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Opioids Safely and effectively increasing opiate dose as tolerance grows

U

uno22

Bluelighter
Joined
Sep 20, 2011
Messages
142
Let's assume that only full opiate agonists are being taken, not mixed with benzos or alcohol, etc, and the substance is pharmaceutically pure. I have read online that for severe pain, the dose can be increased by 50-100% regardless of the starting dose, and 25-50% for mild to moderate pain, also regardless of the starting dose.

Is this a good rule of thumb for recreational use as well? Once a person becomes used to 60mg oxycodone taken 3 times a day for example, would it be safe to jump to 120mg at a time after a few weeks or so? Lets say the drugs are swallowed or snorted but not injected.

From what I have read, the general consensus seems to be that once a person is opiate tolerant and they aren't mixing with any other substances, overdose and respiratory depression is rare. One would have to consume far more than what they are used to in order to experience an OD. However, how much is too much, percentage-wise? Obviously it's different with every person, but is it fair to say that doubling the dose should be safe? Is dosing every two hours or so with a drug like oxycodone ok because of the short half life?

It's my understanding that >90% of opiate overdoses have other contributing substances besides the opiate. So what's really the risk of OD when sticking to eating or sniffing oxy for example when you're tolerant and not mixing?

Just some thoughts that I had, wondering if people have any input.

Thanks
 
Doubling your dose is never a good idea... regardless of tolerance. There is no way to give you a direct percentage increase.. I mean, it's different for everyone. The key is to just increase your doses slowly for whatever drug you are doing. 20%, 30%, whatever it ends up being... you need to know your own body, your own tolerance, and use some discretion and common sense.

And plenty of OD's happen with just one opiate involved, no mixing of anything. Yes, a lot of OD's also happen because of other factors that are in play but its definitely not >90%.
 
I don't think it is safe to look for answers to your thread online.
There are so many factors to take into account and a professional opinion would be the best.

That's my 2 cents.
 
No doubling yer dose sounds like a bad idea even when someone has a really high tolerance. You saying double the dosage but it also depends on how high you are and tolerance plays a smaller role.

If yer really tollerant and are nodding doubling would probably kill you. Now if yer a lil high (still very tollerant) than I would say doubling probably won't kill ya.

If yer use to 60mg 3x a day then are you sayin that yer gonna do 120mg 3x a day? That doesn't sound safe. That's a huge increase.

I mean for me if I do 4 30s I know I can do 4 more and be fine. 8 30s will have me high but I would never consider popping 8 more and double my dose id fuckin kill myself.
 
I could see doubling a "maintenance" dose, for instance if you need 10mg to stave off sickness, 20mg would be ok. I can NOT see safety in doubling a recreational dose. If it takes 40 to get ya on the nod, I could see how 80 could easily be game over. If you're really looking to push the envelope, small increases spaced out would seem a better choice.
 
To answer the thread, which a lot of people seem to be dodging, and sorry if I'm stepping out of line by doing so, for your example, if someone is used to 60mg of oxycodone 3x/day, then I would recommend bumping up to 80mg 3x/day. If that doesn't cut it, try going to 90 or 100mg 3x/day. Like everyone here has been saying, slowly increase your dose until you find that sweet spot. You don't want to end up nodding for 20 minutes, just to blackout, pass out, and wake up the next day puking from over doing it. I tried this exact thing your asking because I didn't feel anything high-wise (I was taking for pain though), and wanted to see how far I could push it to get the most pain relief (i.e. I took an MS-Contin 100 which got me down to a 4 (pain) 3 hours later; I then took another and, as I said would be the likely result, nodding for 20 minutes, blacking out, coming to for maybe 20 minutes twice throughout the night, and waking up puking. Not fun. Had to call my doctor for something for nausea, because it persisted and ended up getting phenergan suppositories :p).

Please be safe.
 
I haven't nodded on oxycodone in years. My doses are very conservative, which is why I'm kind of sick of it and I kinda wanna get high, but I wanna do it safely.

I totally see where doubling a dose where ur nodding or very high would obviously be a horrible idea. I'm talking about a dose that might give a few warm and fuzzies but nothing to write home about.

I've never really pushed my tolerance to its limits which is a good thing, and I don't intend to, but I need to get a little bit out of my comfort zone if I want to actually enjoy the drug

I think I'll try slowly escalating it until I achieve desired results. Taking the same amount everyday and hoping for a better effect is just stupid.
 
A pretty good indicator from doing way more milligrams than your body can handle is if you wake with a headache the next day.
Not for everybody, but I have seen this proven in 3-4 aquaintances.
Most likely caused by too shallow of breathing while asleep.
 
You need to becareful with opioids, plot the doses you take in excell and keep a mathematical evidence of the doses you take troughout the day. Opioids send misleading signals, unlike amphetamines for example. With amphetamines, you can redose when you need more without proper calculation, because your feeling of "needing more" does not mislead you, you trully need more, and when you've had too much, your heart races and you feel like shit, so the drug sends out clear, distinct signals of where you're at.

Opioids however send misleading signals so you cannot re-dose them based on how you're feeling, you need to take a pen and paper and write down the doses you took 4 hours ago, now and how much to take in 4 hours. The most common misleading signal with opioids is that you have a tendency to piss yourself in pleasure when you're almost dead. The way you feel on opioids does not reflect reality, so trust the drug with a pen and a paper.
 
Hey man why would you want to double your dose for an increase? Thats a sure fire way to increase your tolerance way faster than if you increased your dose in smaller amounts. You want to keep your tolerance as low as possible for as long as possible. It doesn't make sense to try and make such a huge increase into your daily dose. Would you survive and not OD? Who knows, but why take the chance when you can probably be satisfied with a lower dose and still have noticeably increased effects?
 
^ If you take 60mg of codeine therapeutically and then you double it to 120mg, no worries there. The problem is, if he takes a dose where he pisses himself in pleasure, and then he doubles it, he will die. Phrases like:

"It's my understanding that >90% of opiate overdoses have other contributing substances besides the opiate."

shows he doesn't understand and he puts himself at great risk. Not to mention the "double the dose" thing...I think he's trolling, he can't be real.
 
Fire&Water said:
A pretty good indicator from doing way more milligrams than your body can handle is if you wake with a headache the next day.
Not for everybody, but I have seen this proven in 3-4 aquaintances.
Most likely caused by too shallow of breathing while asleep.
Click to expand...

This always scares me. I've now discovered what causes me to suffer awful headaches if I sleep with too much oxy in me. Hypopnea. I'm at risk of dying every night I snore like that. Jesus hell.
 
Doubling your dose even after maintaining on the previous dosage for a while is a bad idea. If you feel your medication isn't working as well because you are growing tolerant to it, a 100% increase in dosage is a bad start. Try maybe a 20% increase at first, and if that doesn't work then try a little bit higher, maybe 50%. If you take 80mg oxy twice a day, it would be foolish for to start taking 160mg twice a day as soon as you feel 80 isn't working as well. That would be both dangerous, and stupid because you are unnecessarily raising your tolerance higher..
 
I agree, you should be fine when you increase your dosage. I find that it is extremely hard for me to OD when I have been tolerant to opiates for a while. I am not saying that it is impossible, Don't get me wrong, but if your dose you are on isn't doing it for you, try increasing it by 25% to start and titrate your dosage from there... It is important to not go overboard we all know our own bodies limits if you make sure to do it in a responsible way then you should be fine. I find that for myself, when I am extremely tolerant and have been using for a while, I just can't even get high anymore, so I take a break and take subs for a while then switch back so i can get my nod on, so try to increase slowly until you find a dose that gets you off the way you like. HOPE this helps. I just want to stress though, that you need to do it in a way that isn't over the top, do it so that you know you will be safe and you can find your limit with out endangering yourself. CHEERS
 
Why not throw in 400mg of Ibuprofen with your normal dose of pain meds.
Sometimes it is the little things that help the most.
 
Not trying to be mean but your original post seemed incredibly misinformed- you must be getting your info from doctors or google searches- both are completely incompetent when it comes to understand how opiates really work

It depends on what current dose does. If 60mg has absolutely no effect on you it's possible going to 120 would be safe but chances are it'd have you nodding like hell

I wouldn't ever increase more than 10 or 20 mg at a time especially below 100mg(oxy)

Mixing things with opiates does make them a lot more dangerous but still fucktons of people OD in just straight up opiates all the time. I personally have had 2 friends die from using heroin alone, and have seen countless people go under from heroin or oxy alone (lucky for them I always carry narcan. Guardian angel junkie ftw)
 
I can post the medical texts to back up what I was talking about but I agree that doubling a dose that gets u high would not be smart. Really it would be doubling a dose that is no longer effective.

Also the statistic about the mixing opiates...there was a study in Canada where 92% of prescription opiate overdoses involved other drugs like Xanax for example. This didn't count shooting heroin which obviously makes a big difference. I'm not an idiot.

Thanks
 
Fire&Water said:
A pretty good indicator from doing way more milligrams than your body can handle is if you wake with a headache the next day.
Not for everybody, but I have seen this proven in 3-4 aquaintances.
Most likely caused by too shallow of breathing while asleep.
Click to expand...
Can totally relate to that.
 
I used to increase dosage by about 25% to keep up with tolerance. most of my experience is with street heroin but the quality was pretty much dead on every time (same about every time and acheived the same effects). I started doing 1 button/bag. then after tolerance built and I was no longer satisfied, I did 1.25 and I was content again. did this repeatedly for years. though I was increasing my dose about once a week (daily usage though) maybe every 10 days. so by the end of my first month I was doing about 1.5bag shots.
 
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