Opioids White knuckling to get clean, have you done this with any success?

[mr. mudd]

^ well the grass is always greener. I'm pretty sure there are people in rural, remote U.S. areas that have just as much trouble getting treatment. I live in Winnipeg and got my suboxone paid for by pharmacare in March. My psychiatrist is free. My clinic offered free counselling. My GP is free. I can go to any walk-in clinic for free and see a competent doctor. Specialized health care in the states can be better, but only if you have the money to pay for it (or if you have some miraculous HMO coverage that includes addiction treatment).

 

[ControlDenied]

^ I deleted the post cuz its too angsty. Good luck to everyone trying to kick opiates! It's a tough road.

 

[Knarf]

This is true, but many of us live in areas where getting treatment without being rich is extremely difficult. What are those in a rural area/or who are poor supposed to do then? I think the only option then is to create your own therapists out of people you talk to, your friends, family etc., and exercise, do lots of activites, and figure out through various feedback why you became addicted and why you shouldn't relapse and how to prevent it. I am learning this on my own, I would have to be getting therapy 24/7 for that to be the mains means of relapse prevention. You can only get 24/7 therapy in big cities or in a very well-run [i.e. expensive] rehab centre.

This is not a response to the above post specifically but if you are serious about quitting, you have all the time in the world to make arrangements. If there is a sense of urgency to jump off, you won't stay clean; what I mean is that those who one day say "I'm fed up I'm gonna flush my stash", end up relapsing.

Reduce your dose, and simply start maintaining yourself until you can make proper arrangements to get clean.

People have success with cold turkey, but if you're serious about getting off, a week, a few, a month, or even a couple without getting high can only make it easier; what, is getting a taste of the sober life gonna make your habit worse?

I almost forgot to add that the obvious response to simply starting a taper would be something along the lines of "if I have drugs, I will get high". If you can't control your usage, you likely are no position to simply jump off.

 

[bwanajzj]

^please listen to this.


I can't count how many times I've seen people come on here all gung ho about finally getting off, getting all their medications ready and preparing for the acute withdrawal. Suffering through those horrible withdrawals, having no plan past that and going right back making all of that misery meaningless if not destructive because then you feel like a fucking failure.

ANYONE can get through 3 days, 5 days or a week of intense opioid withdrawal with some supplies and the right mindset but if you only prepare for 3 days, 5 days or a week then how do you expect to be successful beyond that?

How long did it take you to get to the point you're at? Months? Years? And you think you can just walk away from it all once the opioids are completely out of your system and you get passed the physical withdrawal? If people were capable of this then why would most opioid addicts require treatment and support and medication and maintenance just to function somewhat normally?

There is always hope but if you want to give yourself a chance, you really need to plan past the withdrawal and figure out what you need to do to live sober, how you are going to deal with the PAWS and whatever issues lead to your abuse in the first place. Its a HUGE task to change everything necessary in your life to go from an addict life to a clean one and this is why most people require some kind of help for these attempts at change to stick.

^Quote to support my arguments below...

@ fixedatzero:

I also quit cold turkey from a heavy heroin habit last year, and it lasted a few months, until I went abroad for 6 weeks and came back to the daily routine of things without a further 'stay-off-opiates-plan' and I ended up relapsing due to the anxiety of day-to-day life (the routine of waking, working, getting educated, etc.).... that's what gets me in the long run. The boredom of doing the same routine daily, waiting for the weekend to come, only to spend the weekend craving drugs and doing homework, thats what gets me, and thats when I say fuck it and relapse.

So as Cane2theLeft said, it is not enough to make a plan to get through those first weeks, although they are the worst in some peoples oppinion; you need a long term plan, in which there is space for deviation, but one that will keep you to your goals (e.g. an occasional low dose of codeine won't hurt, if it is necessary to take care of some serios PAWS, but don't get caught in the loop).

I was in your position back in December, sort of reluctant to admit that I needed an external resource to help me taper off the opiates, but I still chose to keep my family and friends out of it, to spare them the shame or whatever emotions might arise to disturb their daily life, and I went with a buprenorphine replacement treatment, which has done wonders, but also had me strung out, because it has taken double the time I planned now, and I've had some sad relapses - although these helped put things in perspective and so far have provided me with a sort of objective point of view towards opiates, rather than that mental and physical yearning that I would have gotten some months back.

But now I realize, also as Cane2theLeft mentionen, you cannot just walk away from years of opiate abuse, and leave it at that, although few do so. It takes time, and usually the best solution is temporary (weeks, to months, to years for some) opiate replacement/rotations, to get down to a dose that will minimise the WDS and PAWS.

So best of luck, and on my behalf, I would recommend using all resources available: your family for support, if they are willing, and treatment programs, whether they be purely therapeutic in terms of psychiatry or whether they be medicinal... take whatever weapons you can carry to battle this addiction, and once you feel comfortable, and no fear of PAWS or anxiety or any other WDS, then leave those weapons be, and go on living in peace with yourself.

 

[The Rock Monster]

After being dependent on IV heroin for a few years, and then over a year of ~70mg methadone daily I managed to quit methadone cold turkey. NOt recommended. It was beyond horrible, I was sick for about 3 weeks before it started to get better. Because I jumped off at such a high dose, no amount of suboxone would help me.. I had tried rehabs and detox and stuff with no success, and had finally had enough of daily opiates and just said fuck it and quit..

I have been off of methadone for about 6 weeks now and besides a few pills since then I have been more or less clean.. I still take my prescribed soma and xanax, which helps immensely with the RLS I still have and the wicked anxiety that has now been amplified since jumping off.

Quitting cold turkey with no help from outside resources is doable, but the willpower required is very immense.

Opana is tough to withdrawal from, but you should expect the physical symptoms to subside after about 5 days, but the lingering mental effects can stay for a long long time. At this point, I would recommend atleast seeing a therapist/psychiatrist so you can work on getting to the root of your addiction problems and also potentially getting proper medication to keep you anxiety/depression in check, so you do not relapse.

The PAWS (post acute withdrawal syndrome) led me to relapse many times before I finally started getting properly medicated for my mental issues which have plagued me since long before I started using opiates.

Just stay strong, feel free to private message me if you need any help.. Good luck

Mike

Hey brother, im wondering how the fuck you kicked methadone ct!!?? Ive heard done wd i@ worse than heroin wd, thoughts?

Im curious..why didnt you taper off, instead of jumping off?

Props to you though..i couldnt get off my opiate of choice without the help of subutex

 

[walkietalkie]

I've tried coming off opiates on my own many times over the past 8 years with no success at all. I've gone to countless AA meetings, NA meetings, went through a billion withdrawals, talked to several good friends who are clean and sober, got back heavily into meditation and eating healthy, but nothing has worked for me for very long. I'm going on Suboxone on Friday. I got myself 2 grams of DMT this past weekend, and after smoking it on Sunday, the first thing I did on Monday morning was be open about my addiction to my family and call to make an appointment to get help. I even told my father about the DMT lol.

I also recently (almost a month ago) came out as gay to my fiance with whom I have a 2 year old daughter. I also have a 6 year old son. Keeping that a secret for the last 13 years has put tremendous stress on my mind and I feel that now that it is out in the open I can put my life back together, start over again and try and get clean.

Good luck to anyone trying to make this change. I think I may have some more succes now that I'm being as honest with myself and others as I can, and several of my fellow junkie friends have gone into treatment as well.

 

[clubfut]

Hi I am new to this forum and from England. My Doctor prescribed me 50mg codiene for 7 years to combat "cluster headaches" they are a more severe type of migraine. To cut a long story short it didnt seem to help my headaches long term so i self medicated by taking upto 40, 50mg codiene a day, just to get through the pain in my eyes. This soon lead to me taking a months worth of tablets in a few days so started doing cold water extractions. In England you are only able to buy one box of 32 at a time. So after weeks of running to 4 or 5 chemists a day to get my dose I thought enough was enough.

I went cold turkey for around 9 days whilst waiting for my medication (subutex) It was the worst time ever for me. When i got subutex from the addiction clinic it was a god send. I started on 16mg/day. After 8 months of subutex treatment and no other drugs at all. I decided to jump off at 8mg last week. Bad mistake!!! The withdrawl from subbys are just as bad if not worse than the codeine. I should have waited and tapered.

So here I am doing a cold water extraction waiting till monday when i can get a second chance at subutex. Call me weak minded but I thought that i was doing the right thing as i was feeling really good and positive.

People with a major addiction have my heart as I know how hard my withdrawl was from a relativly small habit.

What I am trying to say is take your time and take advice from your healthcare worker.

Good luck and peace and love.

 

[BrokedownPalace]

Hey brother, im wondering how the fuck you kicked methadone ct!!?? Ive heard done wd i@ worse than heroin wd, thoughts?

Im curious..why didnt you taper off, instead of jumping off?

Props to you though..i couldnt get off my opiate of choice without the help of subutex

Tapering would have been ideal, and I am sure much less painful, but I was so tired of the politics of the clinic, and being dependent on large amounts of opiates daily, so I just got fed up. I coulda stayed there for another 16 months and tapered slowly and probably suffered the whole time, or cold turkey and suffer for a month.

It was very hard man, many times worse than any heroin detox I ever went thru. It was about 3 weeks before I started feeling better. I jumped off at such a high dose, that NO dose of suboxone would bring relief until about 2 weeks later.

It was tough man. But thank you for the kind words, much appreciated.

I don't recommend doing this though. If you have the means of tapering I would HIGHLY recommend going that route.

 

[synchrojet]

I think a lot depends on the severity of the withdrawals. I'd quit cold turkey every time over a period of years of opioid abuse and just stare it down and then return to it later. It wasn't until I had a near lethal withdrawal from high dose Opana in jail that I finally quit opioids. I rarely have an urge for an opioid at this point, and if I take a vic or some such for writing purposes I'm not even tempted to redose - those withdrawals got my attention in a way that scared me straight.

 

[ControlDenied]

yes, withdrawals can also be a natural deterrent as they can be remembered if you ever are tempted to relapse, and might deter you at that later point

i've never experienced really harsh physical WDs though so I wouldn't know. for me its the mental /emotional anxiety and depression that drive me nuts about "PAWS" or WDS or w/e the fuck you wanna call it. im even thinking of going to detox or asking my ol' methadone doc for codeine [can't stand methadone] just to stop myself relapsing. there are different perspectives on this so no, im not asking for advice here. just wondering if anyone finds the non-physical aspects of recovery the hardest. maybe I should do what synchrojet did and get so addicted then CT in jail and get clean that way lol, it does work for a lot of people I've met.