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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Residual paranoia due to opiate use?

Pagey

Pagey

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Heyy,

I posted here a little while ago asking about the paranoia I often get when I've taken a substantial amount of opiates, especially if it's codeine or heroin - less so with the other ones. I'll start seeing figures in my room, usually characters from horror movies - for instance some recurring ones are the main characters fom Saw and American Psycho. I'm not going to say I'm the bravest/toughest person in the world but I'm not scared of the dark or anything, nor am I scared of any kind of imagined figure...except when I'm high.
Anyway I was told this was pretty common so I didn't think much of it, but the problem now is that I've started having those 'visions' even when sober. I'll turn off the lights at night and be absolutely, 200% convinced that Hannibal Lecter is standing in the corner of my room, leering at me. It sounds really dumb but seriously, I'm really not one to be scared of this sort of thing when I'm in my right state of mind. I'll be sure that I just saw something move and that someone's standing right there about to kill me or something. This never, ever happened to me before I started using opiates. Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone know if this is just going to continue regardless of my drug use, or if it'll stop if I stop the drugs, etc.?
Thanks :)
 
I don't know if I'd say that's pretty common. I would say lower levels of paranoia, like fearing you've taken too much when you haven't, that something bad will happen to you if you fall asleep, or that someone you don't want knowing you use opiates is somehow going to catch you, etc, are reasonably common, but I really don't think full-blown hallucinations of killers are common. I am curious why you still want to use these opiates or these doses if it causes these effects? I'm guessing perhaps you think the pleasant effects still outweigh the unpleasant ones, or you are physically dependent on opiates and fear withdrawal? (which would both be reasonable explanations, I know very well how irrational opiate addiction is :)).

I know for me once I started getting paranoid from opiates it did seem to stick and I'm definitely a more paranoid person than I was in the past, but it's kind of a chicken or the egg thing - was I becoming more paranoid in general and opiates just exacerbated it/brought it out, or did the opiates (or other drugs, I accidentally used some coke around that same time too) do some kind of damage to my mental health which caused me to be more paranoid in general? I'm not sure. But I wasn't having the kind of problems you are talking about. I'm sure stopping drugs would at least help.
 
are you still using opiates or other drugs? sometimes when i trip i freak myself out thinking of the super natural then i'll hear weird knocking sounds from inside walls and shit, scares the fuck out of me but i don't know if it's my mind playing tricks on me or not and that's were paranoia sets in.

the only time i get paranoid on opiates is if i mix them with benzos, and it's because i am risking death, usually i go to bed just thinking, just please let me wake up tomorrow, this one last time only to do it again. Too much codeine doesn't bother me but any other opiate and i start to worry.
 
Thanks for the answers :)

Swimmingdancer said:
I don't know if I'd say that's pretty common. I would say lower levels of paranoia, like fearing you've taken too much when you haven't, that something bad will happen to you if you fall asleep, or that someone you don't want knowing you use opiates is somehow going to catch you, etc, are reasonably common, but I really don't think full-blown hallucinations of killers are common. I am curious why you still want to use these opiates or these doses if it causes these effects? I'm guessing perhaps you think the pleasant effects still outweigh the unpleasant ones, or you are physically dependent on opiates and fear withdrawal? (which would both be reasonable explanations, I know very well how irrational opiate addiction is :)).

I know for me once I started getting paranoid from opiates it did seem to stick and I'm definitely a more paranoid person than I was in the past, but it's kind of a chicken or the egg thing - was I becoming more paranoid in general and opiates just exacerbated it/brought it out, or did the opiates (or other drugs, I accidentally used some coke around that same time too) do some kind of damage to my mental health which caused me to be more paranoid in general? I'm not sure. But I wasn't having the kind of problems you are talking about. I'm sure stopping drugs would at least help.
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Oooh okay. Well I wouldn't necessarily describe it as a full-blown hallucination - I guess I'll vaguely see a shape that looks like whatever killer and then it's more that my mind will just convince me it is in fact them and they're here to kill me, but then that reinforces the hallucination, of course.
But yeah it's exactly that, I still get enough positive effects that I find it worth it. I mean most of the time I'm able to kind of shut the images out and rationalize them, convince myself they're not there etc., but it's just once in a while (when I've dosed a bit too much usually) I'll be almost paralyzed with fear because I'll just be so sure it's real. I tried lowering my doses to see if it was any better and it was actually, but then I also barely felt anything from the drug - I start getting those hallucinations/visions/ whatever when I take about enough to nod. It's also true I've now passed the point where I can 'just quit' as I've gotten both mentally & physically addicted.
Also something I forgot to mention is that this residual paranoia only appears in the first day or two after I've used, and then it usually stops when I've been clean for a more substantial amount of time (thankfully).

RobotRipping said:
are you still using opiates or other drugs? sometimes when i trip i freak myself out thinking of the super natural then i'll hear weird knocking sounds from inside walls and shit, scares the fuck out of me but i don't know if it's my mind playing tricks on me or not and that's were paranoia sets in.

the only time i get paranoid on opiates is if i mix them with benzos, and it's because i am risking death, usually i go to bed just thinking, just please let me wake up tomorrow, this one last time only to do it again. Too much codeine doesn't bother me but any other opiate and i start to worry.
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Yeah, I use heroin every other day or so and sometimes codeine on the 'off' days, so it's quite regular. I had a similar experience as you the one time I tried LSD (was awful, never doing that again), so I'm wondering if maybe the various drugs are just bringing out some sort of latent propensity I had to see this sort of stuff, I dunno...
 
stop watching horror/gory thriller type films or documentaries about serial killers for a start.... if you watch something with a lot of suspense before going to sleep you are more likely to have trouble getting to sleep, for xyz reason and the quality of your sleep will be diminished.

you would need to talk to a therapist about why you are projecting these images in particular... a valium would probably also do the trick, but i can't condone that
 
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phatass said:
stop watching horror/gory thriller type films for a start.... if you watch something with a lot of suspense before going to sleep you are more likely to have trouble getting to sleep, for xyz reason and the quality of your sleep will be diminished.
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The thing is I don't. I've never even seen Saw, I just know the storyline and what the guy looks like. American Psycho & Silence of the Lambs I saw ages ago, years ago for the latter. They really aren't movies that are particularly present in my mind, at all, they just seem to pop up when I'm high.
 
Mmh it's been going on since I started to do H really, so that's since september, and it's been getting worse and worse. The hallucinations while sober have only been happening these past few weeks.
 
If you are 200% sure that Lecter is standing in your room at night, I don't think it has anything to do with drugs man, at all. Maybe if you were a couple weeks into an MDPV binge, but not from opiates or opiate cessation.
 
I know it sounds weird but I really don't see what else it could be, I don't have any history of mental health or anything that would explain it, and it's only been happening since I've started doing heroin...
 
Well it sounds like you aren't experiencing hallucinations but you are just freaking yourself out and imagining that you are hallucinating. This happened to me when i was younger a lot and I always thought people were watching me behind every corner and hiding as soon as i looked. It just went away with time though. Maybe the Heroin just puts your mind in a more vulnerable state and you are just fuckin with yourself.
 
Crashing said:
Well it sounds like you aren't experiencing hallucinations but you are just freaking yourself out and imagining that you are hallucinating. This happened to me when i was younger a lot and I always thought people were watching me behind every corner and hiding as soon as i looked. It just went away with time though. Maybe the Heroin just puts your mind in a more vulnerable state and you are just fuckin with yourself.
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this.

Also, remember that taking drugs be it heroin or meth, it causes some people to become paranoid.
I've never seen or thought somthing was "in the corner" but when i was doing alot of OC I would think people were always talking about me, wispering. turns out i was being totaly self absorbed and they weren't talking about me.

I know it's probably out of the question to take a break from H but i would give it a good try.

do you meditate? This would help for sure.
 
perhaps its a manifestation of anxiety - which is strange i know but opiates do give me anxiety for some reason especially during the rush or come up. Maybe you should have a night light or something too. I hope you can take a break from H and opiates in general, they certainly aren't going to help with mental issues, at least not in the long run. Hope things get better, opiates used to give me night terrors and sleep paralysis constantly so i think they may have something to do with it.
 
i think its because of the morphine alkaloid part of the poppy plant. many users of morphine derived opiates experience hallucinations that linger for days after their initial dose, and can even be part of the withdrawal/come down. however if you switch that patient over to a semi-synthetic or fully synthetic opiate they don't suffer those side effects.
 
If you ate hallucinating actuall objects and hear voices and paranoia, I would not rule out schizophrenia. The k opioid receptors is know to cause paranoia and possible hallucinations, but my guess is that the morphine triggered your schizo.


How old are you? Most people start to show signs of shcizophrenia around age 18-25.

Please go get check yourself with a psychiatrist. Not to scare you are anything. But its a good bet you have schizophrenia
 
Jeez laC, what a way to scare someone into thinking they have scitzophrenia, although it may be a probable reason, there are many other factors that can play a part in what she's experiencing. If she is using H from the street, god knows what its being cut with for a start -it could have any sort of drug that boosts dopamine levels further.

Maybe it's a reason to see a psych, but she noted that as she STOPS using these opiates the hallucinations go away and linger for a week after her last dose then disappear. To me that sounds like withdrawal from opiates causing a freak out mode.
 
Also keep in mind the OP doesn't seem to really be hallucinating as far as i can tell it's just anxiety/paranoid thoughts

and the key line: "This never, ever happened to me before I started using opiates."
 
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