Opioids Withdrawal coping techniques (Mega Thread)

[oliphill]

Sorry if there is already a mega thread on this. Merge away if there is.

What are your best coping techniques for opiate withdrawal?

Personally one of the worst parts for me is the all over aches and pains. I have found a herbal extract, Devil's Claw, does wonders for this. Near eliminates it. 4 taken daily, spread through the day.

Any other good methods?


Here is my prepared 'kit' for my Cold Turkey that begins tomorow morning:

http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showpost.php?p=8275391&postcount=66

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Suboxone (the right dose thereof).
If I am anxious and/or experiencing insomnia, I would take a benzodiazepine.
Warm showers, exercise, good food, sex/masturbation, etc.

 

[Johnny blue]

Same as CH only I sprinkle in some weed too. Obviously suboxone is ideal but during times without a hefty session with an indica has bought me a few hours of sleep. IME if you can sleep at all then you're ahead of the game.

 

[gorgoroth]

Great thread!!

I have a MILD habit (Oxycodone), but I have been through actual withdrawal....

I always tough it out, I can put up with 3 days of feeling bad in bed.
I usually use Amphetamines aggresively (some people this would be a NIGHTMARE in w/d but they are my doc and don't make me anxious), Benzodiazepines, Ibuprofen, Robaxin, plently of excercize, healthy foods, and plenty of hydration

 

[Newmoonrecord]

loperamide , clonidine , benzos, and methylphenidate patches (or selegiline depending on the mood im in).

but serious, just loperamide and clonidine will do the trick. no hot and cold flashes, minimal restless leg, minimal physical pain, and no stomach or bowel problems. thats like 90% of withdrawal right there. the only other thing is the feeling "weird" or panic like symptoms, which a benzo takes care of. i like an ativan, cause that will have effects for like 2 days, and tide me over the worst of it.

 

[pallidamors]

investing in many good movies and video games, and then doing dxm and loperamide during the day and drinking til blackout at night. I'm sure that's not the healthiest way to deal with withdrawals, but that's how I do.

 

[Cane2theLeft]

^I've found roughly the same strategy to work pretty well, but if I drank too much I REALLY felt like shit the next day. For some reason, it made my restlessness much worse and so I found a couple drinks useful but getting shitfaced overall counterproductive.

Loperamide, DXM and doxylamine I find to be OTC miracles though if used in the correct doses. Loepramide alone in high-ish doses helped me out substantially. Of course clonodine is also great and like JB, I find indica strains irreplacable as well.

Of course benzos are pretty amazing. Coming off lower doses, I could just take a couple mg's a clonazepam (with no tolerance) and it helped a lot.

Unfortunately I've never tried bupe.

 

[QuasiStoned]

^I've found roughly the same strategy to work pretty well, but if I drank too much I REALLY felt like shit the next day. For some reason, it made my restlessness much worse and so I found a couple drinks useful but getting shitfaced overall counterproductive.

I willl second this, getting shitfaced has led to only more misery later on. Usually I'll get really drunk and then find A) I still can't sleep, or B) I fall into a restless sleep for 3 or 4 hours and wake up with the worst case of anxiety and restlessness I've ever had in my life.

For me, I use loperamide to get through the worst of the withdrawals if I HAVE to (normally I just taper with my DOC).

I've always been a skeptic about weed, believing that it was likely to increase my axiety. Well the other night I was in pretty deep withdrawal and had taken 12mg of loperamide (all I had) and tried to sleep. At first I was just unable to sleep but then I got that restless feeling and had to keep moving around and jerking my arms/legs (man I hadn't experienced that symptom in months, I forgot how hellish it is). I got up and smoked some weed in the middle of the night and was able to relax and listen to some music w/ my eyes closed (and w/out jerking around from the restlessness). About 30 minutes later I fell asleep for about an hour or two.

So I guess weed can be pretty helpful.

 

[thelung]

I've asked this before , i guess I'll throw it out there again... Why isn't there an opiate withdrawl "coping technique" - type thread? Something to maybe consider

 

[ohhyaaa]

Usually I'll take 2-4 tramadols 50mg, lopermide, (if available) ketamine. For some reason, for me, ketamine is a great substitute for opiates it eliminates all the mental bullshit and some of the physical part. Pretty sure dissociation has something to do with it.

 

[Pegasus]

Kratom is perfect IME for opiate withdrawal. It has alkaloids in it that bind to similar receptors as opiates do, so it takes away the sickness and gives back some energy for many people, myself included. It's easily obtained in the USA and many other countries but is illegal in Australia. Just don't abuse it and you have a substance that is the perfect step down from actual opiate addiction. (IMO)

 

[dragonslayer428]

Ibuprofen
Soma or Robaxin
Immodium (a must!)
lots of water
A benzo (I prefer Clonazepam)
Trazodone (for sleep)
Benedryl
Codeine (low doses)
A meal supplement (I prefer Boost)
neurontin

I would say exercise and warm showers and baths etc, but when I'm going through full withdrawal, I am confined to my bed.

Lots of rest (if you can get any)...that's where the trazodone and/or benadryl comes in handy.

Just ride it out and the more you urinate, the better.

 

[StaffWriter]

Isn't there a megathread on dealing with the effects of opiate withdrawal? I know Phreex (RIP) made a very informative thread on this subject. Maybe you should look it up. But IME, I like to have benzos on hand for the insomnia and the anxiety, weed for insomnia and mood uplift during the day, immodium for the runs (and can help with sweating/chills) and ibuprophen and/or acetaminophen for aches and pains. If you feel well enough to get out of bed, try to take hot baths or showers, make sure you stay hydrated (sweating and diarrhea can make you dehydrate) with Gatorade/Powerade, which replenishes salt and electrolytes and try to eat some comfort food. You'll survive if you follow this advice. It's best to get a wd. kit while you're well and have some cash on hand. Keep the kit replenished in case you have some kind of emergency wd and you're unable to get out of the house.
If you opt for Suboxone/Subutex, make sure you dose AT LEAST 24 hours after taking usual full mu agonists and 72 HOURS if you've been using methadone (try to take in account the halflife of the drug you've been using). Sometimes I have to wait upwards of 100 hrs. after using Fentanyl transdermally. If you do not wait long enough, Suboxone will throw you into precipitated withdrawal, which IME is MUCH WORSE than average withdrawal and usually comes on 20-30 minutes after sublingual dosing. But if you do get some suboxone, that will be all you need. Start out with 1mg and redose 1-2 mg every hour if the first 1mg does not hold you. I don't think many people have habits large enough to need more than 4-6mg. per day. Generally, if you get suboxone/subutex, that's all you'll need for withdrawal. Maybe some residual diarrhea, but thats about it. Good luck, my friend!
SW

PS: Tramadol or Darvocet can help you cope with all symptoms, but probably won't eliminate them completely.

 

[WSB15]

Not to be repetitive, but:

Loperamide (immodium): 3-4 tablets REALLY helps
Exercise: if possible, really really helps for mild withdrawal. Running or lifting, doesn't matter, either helps.
Benzos
Clonidine
Sleeping pills: Ambien & trazodone help.
Antihistamines: especially hydroxyzine (Vistaril), its Rx but really helps with the anxiety/tension/sleep issues
Seroquel (never tried it, but I've heard it helps for w/d)
Eat as much and as healthy as possible, stay hydrated... like dragonslayer said, meal supplement drinks like Ensure/Boost are helpful if you have no appetite
Eating very hot chili peppers (possible placebo, I thought it helped a bit; supposed to stimulate endorphin release)

Stimulants (even coffee) exacerbate some of the symptoms, at least for me.

 

[Breathe]

Usually I'll take 2-4 tramadols 50mg, lopermide, (if available) ketamine. For some reason, for me, ketamine is a great substitute for opiates it eliminates all the mental bullshit and some of the physical part. Pretty sure dissociation has something to do with it.

That might be because Ketamine was "found to be of use in chronic pain clinic for 'greatly reducing' the development of tolerance (via blockade of NMDA receptors)".. Very Interesting Tolerance Information

Wish there was some way to get Ketamine for Injection and Naltrexone for Injection. I'd be more than happy to guinea-pig myself in experiments with tolerance reduction/elimination via these chemicals.

Such as that "Cretination" cat who claimed to kill his tolerance by adding a 0.001mg of Naltrex (or some tiny amount) to his regular powder dope dose. He was supposedly nodding like crazy, and tolerance didn't go up.

Hmm....

 

[wook]

the best detoxes i have ever done always involved mass amounts of xanax, around 10 a day for 5 days. after that its pretty easy just smoking weed alone to get you through the next few days of being uncomfortable

50 bar detox, i should patent this

 

[dragonslayer428]

I would never suggest taking that amount of xanax. In the end, you could end up with another withdrawal process to look forward to...Benzo detox. Which, take it from me, is NO fun.

If using xanax or clonazepam, I wouldn't recommend going over 4-5mg a day.

 

[wook]

i never experienced withdrawal from the 50 bar detox, but i did catch a xanax habit later on

though i did have some anxiety issues which i guess is rebound effect, but it never lasted more than a couple of days after i was done, and smoking helped me ignore this

 

[digdoug]

Assuming you dont have suboxone:

Ativan or some other benzo (ativan is my preferred)
Immodium
Tylenol or Advil (Advil preferred)
Marijuana (the more the better)
Baths/shower
No milk or dairy
Sleep helps
Glass of wine at night

 

[digdoug]

i never experienced withdrawal from the 50 bar detox, but i did catch a xanax habit later on

though i did have some anxiety issues which i guess is rebound effect, but it never lasted more than a couple of days after i was done, and smoking helped me ignore this

A friend of mine has had seizures from benzo withdrawl (xanax). Its no good getting hooked on one drug trying to get off another. When I use benzos I take only as much as I need to feel relaxed. Did you really take 50 bars in 50 days? Did you stop cold turkey? Did you already have a massive xanax habbit before that?