Tapering off of poppy pods

Good to see everyone is sticking with their tapers and getting off "The Devil's Pod", I haven't had any pods for over a week now, but like I said in a previous post I really believe that I took the biggest hit when I switched to those new weak ass pods a few weeks ago (appears I'm not the only one who had trouble transitioning to those weak ass pods, if you even want to call them pods).

Anyway, I think it was the loperamide and klonopin that really got me through the last part of my taper after I switched to those shit pods cuz I really didn't feel much of a difference when I just stopped the tiny amount of daily pod grounds and kept using the loperamide and klonopin.

The only problem was that after a few days of feeling normal I started getting bored, even though I'm busy as hell playing gigs every night and teaching part time during the day and doing rehearsals. I just couldn't ignore the 50mgs of Subutex I had sitting in my room. So I've been taking a couple milligrams of that a day lately just to scratch that opiate itch in my brain. Unfortunately or fortunately the other night I figured out you can actually get a mild buzz on Subutex when you snort it, it's really pleasant especially after a year of the heavy pod buzz, I feel light as a feather and a thousand times more functional than I have been the previous month. I personally think it's much easier to taper off the subs than the pods, I've done it before but I never knew you could actually get a nice little buzz from them....... anyway, I'm sure the buzz won't last, it feels so much better to be on these subs though, at least I know what I'm taking and I'm not depressed. I tried the Effexor my psychiatrist prescribed and it just put me to sleep and made my anxiety worse, so I'm putting a hold on that, if I really need it I'll start it at some later date.

Even on the subs I've noticed a whole range of emotions start to come back to me that were numb while I was on the good pods, I've also been able to drastically reduce my klonopin dose which is essential because I'm prescribed them daily and had to use more than usual to get through the last few weeks, I would have ran out early if I kept dosing the way I was. Also I haven't felt the need to touch any adderall or alcohol or weed (I know it's the subs, my cravings for alcohol usually comes back when I'm off opiates for awhile). I know I'm an addict and the idea of using anything only on weekends or on special occasions went out the window when I was fifteen and started smoking pot everyday. I've been using something or another daily since then (currently 31yrs old.).

So that's my post-pod status update, just sticking to a couple mgs of sub a day and going to slowly decrease until nothing..... but I'm not making any promises, I'm just glad to be off the pods and not be abusing any other drugs. If I absolutely can't stay away from opiates I may just get a script for subs and stay on a low dose indefinitely, it's better than constantly chasing down some fix, and I can travel with subs which is important. I just can't have opiates be the center of my existence anymore, that was the appeal of pods at first, before the prices went up and quality down it was a easy habit to maintain. My sex drive and desire to converse with women has also returned! Funny the things that you don't even think about when you're on a high enough dose of morphine everyday.

Cheers everyone!

Best of luck to all of you getting off these life consuming intended for ornamental use only "slice of the devils pie" pods!
 
My sex drive and desire to converse with women has also returned! Funny the things that you don't even think about when you're on a high enough dose of morphine everyday.

Cheers everyone!

Best of luck to all of you getting off these life consuming intended for ornamental use only "slice of the devils pie" pods!

Sex drive and morphine? How so? I'm serious, I don't know about this. Thx!
 
Hey there Unsettled! Thanks for sharing so much of yourself. Good stuff that I needed to hear. Thanks for keeping it so real.

Hemp! Opiates kill the sex drive. For us guys it not only kills the drive but impairs function quite often. And even if the gun is cocked it often won't fire. Frustrating and very uncomfortable. I'll spare you any further details...

****************

TGIF! I am SO glad I decided to sit here this extra day at this dose. I'm finally stable and feeling pretty good again. I needed this extra day to get rehydrated and get some nourishment in me. I was pretty wiped out. I lost almost 10 lbs since Monday! That's a little too much for me. My blood sugar feels good, I had a normal BM this morning, and I feel ike I've got my wits about me a little better today. I'm ready for the next round. Well as ready as I'm gonna be anways.

Funny that you mention the sex thing, Hemp, as I was going to mention that my mojo has returned full-force. I am officially the horniest man alive. I checked and it's official. It's notdoing me much good right now as I'm single but it's good to know everything is still functional.

Seriously, though, that is SUCH and encouraging sign. That means I'm healing up a little bit! That means my levels are really getting down there. That is a definite sign that things ARE moving in a forward positive direction. I am SO encouraged today. After the past few rough days I feel like a new man and I am ready for another drop tomorrow. Down to 5g 2x/day tomorrow. Once again I am standing up straight, looking this damned addiction in the face, flipping it the bird, and saying "I'm gonna do my best to kick your stinkin' ASS". Someone remind of that when I'm whining like a little bitch in a couple days complaining about my petty discomforts,okay?

I hope all of you guys and gals that are tapering, kicking, maintaining, or what have you are feeling resolved, hopeful, strong, and are finding some peace within. These days can get awfully dark and it can be very lonely. I get so damn lonely and depressed these days but you good people really help me through my day. I remember that you're going through the same struggles wherever you might be geographically and we're all connected somehow through this trial by fire. I value you ALL so very much and I really don't think I could do this alone. Thanks to each one of you for helping me get through this. I appreciate every one of you.

Hang in there. We're geting there.

Peace.
 
Hey there Unsettled! Thanks for sharing so much of yourself. Good stuff that I needed to hear. Thanks for keeping it so real.

Hemp! Opiates kill the sex drive. For us guys it not only kills the drive but impairs function quite often. And even if the gun is cocked it often won't fire. Frustrating and very uncomfortable. I'll spare you any further details...


Peace.

No shit! I thought it was probably pre-menopausal symptoms for me! I'll spare you those details but nothing to share really...=D I assume it is the same for both sexes?
 
Glad to hear you all are doing well. I feel so lucky that I tapered off pods right when the shortage/weak-ass pod thing happened. Damn I would have been screwed if that would have happened when I was on 50-80g of pods a day!

Unsettled, do what you have to do, but 2mg of sub is quite a bit. (I did the same thing with finding that subs can give a decent buzz when my intention was to get off opiates. I did stick to snorting even when tapering the sub because of the better bio-availability and the quicker onset.) I'd recommend tapering the sub, but I don't fault anyone for staying on suboxone maintenance.

Having the sex drive come back is great after months of nothing! Funny, I would occasionally get opiate-boners when nice and high, but not that anything could be done with it. Pain-killers=no sensation. Talk about `ornamental only` purposes...

HeMP (when did that name happen? funny...) - I take it you are female? How do opiates effect sex-drive/performance for women? I would imagine it has a very similar effect, possible to get aroused, but no getting off. The feeling just isn't there. No?
 
I'm curious why people think sub is easier to taper than pods when:

1) Its roughly 40 times stronger and will rape your tolerance by exactly that much.
2) Its half life is 3 times longer, which means wds don't even start till day 3 and by the time you're done with pod wds you'll basically still be peaking in sub wds.
3) It appears relative to unsettleds situation that he/she is actually getting higher on sub.

Just because you feel better on sub does NOT mean it IS better or will be any easier to stop than pods. Pod may be a full agonist and sub a partial agonist, but the way I see it sub is a much much harder drug than pods will ever be. I've took them both, and can't possibly understand what force other than denial would be telling a person sub is actually "easier" to taper off of. Because you did it before and it was easier? Really? I'm sorry but that sounds too much like wishful thinking.

Maybe if you hop on an ultra small dose at the end of a pod taper, but jumping on to 2mg you might as well just go back to using 60-100gms of pods a day. Sure the sub is prob cheaper at this point but at least you won't be in wds for 4 weeks straight.

I'm not here to rise any feathers I'm just being logical about this. All that energy, euphoria and confidence sub gives you... well be prepared for the worst hell you could possibly imagine when you stop.
 
I'm curious why people think sub is easier to taper than pods when:

1) Its roughly 40 times stronger and will rape your tolerance by exactly that much.
2) Its half life is 3 times longer, which means wds don't even start till day 3 and by the time you're done with pod wds you'll basically still be peaking in sub wds.
3) It appears relative to unsettleds situation that he/she is actually getting higher on sub.

Just because you feel better on sub does NOT mean it IS better or will be any easier to stop than pods. Pod may be a full agonist and sub a partial agonist, but the way I see it sub is a much much harder drug than pods will ever be. I've took them both, and can't possibly understand what force other than denial would be telling a person sub is actually "easier" to taper off of. Because you did it before and it was easier? Really? I'm sorry but that sounds too much like wishful thinking.

Maybe if you hop on an ultra small dose at the end of a pod taper, but jumping on to 2mg you might as well just go back to using 60-100gms of pods a day. Sure the sub is prob cheaper at this point but at least you won't be in wds for 4 weeks straight.

I'm not here to rise any feathers I'm just being logical about this. All that energy, euphoria and confidence sub gives you... well be prepared for the worst hell you could possibly imagine when you stop.

Glad to hear from you man- it's been a little bit. How are you holding up man?

*******************

Speaking for myself I was under the erroneous assumption, and this is from reading too much crap and not enough FACTS, that sub was somehow an easier/softer way. I bought into the whole "miracle drug" baloney and stand corrected. I've done a little reading in the past couple days and have a much better picture of reality rather than opinion and I've got a whole new outlook/respect/and even a certain fear of the stuff now. Where I had in the back of my mind that I could always fall back on sub I now am, frankly, scared shitless of the stuff.

On a side note: for me pods take about 3 days to fully kick my ass. I'm surprised because I am a metabolizing machine. Would a fast metabolism somehow casue w/ds to come on so slowly for me? I got caught off guard the first time because I thought I made it through with no symptoms and right at day-three, 72 hours, it floored me seemingly out of the blue. Talk about a shocker! My only other w/d experience was with H and it hit hard and fast. Within 6-8 hours is ws in full-blown w/ds and by day four I was on the upswing. I was a hell of a lot younger too so that made a big difference. If there was any bright side to that it was over a lot faster... Yippee fuckin' skippie :-|

It seems that pods, methadone, and sub are the long slow dragged-out ones of the bunch but the bottom line is that ALL opiates kick major ass in their own ways, and there simply is no easy soft way other than slow tapers but even that has it's downsides.

There ain't NO free lunch.

*******************

Sub question: I'm reading of 16mg doses prescribed. Clearly it's powerful as .125mg can hold a person. Why in the hell would they prescribe that high? That almost seems like a recipe for disaster. Or would that be the correct dosage, say, for a huge H habit? I mean the difference between .125mg and 16mg is emormous! Call me a crazy conspiracy nutter but would this maybe be one of those "lets make sure we have a customer for life" kinda things?

I don't know- that high of a dose of something that powerful seems like overkill and then some. Any ideas? I'm just really curious as I've kind of dove into learning as much as possible but I don't always have the greatest amount of trust for the A.M.A. ya know? Someone who actually has experienced it is worth a hell of a lot more than some sales literature!
 
No shit! I thought it was probably pre-menopausal symptoms for me! I'll spare you those details but nothing to share really...=D I assume it is the same for both sexes?

We want details dammit! Pics are always nice too.

Men are "visual" learners after all...



Excuse me while I run like hell. I think I just got in trouble. Again.
 
Sub question: I'm reading of 16mg doses prescribed. Clearly it's powerful as .125mg can hold a person. Why in the hell would they prescribe that high? That almost seems like a recipe for disaster. Or would that be the correct dosage, say, for a huge H habit? I mean the difference between .125mg and 16mg is emormous! Call me a crazy conspiracy nutter but would this maybe be one of those "lets make sure we have a customer for life" kinda things?

I don't know- that high of a dose of something that powerful seems like overkill and then some. Any ideas? I'm just really curious as I've kind of dove into learning as much as possible but I don't always have the greatest amount of trust for the A.M.A. ya know? Someone who actually has experienced it is worth a hell of a lot more than some sales literature!

Yeh thats called a "therapeutic dose". Kind of like I can get prescribed 100mg of seroquel for sleep during wds, or if I have anxiety and insomnia a doctor can prescribe me 600mg which will cover both.

For sub, very small amounts like 1-4mg can hold over most habits. But doctors believe that the higher amounts are what actually stops cravings.. which I think is complete bs personally. I never had cravings on just 1mg of sub. I think it either works for you or it doesn't, and I think that matters more than the actual dose your on.
Like if I get cravings at 2mg, I'll expect myself to still get them at 16mg. But basically, a dr is multiplying a patients physical addiction X8-16times just so they don't crave opiates... which is SO FUCKING STUPID because at SOME POINT they have to COME OFF the sub and they're going to GET CRAVINGS ANYWAY. You HAVE to crave opiates to properly get off them in the first place. Its part of the process and theres simply no way around it.

Whats your plan doc? Keep them on 16mg for the next 100 years? Its not therapeutic as in the long run it only winds up putting the person in a MUCH harder situation.
So I personally think its ridiculous. But to sit here and complain about doctors overprescribing drugs is to complain that grass is green lol. Its really a hopeless venture expecting sense to ever be knocked into some of these idiot doctors. I just feel bad for the patients who just got off heroin, know NOTHING about sub, and start to foolishly believe for whatever reason that they're "clean". Clean they are not lol, they just went from paying their drug dealer to paying their doctor... their new drug dealer.

I agree its terrible that people are on doses like that but as long as its not me I'm not gonna drive myself crazy about it. =]
 
Glad to hear you all are doing well. I feel so lucky that I tapered off pods right when the shortage/weak-ass pod thing happened. Damn I would have been screwed if that would have happened when I was on 50-80g of pods a day!

Unsettled, do what you have to do, but 2mg of sub is quite a bit. (I did the same thing with finding that subs can give a decent buzz when my intention was to get off opiates. I did stick to snorting even when tapering the sub because of the better bio-availability and the quicker onset.) I'd recommend tapering the sub, but I don't fault anyone for staying on suboxone maintenance.

Having the sex drive come back is great after months of nothing! Funny, I would occasionally get opiate-boners when nice and high, but not that anything could be done with it. Pain-killers=no sensation. Talk about `ornamental only` purposes...

HeMP (when did that name happen? funny...) - I take it you are female? How do opiates effect sex-drive/performance for women? I would imagine it has a very similar effect, possible to get aroused, but no getting off. The feeling just isn't there. No?

I am not HeMP, but as a woman I do find that opiates effect my sex drive in a similar way. As you said its possible to get aroused, but getting off seems to be more difficult. Up until the last few weeks though I did not know that was a side effect of the opiates and was, well, quite frustrated with what was happening or actually not happening.

Ham, I am so glad to hear you have stabilized! You seem to be in a better place tonight, which is great. When are you planning on dropping to 5? Yes, I am at 7 (still twice a day though) and have been since yesterday. I was actually thinking of dropping to 5 tomorrow, but today hasn't been so great and so I am giving it another day or so to get stable as well.
 
HeMP (when did that name happen? funny...) - I take it you are female? How do opiates effect sex-drive/performance for women? I would imagine it has a very similar effect, possible to get aroused, but no getting off. The feeling just isn't there. No?

Hi Jay. A young girl here gave me the nickname. I thought it was cute how she came to it.

Ok brutal honestly here. Keep in mind I am 52 (and female). I still get my monthly thingies on time and regularly. I assumed they would end before I die of old age so thought I may be going through pre menopausal stuff. I mean we still have sex and I still orgasm but if left to me...probably no sex at all. Even now it's like every 3 or 4 months maybe where it used to be like every other day. I guess the opiates did that! :o <------embarrassment smilie.
 
We want details dammit! Pics are always nice too.

Men are "visual" learners after all...



Excuse me while I run like hell. I think I just got in trouble. Again.

Really not much to tell Ham. I've been blessed with nice, short and light periods. No clue what a cramp feels like. Never had one. When I was pregnant with my first child in 1980, the family doctor said to come to the hospital when I had labor pains start. He said they'd feel like cramps only stronger. I elected to not take any drugs for the child birth figuring there would be no pain at all. I wound up in active labor for 20 hours! I was ready to kill the doctor and my husband :)

You don't want anything more visual than that, hehehe! You didn't want to see photos of me giving birth did you?
 
I am not HeMP, but as a woman I do find that opiates effect my sex drive in a similar way. As you said its possible to get aroused, but getting off seems to be more difficult. Up until the last few weeks though I did not know that was a side effect of the opiates and was, well, quite frustrated with what was happening or actually not happening.

Ham, I am so glad to hear you have stabilized! You seem to be in a better place tonight, which is great. When are you planning on dropping to 5? Yes, I am at 7 (still twice a day though) and have been since yesterday. I was actually thinking of dropping to 5 tomorrow, but today hasn't been so great and so I am giving it another day or so to get stable as well.

Hi mlk! Glad to hear you are doing well too. How long have you been tapering off pods?

Hey Bo. How are you?
 
Hi mlk! Glad to hear you are doing well too. How long have you been tapering off pods?

Hey Bo. How are you?

Thanks! I have been officially tapering since Monday. I tried to taper a couple weeks ago, ended up with weak pods in the process and it was disaster and took me until this past Monday to get stable enough to begin my taper. However, I do think that mess reduced my tolerance a bit and therefore so far tapering hasn't been that bad. I am sure that will change the lower I get in my dose.

Hope you are doing well tonight Hemp!
 
I don't believe that sub is going to be that much easier to jump off of, I basically just couldn't resist temptation it's as simple as that. I had bought the subs six months ago in case I had to travel unexpectedly for work, and I did have to travel a little bit but not by plane so I just pre ground the pods and took them with me on a couple short tours in the US. I'm able to get by on less than a milligram a day, I was just experimenting a bit. Like I said I'm not perfect, it's not easy getting off opiates.

The thing I found surprising was that I had to take 2mgs before I could even feel it, I used to be able to feel the the tiniest crumb imaginable. I don't have enough sub to take them for too long anyway. Funny thing is that even with the sub I noticed parts of my brain and body to begin to work again even though the sub is stronger than the pods, the first time I used them they completely took away my sex drive but not this time. I also feel a much broader range of feelings, it's refreshing.

I also had to take into account my dwindling klonopin which I can't refill early. I have no illusions that it'll be painless getting off the subs but I needed to stabilize on something temporarily to get through work and the depression that always comes when the physical stuff settles down a bit. So don't flame me too hard, I'm just trying to get through this like everyone else, and as you know it's not easy. I've always had something I'd lean on my whole life whether it be alcohol or weed or whatever so it's tough to go to nothing. I have my Klonopin but that's just something I take to keep out of benzo wd at this point, it also keeps my anxiety in check.

Help Me Please: Yes, opiates suppress the sex drive in men, I've never thought so little about sex in my whole life when I was strung out on morphine, and besides not thinking about it it doesn't really work all that well until you start WDing. I normally have a high sex drive and it's nice to feel it return! Even though I know the battle is not over. I don't think subs are as hard to get off of if you're only on them a couple weeks. We'll see.

Bojangles: the only reason I was getting a mild buzz off the sub was because I was at approximately 3 to 4 teaspoons of WEAK pods for a couple weeks when I jumped off and had a week (almost) where I didn't take any opiates before my cravings got the better of me and I went to the sub. And no the sub does not even come close to getting me as high as the good pods used to but compared to where I was when I started the subs they gave me a very mild opiate-like buzz when I insufflated 2mgs. I'm aware of the danger here and am tapering.

Stay strong everyone!
 
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Unsettled, you need to do what is good for you and your body and not worry about what others think! Honestly, I assumed that the subs blocked opiate responses or something. Never had heard people were getting any buzz off of them at all. I know people get a buzz from methadone (is that the term?) and often wind up on that for many years doing maintenance. Suboxone was supposed to work quicker to get people off drugs wasn't it? Not sure why everyone gripes about it.

Mlk, looks like I was in bed already. Waiting on my grandson to get here now (6:15am) and then we will go back to sleep.

Morning Ham!
 
Good morning to all!

We've got quite the dysfunctional family here don't we? It's great. We don't have to feel so damn alone going through this crap.

Milestone day here today: Down to 5g 2x/day. I'm glad I hung out an extra day at 7.5g as I needed one solid day to regroup, feel human, and get psyched up for this drop. I'm ready. I looked at this mornings dose in the cup before I mixed in the juice and thought to myself "I really don't even want to take this shit". That's one hell of a change in thinking for sure.

I'm so glad to see so many good people here hanging in there takin' care of business. Good stuff for sure. I wish everybody a god day today and I hope we can all stay positive and hopeful and hang tough. Any way you slice it, be it pods or pills or subs or chocolate chip cookies, addiction is a bitch so none of it is easy for any of us. Hang in there and we'll get through this!

Peace.
 
Ham, how long before you know if you will feel WD from this drop? How many more days till the end? Do you think doing two doses per day will be a problem?

Just curious. I'm learning so much about pods!
 
Ham, how long before you know if you will feel WD from this drop? How many more days till the end? Do you think doing two doses per day will be a problem?

Just curious. I'm learning so much about pods!

I'll probably know by tomorrow morning, tomorrow evening at the latest.

Days til the end? 20-some (but maybe more if I need to sit tight along the way). I try not to look beyond the moment or I drive myself insane.

I don't have any problem with 2x/day dosing. I've tapered both ways and it didn't seem to make a difference either way. I've read that multiple doses in a day bring w/d's on faster and maybe that's true. My w/d's seem to peak around day-three no matter how often I dose.

*******

Today has been good. I'm SO glad to be down to 5g. 20 down to 5 in a week and a half and I was only whining for a couple days so I'm pretty happy about it. Now, though, is where the rubber meets the road as 5g is pretty freakin' low. I'm only going to be taking 10% drops now. Baby steps. I'm a wimp- I hate pain. I've got the time and I don't want to get high so I feel pretty solid right now. This could all go right out the window at any time for any reason so I just try to stay in the moment, be grateful for where I'm at right now, and worry about tomorrow tomorrow.

I hope everyone is hanging tough and doing okay today. Weekends can be tough because that was, for me anyway, time to get extra numb. Now the weekend can have too many hours to fill/kill. Hang in there taperers, kickers, maintainers, and assorted quitters. We're getting there slowly but surely.

Peace to all.
 
No shit! I thought it was probably pre-menopausal symptoms for me! I'll spare you those details but nothing to share really...=D I assume it is the same for both sexes?

yeah I'm a female too (despite the name - just a singer I like) and found the same thing. truth is, opiates kill just about every drive, so why should sex be any different? motivation is another big one.
 
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