"Medical" Morphine Addiction Help

[NamelessNomad]

Hello all, my story is that for the past 10 years I've been suffering from relatively severe and debiletating (I'm unable to work) chronic headaches and facial pain. For the first 3 years it got progressively worse, the doctors didn't have a clue what was causing it or even much idea what the condition was and in the end I was in agony on a daily basis and begging them to do something about it. So they put me on oral morphine sulphate and for the past 7 years they have more or less given me a free reign over it. The problem with this is that obviously after 7 years of frequent and continous use I have become physically dependant on it up unto the point (and to cut a long story short), my body was demanding about 80mg every day about 3 months ago.

I know that some people might say that its OK to be physically dependent on it because I have a genuine need for it but the problem is that I actually found out some time after I began taking it that it actually makes the headaches worse if I take it more than twice per week. This is not to mention the fact that I have become attached to the high and keep requiring ever increasing dosages to satisfy the need for it.

A few months ago when I realised that I had become truly addicted, I went to see a therapist that I have previously seen for other issues but unfortunately it didn't help with the morphine. Then a month ago I went to my doctor and said to him I want to get off of this stuff (I had mentioned it to him a couple of times before). He basically suggested a tapering programme enforced by weekly prescriptions, I reluctantly agreed as it was the only hope I had. Now I've finished that, I stumbled my way through it and although I have significantly cut down to about 20mg / day I'm now at the 'search the house for more' stage. In fact I think I might have just run out. So some time today I'll be getting the most rediculously horrible and intense cravings.

I'm planning on going to see my doctor tommorrow, what would be people's advice? I was thinking of either asking for a small amount more to continue the taper (4 weeks was too much, too fast), a weaker opiate or at least something to deal with the cravings.

Thank you for reading this if you have got this far by the way, I didn't intend on it being this long! I don't like talking to many people about this problem because of how judgemental some people can be so I think I needed say this stuff.

 

[Mass08]

Hey man I'm sorry to hear about your condition, I hope they can find something to help alleviate the pain as opposed to just treating the pain. I think your in a pretty tough position. Do you believe that your life would be better if you were off opiates completely? If this is the case than IDK if this sounds totally ridiculous but I would enter a detox. It would make coming off the opiates practically painless except for minor discomfort for a few days after you get out. Either way your going to experience PAWS so you should educate yourself on that. If the opiates make your discomfort worse than I would get off of them because long term opiate use really throws the body out of wack including hormones, appetite, sleep cycle and more. Can you explore non-narcotic pain treatments? Maybe ask if Lyrica would help your type of pain? Sorry if this is terrible advice..

 

[Charles Ferdinand]

Lyrica and some nmda antagonist (memantine) could work for both pain and easing a bit the withdrawals.
Also, why not switch to methadone? I've heard a couple times it might work great for chronic pain, plus it's also an nmda antagonist.
Ask your doctor but definetily ask for more morphine or at least another opiate to continue tapering.
Opiates for some sort of neurophatic pain seem a poor choice, but tbh I don't know much about chronic pain management, but there sure might be some other good options other than morphine.
Forget the therapist at least until a later stage of treatment, like if you still crave the stuff when you're off of it.
Regards!

 

[Charles Ferdinand]

Oh and, though I'm no doctor, your story did reminded me of trigeminal neuralgia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigeminal_neuralgia

Good luck!

 

[NamelessNomad]

Hey man I'm sorry to hear about your condition, I hope they can find something to help alleviate the pain as opposed to just treating the pain.

Thanks mate, hope they can too.

I think your in a pretty tough position. Do you believe that your life would be better if you were off opiates completely

In all honesty, looking at it objectively and ignoring the addict in me, I think it is at least worth giving it a try. The severity of the pain has improved slightly since I was put on the morphine due to other medication. As I mentioned, when taken too frequently, analgesics such as morphine cause nerve sensitation and rebound headaches (you take morphine for a headache and gives you another headache afterwards) in people that suffer from conditions such as mine. Ideally I would simply only take it twice per week but that is clearly not going to happen for the forseeable future. So either way it would appear that I'm screwed and I need to get off of it somehow. I just don't want it to be even more unpleasent than the negative effects I'm getting from it.

If this is the case than IDK if this sounds totally ridiculous but I would enter a detox. It would make coming off the opiates practically painless except for minor discomfort for a few days after you get out. Either way your going to experience PAWS so you should educate yourself on that. If the opiates make your discomfort worse than I would get off of them because long term opiate use really throws the body out of wack including hormones, appetite, sleep cycle and more. Can you explore non-narcotic pain treatments? Maybe ask if Lyrica would help your type of pain? Sorry if this is terrible advice..

I don't know much about the techniques used in detox/rehab, how do they make it practically painless (sorry for sounding a bit dumb)? I just looked up PAWS thanks for the heads up on that. No the Lyrica is not bad advice, I've actually already tried it in the past and I'm presently taking Gabapentin which is in the same class of drugs. The neurological drugs do have a certain degree of limited impact but that's about it unfortunately.

 

[Mass08]

The detox I go to (too much if i might add haha) does a 5 day methadone taper. The only thing I experience afterwards is the usually opiate PAWS which are insomnia and no appetite and lethargy. 5-HTP helps immensely with these though. I just think it would be better than the taper because I feel like even with the best tapers your going to feel pretty shitty for 4-5 days ya dig? I would also be worried about opiate induced hyperanalgesia, I don't know how common it is but I thought it only pertained to chronic pain patients, another thing to think about. If you do decide to stay on opiates I think the above advice of trying methadone wouldn't be a bad idea I would just be afraid of coming off methadone since the withdrawals and PAWS are going to 100x worse than coming off of morphine. Im no expert though!! just tryin to help with my itty bitty knowledge ha

 

[ad lib]

Hello all, my story is that for the past 10 years I've been suffering from relatively severe and debiletating (I'm unable to work) chronic headaches and facial pain. For the first 3 years it got progressively worse, the doctors didn't have a clue what was causing it or even much idea what the condition was and in the end I was in agony on a daily basis and begging them to do something about it. So they put me on oral morphine sulphate and for the past 7 years they have more or less given me a free reign over it. The problem with this is that obviously after 7 years of frequent and continous use I have become physically dependant on it up unto the point (and to cut a long story short), my body was demanding about 80mg every day about 3 months ago.

I know that some people might say that its OK to be physically dependent on it because I have a genuine need for it but the problem is that I actually found out some time after I began taking it that it actually makes the headaches worse if I take it more than twice per week. This is not to mention the fact that I have become attached to the high and keep requiring ever increasing dosages to satisfy the need for it.

A few months ago when I realised that I had become truly addicted, I went to see a therapist that I have previously seen for other issues but unfortunately it didn't help with the morphine. Then a month ago I went to my doctor and said to him I want to get off of this stuff (I had mentioned it to him a couple of times before). He basically suggested a tapering programme enforced by weekly prescriptions, I reluctantly agreed as it was the only hope I had. Now I've finished that, I stumbled my way through it and although I have significantly cut down to about 20mg / day I'm now at the 'search the house for more' stage. In fact I think I might have just run out. So some time today I'll be getting the most rediculously horrible and intense cravings.

I'm planning on going to see my doctor tommorrow, what would be people's advice? I was thinking of either asking for a small amount more to continue the taper (4 weeks was too much, too fast), a weaker opiate or at least something to deal with the cravings.

Thank you for reading this if you have got this far by the way, I didn't intend on it being this long! I don't like talking to many people about this problem because of how judgemental some people can be so I think I needed say this stuff.

How do you feel about opiate replacement therapy?

 

[Swimmingdancer]

How do you feel about opiate replacement therapy?

Personally I would NOT recommend opioid replacement therapy (your only 2 choices in North America being methadone or Suboxone) at all for someone who wants to get off morphine, doesn't find it that effective for their pain anyway (also long-term opioid use can cause heightened sensitivity to pain), is trying to quit opioids for the first time, and is not going to be, say, getting drugs on the street and injecting them if they don't have opioid replacement. If it were me I would absolutely just:
A) ask for an extension on the taper if needed
B) get some non-opioid meds to help with withdrawal symptoms
C) try to work on the psychological addiction aspects (this forum can help with things like how to cope with cravings, support from others in similar situations, and such)

I would definitely encourage trying to get off opioids completely and seeing what life/the pain/headaches/etc are like without the morphine after some time to recover. I would definitely discourage going on methadone, especially methadone maintenance.

(from someone who has chronic pain, has chosen to become opioid-free and regrets methadone maintenance)

 

[mrflowers00]

gabapentin or lyrica could help the headaches and the opiate withdrawals

 

[ad lib]

Personally I would NOT recommend opioid replacement therapy (your only 2 choices in North America being methadone or Suboxone) at all for someone who wants to get off morphine, doesn't find it that effective for their pain anyway (also long-term opioid use can cause heightened sensitivity to pain), is trying to quit opioids for the first time, and is not going to be, say, getting drugs on the street and injecting them if they don't have opioid replacement.

Right. I didn't suggest OP start taking them, I was simply asking their feelings on ORT.

gabapentin or lyrica could help the headaches and the opiate withdrawals

I agree. I suffer from migraines and a few years back they were real bad, the gabapentin helped me tremendously.

 

[NamelessNomad]

Thanks for the further replies, appreciate them all. As I mentioned previously, I'm already on Gabapentin. I take 1800mg / day, I've never noticed any sort of recreational type effect that might help with withdrawls but the dosage probably isn't high enough for that.

Personally I would NOT recommend opioid replacement therapy (your only 2 choices in North America being methadone or Suboxone) at all for someone who wants to get off morphine, doesn't find it that effective for their pain anyway (also long-term opioid use can cause heightened sensitivity to pain), is trying to quit opioids for the first time, and is not going to be, say, getting drugs on the street and injecting them if they don't have opioid replacement. If it were me I would absolutely just:
A) ask for an extension on the taper if needed
B) get some non-opioid meds to help with withdrawal symptoms
C) try to work on the psychological addiction aspects (this forum can help with things like how to cope with cravings, support from others in similar situations, and such)

I would definitely encourage trying to get off opioids completely and seeing what life/the pain/headaches/etc are like without the morphine after some time to recover. I would definitely discourage going on methadone, especially methadone maintenance.

(from someone who has chronic pain, has chosen to become opioid-free and regrets methadone maintenance)

Swimming, that is some particularly good advice there I think, thank you. The thing is is that I am slightly worried as to what lengths I might go to to get hold of opiates or what I might replace them with but at the end of the day I think you are right, injecting heroin is not on the horizon.

The psycological aspect is the one that I have really had zero useful help with so I think that would go a long way.

By the way I don't live in the US I'm in UK, don't know if that makes much difference to treatment options.

 

[Mass08]

If you know your addicted have you thought about an intensive outpatient program? Or partial hospitalization program? They might be called something different in the UK but they are places where you go everyday for 4-6 hours and get counseling and therapy for your addiction. This way you could still live at home and have some help in your addiction. Since I don't think with your chronic pain you'd want to do a residential program.

It's just something to think about because honestly getting off the drugs is easy....staying off them is the challenge.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Thanks for the further replies, appreciate them all. As I mentioned previously, I'm already on Gabapentin. I take 1800mg / day, I've never noticed any sort of recreational type effect that might help with withdrawls but the dosage probably isn't high enough for that.

Gabapentin can definitely help alleviate some degree of the symptoms of morphine withdrawal. If you already take it all the time you may not notice it helping (since you have nothing to compare it to) and/or you may have a tolerance. You don't need a "recreational" effect from it in order for it to help, you only need it to lessen the adverse symptoms associated with the morphine WD.

Swimming, that is some particularly good advice there I think, thank you. The thing is is that I am slightly worried as to what lengths I might go to to get hold of opiates or what I might replace them with but at the end of the day I think you are right, injecting heroin is not on the horizon.

The psycological aspect is the one that I have really had zero useful help with so I think that would go a long way.

Well I absolutely would not recommend replacing oral morphine with methadone, aside from maybe a very carefully controlled rapid taper, but honestly I don't see what advantages that would have to using a carefully controlled morphine taper aside from the fact that it would be a different drug. And going on methadone makes it very easy to end up on methadone maintenance.

I used morphine to help get off methadone myself. I have quit morphine twice, once a long time ago when I was using IV heroin and IV morphine and once was after switching to oral morphine after being on oral methadone long-term, and both times the morphine withdrawal was much easier and much shorter-lasting than than methadone withdrawal (like the worst/"acute" part of morphine WD was over in around 10 days for me, whereas the worst of methadone WD lasts months for me). Of course if someone takes methadone for 1 week and quickly tapers off is going to be very different from taking it long-term. But if you get prescribed methadone for treatment of addiction then that can harm your options in some ways.

Obviously the first time I quit didn't last very long because I didn't deal with my mental addiction. So I think it is important to work on things like teaching yourself that unpleasant sensations - like pain, depression, anxiety, drug cravings - do not mean you HAVE to take something to make yourself immediately feel better. Would you like me to expand on this concept and the things that I have found helpful?

By the way I don't live in the US I'm in UK, don't know if that makes much difference to treatment options.

For your situation, it might change the non-opioid drugs you can get prescribed to help with WDs (for one example lofexidine is not available in North America), and there is a little more leeway in terms of things like morphine tapers or morphine maintenance for opiate addiction (although it's my understanding that that is becoming rarer there these days too), but since were prescribed the morphine for pain, are choosing to get off it, your Dr is willing to work with you on a taper, etc, then I don't think it makes a big difference. It might make in a difference in the services that are available to you and the circumstances under which you can obtain them. As far as non-drug treatments I'm not really sure. I live in Canada myself

 

[Pagey]

I would recommend you ask about either slowing down your taper, or jumping onto a weaker opiate. If the doctors aren't helping much, since you're in the UK you could always get nurofen plus OTC for the codeine (don't forget to do CWEs). That's what I used in the initial days to get off heroin and it helped alleviate the withdrawals a lot, including the cravings.
Do expect to have some pretty intense rebound pain though. I got started on opiates a few years ago after almost breaking my neck and getting prescribed oxys and morphine. I'm not prescribed those anymore but that's what put me into that 'scene' and seeing as my current doctor doesn't take my pain seriously, I tend to self-medicate, which I'd hate for you to fall into. Legit pain makes withdrawals, and staying away from drugs, so much more difficult. Do try as best you can not to get sucked in!
Maybe it would also be worthwhile to see a therapist specialising in addiction issues to help you with the psychological stuff? In my experience, your average therapist really doesn't have any idea how to help drug users unfortunately.
Have you given any thought to how you'll deal with the pain once you're off the morphine?

Good luck!

 

[NamelessNomad]

If you know your addicted have you thought about an intensive outpatient program? Or partial hospitalization program?

I have sort of considered it but all along what I've really felt in need of is a service that specialises in helping people that have become addicted to prescription medication and can fully understand not just my physical dependency to opiates but also the psycological dependency that has developed due to the fact that, aside from the recreational effects, it is actually about the only type of drug that is capable of providing me with immediate short term pain relief. Unfortunately such services appear to be few and far between and getting a referal to them through the national health system is far from easy.

Obviously the first time I quit didn't last very long because I didn't deal with my mental addiction. So I think it is important to work on things like teaching yourself that unpleasant sensations - like pain, depression, anxiety, drug cravings - do not mean you HAVE to take something to make yourself immediately feel better. Would you like me to expand on this concept and the things that I have found helpful?

I understand what you're saying but yeah if you wouldn't mind elaborating on it that would definitely be helpful.

I would recommend you ask about either slowing down your taper, or jumping onto a weaker opiate.

Well I went to see the doctor yesterday and he agreed to give me another 14 10mg tablets which I'm relatively happy with. That means if things go well I can take 1 a day for the best part of two weeks and maybe even cut down to half a tablet for the last few days. I've only taken 1 today and I've been OK, its not really produced much of a recreational effect which is not suprising but has been enough to mostly get rid of the cravings which is the important thing. Also 10mg still has some analgesic effect which helps the psycological side of things.

If the doctors aren't helping much, since you're in the UK you could always get nurofen plus OTC for the codeine (don't forget to do CWEs). That's what I used in the initial days to get off heroin and it helped alleviate the withdrawals a lot, including the cravings.
Do expect to have some pretty intense rebound pain though. I got started on opiates a few years ago after almost breaking my neck and getting prescribed oxys and morphine. I'm not prescribed those anymore but that's what put me into that 'scene' and seeing as my current doctor doesn't take my pain seriously, I tend to self-medicate, which I'd hate for you to fall into. Legit pain makes withdrawals, and staying away from drugs, so much more difficult. Do try as best you can not to get sucked in!
Maybe it would also be worthwhile to see a therapist specialising in addiction issues to help you with the psychological stuff? In my experience, your average therapist really doesn't have any idea how to help drug users unfortunately.
Have you given any thought to how you'll deal with the pain once you're off the morphine?

Good luck!

Sorry to hear of your problems, yeah it only creates further issues when doctors refuse to work in partnership with their patients. Yeah I have thought and worried quite a bit about how and even if I'm going to be able to deal with the more intense bouts of pain once I'm off the morphine. I'm trying to push getting a referal to an out of the area regional specialist chronic pain centre that run pain management courses, have a variety of different specialists to help diagnose the problem, etc. But as I said getting these sort of referals is far from easy.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

I have sort of considered it but all along what I've really felt in need of is a service that specialises in helping people that have become addicted to prescription medication and can fully understand not just my physical dependency to opiates but also the psycological dependency that has developed due to the fact that, aside from the recreational effects, it is actually about the only type of drug that is capable of providing me with immediate short term pain relief. Unfortunately such services appear to be few and far between and getting a referal to them through the national health system is far from easy.

True. Do they have psychiatrists, psychologists or counselors who specialize in chronic pain there?

Personally I have found help through integrative medicine. I'm not sure if you have to pay out-of-pocket to see an integrative physician in the UK, here in Canada you often do, there is only limited coverage for it currently, but I've definitely found it worth the money. They are licensed medical doctors that specialize in treating the mind, body, and "spirit" (or whatever you want to call it) as a whole, using both conventional western medicine and "alternative"/complementary medicine. I'm sure some are better than others, like any doctor, so YMMV, but my personal experience has been great - absolutely the best, most knowledgable, compassionate and attentive health care practitioners I have ever seen.

I understand what you're saying but yeah if you wouldn't mind elaborating on it that would definitely be helpful.

Here is a post I wrote a while back about some of the techniques I've been using, the way it is written it is geared more towards the addiction aspect, but much of the basic principles, like mindfulness and compassion for yourself can be pretty easily applied to changing the way we think about pain.

The biggest thing that has helped me deal with pain is realizing that I don't NEED a quick fix for it. I don't HAVE to do whatever necessary to quickly make it stop. I can learn to perceive and react to it differently. I can work on doing little things that may not help a lot immediately but may help in the long-run and be far more healthy and lasting than taking opioids. I don't HAVE to take something to mask the pain, even if it may feel like I "need" it to stop, it isn't a real need, it isn't going to kill me. Now it's certainly not easy, but recognizing these things instead of just reacting without thinking and taking a drug has enabled me to stop taking opioids. I'm not going to lie, sometimes I still forget to be mindful and go on auto-pilot, reacting with anguish/distress over a sensation of pain, thinking "make it stop!" but I am getting a lot better than I used to be and even in those tough times I am not running out to get some opioids. Same thing with how I react to drug cravings, I still do get them sometimes, but they don't have so much power over me. Much of what is so upsetting about pain is the mental distress over it, which we can learn to have some say in. It can all be applied to getting through withdrawal too, I came to the realization that there was no way to eliminate withdrawal and that I would have to accept some WD symptoms in order to ever get off opioids.

 

[Timber]

I always found carisoprodol plus high dose NSAIDS like Sulindac useful for the trigeminal nerve pain, but gabapentin does help a minor bit too (as does baclofen, but its pretty close to the same mechanism of action). Plenty of other options too. Last bout of TGN I lived on carisoprodol for about 2 weeks straight as nothing else would settle it down. I'm thankful not to get flares of it very often.

 

[NamelessNomad]

True. Do they have psychiatrists, psychologists or counselors who specialize in chronic pain there?

They do exist yes but as its a highly specialised field again its finding them and getting a referal. That's why I'm trying to push getting referred to a specialist chronic pain centre, because the one I have in mind has all the services I'm currently looking for, including an opoid clinic with help for chronic pain patients who have become addicted.

Personally I have found help through integrative medicine. I'm not sure if you have to pay out-of-pocket to see an integrative physician in the UK, here in Canada you often do, there is only limited coverage for it currently, but I've definitely found it worth the money.

Integrative medicine is not a term that I had any previous awareness of until you mentioned it so I think it probably isn't available through our national health service but it sounds like it might be something worth looking into, thanks.

Here is a post I wrote a while back about some of the techniques I've been using, the way it is written it is geared more towards the addiction aspect, but much of the basic principles, like mindfulness and compassion for yourself can be pretty easily applied to changing the way we think about pain.

I was a bit suprised when I saw that post! Basically I suffer from OCD and it has been under control for a long time now but when I was a bit younger it was out of control in a big way. I also used Dr Jeffrey Schwartz's same techniques to bring my OCD under control and keep it there and found his 4 step programme (there was no Step 5 - Recreate), set out in his book Brain Lock, the most effective way to do it. Anyway, to get to the point I have few doubts that this cognitive behavioual approach to addiction could be very effective and have long been looking for something like this so thanks very much for showing it to me. I think I might actually buy the In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts book.

The biggest thing that has helped me deal with pain is realizing that I don't NEED a quick fix for it. I don't HAVE to do whatever necessary to quickly make it stop. I can learn to perceive and react to it differently. I can work on doing little things that may not help a lot immediately but may help in the long-run and be far more healthy and lasting than taking opioids. I don't HAVE to take something to mask the pain, even if it may feel like I "need" it to stop, it isn't a real need, it isn't going to kill me. Now it's certainly not easy, but recognizing these things instead of just reacting without thinking and taking a drug has enabled me to stop taking opioids. I'm not going to lie, sometimes I still forget to be mindful and go on auto-pilot, reacting with anguish/distress over a sensation of pain, thinking "make it stop!" but I am getting a lot better than I used to be and even in those tough times I am not running out to get some opioids. Same thing with how I react to drug cravings, I still do get them sometimes, but they don't have so much power over me. Much of what is so upsetting about pain is the mental distress over it, which we can learn to have some say in. It can all be applied to getting through withdrawal too, I came to the realization that there was no way to eliminate withdrawal and that I would have to accept some WD symptoms in order to ever get off opioids.

Again I think you are absolutely right here and that is also very helpful information. I think the only thing with me is that (I'm not sure exactly what your relationship between opiates and physical pain is/was) the pain can be of such severity and persistance that it becomes debilitating and even disabling to the extent that I cannot face doing things that I actually 'need' to or should do. However I think that I probably have to tell myself that the opiates are actually inflicting more pain than they are providing relief due to the frequency of which my body has become accustomed to demanding them.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

I was a bit suprised when I saw that post! Basically I suffer from OCD and it has been under control for a long time now but when I was a bit younger it was out of control in a big way. I also used Dr Jeffrey Schwartz's same techniques to bring my OCD under control and keep it there and found his 4 step programme (there was no Step 5 - Recreate), set out in his book Brain Lock, the most effective way to do it. Anyway, to get to the point I have few doubts that this cognitive behavioual approach to addiction could be very effective and have long been looking for something like this so thanks very much for showing it to me. I think I might actually buy the In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts book.

Cool, glad you found it helpful
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts does have a lot of stuff about more "severe" addiction, like Mate's experiences trying to treat homeless long-term IV drug users, but it is really applicable to any addiction and explains a lot about addiction. It's not really a how to quit guide, but it's an excellent read either way.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Mindfulness techniques really go hand in hand with the method I described in that post.

I think the only thing with me is that (I'm not sure exactly what your relationship between opiates and physical pain is/was) the pain can be of such severity and persistance that it becomes debilitating and even disabling to the extent that I cannot face doing things that I actually 'need' to or should do. However I think that I probably have to tell myself that the opiates are actually inflicting more pain than they are providing relief due to the frequency of which my body has become accustomed to demanding them.

Yeah, I have the same problem. It is hard for me to function and get motivated to do things without opioids, but I am just trying to be patient and compassionate with myself and work on learning how to live without them. It's a slow process, but I feel, like you, that opioids were causing more pain than they were relieving and I figured my only real options were to stay on opioids forever and endlessly keep raising the dose (which is not necessarily even a real option) or get off them and learn how to function without them. I have some other tips but I'm just going to go outside now while I'm not feeling too bad, since my pain is up and down and I know gentle exercise, sunlight and fresh air do help so I should force myself to take advantage of it while I'm not in an "I don't want to get out of bed" mood

 

[NamelessNomad]

Sorry for the delay in replies, I've had a really bad couple of days in that my brain is basically throwing a tantrum and producing far more pain than usual, presumably as a result of the opiate withdrawal. I feel like the rug's been pulled from under my feet a bit at the moment but, like you Swimming, I'm trying to help myself as much as I can.

I always found carisoprodol plus high dose NSAIDS like Sulindac useful for the trigeminal nerve pain, but gabapentin does help a minor bit too (as does baclofen, but its pretty close to the same mechanism of action). Plenty of other options too. Last bout of TGN I lived on carisoprodol for about 2 weeks straight as nothing else would settle it down. I'm thankful not to get flares of it very often.

Thanks for the recommendations Timber, as much as the trigeminal nerve is obviously implicated in some way in my facial pain, they haven't actually identified that as the cause of the problem (and it hasn't been diagnosed as trigeminal neuralgia either).

Cool, glad you found it helpful
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts does have a lot of stuff about more "severe" addiction, like Mate's experiences trying to treat homeless long-term IV drug users, but it is really applicable to any addiction and explains a lot about addiction. It's not really a how to quit guide, but it's an excellent read either way.

OK well I might have a look and see if there's any other decent suitable ones available but I do like the sound of using those techniques seeing as I'm already familiar with the basic principle of them and that I've had success applying a similar version of them as mentioned. I've actually printed your post off regarding the 5 steps and I'm planning on using that as a reference when needed.

Yeah, I have the same problem. It is hard for me to function and get motivated to do things without opioids, but I am just trying to be patient and compassionate with myself and work on learning how to live without them. It's a slow process, but I feel, like you, that opioids were causing more pain than they were relieving and I figured my only real options were to stay on opioids forever and endlessly keep raising the dose

Yeah I think that what finally made me go to the doctor and say "I want to get off them now" was the fact that not only had I been taking it every single day for a while but that my daily dosage was rising at a relatively alarming rate in that I was concerned that it was obviously going to become an immediate danger to my health in the not too distant future. Also it sounds like you have obviously taken a very proactive, dedicated approach to your own addiction problems which you obviously deserve credit for.