Opioids Poppy Pod Tea withdrawal

[Stormstrike]

Hey everyone,

I've been drinking pod tea for a couple weeks, mostly every other day, but last weekend I drank the tea three days in a row (and a good amount of it) and started feeling bad w/d when I stopped -- full-fledged diarrhea, sweats, an inability to sleep or feel comfortable while resting and a restless sensation that seemed to focus on my back and between my shoulder blades.

Since then I've cut my dosage in half and I've been taking small amounts only when the w/d symptoms come back, with the intention to keep cutting amounts until they're close to zero.

My question is: By continually reducing the dosage and only taking when w/d comes along, am I screwing myself over the long term?

What I mean is, by doing it this way I'm still drinking the tea, which means I'm technically dosing myself over a longer period of time, even though the dose is a lot lower.

Would it be better to just quit altogether? The problem is I'm worried I won't be able to deal with the withdrawal. I get very restless, very cranky and very unproductive. I'm also worried because I have to travel in about 3 1/2 weeks and I'm absolutely fucked if I'm going through withdrawal during that trip.

Obviously, this is the reason people warn others not to start in the first place, and I'm anxious to be done with these things.

Any good advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[sunset117]

My question is: By continually reducing the dosage and only taking when w/d comes along, am I screwing myself over the long term?

NO, your not screwing yourself...work your way down to a minimal amount, and then quit

 

[Stormstrike]

Thank you, good to know. In that case, it's way different than cigarettes. You can't "cut down" on cigarettes as a way to quit, but then again I think cigarettes have more of a mental aspect to their addiction, because physical "withdrawal" from cigarettes doesn't actually exist.

I should also mention that I've been careful not to get high when re-dosing on the pod tea. Basically, I'm just drinking enough to ward off the withdrawal symptoms.

 

[eon_blue]

Tapering with pod tea is most likely not going to afford you the luxury of not having to experience withdrawals.

You've got no real way to monitor how much morphine/codeine/thebaine you're consuming when you drink the tea, other than a rough estimate by counting pods or weighing grounds. That's not to say you can't gradually lower your dose, but you're probably going to still feel uncomfortable. Come up with a taper plan and above all else, STICK TO IT. The minute you decide to sneak in that extra dose or whatever to help with the sickness, you're going to make it worse on yourself.

My first opiate w/d experience was with pod tea and that shit sucked. It was different than heroin w/d's in that with the pods, the first symptom for me was always an insufferable backache. It was like I could never get in a comfortable position without my back killing me...then of course came the chills, sweats, nausea, etc. etc. With heroin w/d it was always the chills/sweats that would come on first...

Ah, opiate withdrawal is so cute isn't it?

 

[Stormstrike]

That's very true about the variable amounts of alkaloids in each pod. I've been getting the same "type" from the same source, but I'm not sure that helps.

What I'm hoping is that if I gradually reduce the dosage enough, the w/d will be shorter and easier to deal with.

I can't go to work and be productive while sweating like an animal and going to the bathroom every 20 minutes.

Then again, I absolutely can't get on a long flight under those conditions and arrive at a family member's wedding while dealing with w/d either. That's not fair to the people I'm traveling with and it's not fair to my family.

But yeah, this is fucked. I saw this description on another forum and I think it sums things up perfectly:

The problem with opiates is not that you get addicted to taking them - it's that you get physically dependent on them. Without the dope, the body feels the opposite effects in a similar strength. I see it like taking out a loan for feeling good, with interest.

 

[eon_blue]

I see it like taking out a loan for feeling good, with interest.

lol, yeah that about sums it up. No deferred payments on said loan either, unfortunately...

Have you considered Suboxone?

 

[Mr Blonde]

^ Ha... I like that analogy.

 

[ellua]

if you aren't doing so already you should take some Imodium (loperamide) inbetween doses while you taper down to stop the diarrhea.

 

[QuasiStoned]

Yeah dude, I feel ya. I've been fuckin with the pods for over a month now, and I can barely go 48 hours without wanting to guzzle 5Xl's or put a bullet in my brain...

You're basically asking the same thing I've been wondering, if tapering can get you off the pods. I know I'm not ready to quit yet, so I'm not gonna bother trying to taper until I'm good and goddamn ready.

I think its interesting how everyone experiences a different withdrawal, my restless feeling is in my arms and legs, gotta keep stretching them and yawning.

Keep me posted if you care to about how this goes for you, I may be following in your footsteps shortly.

 

[hexxx]

If you throttle your opiate dosage, you'll need less and less maintenance doses to keep from being sick. If you chase the high daily, obviously you get yourself into trouble.

Although I've only really had about 3 or 4 really good experiences on opiates out of hospital, the rest of the high doses have been when I've been in complete and utter agony so I haven't really felt the magic of high dose IV morphine or heroin.

I don't really get much out of opiates except analgesia and the temptation to abuse them every now and then. I am dependent on fent so I get withdrawal and the physical dependency took a very long time to be noticeable.

If I were you I'd taper. I'm dependent on fent and went through an almost complete unintentional detox (patch fell off - thought I had very bad stomach flu / food poisoning and didn't notice until I had started feeling better) and it wasn't really "trainspotting" but it was bad enough and I heard that poppy tea is much worse because it lasts so long. I couldn't stay off the toilet for longer than 10 minutes, the sweating/flushes/cramps and anxiety was terrible but it was starting to come right in 2 days.

If you have the willpower to slowly go down, I say go for it. If you don't, I think you'll have to take some time off work.

 

[dorkchop]

PPT tapering

hi all,

quick background: i quit a major H habit CT 9 years ago, so i am no stranger to withdrawals. I did not sleep at all for 10 days (I counted) and could not sleep through the night for at least another week or 2.

I just wanted tell of my experience of tapering off PPT. At worst, my habit was 20 XXL's / dose, 2x a day (first thing morning, and evening after work). I gradually reduced that by 1 poppy per dose, per day, for the most part. i "stalled" a few times for a few days, i think around 13, then around 8. below 8, i went 2-3 days at the same dose before decreasing again. when i was down to 2 per day, i stayed there for 5 days. Then yesterday i took the jump.

as i type this, i feel generally pretty weak, but the extreme body aches, watery eyes, sneezing, etc. of yesterday are almost gone already. i feel a little "woozy" but that is probably because i took some benadryl to help with some of the symptoms. i actually slept through the night last night, which amazed me. Today almost all the joint / body pain is gone.

So just my experience: tapering was a zillion times better than what i went through kicking H CT. For me I just decided it was time and I stuck to it. I honestly thought i'd feel a lot worse right now than I actually do.

Good luck to anyone tapering from PPT! it worked for me, so far

 

[CretiNation]

you're doing very well by only using the pods to ward off WD and NOT using enough to get high, cause like eon said, right when you convince yourself that "a little bit extra isn't gonna hurt and i can just do it this once, ya know, while i'm 'quitting'," everything will become a LOT worse for you.

BUT, my advice is to continue ONLY taking the pods when you experience WD and ONLY enough to EASE the WDs BUT instead of using tea to do it, eat the dried pod rinds. the effects last longer and you don't have to use as many pods for the same effects.

plus, it will significantly reduce any desire to use more pods than necessary. that's a huge difference i have found between eating the pods and making tea;

- (once you have a tolerance) tea lasts ~4-8 hours and requires multiple daily doses whereas
- eating whole pods lasts ~8-16 hours and use is self-limiting 'cause they slow your digestive system SO dramatically you will get full after a certain amount of material, not to mention the taste is pretty nasty.

seriously, give eating them a try for your taper. use between half and two-thirds of your tea dose when eating them because the effects are stronger and try dosing only once in the morning and use benadryl or something at night ONLY IF you have trouble falling asleep. don't eat them two times a day unless you REALLY NEED to. i have no idea about your tolerance so these are just guidelines... good luck!

 

[wakeborder556]

If you have had enough to experience physical withdrawls mental will come and prob be worse than you expected. Many people tend to switch to someother substance when this happens...be careful not to take something else to get hooked on.

 

[cocacrazy]

If you drink the tea only when you feel the physical withdrawals coming on then I'm sure you can taper yourself off completely before 3 1/2 weeks, well depending on tolerance of course. Seemed to work well for Dorkchop.

It will definitely be worth avoiding withdrawals though. How high is your tolerance?

Edit: Well don't I feel like shmuck didn't see that this was originally posted July 2008

 

[OverDriven]

I've used pods for years with a few breaks. The withdrawal can last a very long time. If you have to travel in 3 1/2 weeks, you need to quit cold turkey right now and just push through the withdrawal. Since you haven't been using that long, you will probably be completely out of the woods in 2 weeks. Tapering pods doesn't work all that well in my experience. You can taper way down, but even if you get your dose very low, that last jump down to nothing will give you some difficult withdrawal. Just quit all together and tough it out. My best advice is to stay the fuck away from this site. It will just make you crave the drug.

 

[lonaburhwnia]

I might have to try making some...does it feel like taking a vicodin?

 

[Cerp]

I've used pods for years with a few breaks. The withdrawal can last a very long time. If you have to travel in 3 1/2 weeks, you need to quit cold turkey right now and just push through the withdrawal. Since you haven't been using that long, you will probably be completely out of the woods in 2 weeks. Tapering pods doesn't work all that well in my experience. You can taper way down, but even if you get your dose very low, that last jump down to nothing will give you some difficult withdrawal. Just quit all together and tough it out. My best advice is to stay the fuck away from this site. It will just make you crave the drug.

Exactly. If you want to make that trip without having WD's, your best bet is to quit now. If you decide to taper you're gonna be cutting it close. It's all up to you what you want more.

 

[Bojangles69]

I might have to try making some...does it feel like taking a vicodin?

For me personally (and I know a lot of people will dispute this) poppy was always better/stronger then vicodin and morphine.

Mainly because swim was never able to obtain a large dose of vics (most swim ever took was 60mg and it was nothing spectacular) with morphine Ive gone up to around 250mg and still liked poppies more.

This is because if swiy has enough poppies swiy basically has an endless supply of morphine plus the dozens of other active alkaloids (which my body may like more then morphine itself)

Swim gets the itchies more with poppies, gets stimulated more, gets warm flushes more, gets more numb, just more of everything.

NOW, the badside. (this isnt incriminating so Ill leave swim out)

I did poppies straight for 3 years of my life everyday because the withdrawals are a living hell.
For ME to successfully come off poppies it took:

a 2 week stay in a dual diagnoisis detox/psychward
6 other strong medications while in the ward (which did absolute shit for wds)
and about 3-4 months that followed where life was dull, boring, lifeless, and I was craving poppies. Now over a year later I still think about getting another batch, luckily I never do.

I still love poppies (for their raw power, I just dont use them anymore) but you need to realize withdrawls technically start after just *1* dose.
They may go unnoticed but I notice them, thats how profoundly this plant affects your body.

If you do it once, chances are you WILL like it, and I guarantee you will use them a second time, third time all the way up untill you A) catch yourself and stop or B) lose yourself and valuable years off your life

 

[Bojangles69]

And this is for the OP.

Swim tried EVERYTHING for getting off poppies and failed everytime.

The one thing that worked the best (aside from swim admitting himself to a detox which is what wound up working) was kratom. And swim would actually recommend kratom over a detox because when swim was sitting in a detox all he kept thinking was "wow, this was so much easier on kratom".

Swim would not try tapering off anything with such high addictive potential, after all opiates is prob where the word "addiction" first sprung from.

Find a compound that doesnt afford you the same brain chemicals you got hooked on in the first place. Id recommend Kratom over any synthetic opiate only because Ive done it all already.

 

[ivoryline]

i just puked...
took too much poppy tea
blech... sorry off topic