Opioids Loperamide and alcohol for quitting heroin?

[Ridethecircuswheel]

Hello bluelighters,

I've been addicted to heroin for two years. Lately my habit has been spiraling out of control and I've spent 500 dollars in 4 days on my habit which is unusual and im almost out of money and really need to quit. I succesfully went 4 days last week taking only loperamide and as soon as i got back in town i started using again. I have enough loperamide close to 600 2 mg pills. The loperamide takes care of all physical withdrawal symptoms, but not the mental.

The hardest part for me is waking up in the morning. That's when i decide to go out and use because i have bizarre dreams and feel really depressed in the morning and go out and use.

I was wondering if i went out and bought a half gallon of vodka and took maybe a few shots a day to keep me mentally stable while taking the loperamide if that would be a good idea, or if anyone has tried this?

 

[BlueSaffron]

You could try it - what works for one person may not work for another. But alcohol always made me feel worse when I was withdrawing - it's not something I'd go to personally. If you could get some gabapentin that might help - it helped me recently when I had no dope for five days. It doesn't make make you well - at least not in the doses I was taking (400 mg twice a day) but it takes a lot of the edge off and gives you a mood lift.

 

[Boupstarnm]

Alcohol only makes it worse for me. I either get drunk and go cop. Or I get a wicked hangover and go cop.

It doesn't work for me. Also if I drink heavily daily I start to get depressed and want to use.

If anything maybe cannabis? Whenever I get really stoned I'm too paranoid to go to the ghetto to cop.

 

[bingey]

Alcohol makes the wd way more yucky and physical.

All other gaba agonists are great however.

 

[bennyZA]

Yea... Def don't drink. You have to drink nonstop or else you feel worse from the hangover.

There is also a massive risk of swapping 1 addiction for another.

 

[RTrain]

Alcohol might provide a couple hours of feeling better (it also might not) at the expense of feeling generally worse for the rest of the day. Even if you only imbibe in amounts that are under the amount which cause you hangovers.

 

[drug_mentor]

I have never had to detox heroin personally, but have literally never heard of anyone using alcohol to aid them in this pursuit (doesn't mean it hasn't happened, in fact, I am sure it has, even if it is very uncommon!) and cannot imagine it being a great choice. Alcohol makes a lot of people quite impulsive, and if you get drunk it may actually increase the chances of you going out and scoring dope, it will also increase the chances of you overdosing if you use your standard dose of heroin whilst drunk, especially if you have had a long enough break to let your tolerance drop. It is unlikely in a drunken state you would think to account for the tolerance drop from not having used in a while.

Even if you were to successfully stop using heroin employing this method, it is likely you would develop a drinking problem. In terms of the consequences of heroin being illegal, giving you a greater chance of being arrested due to your use or overdosing fatally due to varying purity, and your addiction is likely to be a lot more expensive, however, alcohol is harder on the body, is probably more likely to make you act like a complete tool under its influence and if you drink to the point of getting a serious physical addiction (this does take a lot of drinking) then the withdrawals are more severe than heroin. I wouldn't want to have to make a judgement call on which was an overall worse addiction, the fact of the matter is, they are both very ugly addictions with drastic consequences for anybody who goes down that path.

I would stick with minimal use of weaker opioids to taper and/or make the withdrawal symptoms bearable, use benzos as sparingly as possible if you can obtain then instead of drinking I reckon, but be very wary about taking those every day, as benzo addiction is a serious problem as well.

 

[drug_mentor]

Sorry to double post, for some reason since the site moved servers earlier I have been unable to edit any posts of mine or quote other peoples posts.

I just wanted to say if you are not already you should seek a substance abuse counsellor or even a normal counsellor, they might be able to help you develop coping strategies for your heroin cravings and/or your depression.

I would also reccomend exercise if you are not suffering WD to badly to manage it, I have always found exercise to be as good for my mind as my body and I can imagine it could be of great benefit to you if you react in a similar manner as myself.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

For most of the people I know, including myself, booze just makes withdrawal worse.

If you're not actually sick, as you said the loperamide is taking care of that, and want to just use the alcohol to numb yourself... then it sounds to me like you're a hop skip and a jump away from being an alcoholic, which is just as shitty in its own way as being dependent on heroin.

Plenty of opiate addicts turn to alcohol when they stop using their DOC and it becomes very easy to end up just substituting the dope for the booze.

Finding other ways to get fucked up, is not the way to prevent yourself from getting fucked up... Ha. You need real ways of dealing with the mental aspect of addiction. Positive activities, meetings, whatever works for you.

 

[Tommyboy]

Alcohol during opiate withdrawal is a bad idea. As drug_mentor mentioned it can increase the chances of you going out and copping since you don't really care much while drunk. If you think that opiate cravings are hard to control then how much do you think you can control them while drunk? Another issue is that it may make your already bad sleep patterns worse, and you may end up wasted yet unable to fall asleep.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

and you may end up wasted yet unable to fall asleep.

Which is totally miserable.