Opioids Oxycodone using kratom for opiate withdrawl-need advice and support

[lisac1818]

Hi everyone. Very new to this board so hoping I’m posting in the right place. Quick story, been on and off pain meds for 4-5 years. At this point I wasn’t addicted or dependent and only used sporadically (for jaw pain after 3 surgeries) Pain started getting real bad about a year ago and I was consistently taking 4 Tylenol 4s plus 1-2 Percocet 10s a day. Had jaw replacement in feb and went up to about 150mg a day oxycodone every day for the last 3 months. I’m desperately wanting off bc they have been controlling my life. I learned about kratom and as of Sunday afternoon I took 60mg oxycodone and that was my last time. That night I already started feeling withdrawal so I began the kratom. The next few days still were pretty awful, but mich better with the kratom for sure! It lessens the intensity of the withdrawl and does help with physical symptoms as well as anxiety and insomnia. I’ve been taking 6mg red Bali Kratom 4 times a day. Yesterday I attempted to cut my dose in half and I felt AWFUL. Didn’t sleep at all, crazy anxiety, sweats, aches, horrible fatigue. I don’t know where to go from here. Do I slowly taper the kratom? Should I just jump off now? I don’t want to have a worse withdrawal by prolonging the kratom use. But I also cannot deal with the debilitating anxiety ?I am at approx 120 hours since my last dose. Has anyone used kratom to get off opiates BUT ALSO GOT OFF THE KRATOM? I see so many stories that people just ended up stuck on the kratom. Please help!

 

[falsifiedhypothesi]

Welcome to Bluelight Lisac, you're in the right place!

Luckily kratom doesn't seem to have as bad of withdrawals as oxy or other opiates in my opinion. I'm currently tapering off a 40 gram a day habit and it hasn't been so bad physically, the mental aspect has been the worst part.

If you want to mitigate the mental withdrawal symptoms you can do a slow taper. What I like to do when tapering kratom is reduce the quantity of each daily dose, as in start taking 5grams each dose 4 times a day for a few days, then drop to 4 grams per dose, etc.

It won't be pleasant but it'll be much better than cold turkey. I'm currently doing a slower taper than what i've described here and i've had some depression and anxiety but I believe it's mostly due to the fact that I cut my dose in half in a week to start the taper.

You are still technically in withdrawal from oxy somewhat so if you don't mind slow tapering you can wait until you stabilize on your kratom dose until you taper off of that. If you think you can handle the tougher ride and want to get this over with quicker you may want to start a moderately aggressive kratom taper now.

Good luck, I hope you can improve your quality of life by ridding yourself of this shitty habit. Don't give up and don't beat yourself up if you have some setbacks. Stay on this path and you'll end up happier in the end, no matter how much you may be suffering now.

 

[lisac1818]

Welcome to Bluelight Lisac, you're in the right place!

Luckily kratom doesn't seem to have as bad of withdrawals as oxy or other opiates in my opinion. I'm currently tapering off a 40 gram a day habit and it hasn't been so bad physically, the mental aspect has been the worst part.

If you want to mitigate the mental withdrawal symptoms you can do a slow taper. What I like to do when tapering kratom is reduce the quantity of each daily dose, as in start taking 5grams each dose 4 times a day for a few days, then drop to 4 grams per dose, etc.

It won't be pleasant but it'll be much better than cold turkey. I'm currently doing a slower taper than what i've described here and i've had some depression and anxiety but I believe it's mostly due to the fact that I cut my dose in half in a week to start the taper.

You are still technically in withdrawal from oxy somewhat so if you don't mind slow tapering you can wait until you stabilize on your kratom dose until you taper off of that. If you think you can handle the tougher ride and want to get this over with quicker you may want to start a moderately aggressive kratom taper now.

Good luck, I hope you can improve your quality of life by ridding yourself of this shitty habit. Don't give up and don't beat yourself up if you have some setbacks. Stay on this path and you'll end up happier in the end, no matter how much you may be suffering now.

Thanks so much for your response! I really appreciate it so much! This is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do...and even though my family and husband all know what’s going on...I still feel very alone ?

If you don’t mind me asking, did you also use kratom to get off other opiates? I’m definitely going to try to taper quickly if I can handle it. Like you suggested drop 1g per usage and stabilize for a few days. I’ve just read such horror stories about people getting worse withdrawals with the kratom. I can’t even comprehend that and scares the crap out of me! These boards have some super supportive people but also some posts are just downright scary

One other question...in reality did I just switch to a weaker “opioid”?(I know kratom isn’t technically an opioid) I just mean.... Is it kind of the same as going from oxy to codeine? I’m just so afraid I haven’t been through the worst yet. My mind is going a million miles an hour. Sorrry for the rant!!

 

[falsifiedhypothesi]

No need to apologize, that's what we're here for.

I too feel alone in this, bluelight is the only place I have to vent any of this stuff. No one in my life knows the extent of my addiction and most don't even know I use opiates at all.

Kratom acts on the opiate receptors so yeah it is just another opioid. I used it to break a horrible tramadol cycle where i'd binge for a week on tramadol then be in pretty bad withdrawals for the next week and so on.

You do need to taper it if you want to avoid opiate withdrawals but as long as you monitor your doses and stay on a tight schedule you should have a successful taper.

One of the main functions of this site is support for people like us who don't have many options in that regard. We also have subforums dedicated to support for addictions.

Basic Drug Discussion and Other Drugs are mainly used as harm reduction platforms where we can hopefully help people do the least amount of harm possible when using drugs.