Opioids Quitting Heroin: Need help bluelighters!

[Ridethecircuswheel]

Hello bluelighters,

I would firstly like to say that I've been a member of this forum for almost a year now and the community is wonderful at helping people and answering questions. I apologize for posting yet another thread about CT "detoxing" but for the past 48 hours I believe I have successfully read every single thread about quitting. They're all wonderful, but there are a few questions I need to ask myself! :D

I have been doing dope daily for about 7 months. It was typically a bag a day, but has now turned into 2-3 bags a day. I live in NYC and I consider the stuff I do as pretty bad quality. My guy has very small bags and we have a system of he fronts me and I pay him on payday, and he continues to front me throughout the week (this has made it very hard to quit)

This is the first time I've put my foot down and decided to quit myself. My girlfriend whom lives 3 states away at the moment has been screaming at me to quit for a month now, and I am just tired of doing it. I'm tired of my guy playing games and making me wait 9 hours when I'm extremely sick. I don't even get high anymore.

So I quit CT on Monday 11:00 am and surprisingly at the 24 hour mark after my last shot I was feeling surprisingly well. I have been told this by every dope head I know personally: "The first day is easy, the second day is the worst, the third day is bad, but after that it gets better."

This is my first question: What is the first day? The 24 hours after your last dose or is the first day AFTER the 24 hour mark?

Because at around 28 hours I started to have cold sweats (don't bother me as much) and I felt very weak. Disclaimer: I always thought that "feeling weak" was the worst part of withdrawal. Boy was I wrong.

The reason I decided to quit was because for the next three weeks I am working the graveyard shift instead of my normal stressful daytime schedule full of work, communicating, and stuff that is painful whilst withdraw. So at the 30 hour mark I start to notice that my legs are just tearing themselves out of the socket. I've dealt with restless leg before, matter of fact, I got prescribed Gabapentin for it (gabapentin is a miracle drug and I wish I wasn't out of my script or i would get through withdraw like a breeze)

For the next 8 hours of my shift it was literal HELL ON EARTH. Restless arms, restless neck, restless feet. It got so bad that I called my boss and acted like I was having a panic attack to get off. Well I didn't. And I remember thinking "how in the world am i going to POSSIBLY finish up the next 5 hours of this hell? I can't, and I'm sure others have a hard time REALLY explaining the pains of withdraw. It makes me not want to exist.
The subway ride home was so painful, people kept glancing at me because of the constipated look on my face and how I kept fidgeting. I looked like I was headbanging to heavy metal because occasionally I would tick and lift my neck up and slam it down.

I got home (at the 48 hour mark.I'm still dissapointed in myself for this) and called my connect and got three bags. I rushed home and literally couldnt register a vein and it took me a minute to decide i was just going to shoot it into a muscle. After I got the warm, precious relief I registered a vein and literally slept all day. I'm just not strong enough.

So here's my situation now: in approximately 6 days I have family coming to visit and I'm TRYING to be clean by the time they're back. I went out today and bought 3 bottles of robitussen (DXM) which I have used during withdrawal and found it took away most of the symptoms.

I also take centrum silver (for the vitamins) naproxen (thats the only pain reliever I have) and tylenol pm which I don't think is helping sleep very much. I drink a lot of water and have not yet lost my appetite. So far I've never experienced vomiting, diahrea, stomach aches (maybe a little) but I would much rather throw up and shit for a week than feel this body pain.

my overall questions are:

1.Does DXM relieve the restlessness, restless body & leg? I know it mentally makes me feel better but I'm trying to wipe this affliction out completely..

2. Since my habit was what I would consider mild, will the physical symptoms be gone in maybe 4 or 5 days like i've heard? If they last more than 7 days I'm throwing in the towel and succumbing to my addiction for the rest of my life 8(

3. Would doing half a bag every 24 hours for the next 3 days help?

4. I read people talking about how many mgs of DXM they take.. How do i possibly measure it when its in cough syrup form? I know there is a little cup but i have not yet looked at it to see if i can measure the dose..

Thanks bluelighters. I probably didn't get to cover as much as I wanted to but I'm only 20 years old and want to quit for good. No relapse ever. I don't think I could get on suboxone or methadone because I'm broke so cold turkey is my only chance..

 

[OhCrap]

Are you able to get Imodium? I quit my 300mg/day tramadol habit 3 days ago cold Turkey and it is helping SO MUCH with my physical symptoms, and another plus: no diarrhea. I took 12mg on day one and am tapering down 2mg a day. For the rls which I seem to have constantly ativan seems to do the trick for me. Good luck friend! Hang in there when things get tough

 

[Ridethecircuswheel]

Thanks a lot!

You know what.. I always hear about immodium in relation to Diarrhea but it really relieves physical symptoms? I'll totally get it. It's over the counter right? because when you ask me if I can get it it makes me think it's prescribed medication..

 

[OhCrap]

Yes, it's over the counter and pretty cheap. The drug is loperamide, the brand name is immodium but you can find generic versions too that are pretty cheap. Like $6 for a bottle of 24. Apparently it is actually an opiate, or works the same way, so it helps to relieve your withdrawal symptoms and for me it's works wonderfully. I think you can start with as much as 20mg, but 12 mg worked great for me.

 

[Sepher]

2. Since my habit was what I would consider mild, will the physical symptoms be gone in maybe 4 or 5 days like i've heard? If they last more than 7 days I'm throwing in the towel and succumbing to my addiction for the rest of my life

In all likelihood, yes. With Heroin withdrawal symptoms tend to peak day 3, then things improve very rapidly over days 4 and 5. This is generally true regardless of dose or length of habit for Heroin users. What differs is the intensity of symptoms and how bad you'll feel on any given day. You should certainly be past the major physical symptoms by day 6 / 7 at the outside. Be prepared for sleep disturbances and big fluctuations in mood for a while but you'd be really unlucky to have physical symptoms like aches, pains, sickness and diarrhea beyond then. The clock really starts ticking soon as the symptoms start to kick in, 12-24 hours after your last dose.

3. Would doing half a bag every 24 hours for the next 3 days help?

Not really. If half a bag is enough to sort you out you'll be delaying withdrawal. If it's not enough to sort you out then you're still gonna feel rough with some symptoms but you'll be stringing out the recovery. Your body needs to be opiate free to really begin to recover properly, so try and stay away from opiates completely. The Loperamide is in a bit of a class of its own here as although it's an opioid its action is on receptors in the gut. It doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier so it's not lighting up receptors in the brain like other opiates and doesn't interfere with withdrawal in the same way.

4. I read people talking about how many mgs of DXM they take.. How do i possibly measure it when its in cough syrup form? I know there is a little cup but i have not yet looked at it to see if i can measure the dose..

Never used it but don't the dosing instructions tell you how many mgs there are in a 5ml spoonful, or the ingredients list tell you how many mgs / ml? They should do.

Best of luck. Remember, no matter how bad you're feeling it will pass. Let us know how you're doing. Maybe drop into The Dark Side forum if you need to. It's a bit better suited if it's a bit of a vent or a friendly ear you're after, rather than a drug-related type question.

 

[martin33]

if you can get to a doctor, get some Clonodine, that will help with most of the withdrawl symptoms such as cold sweats, etc. Also i found muscle relaxers to help with sleep and restless legs. Benzos help as well. Immodium for stomach cramps and diahrrea works really well.