourbonMac]

It was that particular strain, I got different stuff off my brother that calmed me down a lot and helped my sleep. Whatever stuff I'd had was way too potent, like 30% THC and a major head high so it only exacerbated my anxiety symptoms more.

 

[Merek]

Yeah the psychological aspect is possibly the worst part. It's a reaction to your physical symptoms but also they're their own thing, which for me was severe detachment from reality. At one point I thought I was going to just straight up start hallucinating. I got so fucked just from kratom withdrawal that I was scraping up bits left around my table and shit, but then I got the bright idea of cutting open a used bag and licking all the residue, and it did work alright. Not everyone gets fucked on kratom like that but many do, I'd been taking it for 6 months at that point, gradually upping my doses till I was taking 10g a day. People have taken way more, why it fucked me up so bad I'll never know, but damn was it bad.

Crawling body, flu like, happiness sapped, want to die, can't feel attachment to reality at all. When smoked some bud it made it waaaaay worse, at least the strain I had. I got some purple trainwreck from my brother and it actually helped quite a bit. But I didn't sleep for like 2 days regardless. Night of day 2 I was noticeably better, slept OK, woke up feeling like I was gonna puke and then suddenly I felt great. I could've left kratom alone there but I didn't and am still addicted to it. But I know the time will come when it goes away especially if it gets banned. It does provide a great sense of comfort and helps me when I have severe headaches and shit.

I feel you brother i had a very similiar experience with kratom withdrawal I only took kratom for a month but I took up to 34gs a day of red maeng da I didn’t sleep for 5 days and ended up in a full blown psychosis and had to be hospitalized for it I couldn’t stop vomiting and was having severe panic attacks I smoked some weed and it felt like it sent my delirium and anxiety through the roof my heart started beating super fast and I actually felt the sensation of popping out of my body I saw myself from above for a second then I was back in my body shit was crazy, the withdrawals went away after 3 weeks for me during those 3 weeks I only slept maybe 8 nights the other 13 days were all nighters.

 

[BourbonMac]

Yeah the stuff is no joke, but go over to their subreddit and you'll promptly be banned from it for saying it makes you feel "high" or "buzzed" or that it can make you nod off. It definitely can, it's an opioid, but they are very delusional there and convince any newcomer that it's just coffees cousin therefore creating addicts and removing any posts about addiction or withdrawal, saying it's only for those who take crazy amounts and telling them to go to the quittingkratom subreddit. There, they tell it like it is and talk about how the kratom subreddit is ridiculous. My addiction was helped by that subreddit, by stories of people having their lives turned around by it. I'm not saying that's impossible, especially those with chronic pain who don't want opiates, but they basically weed out any negative posts about kratom to make it seem as harmless as possibly.

I knew sooner than some that this was definitely not the case. I tried it after I saw a Psychedsubstance video and as far as I'm aware, his delve into kratom lead to worse addictions because he's all fucked now. 2 months after my experience he made a video like: "I was wrong about kratom" or something and explained his hellish withdrawal. Mine didn't last as long as yours but it was definitely very bad, I wasn't hospitalized but I felt like I was narrowly away from it after my grandfather died at the height of it. Heart failure, and he was just about to get his pacemaker changed, ensured me just days in advance it would be quite awhile until he needed it changed again. It devastated me so much.

 

[Merek]

Yeah the stuff is no joke, but go over to their subreddit and you'll promptly be banned from it for saying it makes you feel "high" or "buzzed" or that it can make you nod off. It definitely can, it's an opioid, but they are very delusional there and convince any newcomer that it's just coffees cousin therefore creating addicts and removing any posts about addiction or withdrawal, saying it's only for those who take crazy amounts and telling them to go to the quittingkratom subreddit. There, they tell it like it is and talk about how the kratom subreddit is ridiculous. My addiction was helped by that subreddit, by stories of people having their lives turned around by it. I'm not saying that's impossible, especially those with chronic pain who don't want opiates, but they basically weed out any negative posts about kratom to make it seem as harmless as possibly.

I knew sooner than some that this was definitely not the case. I tried it after I saw a Psychedsubstance video and as far as I'm aware, his delve into kratom lead to worse addictions because he's all fucked now. 2 months after my experience he made a video like: "I was wrong about kratom" or something and explained his hellish withdrawal. Mine didn't last as long as yours but it was definitely very bad, I wasn't hospitalized but I felt like I was narrowly away from it after my grandfather died at the height of it. Heart failure, and he was just about to get his pacemaker changed, ensured me just days in advance it would be quite awhile until he needed it changed again. It devastated me so much.

Facts these redditers are delusional they are just addicts who defend their drugs even if it’s meth when I’d take really high doses of kratom it would fuck me up exactly like a perc30 would if not more I would nod and it felt euphoric and amazing but it definitely wasn’t worth the cost I saw a psyched substance video before trying kratom too and thought eh I’ll be fine but nope I was totally wrong seeing the posts on Reddit talking about how good and “safe” it was made me more comfortable with trying it I was naive.

 

[BourbonMac]

It's definitely the safest opioid as far as I'm aware but it can still cause liver problems in a small amount of people who can't process the alkaloids properly or whatever. Also, what is this spam about?

 

[ManicJess101]

Nothing worth having comes easy.
Ill admit I've taken Valium to curb the sickness, and while it took the edge off it still made me feel like absolute shit.
I have not been 100% clean. Ever.
These days, because of a multitude of health issues (cancer, thyroid, etc) some meds I'm on for life.
I walked away from a 6 year Meth addiction, I caught myself in the mirror one morning I was on a bender for a week straight...
I saw myself deteriorating, I was disgusted by how I let myself get.
I weighed 90 fucking pounds, and the most important factor?

My Daughter.
I walked out with everything I had on me, and never looked back.

10 years off Meth now.
Sorry for the off subject rant

 

[Conky]

Nothing worth having comes easy.
Ill admit I've taken Valium to curb the sickness, and while it took the edge off it still made me feel like absolute shit.
I have not been 100% clean. Ever.
These days, because of a multitude of health issues (cancer, thyroid, etc) some meds I'm on for life.
I walked away from a 6 year Meth addiction, I caught myself in the mirror one morning I was on a bender for a week straight...
I saw myself deteriorating, I was disgusted by how I let myself get.
I weighed 90 fucking pounds, and the most important factor?

My Daughter.
I walked out with everything I had on me, and never looked back.

10 years off Meth now.
Sorry for the off subject rant

how were the first few weeks off the meth?

 

[ManicJess101]

how were the first few weeks off the meth?

Tough.
I spent most the time in my bath tub.
Puking, Dehydrated, Chugging liquids just to vomit it back up..
Cold Sweats, Tremors.
By week 3 it got better, slowly but I got through.
Felt like forever ..

 

[Xorkoth]

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

It sounds like you're a very fast metabolizer. For me, even a small dose will hold me a whole 24 hours and even then I only feel the beginnings of withdrawal. I mean, right now I am taking 8mg a day, so a small dose probably wouldn't hold me at all. But back before I was taking it long-term, I would take 4mg in two doses about 8 hours apart, and not have to take another dose until 3 days later.

Definitely. I love cannabis, but smoking in withdrawal is just like adding fuel to the fire.

Some people say it helps, and recommend to others to smoke weed during withdrawal. Personally I think it makes it way worse. But I get anxiety from weed in the best of times, unless I'm at a show or a festival or something where my focus is external. Some people smoke weed chronically and it helps their anxiety and they're used to it. I think it just depends on how weed works for you.

I feel you brother i had a very similiar experience with kratom withdrawal I only took kratom for a month but I took up to 34gs a day of red maeng da I didn’t sleep for 5 days and ended up in a full blown psychosis and had to be hospitalized for it I couldn’t stop vomiting and was having severe panic attacks I smoked some weed and it felt like it sent my delirium and anxiety through the roof my heart started beating super fast and I actually felt the sensation of popping out of my body I saw myself from above for a second then I was back in my body shit was crazy, the withdrawals went away after 3 weeks for me during those 3 weeks I only slept maybe 8 nights the other 13 days were all nighters.

Kratom withdrawal (from a heavy habit) is among the very worst opiate withdrawal I've experienced. The sickness (as in nausea, vomiting) is not there, so in that sense it's better, but the restless limbs is worse than with any other opioid I've withdrawn from (kratom, oxycodone, heroin, morphine, poppy seeds and pods). And for me, the restless limbs are the worst part of opiate withdrawal, hands down. I get it so bad, I start thinking about suicide. Punching myself in the legs until they're numb. That's the main reason I can't sleep the whole time, and lack of sleep makes you crazy, too, especially when you're feeling like your skeleton wants to crawl out of your skin 100% of the time.

 

[BourbonMac]

Yeah smoking did help for me, it was a different strain. I was prone to getting paranoid highs at the time though, so the setting for me smoking around 2am after restless naps felt quite relaxing.

 

[fastandbulbous]

Use a bit of maths (not math, you yank language manglers)
Say you startwith10mg (say 1ml) dose, you remove the volume representing 10mg, then replace it with volume removed of sterile water. Next time, 1ml represents 9mg. Time after that, the 1 ml represents 8.1mg. Next time after that, the 1ml represents 7.29mg.
If you have 10mg in 10ml, the reducing by 10% per dose means that after 30 doses, you're down to 4.24mg/dose. After 60 doses, you're down to 0.180mg/dose. 2 doses a day and after 4 weeks (60 doses, more or less), you've gone from 10mg per dose to 0.18mg per dose and with almost no feelings of withdrawal...

 

[yubacity]

Im not a whiney bitch during the actual physical part of withdrawl i been through it so many times i know each step heroin wd i can get through . I become a whiney bitch during wd to raw opium and pods it just last so long a full month in the end you cry with the pain

 

[plumbus-nine]

Sorry for repeating that but dissociatives like memantine are a godsend for opioid withdrawal. That allowed me to quit a multiple years, 480-600mg/d morphine habit without a single day of misery, no diarrhea, no restlessness, just a little insomnia and feelings of the opioid leaving but nothing to write home about and I think it would even be possible to stay working during a memantine aided opioid withdrawal or at least do it with just a couple of days off which might pass as having a cold etc. Bluelight has seen a couple of good reports about memantine as of lately, just a shame that it's still pretty unknown even though there are a bunch of pubmed papers but only indication for memantine remains Alzheimers and one needs an open minded doc (or an Indian online pharmacy)...

 

[BourbonMac]

Yeah the physical aspects aren't even the worst part. They're extremely annoying, but it's the crippling psychological effects. Anyone who hasn't experienced that wasn't using opioids for long enough or big enough doses, but everyone is different. I got this from heavy kratom use for 5 months alone, CT'd because I fell for the "it's just coffee" crap. I was keeping a journal a lot between 2016 and 2018, mostly 2016-2017 and should get back to writing it, but I recall writing about the withdrawal. Found that quote that is brief and to the point:

"Still, if I had to pick RLS or the dissociation, I'd probably pick the RLS. It's particularly a problem while trying to go to sleep, and it likely will stay around a couple days. Assuming the kratom gets here on Wednesday, that's surviving today and tomorrow. It's gonna be alright too, because I learned a huge lesson from this."

And then I end up fucking up the same way months later in February lol. Ran out, had immense anxiety mostly. The RLS wasn't as bad as the previous time but got worse when I tried to have some glasses of wine to make it improve. There was a concert at my college, a bluegrass rendition of Tommy by The Who, which was actually very good and was a nice distraction. I was writing for the school newspaper so it was important for me to attend events like this, try to interview band members etc. I was dressed in all this psychedelic attire, a paisley blazer, tie die shirt and jeans, and remember some older guy thought I was part of the band and I'm just like nope lol. There were few young people there. He didn't know anything about The Who which surprised me given he was like 50.

Anyway was broke, milked $40 off my brother the next day after no sleep for something or other, went home after pulling an all nighter, and walked in freezing rain to a headshop to buy some kratom capsules, they were exactly $40. They would only be cheap at that place this one period. A friend of mine who stopped using it had tons but refused to give me any.

Then I bought some off a guy on reddit who had a friend overdose on heroin and die who had a bunch of kratom, and he was trying to get rid of it. So I got a kilo of a dad mans kratom for $70. Good deal but... creepy, looking back. I had it mailed to my friends house instead of mine which I'd been doing to avoid suspicions from my parents at the time. But lived at school at the time, I could've had it mailed to my dorm. Would I have sucked dick for kratom? No. But I still could understand that this is what dope sickness is like even if it likely wasn't as severe as Oxy withdrawal or something. Some people who have withdrawn from the heavier things say kratom is just as bad and doesn't last as long, maybe that's true. But some of them have used immense amounts up to 50g.

 

[1tbps]

I'm sure this is been said, I haven't read the whole thread, but I wanted to put in my two cents. Opiate withdrawal is no punk. It starts off easy. You get insomnia and the typical withdrawal feeling. Like your skin crawling. Dysphoria. That only lasts a week. Two weeks tops. The next time you go through withdrawals it multiplies and it keeps getting worse and worse. To the point to where you cannot stop moving your legs. If you stop moving your legs it feels very uncomfortable. Cold sweats. You have comfort. When you're withdrawing the comfort is gone. You get hot very easily, you get cold very easily.

When you're high on opiates it makes you constipated, bye drying out your intestines. When you detox your intestines flood with water and it hurts. It feels like a dull stomach pain and you start to shit like crazy. Diarrhea.

The worst part about withdrawal Imo is the stereotypical withdrawal feeling when you're trying to go to sleep. It's easy to stay up for a week on meth, but when you have no drugs and you still stay up for a week it plays its havoc.

You end up married to opiate maintenance drugs, like methadone or Suboxone. All you want to do is just sleep and feel normal. No more High..

 

[jasperkent]

I think environmental circumstances also play a big part. I went thru methadone WD (the first 30 days of it) in jail. Jailers gave me absolutely nothing-- not even aspirin.

For the first 6 or 7 days I did not sleep at all. After that, no more than 15mins at a time here&there. Didn't help that it never got dark, never got quiet, and I was lying on an iron bunk with a 1-inch thick "mattress" and a thin scratchy blanket that provided no warmth. Had aches & cramps throughout my body.

Couldn't eat for a week and then tried to force down utterly shitty food-- it came right back up, of course. Even the water tasted foul, which it probably was.

Didn't help that asshole guards yelled at me frequently: "How do ya like being a junkie now, ya goddamn hippie dopehead?" and other such pleasantries.
Other inmates were generally sympathetic and kind towards me but of course there's always yelling and hostility in jail and I hate that shit.

All told, it was an utterly hellish experience. I was able to get into rehab after 30 days and that was MUCH better in many ways but I still got no meds other than ibuprofen. It was kinda like having a mild case of the flu for 3 months.

 

[1tbps]

I think environmental circumstances also play a big part. I went thru methadone WD (the first 30 days of it) in jail. Jailers gave me absolutely nothing-- not even aspirin.

For the first 6 or 7 days I did not sleep at all. After that, no more than 15mins at a time here&there. Didn't help that it never got dark, never got quiet, and I was lying on an iron bunk with a 1-inch thick "mattress" and a thin scratchy blanket that provided no warmth. Had aches & cramps throughout my body.

Couldn't eat for a week and then tried to force down utterly shitty food-- it came right back up, of course. Even the water tasted foul, which it probably was.

Didn't help that asshole guards yelled at me frequently: "How do ya like being a junkie now, ya goddamn hippie dopehead?" and other such pleasantries.
Other inmates were generally sympathetic and kind towards me but of course there's always yelling and hostility in jail and I hate that shit.

All told, it was an utterly hellish experience. I was able to get into rehab after 30 days and that was MUCH better in many ways but I still got no meds other than ibuprofen. It was kinda like having a mild case of the flu for 3 months.

That's my worst nightmare is detoxing in jail. It sucks. Just reading your post gave me the chills.

I also agree with you about environmental circumstances. The easiest withdrawal I've ever done was in the mental ward. They gave me all kinds of drugs to help me that weren't opioid, like muscle relaxers and sedatives. Eating also plays a big role while withdrawing. I know it's hard to eat, but if you can eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Take vitamins.