My Lope Addiction & Plan of Attack

[mutransmitter]

My Loperamide Addiction and Plan of Attack

Hi, long time reader, first time poster (pre-apologies for all noob mistakes)

Self History: Student of Physics=> Vehicle Accident=> Painkillers (2008 ) => Heroin (2010) => Suboxone (2011) => Horrible months long withdrawal from cold turkey 32mg/day Bupe habbit; literal 25 days straight of 0 sleep (2012) => never ending PAWS for months and months=> Chronic relapses/rehab => final clean for 1 year in September 2014 => startup school but cant sit still in class because of PAWS => start abusing Loperamide =>

Current 144mg/day addiction from which I wake up every day in cold sweats like when I was on heroin then take my daily disgusting dose of 72 pills. 2-4 hours later cold sweats subside. Its a miserable existence and my family suspects that something is up because I stopped working out/exercising. I've Been on Lope for 4 months. At first 72 pills would keep me "high" for 2-3 days. Now its barely enough to get me through the night.

I recently got a prescription for 6 refills of 100 tramadol for legitimate back pain. I've been trying to switch but so far for the first 4 refills the addict in me decides to combine the tramadol with the lope for an awesome nodding high, taking 72 lope pills plus upwards of 30 50mg tramadol/day. This time is now or never. Since yesterday I've been taking the prescribed amount and no Lope. Today is the first time in a while I didn't wake up in sweats and sick. No sweats or RLS so I'm a fairly happy camper. Just a throbbing headache but I also have a head cold so that could be it.

I hope I can continue this route and just ween and kick off tramadol. Ive done it before a long time ago before heroin and I know its not that bad, compared to long half-life withdrawals like Bupe, Methadone or Lope. (note: never kicked Methadone, but lots of experience with cold turkey Bupe, its hell)

That's my two cents thanks for listening. I have lots of amateur knowledge so feel free to ask anything I've touched on. Any moral/emotional support would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, peace & love!

 

[PharmGirl77]

Hi. I'm new too. I know this post is a couple weeks old, but I was just wondering how you're doing?

I used loperamide to get off of oxy, but now I fear I'm addicted to lope! I've been off oxy and on lope for about a week. Yesterday I decided not to take any lope. By bedtime my skin was crawling, so I took about 40 mg lope and in a couple hours was fine. Sooo....I'm thinking I need to taper vs cold turkey, but am still working out the details. I don't want to be on lope any longer than necessary, but I also cannot deal with the skin crawling. There's got to be some middle ground...

 

[Seattle_Stranger]

Ever considered kratom?

 

[PharmGirl77]

I don't know much about it, and am afraid it would push me in the wrong direction... I welcome any info/thoughts!

 

[LSDMDMA&AMP]

do you ever shit?
like really
i'm dead serious, curious
cause i'd shit maybe weekly, biweekly when i was on heroin
let alone taking multiple boxes of shit pills at a time

 

[PharmGirl77]

Yeah... actually a little more often than when I was on oxy. I don't exactly keep track, but I'd guess every other day or so. And it's normal. ..

BUT I had a pretty big opioid tolerance... I was up to 600 mg oxy in a day before I switched to lope. Loperamide affects opioid naive individuals much differently than those who are opioid tolerant. I am using it for withdrawal, not to get high...

 

[PeaceOfPast]

Thats a lot of loperamide. You must hit the store daily. Did you try potentiators to lower the dose?

 

[PharmGirl77]

Not sure if you mean me or OP, but the other night when my skin was crawling I took some dxm along with the lope. .. hard to tell if it made a difference. I've also taken cimetidine prior to lope. .. seems to make it last longer. I'm going in the right direction. Been COMPLETELY off oxy for over a week now! I'm feeling much better, energy is coming back. I took 25mg lope last night to keep the creepy crawlies away so I could sleep. Planning to just take it at night, lower dose each night til off all together.

 

[pally pete]

Not sure if you mean me or OP, but the other night when my skin was crawling I took some dxm along with the lope. .. hard to tell if it made a difference. I've also taken cimetidine prior to lope. .. seems to make it last longer. I'm going in the right direction. Been COMPLETELY off oxy for over a week now! I'm feeling much better, energy is coming back. I took 25mg lope last night to keep the creepy crawlies away so I could sleep. Planning to just take it at night, lower dose each night til off all together.

Maximum respect is due to you! 600mg Oxy per day is a hefty amount! At my worst I was doing 400mg per dose (5x80's crushed to fine powder and then swallowed) And that wasn't everyday, yet getting clean from that was hard work, although I was a polydrug abuser (Benzo's & Opiates) and cold turkey'd off both of them many times, at the same time. (Bad idea, that is highly dangerous)

I'm currently a bit more stable. My last Opiate abuse (Codeine Linctus) was 6th December 2014 and I'm currently at 20mg per day of Diazepam and trying to taper, although I'm finding it difficult due to the astronomical previous Benzo abuse.

I went around 5 weeks without any proper sleep apart from the odd 30 minute 'drenched in sweat' nap.

How have you been able to sleep at all? Or is the Loperamide enough for you to be able to do this?

 

[PharmGirl77]

I've been sleeping pretty well, thanks to the loperamide. I've quit cold turkey once, which was completely horrible (I don't know how you do it), and I've quit a few times by tapering. This has by far been the easiest. .. and this was the worst I'd been too. When I read in a thread that some/most people have switched to heroin by the time they get up to 600 mg oxy, that was a wake up call. I knew this had to stop before I destroyed my life. And coming off such a high dose I knew cold turkey was out of the question....I had to be able to function (work, home, husband & 2 kids). And I lacked the self control to taper. I did some research and figured I'd give the loperamide a try. I took 180 mg oxy last Wednesday, and switched to lope on Thursday. No real physical withdrawal, other than extreme fatigue. Mentally was a whole other story, but I got through it. I've been taking pills to control pretty much everything for a couple years now. So it's been tough relearning how to cope with life!

20mg diazepam/day is still a lot. What did you start at? Would switching to a shorter half-life benzo help? I don't know much about coming off benzos, other than you definitely have to taper to prevent seizures.

 

[eugenelizabeth]

HOLY SHIT MAN...30 tramadol a DAY? I know people who've seized out on alot less...I'm new too.. hello again to Pharmgirl77 lol...But please cut that tramadol back...i know someone who had a seizure and got bad brain damage...was never the same...short term memory loss...my dad. He passed away of a massive heart attack a couple years back. My brother did the same but luckily didnt get brain damage. My mom did too..and I think she has some damage. I don't know if it was from the seizure that time...or from the 5 or 6 times she was hospitalized after OD. Nurse for 25 years. developed a nasty iv drug problem while workin in the hospital. Happens alot. Myself Im two weeks into kicking a 13 yr pain pill habit/addiction..the last 8 or 9 yrs on high dose opana. like over 200 mg a day. PRESCRIBED. And I was running out in two weeks every month. so I guess I was about up to 400 mg a day. Im new here and I have been checking the site out for years..but now-Ive finally decided to get on and tell of my experiences and also hear of you guys experiences too...we can help each other..thank you to everyone brave enough to post about stuff like this..
Whoops just noticed the last post is a cpl weeks old..like i said Im new

 

[CitioKid]

I hope no one ever tried loperamide because of MY posts about it being "euphoric" back in 2010?! Really it sucks balls.

I have a lot of experience with loperamide - used it post-suboxone and maintained on it for six-ish months at higher doses than you are at (generally 70 to 120 pills a day the last few months).

My advice to anyone on lope (from a seasoned withdrawal-punani like myself is:

1. DO NOT taper on the loperamide. Lope is very dirty, dries you out, fucks up your sex life worse than any opioid I know, is *quite* constipating, makes your eyes red and causes some concerning vision changes.

2. DO NOT cold turkey off the lope. I tried to cold turkey off 240mg of lope a day with my dad in a cabin in the woods (with NO comfort meds) and it was the WORST withdrawal experience of my life. SEVERE methadone style withdrawals occurred. I only lasted 4 days before I said I wanted to go to the nearest town for some "vitamins" and promptly disappeared to a grocery store for lope.

3. DO switch over to tramadol or kratom. Kratom is a much better option. I was just like the OP - popping tramadols left and right (up to 20 50mg pills a day) and then, out of nowhere, had a grand mal seizure after popping ten pills one morning. Do not think that you won't have a seizure because you've taken a certain dose before - I had taken 12 pills at once dozens of times and then 10 caused me to seize).

My personal recommendation would be to switch to kratom. If you're a weakling like me and "need" a buzz, buy a good kratom extract from a reliable vendor the first five or so days, then switch to standard grade for another two weeks. Then stop that and you'e golden - sans the whole horrific but survivable PAWS.

 

[ksralyv2mch]

Hey everyone I just wanted to share my experience I got addicted to loperamide trying to get off heroin. I started taking 40mg to subside withdrawals then it blew up into 80mg a day for 4-5 months. I was scared what it was doing to my body so I switched back to A LOT of heroin to get off the lope but there was a brief stint when I tapered down to like 6 pills. I took cimetidine to potentiate it which totally works! But I took 5 cimetidine 1 hour before taking my dose of loperamide. And I just took one less lope a day as a taper.. Te key is a long slow taper the better. It's a dirty dirty addiction but not as sad as a bad heroin one

 

[mutransmitter]

Update (Sorry for the long delay): I successfully switched to tramadol but at a dose much too high. I subsequently ran out of my tramadol prescription and went back to lope. I weaned down to 60mg/day and was going to switch back to lope but ran into an old friend. Started doing heroin on and off which brought my tolerance way up. I am starting a difficult physics class today so the last few days have just been taking lope with plans to wean down and get on a low dose tramadol regiment. Currently 144mg keeps everything away except cold sweats and fatigue but this is what I deserve; I refuse to take more than that. Hopefully I can stay on the regiment to wean down and get on tramadol so I can kick and be a good example for anyone stuck in my predicament.

To answer the previous question- bowel movements are only about 20% further apart then normal, but very uncomfortable. Also, it constantly fills like there is rocks in my stomach and digestion is extremely slow. My family is suspicious because I used to workout and be very strong, but since have shrunk.

Also the phenomenon about messed up vision and red eyes with dehydration is completely valid. When I take lope on an empty stomach in the morning, three to four hours later I struggle to read my phone. Its notable that I have perfect vision otherwise.

Good luck to you all, I will try to update with good news.