Positive The Tapering Supportive/Social Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
Helpfulgf- A solid tapering plan means lowering the dose and staying at that dose until the patient no longer suffers withdrawls at that dose. Then lower it again and wait until withdrawls go away again. Keep doing that until the dose is small enough to jump off completely and quit completely.
A seasoned alcoholic will process alcohol quickly. Their liver and digestive tract produce the enzyme necessary to break it down much faster than the average person. You may want to keep the current schedule of dosing every 4 hours and reduce the quantity at each interval. Moving to a 6 hour dosing schedule would be easier, but it may take its toll on you emotionally if he is sicker for that extra two hours every time.
 
Last edited:
I'm starting my detox again tomorrow and my plan is to take 6 Dihydrocodeine tablets in the morning and loperamide. I have roughly a .2 H habit and was wondering if anyone would know how much loperamide I should use as a substitute? I will be using Zantac to try and improve the efficacy of the loperamide. I'm really worried about the detox and am desperate to do it this time. I'm thinking about taking taking 55 loperamide on day one, then 50, 45 etc on days two, three until I reach 0. Any ideas?
 
I forgot to mention taking the loperamide throughout the day doesn't work for me and I need to dose myself in one go. Having a Zantac an hour beforehand helps. Also if I take the loperamide with coffee it seems to take effect more quickly. I suffer from what I think are panic attacks whilst in withdrawals and find it harder to breathe. I've tried warm showers but to no avail. Also any ideas on how to occupy my time? I'm sorry if I haven't replied to anyone yet but my mind is all over the place.
 
Hey Billy how good is your H would you say? Mine was fire, chipped off a brick. I have a habit that size for a while before more and more began to go up my nostrils and also starting on my veins. It's hard to say man like can you say how much of any pharm opiate would hold you if you couldn't get H? In my experience once you do H there is no going back, nothing else satisfies, but like, would roughly 200mg oxycodone in a day keep you out of withdrawal, or is it more? I am trying to figure out your habit it's hard with street drugs.

I'm also interested as I am at risk of going back to using this drug and I would definitely be shooting it this time. I can't deny the cravings and how it would take one time, but for now I'm hanging in there. I was offered 10 2mg dilaudid today actually for free by a friend (like, she just didn't know of the problem and has lots of weed) and declined them. If it was benzos I'd drive fucking 12 hours and back pointlessly for 100 valium. I just figured that it would set me back more, and I'm already suicidal and the thing is I know I can't sustain a habit yet. If I could, things might be different but that is neither here nor there.

Man you don't need that much loperamide. It isn't going to shit with a heroin habit that heavy. Like what I am saying is in my personal opinion it does nothing at all worthwhile and is a waste of money too it's really expensive, but I was still taking 50mg a day for its purpose - diarrhea med - which it worked great for I stopped shitting myself. But heroin withdrawal symptoms? Lol, not even 30mg xanax will touch that if you have a lil benzo tolerance. Remember we are probably the heaviest abusers if we were dumb enough to do H with or without chronic pain. I think subs or methadone might be worth looking into if you need something? Skip the lope? haha. It does help with the diarrhea when you have an extreme habit.

I started going for walks, treks. I'd walk like 20km and try to zone out. Eventually started getting into hot yoga but I've been too depressed to leave my bed lately. The first two weeks of heroin all that went through my mind was how bad I wanted to kill myself to make it stop. Pretty much. It was hell on earth.

I think you should cold turkey as there is no risk of death. Do not use comfort meds Billy and I will tell you why. You need to make yourself suffer as much as humanly possible if you want not just to get clean but to remain clean. It gets much harder actually, when you have 4 to 6 months or so down. The thing that made me stop getting the free dilaudid today, was thinking back to the withdrawals. A lot of long term junkies say that they have one more run in them, but not a withdrawal. If you cold turkey that shit, I guarantee you'll think 100 times over before ever taking a hit again. Make yourself suffer as much as humanly possible but try to eat, smoke as much weed as possible if that's your jam, try to sleep, you won't be able to do any of this. In particular keep hydrated and magnesium can help with the muscle aches which turned into a burning alive feeling for me over time. Might be good to have bananas, I dunno, just eat healthy but really light stuff that is full of nutrients. I was like snacking on 2 pieces of kale for half an hour haha but it's still nutrition.

Sounds like panic attacks. I'm having them worse than ever so far 5 months in, same with insomnia. Just a heads up. If you think this will be over in a few weeks you are kidding yourself man.

Go for really long walks, remember water, that's how I got through it cause the walking will keep you preoccupied and get your endorphins going and tire you out a bit which is good. But yeah it took me like a week to make it around the block. And I still want it back.
 
I met someone I really really like. I've been in benzo wd hardly able to leave my bed since Friday. But she's been covering my coworkers shifts past couple weeks and we work together. Usually the people do their own thing but we can kill it together. We work together, get everything done so fast and then we chat. I tell her about myself, make sure I'm not boring her, really polite, but flirty just subtle I think she picks up on it, haha, but remember to ask her lots of questions too. Today she was so chill, we have cool stuff in common and are just a good team. Did I mention she is beautiful. Anyways, I mentioned this for one reason not to mention I have a crazy crush on someone but it's different. Like, if we can hit it off like that it's so legit. I haven't felt that way with anyone else since forever and she's just so damn nice. I make fun of myself and stuff she doesn't mind.

So yeah I felt this building up but I know I want see her for a while cause we switch back now. But yeah, it would have been like the guy in the dispensary lineup who I talked about legit growing knowledge with and who honestly could have been a smoking buddy after a conversation in line. The convo was probably the chillest stoner convo I've ever had as short lasting as it was. It's just like, after 15 years of being a doper you start getting irritated when people don't know their shit. And with this dude, it was like one or two minutes before we realized we were hardcore stoners and I think both struggling a bit or we wouldn't be there buying little bags of herb.

Anyways, it wasn't even a realization this was just natural. I learned from the experience I just mentioned, that I could have possibly made a really great stoner junkie type dude who I could probably relate to a lot. Seemed down on his luck but cheerful. I should have just said yo lets go smoke one man I got hash you got herb. But yeah it's kind of sketch too right so we ended it with maybe i'll see ya around again. And that was super chill cause paranoid stoners would def do that haha. Need to confirm 2 or 3 times that we are scummy weed junkies lol.

Oh right the girl. She is omfg. I liked her before, was attracted to her but it took a while to really get chatting with her and now it's just like chill. I want to get to know you. She's a bit younger (she thought she was older haha, William Burroughs always said junkies tend to look younger than they are)... oh right the girl. Okay so I was like fuck this I'm not letting you go b*tch!!! No I didn't say that haha just internally and it wasn't like I should ask this girl out. Was just like want to talk about "cool stuff we were talking about" and she was right away like "yes". Sort of confidently too, enthusiastically like emphasizing it. I don't get it. Why would she be so interested. If she senses what I sense though and thinks I'm cute, that is chill. It's not a big deal shit has never worked out but this feels different. I like the company of women in general but we talk for an hour straight getting to know each other and also there is also something I like. If we don't talk, it isn't awkward or anything. That's super chill and a good sign.

But yeah the reason. I was in benzo wd the whole shift I didn't really take much extra and I hadn't had a short acting all day I was fucked out of my mind with anxiety. But yeah this didn't stop me at all and she has the opportunity to get ahold of me now. I don't care either way (well I'm telling myself that) but yeah like it was just chill to make a new friend like that. She was really motivating to me about applying for jobs. She's like I'm going to ask you if you applied to this one yet. Lots of teasing just fun, dammit. I have a pointless ridiculous crush on a girl. She is lovely and she isn't full of shit like some of these other girls. She's real, I know I'm a worthless junkie and all but that doesn't mean I won't meet someone while detoxing. I can't control when that happens and it's just the natural teamwork and convo. Now I am going to forget about her or keep her in the back of my mind until / if I hear from her. We are funny together... and it's just the way she emphasized yes' and like right away when I asked to keep in touch or whatev. That was surprising I'm just not letting another potential friend getting away when I need friends to be happy and yeah. I was in benzo wd the whole time, banged my head twice once totally fucking my piercings internal cartiledge bleeding fuck, I did make myself look good actually last minute, but was sort of spacey and I feel like she just likes me. Asks me a lot about my career I like that. Like she sees the potential how easy it would be if I just tried. Not having friends is really hard for people with BPD because they help me recognize my identity. I identify with The Void, you see.

Anyways we like each other it's cool. I'm too stoned to remember writing this and it's late at night, I don't want to read it again or think about her as that will get in the way. It generates anxiety. She'll totally contact me if she likes me and well, there were those flirting cues tonight. Just weird to be so comfortable with someone after a few times meeting her and also the natural teamwork we laze around and then kill it at our work and make good split second decisions we mostly agree on. I have a crush now, honestly for the first time in soooo long I thought I had crushes on girls but there was always something holding it back. Difference between crush and attraction I guess. I completely have a crush on this girl and who knows? I'm thinking long term here, well, I have thought about this as a long term thing and honestly who knows right. But I do know one thing if I don't hear from her that's cool. It's her choice. I did really well. Would love to continue getting to know her though.

Also, being around her somehow lessened the benzo withdrawal. Just her I don't get it. It wasn't really bothering me as much I was still doing shit like banging my ear accidentally so hard it got bloody for fucks sake, but chatting intently and cheerfully. I genuinely really like getting to know her and in a few hours feel like I know a lot about not just what she does and stuff but a bit about her family, and definitely her personality. Grrrrr I know I mention girls from time to time but this is a little different. I'd go for her in a heartbeat and I guess I did tonight when she was getting ready to leave. Whenever I have liked a girl and it worked out for a while it happened fast.

Time to smoke a gram to forget I wrote this because I want everything to be a surprise if this amounts to anything. But yeah the weird part was without as many benzos it was more chill. I was in withdrawal but I'm used to withdrawal. I was more myself, I guess. The other girl I'm friends with said I seemed down tonight and if I ever wanted to talk. This girl I am crushing on brought me up. She boosted my confidence, especially with jobs and we have some fun things in common. Complimented her about some good things in her life but naturally, like I was happy for her for real. I wonder if anything will happen. Time to smoke a gram in bong so I forget I wrote this it's just venting so that I don't think about her until I see / hear from her next time.
 
Last edited:
Overall doing better I'd say I'm recovering from the past week. My body was weakened significantly and I've been depressed for a while the benzo wd is fucked. I'm not doing better I just shouldn't run low like that and that is comforting to get more. Although I am doing better as I can socialize and stuff a little in benzo wd. I am not really hallucinating it's not that bad a taper with them.

Last night got me thinking about what my life could be like if I made some changes. With a job and only a benzo habit if it was at least managed the anxiety, it was a lot better managed before when I was not trying to cross over. I'd rather taper right away anyway it's faster. I could probably get away with having a girlfriend too if I had a few more things going for me the instability is mainly due to trying to get my benzo use under control, or being forced to essentially. Ive been doing well off opiates. I was recently very tempted by dilaudid unintentionally it was just there but if I did that once I'd be sniffing dope asap full time.
 
Last edited:
Billy start your Loperamide tonight. Maybe 40 mg. It takes time to work.

Yes. Billy you want to start early before withdrawals hit to give the Loperamide the time it needs to kick in.
I would start at a high dose. 40 -60 mg sounds good to me. Take them all at once.

Then once the Loperamide kicks in, you can start lowering the amount of loperamide needed.
I started at 40 mg and have been comfortable on 20-30 mg a day now and I am heading into day 6.
The last two days I have only needed 20 mg. I have been comfortable the entire time.
The Loperamide helps with a whole lot more than just diarrhea.

Loperamide used to be a prescription narcotic given for pain but it was determined it did not work so great for pain but worked real good for diarrhea. So the FDA made it an over the counter anti-diarrhea med. This stuff has been referred to as over the counter methadone. It is strong stuff and you won't be in any discomfort!

I find that my state of mind is huge too- if I just tell myself that I am using strong pain medication still and everything is fine and keep busy, I don't even really think about it. Now, if I sit there and dwell on every little runny nose I have then it makes time go by at that crawl slow pace. Just tell yourself you are good and carry on. The loperamide will be enough to allow you to do so.

Praying for you bro!
 
I took 72mg loperamide this morning. Although I'm not 100%, I can report that I could be a hell of a lot worse. Sleeping through withdrawal is easier too. Depending on how I feel I may need to take a little later but I'll reduce it tomorrow. I'm not getting high off the loperamide but that's okay. I'm going back to sleep for a bit and I'll be back later, hopefully still in this condition.
 
Excellent Billy! It makes me sleepy too. That is great as it allows me to sleep through the worst parts. Comfortably.
You are going to be amazed at how well the loperamide works.

I'm going back to bed too!

Sending you lots of love and support!
 
Billy- now that you have a little hope, you should really read on BL as much as you can about Loperamide. There are some serious health risks with high doses, but really only with doses of 100 mg/day and above and usually only after long term use. You dont want to take too much and make yourself nauseous. A misstep at this point could make you very depressed and hopeless. Losing your momentum right now would suck.

Check out this thread:
Loperamide (Imodium) Megathread v. 2
I have posted my exact doses and my usage of oxy that I was coming off from a couple of different times. You may get a better feeling of what you should do from something in there.
 
Considering it's heroin I'd be more concerned with another relapse than treating anything with immodium. It is very addictive Billy, as you know. Everyone has their jam and H is / was mine. No other opiate or opioid could ever compare. I do have fond memories before the dope turned sour. Get out while you still can heroin is really serious. It raises your tolerance to make pills infeasible and causes countless problems and so much increased risk. I'd focus on finding a way to stop yourself from getting more. Delete #s, tell them to stop selling you, whatever it takes to keep you away from it for a while. So long as you have access to it and any money to buy a bag here and there, I find it hard having had this addiction to believe that you can quit long term as a relapse is almost certain. You gotta keep yourself away from opiates for a long time so find a way to create blockades. For example, I never refilled my oxycodone scrips and I haven't stepped foot in a pain clinic since I quit. I also have no H connect and always preferred high quality so like it would take a lot of effort to get that - giving me time to remember the cold turkey withdrawal and how I'm still feeling it 5 months later. Then it's just like what was I thinking.
I found a girl a really like its chill. I feel like we have been getting to know each other quickly and naturally it's nice. If nothing whatever what can I do about that but if I had my life together a little more I'd be like she's my kinda girl to date. Hard to ignore having a crush on someone to this extent knowing she might like me too but never sure of course lol. I am happy with myself mainly because I was able to socialize really well when I was suffering benzo wd (interdose... lowered doses... cannot ever do cold turkey with that stuff).
 
I ended taking 120mg loperamide today. I'm finding it difficult to sleep but I've just taken my last dose about ten minutes ago. Hopefully that'll kick in soon.
 
I started vomiting and my symptoms exponentially worsened. The loperamide, although initially helped me, stopped after 24 hours. I haven't got many options left but thank you to everyone who tried helping me.
 
I don't understand why the loperamide didn't work. I'm so sorry for everything. I honestly tried my best to get clean. I was looking forward so much to seeing my kids growing up and everyone being proud of me. Yesterday morning I was doing so well and my symptoms were hardly noticable. Why did the loperamide work so well in the morning and then 10 hours later become useless? I took it exactly the same way (Zantac and loperamide combined with coffee) but it was completely ineffective. I noticed that my legs were starting to hurt and also my lungs had started to fill with phlegm. I knew that my withdrawals had started again and as I was getting out of bed to try and take some more loperamide, (I had already had over 120mg) I started to dry heave combined with sneezing which is a horrible feeling. Luckily I managed to get to the bathroom before I started vomiting. It was horrible. I could barely breathe and was puking violently for near enough 10 minutes. I know ten minutes may not seem like a long time but trust me it is. I tried my best and I'm at peace with everything now. Once again, thank you to everyone who tried to help. I won't be trying to get clean anymore because there's no point anymore. Bye everyone and take care.
 
Dude, you have a heroin habit. That is what the withdrawals are like when you have a sizeable habit. And if you have been doing .2 for a while shooting it and your stuff is above average you have a sizeable habit. You definitely do judging by the withdrawals. Man it's heroin, what do you expect a cakewalk?

It is relentless. Time is meaningless it never ends. I still get symptoms 5 months later, feel traumatized by it. Heroin specifically fucked me up I feel, out of everything it was by far the worst drug for me to ever be doing.

There is a point to getting clean you gotta get through it somehow. It doesn't last forever you eventually start coming out of it in a daze. It is a huge commitment and life change. It doesn't have in a week, or a month, or 6 months but eventually you start feeling human again and it's nice. You fucked up. You are either going to dig a hole so deep that you'll dig your own grave, or get clean and put up with a lifelong internal struggle to keep off it. The detox is the easy part. It's the rest of your life that is hard, at least for me so far. I don't think I'll ever be the same I just really did way too many of those opiates and almost always up my nose unless they were those weak percs or oxy in general. Eventually I was only interested inH though.

You gotta quit somehow or things are going to get a lot worse for you. I don't have much advice on how to quit. I had to lose a hell of a lot before I considered stopping. And then I just stopped and did my own thing and I'm still not right 5 months later but getting there I guess. It is hard to say that, some days many days I wish I was dead. Something really bad has to happen and you mentioned you OD'd so that is serious. If you are not hooked on benzos as well then I'd personally go to rehab.
 
Dude, you have a heroin habit. That is what the withdrawals are like when you have a sizeable habit. And if you have been doing .2 for a while shooting it and your stuff is above average you have a sizeable habit. You definitely do judging by the withdrawals. Man it's heroin, what do you expect a cakewalk?

It is relentless. Time is meaningless it never ends. I still get symptoms 5 months later, feel traumatized by it. Heroin specifically fucked me up I feel, out of everything it was by far the worst drug for me to ever be doing.

There is a point to getting clean you gotta get through it somehow. It doesn't last forever you eventually start coming out of it in a daze. It is a huge commitment and life change. It doesn't have in a week, or a month, or 6 months but eventually you start feeling human again and it's nice. You fucked up. You are either going to dig a hole so deep that you'll dig your own grave, or get clean and put up with a lifelong internal struggle to keep off it. The detox is the easy part. It's the rest of your life that is hard, at least for me so far. I don't think I'll ever be the same I just really did way too many of those opiates and almost always up my nose unless they were those weak percs or oxy in general. Eventually I was only interested inH though.

You gotta quit somehow or things are going to get a lot worse for you. I don't have much advice on how to quit. I had to lose a hell of a lot before I considered stopping. And then I just stopped and did my own thing and I'm still not right 5 months later but getting there I guess. It is hard to say that, some days many days I wish I was dead. Something really bad has to happen and you mentioned you OD'd so that is serious. If you are not hooked on benzos as well then I'd personally go to rehab.

Now that's why I have no desire to go down that road...
 
I don't understand why the loperamide didn't work. I'm so sorry for everything. I honestly tried my best to get clean. I was looking forward so much to seeing my kids growing up and everyone being proud of me. Yesterday morning I was doing so well and my symptoms were hardly noticable. Why did the loperamide work so well in the morning and then 10 hours later become useless? I took it exactly the same way (Zantac and loperamide combined with coffee) but it was completely ineffective. I noticed that my legs were starting to hurt and also my lungs had started to fill with phlegm. I knew that my withdrawals had started again and as I was getting out of bed to try and take some more loperamide, (I had already had over 120mg) I started to dry heave combined with sneezing which is a horrible feeling. Luckily I managed to get to the bathroom before I started vomiting. It was horrible. I could barely breathe and was puking violently for near enough 10 minutes. I know ten minutes may not seem like a long time but trust me it is. I tried my best and I'm at peace with everything now. Once again, thank you to everyone who tried to help. I won't be trying to get clean anymore because there's no point anymore. Bye everyone and take care.

Don't defeat yourself, man. Getting off opiates is hard but you have children who need their father, and your life is not at an end, it just seems that way right now. I was addicted to opiates for 10 years, by the end I fully believed I would never be able to get off and I wished for death. I know how hard it is. But eventually I did and it's been 4 years and I haven't looked back and it's just a memory now. You can do it. This post gives me a bad feeling that you're going to hurt yourself. Please, before you throw in the towel, try everything. What did it for me was ibogaine, it worked like a miracle. It's a pretty extreme option, and not easy, but it's an option and if it's between that and giving up, you should choose anything but giving up. You can't see it now, but you have a lot of life ahead of you. You can have happiness and comfort again without opiates. It just doesn't feel like you can.

For me, ibogaine stopped the withdrawals, and I didn't experience any PAWS, I felt good afterwards more or less, emotionally I felt good. I came out of it with a lot of motivation to change my life, I got in shape, which was fun and made me feel SO MUCH better, and I started playing music again and spending a lot more time with people I love. Before long my whole life was different. Ibogaine provided basically a reset button, and I took it from there. I don't recommend it to people except as a last resort because it's somewhat dangerous and it costs a lot to go to a clinic (and is quite dangerous to do it at home, though that is what I did, with a sober sitter). But you're sounding pretty last resort-like right now...
 
My Ativan taper is on track. Down to 1/2 mg yesterday. I slept good(insomnia is my biggest wd symptom from Ativan). Hopefully Ill be off it completely in a week and I will feel some momentum to quit Lyrica and Oxy.
 
I think it would be too harsh on my body to quit benzos entirely and I couldn't function off the to begin with. I was a panic freak and still am I guess. I got on way too high a dose as I needed 4 times the amount from the start to feel relief, so you know, same story x a million, self medication, fucked everything up. The equivalent dose I take is like 15 xanax bars the shit is gonna kill me. Can't go back to opiates though I can't manage 2 addictions let alone 3 no matter how bad one gets.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top