Apologies if this is the wrong place to post the following.
In late July I decided I'd had enough of being doped up and jumped off the 80mg of methadone I'd been on for the last two years (not to mention the multiple bags I was shooting every other day). The acute withdrawals were horrific, as you can imagine, but worse - as many of you will know - was the depression and the total lack of motivation. I've spent the last two months in a state of catatonia, unable to speak or even think. The thoughts that did come to me were of suicide and self-loathing. I also didn't sleep - still haven't, really. Every now and then I'd manage to fall into an odd fugue state resembling sleep, but that only lasted an hour or so.
I'm prescribed pregabalin and venlafaxine but stopped taking them while I was dieting on heroin and benzos (which I also stopped using at the same time... no half measures and all that). About 48 hours into restarting my prescription of 200mg pregabalin 3 * /day and 150mg venlafaxine XR 1 * /day I noticed that not only was I feeling relatively motivated and positive, but that the shivers, the hot and cold sweats,the restless legs and the multitude of other nasties a brain that's down-regulating its opioid system can inflict on an individual had... well, not gone - I still feel pretty rough physically, but so much better than before. The symptoms are suddenly manageable.
Which inevitably brought me to Wikipedia, where I found this:
And the abstract for the STUDY:
Now I'm obviously not saying it'll get you through acute withdrawals (nothing does if you're doing it right) but for the depression associated with the post acute withdrawals venlafaxine (Effexor) feels like a magic bullet. The symptomatic relief is just immense.
Now all I need is to work out how to sleep again.
Isn't sobriety fun? 8)
In late July I decided I'd had enough of being doped up and jumped off the 80mg of methadone I'd been on for the last two years (not to mention the multiple bags I was shooting every other day). The acute withdrawals were horrific, as you can imagine, but worse - as many of you will know - was the depression and the total lack of motivation. I've spent the last two months in a state of catatonia, unable to speak or even think. The thoughts that did come to me were of suicide and self-loathing. I also didn't sleep - still haven't, really. Every now and then I'd manage to fall into an odd fugue state resembling sleep, but that only lasted an hour or so.
I'm prescribed pregabalin and venlafaxine but stopped taking them while I was dieting on heroin and benzos (which I also stopped using at the same time... no half measures and all that). About 48 hours into restarting my prescription of 200mg pregabalin 3 * /day and 150mg venlafaxine XR 1 * /day I noticed that not only was I feeling relatively motivated and positive, but that the shivers, the hot and cold sweats,the restless legs and the multitude of other nasties a brain that's down-regulating its opioid system can inflict on an individual had... well, not gone - I still feel pretty rough physically, but so much better than before. The symptoms are suddenly manageable.
Which inevitably brought me to Wikipedia, where I found this:
"Venlafaxine interacts with opioid receptors (mu-, kappa1- kappa3- and delta-opioid receptor subtypes) as well as alpha2-adrenergic receptor, and was shown to increase pain threshold in mice. When mice were tested with a hotplate analgesia meter, both venlafaxine and mirtazapine induced a dose-dependent, naloxone-reversible antinociceptive effect following intraperitoneal injection."
And the abstract for the STUDY:
"The efficacy of each antidepressant available has been found equal to that of amitriptyline in double-blind studies as far as mild to moderate depression is involved. However, it seems that some antidepressants are more effective than others in the treatment of severe types of depression (i.e., delusional depression and refractory depression). Following studies regarding the antinociceptive mechanisms of various antidepressants, we speculate that the involvement of the opioid system in the antidepressants' mechanism of action may be necessary, in order to prove effective in the treatment of severe depression. Among the antidepressants of the newer generations, that involvement occurs only with venlafaxine (a presynaptic drug which blocks the synaptosomal uptake of noradrenaline and serotonin and, to a lesser degree, of dopamine) and with mirtazapine (a postsynaptic drug which enhances noradrenergic and 5-HT1A-mediated serotonergic neurotransmission via antagonism of central alpha-auto- and hetero-adrenoreceptors). When mice were tested with a hotplate analgesia meter, both venlafaxine and mirtazapine induced a dose-dependent, naloxone-reversible antinociceptive effect following ip administration. Summing up the various interactions of venlafaxine and mirtazapine with opioid, noradrenergic and serotonergic agonists and antagonists, we found that the antinociceptive effect of venlafaxine is influenced by opioid receptor subtypes (mu-, kappa1- kappa3- and delta-opioid receptor subtypes) combined with the alpha2-adrenergic receptor, whereas the antinociceptive effect of mirtazapine mainly involves mu- and kappa3-opioid mechanisms. This opioid profile of the two drugs may be one of the explanations to their efficacy in severe depression, unlike the SSRIs and other antidepressants which lack opioid activity."
Now I'm obviously not saying it'll get you through acute withdrawals (nothing does if you're doing it right) but for the depression associated with the post acute withdrawals venlafaxine (Effexor) feels like a magic bullet. The symptomatic relief is just immense.
Now all I need is to work out how to sleep again.
Isn't sobriety fun? 8)
