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What was the catalyst for you quitting opiates?

personally i have never been able to just take opiates every now and then. but then again i've never really quit for long enough to ever seriously test myself. chances are that there's no way i'll ever be able to just dabble with opiates. i know how my brain operates, i'm never satisfied with just a little or every now and then.

i've been clean of opiates for 2 months which is the longest i have gone in four years. right now i know that if i were to do any kind of experimentation it would not work out.

the addict in us wants to believe that we can take it or leave it, use whatever drugs we are addicted to whenever we would like to but i know by my own track record it's just not plausible. i'm sure everyone is different, however.

today is my birthday and don't think for a second that i haven't had the thought "hey dude it's your birthday, no heroin but a couple roxis aren't going to kill you." that was actually the first thing i thought of this morning when i woke up.
 
Wouldnt It be nice to just to opiates whenever you want and not have to "need" them. I honestly dont have the desire to do them everyday now, but have been having to to feel okay. I hope once I can stop depending on them to make me feel okay everyday and to get me out of bed, I can just do them on "special occasions". Idk though its hard to think now that I can do that.
 
well the first time i got sober was because i spent all my money, and was using many substances and going a little mental. Told my family and got straight......

since then its been a handful of things.... money, family, housing, girl, friends, rolling truck, mental anguish....

i could go on.....
 
I'm coming up on 8 months clean from a 10-year opiate addiction. In my case, the catalyst seems incredibly trivial (I wanted to be able to afford to buy Christmas presents for my four nephews) when compared to all I lost and let go during the previous decade. So I suppose that particular catalyst was just a sort of place-holder for the real reason I was ready to quit. I've mentioned here before that in the addiction/recovery community it's well known that there's something about year 10 for opiate addicts - many, many hardcore addicts just up and quit after 10 years, give or take a few months. No one knows why.

Just in the last month have I regained the energy and motivation to start to dig out from under a decade of life-neglect. In doing so, I discovered that I was taking a lot more oxy and roxy than I thought I was when I stopped cold-turkey (found notebooks in which I had recorded my intake), which might partially explain why - despite the fact that at the six-month mark I thought I was all better - I am still healing and strengthening. Right now, I feel younger and stronger and more fit and optimistic than I ever have as an adult, and I am in my early 40's. Around 6.5 months after I got clean, I began taking a low-dose SSRI and that has helped immeasurably with my PTSD and obsessions/intrusive thoughts. My addiction was pretty clearly an attempt to self-medicate on my part, and it's no coincidence that it began in earnest just after a major traumatic event (for me personally and for our country as a whole).

One pretty cool thing that has happened is that many of the irrational fears and phobias I battled all my life just disappeared as I worked my way through PAWS. I have no idea why, but I am less afraid now and worry less now than I ever have since I was a little kid.

It's frustrating that there is no one identifiable answer to the question of what makes people quit long-term drug abuse...

One more thing: I was already several months clean when I read this, but it really resounded with me and has stuck with me and is one of the most insightful things I've read about opiate addiction...I can't recall who posted it or where on BL it was posted (and don't know if it is a common recovery phrase or not) but it really helped me stay straight so thank you to the person who wrote it: someone said that they realized they could either have opiates, or they could have EVERYTHING ELSE. So, so SO true.
 
wasnt worth it anymore. couldnt afford my growing habit, rapidly increasing tolerance, was barely even gettin high anymore. i was in this dark dark depression, wanted to kill myself. i overdosed and my mom found me...and it didnt faze me at all. i just couldnt do it anymore...plus the withdrawals when i didnt have it or couldnt get it, were just unbearable. it was too much work hustling every fuckin day tryin to get enough cash to get my fix.
 
I've had some horrible things happen to me and id never quit I think it ended up making me use more however the final straw was seeing someone overdose and pass away, always made me think that it could of happened to me even hearing of it happening to people before but seeing it first hand was a huge eye opener. Also I ended up getting caught up and facing a few years and ended up with a few felonies and being on probation now. I've been in the methadone clinic for around 17 months now however I am a little nervous about tapering/detoxing from there so we'll see what happens. Its interesting to hear everyones stories wish you all the best in the future.
 
TheLostBoys said:
Lets all be honest, this is the key ingredient. If we all had an endless money supply, we would be arguing why opiates are so bad. Yes opiates are very addicting & can screw up lives but with an endless money supply, you wouldnt have to worry about getting sick & money problems.
Click to expand...

not really, many people who tons of cash quit, some didn't and don't have cash or died. I think if Kieth Richards finally saw it was going nowhere anyone would.
 
A realization that 10 years of my life had gone down the drain, and an ibogaine flood dose. Now, 6 weeks later, I have no residual withdrawal, no PAWS, no cravings. It's like that part of my life is ended, to the point where I can even think about opiates and my time with them and I feel no pull at all. I feel healthy and strong and happy, truly happy for the first time in 10 years. It worked for me, it really did. <3 I never thought I'd be able to feel like it had never even happened after only 6 weeks after a 10-year opiate addiction. Yet here I am.
 
Which time? =D

This time round it's iin the hope that I don't waste my second bite at a university education.. Realistically it's for health reasons too, I tend to go from 0 to 60 in no time so I was straight back to 200mg diazepam, 1g smack IV, 6-8 cans super strength lager, as much crack as I could afford daily and my body is already pretty run down from drug use. I was just about still holding out on those extremity veins (palms/soles etc) before going back for the groin, which I'm terrible at getting.

I suppose really it's just because I want to enjoy life like a normal person and just be happy whereas using drugs like that takes me to a very shit place.

edit: And enless upply of money wouldn't help my opiate addiction, I had access to as much money as I liked (within reason) when I was using and it still ruined me.
 
Hey Owen,
That's great that u r reclaiming your life, how r u feeling?? I'm here to listen to u whine ? shit your groin DAM !! Ouch. You deserve everything this world has to offer and it sounds like u know what u need to do, but only u can b the judge of that. Take care of yourself. ❤️
 
This thread is what I needed to read today, so thanks for all that shared. I'm so ready and terrified about how to get there.
 
its been 50 days sense i quit opiates today!! and I lost pretty much everything, I was strung out on meth and xanax for years too though so that helped me wanna get clean seeing as my mind was completely gone but I crashed my moms car, sold mine had over 15 seizures cause of xanax withdrawls so I eventually got kicked out and went to rehab.. best thing thats ever happened to me. Actually feels really good to be sober, sure I think about getting high all day some days and my anxiety and depression are through the roof but having people not look at me like scum and my family actually talking to me helps a lot. Hope to keep it up for the rest of my life, for now ill work on today :)
 
The realisation of everything that I've missed whilst chasing them instead.

Still in the trying to quit phase though.
 
I have been a passionate weed smoker 4 years...I simply enjoyed weed and i couldn't imagine myself staying straight 4 a second.No matter what i was doing and where i was going i had to be high all the time...All that changed after i started using opiates..I talked about this with many people and almost every1 says the same:all of them quit smoking weed after they got hooked on H.They stoped injoying the weed.It started making me extreamly paranoid.There was a period i my life 4 about 5-6 years where i was using every drug i can put my hands on.And i mean everything.I tried LSD for about 7-8 times in a year period.And despite experiencing a good trip every time,i started feeling psychotic after i stopped...I don't know what was the case,mabye the fact that i was also using amphetamine at the time..And i'm not speaking of occasionally...Almost every day...
So,that's how i ended with weed.

Now,speaking of opiates...I don't know if somebody who was using them 4 a long time can stop 4 good...Mabye 1 of 10 people..It takes a huge will power and a desire to quit...Stopping is a mix of sircumstances...U have to have more than 1 reason to quit...At least that's the case 4 me...U have to get to the bottom and feel the missery of it all to get rlly motivated to quit..I'm on buprenorphine now and it helps me a lot to stay clean.I don't think i'll ever be compleatly clean.At least 4 now.I was clean 4 a year but i take H or methadone from time to time and it works 4 me.Lets say once in a month or two.I'll never get hooked on that shit ever in my life.Ever..! I know it's not a good idea but what can i do..Old habbits die hard :D
I got it under control now.And who knows,mabye some day i'll stop 4 good.

As 4 the reasons 4 quitting,there are a lot of them: ur health,the people that u loose,money that u spend,assholes that u have to deal with,fucked up future and etc...
I'm glad i came this far and i hope i'll get over it.Just to come off the bupe and that's it...Somethimes i feel a big hole in myself,knowing it can be filled with only 1 thing but i try to occupy myself with different acctivities when theese thoughts come..I found a job and i'm trying to keep it.That's another factor that helps me stay clean,because i can't get embarrased in front of my colegues.
Good luck to every1 that fights the same fight and i hope we'll beat this thing 4 ever and live a happy and fulfilled life without it!
 
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I stopped enjoying weed when I was on opiates too... it happened really slowly, for many years I enjoyed them both. Now that I am off opiates I enjoy weed again, I hadn't even realized that the anxiety it gave me wasn't normal for me. Now I remember that before opiates I rarely got anxious from it, and now I rarely do again. :)

Good luck using opiates occasionally and not getting addicted again... I mean that. Doesn't work for me, 10 years have shown that.
 
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