Opioids The Opioid Withdrawal Megathread and FAQ

[Albert E.]

Post day 22 today. After my physical symptoms stopped by day 15 (blahs' have continued) the diarrhea returned suddenly on day 19 thru 21. Errr.....

I have to apologize to everyone that said exercise is the best thing for PAWS. I was only a half believer, I guess. But I finally bought a bicycle and made myself go out and ride around the neighborhood. I could only do it for about 10-12 minutes but managed to get by heart rate pumping pretty good for the cardio value. I can honestly say within 30-45 minutes after I got back (and finally caught my breath, which I"m ashamed to say too a while) I really felt better. Actually, MUCH better. The closet thing to 'take my drugs' better. I felt good the rest of the day (rode bike about noon).

Thinking that maybe it was just a fluke or my imagination, I was feeling 'blah' when I woke up forced myself to ride again today at 10:30 am. Again only for about 10 minutes. And again, it really helped. 8o pm and I'm still feeling 'alright'. So yes, exercise (cardio), helps get rid of the "blahs'. I am NOW a believer.

Hope this helps someone.

 

[zaiya]

So my friend started taking kratom about 2 years ago, he was depressed looking for a more natural solution for energy and well being than anti depressants but was not wise enough to realize his own addictive tendencies. He started taking around 5-10 grams/day and felt amazing, starting finding more potent vendors and after 6 months was up to 25-40 grams a day at which point he realized he was in trouble. The good feeling went away and now any social outing, work, sex required a hearty dose of kratom in order to even want to participate. My friend then moved to hydros and started with 2-4 8mgs a day after a year he was up to 10-15 8mgs a day. My friend is tired of being of being stuck in this irritability and restless yet useless state of being. He’s thought about the last 2 years or so that have flown by And how it wasn’t him who was living it was a bunch of pills. He’s decided to quit and has 5 percs Imodium kratom adderall xr30mg and some xans.

Yesterday he took a small scoop of kratom (5grams) 1 perc and a couple pieces of xan

Today he woke up at 5;30 am and had to call into work as he decided now is the time. When he woke he took a small scoop(5g) of kratom and 2 percs, This got him through until around 11:30 when he woke back up.

At 11am he got up tired and miserable but waited as long as possible until around 1pm when he took 30mg of adderall, 10ml of passionflower extract or around 2500mg , .5 xan, 8ml loperamide


Felt actually pretty good and decided why not try and a hot bath. He took a hot bath which made him feel worse but after putting some of his favourite music on he became emotional and in a good way. He cried a bit but felt good about it as the real feelings have been nothing but synthetic produced outputs for the last 2+ years. The hot bath made him feel uncomfortable but was a good way to pass some time.

It’s now 6pm he feels okay and thinks he may be able to go into work tm and bars through the 8 hours before coming home to roll around and self analyze.

Wondering if it’s okay to take a perc or scoop of kratom if he’s really suffering or if it’s best to just CT and take the week off and turn of the phone so he doesnt feel guilty about work calls coming in all day?

It’s almost impossible for him to take time off work but he said had the flu so he could probably get away with missing a week + having next weekend to get through the worst.. his concern is that if he uses kratom that even after that week he will need to stop that and then be back at work but now coming off kratom all be it a low dose.

 

[Delmonte421]

So my friend started taking kratom about 2 years ago, he was depressed looking for a more natural solution for energy and well being than anti depressants but was not wise enough to realize his own addictive tendencies. He started taking around 5-10 grams/day and felt amazing, starting finding more potent vendors and after 6 months was up to 25-40 grams a day at which point he realized he was in trouble. The good feeling went away and now any social outing, work, sex required a hearty dose of kratom in order to even want to participate. My friend then moved to hydros and started with 2-4 8mgs a day after a year he was up to 10-15 8mgs a day. My friend is tired of being of being stuck in this irritability and restless yet useless state of being. He’s thought about the last 2 years or so that have flown by And how it wasn’t him who was living it was a bunch of pills. He’s decided to quit and has 5 percs Imodium kratom adderall xr30mg and some xans.

Yesterday he took a small scoop of kratom (5grams) 1 perc and a couple pieces of xan

Today he woke up at 5;30 am and had to call into work as he decided now is the time. When he woke he took a small scoop(5g) of kratom and 2 percs, This got him through until around 11:30 when he woke back up.

At 11am he got up tired and miserable but waited as long as possible until around 1pm when he took 30mg of adderall, 10ml of passionflower extract or around 2500mg , .5 xan, 8ml loperamide


Felt actually pretty good and decided why not try and a hot bath. He took a hot bath which made him feel worse but after putting some of his favourite music on he became emotional and in a good way. He cried a bit but felt good about it as the real feelings have been nothing but synthetic produced outputs for the last 2+ years. The hot bath made him feel uncomfortable but was a good way to pass some time.

It’s now 6pm he feels okay and thinks he may be able to go into work tm and bars through the 8 hours before coming home to roll around and self analyze.

Wondering if it’s okay to take a perc or scoop of kratom if he’s really suffering or if it’s best to just CT and take the week off and turn of the phone so he doesnt feel guilty about work calls coming in all day?

It’s almost impossible for him to take time off work but he said had the flu so he could probably get away with missing a week + having next weekend to get through the worst.. his concern is that if he uses kratom that even after that week he will need to stop that and then be back at work but now coming off kratom all be it a low dose.

I feel for you guys. I am trying to get off oxy and my girl is a very straight edge person who has never done any drugs. Here I am taking like 200mg of oxy a day and explaining to her how I can't just cook turkey etc and she's learning too which is good but god dam I hate being an addict lol I love me my oxy.

 

[stimp123]

I often quit for a month or so and start feeling like I've conquered it - and then I'll get the opportunity for a script or whatever and it's honestly like I suddenly am back in withdrawals - especially if I'm in a situation where the pharmacist or whoever suddenly feeds me some bs or flakes I get incredibly depressed. And just a week ago I was great - no cravings at all. I'm starting to realize that the mental withdrawals are worse than the physical for me. They also seem to last forever. I guess I will always crave it no matter how long clean.

 

[Delmonte421]

its so funny you say that cause I went 24 hours and it actually wasn't that bad. Yo have u ever had 80mg OX green pills?

 

[zaiya]

Today is day 3
My friend Woke up 4 am in withdrawals, rls irritible, took 1mg xan and fell back asleep
Woke up at 9:30 spine feels like it’s being ripped out and RLS so he got up and had some lope about 6mg and perc 5 and adderall 30mg

11:30 he had a small scoop (4g) of red Bali and now at 12:40 feel calm and warm and actually not that bad
He is concerned he’s prolonging things by using the lope xans kratom and if absolutely needed perc 5/325 acetametaphine. What do you guys think?

Just 4 days ago he was up about 25x the amount of opiods than are in his system now. However he only has this week off and will need to go back into work Monday and wants to do so 100% clean of anything.

He’s going to continue to keep track with how he feels and is in the right mindset to actually get clean this time. He said he’s aware of the voice that says all you need is to get high to feel better and realizes that doing that will ruin 3 days of progress so it’s not in the cards.

If you’re going through the withdrawals just think to yourself why you’re doing it. Remind yourself that there’s a whole other side of you that’s being suppressed and each day you get cleaner you can start to feel those real emotions and feelings come back sometimes it’s sad and painful but it’s a beautiful thing because in life there is no pleasure without pain and your body does a good job at monitoring that system so getting hooked on opioids as most of us know, creates a version of one’s self that is not truly them.

My friend was listening to some music and said a song made him cry but he was happy that he was actually feeling something again and able to resonate and release those emotions as humans are intended to do where as last week he would have been high and the song would have zero profoundness to it.

Life is beautifull and if it takes 7 days or 20 days that’s really a small amount of time when you think of the average persons life span so the sooner you jump the better!

 

[Albert E.]

Full month now (32 days). Can't say I feel much better.

Okay about 30% of the time. Still low energy. Been a LONG month. Hope this next one goes by faster. Looking forward to getting to month 2.

 

[JustferFun]

I'm staring down the barrel of a short/ partial fentanyl withdrawal, and even that has me anxious. I can barely go 6-8 hours without re-dosing because of the short half life. I know a lot of it is probably all mental, but I feel that mild withdrawal symptoms start pretty quickly for me. I've been taking it basically around the clock, so maybe my body is used to having it regularly. I wish I could get longer acting opioids to transition with, but I can't. I have Suboxone which I plan to take, but it will be useless for at least the first 36 hours. I've been through this before and I think I got some precipitated withdrawal when I took the subs after about 16 hours. At that time, I really didn't know much about fentanyl. Now I know more and I still managed to get myself into this situation yet again.

There might be a way to slowly induce the bupe (like the Bernese Method) but I'd have no idea of how and when to start that. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

Even though fentanyl has been around for a long time, addiction specialists/ researchers haven't had enough time to develop protocols for slow induction because widespread non-pharmaceutical fent is still a fairly recent thing. The Bernese Method is still being perfected, and even then, it's probably going to be much more difficult because it will be highly individualized. With H, I could take subs barely more than 12 hours after my last dose and it worked like a charm. It was easy and there was barely any discomfort. I could live and go to work without skipping a beat. That's what I was used, so I was surprised when the subs felt basically useless in that first fent withdrawal.

This can't be good for the general public. This will contribute to some people not getting clean. Fentanyl sucks in basically every way imaginable. It's a shitty opioid to begin with and it's harder to stop (with suboxone) than heroin. That's before even getting into the OD aspect. Non-pharmaceutical fentanyl is a good example of why legalizing all drugs might be a good idea, but that's a completely different subject.

The induction problem obviously doesn't exist with methadone, but that's much less available than buprenorphine. It would seem that a simple solution to the bupe induction problem would be to take a dose or two of methadone before starting suboxone......or something like that. I'm no expert on the science of it all.

 

[Albert E.]

1 1/2 months clean now. Still about the same as my last post at 1 month. Christmas has come and gone. I was able to get to my parent's house to fake some cheer for a few hours. Low energy remains. Had a string of bad luck lately.

1. Going through a bad divorce now (spouse thinks she's taking 80% of everything I've worked for since age 15 (53 now...and I've spent $40,000 on attorneys to make sure that doesn't happen.....crooks).
2. My sister died (age 56...long standing illness).
3. And I just got COVID for the first time. Hell, I'm afraid to take a drive for fear of someone smashing into me.

But........I still haven't used. Just basically a zombie in my apartment. I view it as a being in jail for a while.....just hanging low. Doing my time. Just waiting and waiting to feel better. The COVID is making me feel like I'm back in immediate withdrawal (with the running nose and sneezing and aches and pains)..but at least I have an excuse to stay away from people for a week or two as I quarantine.

 

[Deleted member 569363]

I've found that if one is able to, a 20% reduction once a week until clear avoids withdrawal symptoms.

 

[JustferFun]

1 1/2 months clean now. Still about the same as my last post at 1 month. Christmas has come and gone. I was able to get to my parent's house to fake some cheer for a few hours. Low energy remains. Had a string of bad luck lately.

1. Going through a bad divorce now (spouse thinks she's taking 80% of everything I've worked for since age 15 (53 now...and I've spent $40,000 on attorneys to make sure that doesn't happen.....crooks).
2. My sister died (age 56...long standing illness).
3. And I just got COVID for the first time. Hell, I'm afraid to take a drive for fear of someone smashing into me.

But........I still haven't used. Just basically a zombie in my apartment. I view it as a being in jail for a while.....just hanging low. Doing my time. Just waiting and waiting to feel better. The COVID is making me feel like I'm back in immediate withdrawal (with the running nose and sneezing and aches and pains)..but at least I have an excuse to stay away from people for a week or two as I quarantine.

When I got Covid for the first time a few weeks ago, I thought for sure it was withdrawal. Having Covid sucked even though I really didn't have a lot of symptoms.

Are you taking any suboxone or anything?

 

[Albert E.]

No, I am not taking anything. I decided 'cold-turkey' .....as bad as it sucks..... would be best for me.

 

[Albert E.]

Thought I'd check in. It's been 2 months since I quit. Yeah for me. Day 45-55, I still felt totally energy-less. That is acutally my ONLY problem now. Just no energy or desire to do much anything except lie around and watch t.v.

It's like I'm dragging a 50-pound weight behind me on a rope tied around my waist.

Just a BIG (mental) effort to do most anything. Physically, I feel fine. Last week, I got some tyrosine from my local vitamin store (along with 5-HTP). I'd heard good things about it so figured I'd give it a try. 1,500 mg (3 capsules). I *think* it helps, as it supposed to be a precursor to dopamine & norepinephrine, certainly things that are depleted during PAWS. I say, I think it works, in that, like with exercise, it seems to work better on some days than others (always taken without food) and seem to take about 2 hours to work.

I still think exercise is good.........but it's just so hard to get motivated to do much. I have to admit, I was hoping I'd be father along at 2 months. But I understand it could take 1-2 years to feel 'normal' again. It's just that before the drugs, I was ALWAYS super motivated, super energetic, super ready for anything. What the hell was I thinking to even start using all that trash 12 yrs ago!! STUPID! STUIPD! STUPID!

 

[Albert E.]

Day 80. I am feeling better. Day 73,74,75 I was feeling bad. (im marking it on my calendar). Just goes to show how PAWS is. You can feel good for a few days and then it's like you are back to day 5 or so.

But in the past week, I have felt pretty good. Not 100% by any means. Maybe 50%...............which I will gladly take because it is getting fairly persistent. I'm even feeling like going back to work again.

But I digress. This is about withdrawal. I am a glass half-full type of person and I will come out on my feet, no matter what.

 

[Hueofblue]

Jezz That sucks...i feel for you man...i hope the sun comes out tomorrow.

 

[Albert E.]

3 months since quitting. The only problem is the anhedonia (the reduced ability to experience pleasure). In my opinion, this the BIGGEST problem in PAWs and it begs you to go back and use again. It's the voice in your head you have to ignore 24/7. Maybe it's that little devil that sits on one shoulder trying to get you to do bad.

I don't even have enough energy to think. . Just taking it one day at a time still.....realizing I may feel this way for 6-12 more months (maybe more?). Sucks but do-able. Just so ready to get back to normal.

 

[Madrus]

Do some yoga.
Then do some charity work or seva.

 

[Myeaaa]

3 months since quitting. The only problem is the anhedonia (the reduced ability to experience pleasure). In my opinion, this the BIGGEST problem in PAWs and it begs you to go back and use again. It's the voice in your head you have to ignore 24/7. Maybe it's that little devil that sits on one shoulder trying to get you to do bad.

I don't even have enough energy to think. . Just taking it one day at a time still.....realizing I may feel this way for 6-12 more months (maybe more?). Sucks but do-able. Just so ready to get back to normal.

Not really sure what you just quit, but for me anhedonia never lasted longer than about 6 months. It sounds like you are about at the tail end of it. Maybe others have had a different experience, but for me it seems like right about the time you have given up on life fighting PAWS, you get distracted by something and a month later you realize it left without saying bye. Exercise, DLPA, 5-HTP, L-theanine mixed with taurine, and stuff that jumpstarts your LH again all work great. The LH thing flies under the radar, but I found a connection there after experiencing PAWS symptoms after stopping testosterone, which later went away quick after subcutaneous round of HCG.

Testosterone is also a great rip to ride, but is a much trickier beast than opes...500mg of T-400 blend and 60mg Oxy IR is really something to behold. Only works once though.

There is a product called theanine serene out there thats a great blend, and by the time taking it starts to feel detrimental, you can assume you are back to normal.

 

[RandomUserName95]

Hey man, great you're hanging in there! I know it sucks to hear it but patience and taking it day to day or even minute to minute is key . After some time (18-24 months from my xp) the new way of life without substance abuse gets to be the new routine. Might be earlier but might take longer there is no way to tell. At the end of the day the time using was probably years compared to three month clean. We humans need time to adopt, physically and emotianlly

 

[4boyeez]

Day 80. I am feeling better. Day 73,74,75 I was feeling bad. (im marking it on my calendar). Just goes to show how PAWS is. You can feel good for a few days and then it's like you are back to day 5 or so.

But in the past week, I have felt pretty good. Not 100% by any means. Maybe 50%...............which I will gladly take because it is getting fairly persistent. I'm even feeling like going back to work again.

But I digress. This is about withdrawal. I am a glass half-full type of person and I will come out on my feet, no matter what.

I am on day 84 of going CT at the first of the year. Long time chronic pain patient and never abused it. However, at the highest I was on 80 mg of Methadone and 30 mg of Morphine IR per day. I needed to come off of them because they just stopped working as well and other things were manifesting like heat intolerance, rashes, dry mouth {ruining teeth}, extreme dry eye and nausea/vomiting. I had been tapering down over 2 years but the last quarter of 2022 was so bad with partial withdrawals. I thought that if I was going to be miserable I should just jump off and gut through it. I was down to 30 mg Methadone/day but they were increasing my morphine so it was up to 60-90/day as needed. When going CT, I started mega-dosing Vitamin C and taking clonidine and Imodium. I only had to take Imodium about 3-4x/week but it seemed I would never get past a certain point. I think my withdrawal was about 60% better than before I tried before...for only 8 days. I finally realized the Imodium was kind of starting things over after 3 weeks of taking it since its is a partial-opioid agonist. My dr had me come in because at 6 weeks I was still have lethargy, a bit of the cold sweats, sneezing, and the worst was my heart pounding just waking up from sleep. I didn't even have to move just open my eyes and sweats and heart pounding. After an EKG to make sure my heart was ok, we found that it fluttered at the beginning of each beat. He feels it was the withdrawal process and he loaded me up with supportive meds and wrote a script for suboxone. He told me it would help with my energy and the DEPRRESION that I have never had before, except on occasion like a loss or extreme stress. Even with chronic pain I have a mindset that is usually positive. I know its the PAWS. I, like you, have up days and figure I am past the down days but every few days I am stuck not being able to do much. My chronic pain is rheumatoid arthritis and injury to my feet. Feet came first then the RA diagnosis about 5 years ago. Feet are all but back to normal but my knees, hips and shoulders are most effective. Laying around is not a good thing and doing too much is horrible. Still haven't found a happy medium. I KNOW I do not want to start Suboxone and damn me if I EVER go back on long term pain meds. If you can offer anything to help with the energy loss and/or PAWS please advise. 12 weeks today and its still tough as far as energy and PAWS go. I think I am done with the other detox symptoms. Last thing...Congratulations on stopping that stuff.