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Oxy snowballing other addictions

jonesboog

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Jul 12, 2018
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So about 1 1/2 years ago i was prescribed low dose of percocet to help me with back pain and shoulder issues i was having. Long story short, it has snowballed into now taking 150 mg of Oxy daily, along with a high amount of caffeine, Ambien to sleep, Adderall to concentrate, and an antidepressant. I still have shoulder and lower back pain so tapering off will be extra difficult but this drug has ruined my social life and I've gained 40 lbs over the last year because whenever i take it i seem to get hungry and can't control my eating either. I have a very addictive personality so obviously this was a bad mix.

Has anyone else picked up other addictions while on pain medication? I now drink like 8 Caffeine drinks daily, take double dose of ambien at night or else i can't sleep, and have resorted to finding pain medication from outside sources since the original 40 mg per day wasn't doing anything at all. Even now, the 150 mg doesn't do much of relief anymore. I take it so i dont get the withdrawals and so i feel relaxed for at tops 30 min. Really bad situation i put myself into.

I would love to be able to quit on my own but something tells me I'm going to have to check in somewhere for help.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated, along with anybody with similar stories. Thank you for your time.
 
Most people who struggle with addiction problems tend to report that one substance will typically lead to other substances or more substances at least. This is, in part, the basis for abstinence only approach. It's the idea that the only way you'll be able to control your addictive behaviors is with a sober mind. Drug use changes the way we think as well as measurable physiological changes. Tolerance is unavoidable with daily use of drugs like opioids.

I still smoke weed and I haven't used opioids in over 1 year and last time I used benzos was like 2-3months. I went about 8 months with nothing, then slowly went back to smoking weed. If I'm honest with myself, getting high on any drug makes the high of other drugs more appealing to me. At the same time, there are a lot of people who report using something like cannabis to get off of drugs like opioids for pain.
 
Tapering off the oxy is the best play. Try going down 10mg every 5 days at first. When you get under 50mg start going down by 5mg every 5 days. When you get under 10mg go 1mg every 5 days. That will be a long taper but it will be fairly comfortable.

Just jumping off is going to be really ugly at that dose so I don't recommend it at all. The Ambien is physically addictive too but I wouldn't fuck with that until you get off the opiates. My basic strategy would be kick 1 substance at a time
 
not pain meds but basically yeah. i was prescribed benzos 12 years ago, was already smoking weed every day.

fast forward 12 years i was injecting crack and heroin, still using benzos regularly, antipsychotics, pregabs, whatever other opiates i could get codeine, dhc, tramadol, subbies (i'm in the uk). destroyed myself in with alcohol in the meantime too. and yeah i had a drug for every occasion but by the end i couldn't do anything but use. i didn't realise that addiction was progressive or what progressive really meant. i certainly didn't think it'd happen to me. i'd say to you what i'd say to me 12 years ago, though i'd never have believed it. things will get worse if you continue using. every thing you list to justify not being bad enough to stop or whatever will slowly get ticked off.

i couldn't stop on my own either but i did 2 months in rehab and am now just over 4 months clean off everything and my life is so much better. get help ASAP and don't let your head trick you into thinking you don't need it. go to residential rehab if you need to and can.
 
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