Trigger Warning Tolerance and OD potential?

[sageling]

I don't know if this is a dumb question but I'm gonna risk it and ask anyway. If you have a high tolerance to a substance, does that mean it's going to take more of said substance to OD, or do you just have to put more substance in your body with only a resistance to the high itself?

 

[negrogesic]

Yes, if you have a high tolerance, it takes more of a given substance to OD.

For instance, when I was maintained on 380mg/day of methadone, my tolerance was so high that I would inject the entire contents of the strongest fentanyl patches (which contained around 17mg of fentanyl) in a single shot.

I'm not on methadone anymore and don't have that kind of tolerance, so if I injected 17mg of fentanyl now, I'd be dead in under 10 minutes.

 

[sageling]

Yes, if you have a high tolerance, it takes more of a given substance to OD.

For instance, when I was maintained on 380mg/day of methadone, my tolerance was so high that I would inject the entire contents of the strongest fentanyl patches (which contained around 17mg of fentanyl) in a single shot.

I'm not on methadone anymore and don't have that kind of tolerance, so if I injected 17mg of fentanyl now, I'd be dead in under 10 minutes.

That's good to know, I've seen people go hard as a mofo on certain substances and wondered if I should call an ambulance immediately. I also have developed a tolerance to my substance of choice and have been terrified of ODing because of how much of said substance I need to do to feel desirable effects. I can rest a tiny bit easier now knowing that. Not to say that doing enough of a substance to develop a tolerance isn't a problem, it's just good to know that me and my loved ones aren't tiptoeing as close to death as I thought we were.

 

[Keif' Richards]

@negrogesic is right as usual.

There are no stupid questions man. Don't ever feel like that. The people who care will always help you out. We all started somewhere with our knowledge.

 

[Pickledlemons]

Thats correct. Thats why its super important when you quit a drug and then relapse to not go back to your previous dose - thats when a lot of deaths occur. I've even made this mistake myself when it came to xanax and ended up blacking out.