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OxyContin HELP

Julia180

Greenlighter
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Mar 20, 2019
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4
If you are tapering off OxyContin from roughly 180 mg down to 45 mg should you still be nodding off? It has been a slow tapper that started since last July 2018 I?ve just noticed recently that my fiancee is showing signs of nodding off again and he is saying it?s because he is buying off a dealer and the pills might be pressed and not real pharmaceutical so there is something stronger in them. He says he is cutting down and hopes to be done in the next 2 months and I want to believe him with all my heart but have been seeing him starting to nod off again for the past two months and he is being secretive so even tho I want to believe I am distrustful so I want to reach out and see if anyone has experience this when they have been tapering off and not just jump to conclusions. Thanks I am just worried about him
 
Oh so your partner is allegedly tapering but still nodding off?

yes it could happen, but there's no way to know if he's supplementing his OC dosages. I'm sorry.

Just tell him you won't be mad you just want to know the truth. He might even be using non-opiates to help get a "nod" so that the withdrawal doesn't feel so bad, like alcohol, benzos, blood pressure meds, any number of things really.

If he's being secretive it's a bad sign, encourage him to be open with you and don't be judgmental.
 
It's highly unlikely. It's far more likely he is dosing higher than he's supposed to again to get high and lying about it.

Not saying that this is 100% the case, but (I'm an ex-oxycontin addict myself) nodding off from such a significantly lower dose after having tapered down, never ever happened to me (not even close) and just doesn't sound likely to be true at all in my opinion.

I'd have very serious doubts right now if I were you. I'd probably just not believe him tbh.
 
No way you will be nodding while you are tapering. If anything, you'll be mildly dope sick and uncomfortable the whole time. Only way you can catch nods AFTER decreasing your dose is either by changing the way you take them or lowering your tolerance. There are a few ways you can get drugs into your system with varied amount of effectiveness. Injecting will result in more of the drug entering your brain compared to eating because it doesn't go in the stomach where some is destroyed and then have to pass through the liver where more is removed. So, 45mg injected will be far more effective than 45mg eaten. Smoking and snorting will be somewhere in the middle, as a fair amount is lost in these methods compared to IV, but probably less than eaten.

The only other way to increase the effectiveness of a drug is to lower tolerance, which in this case would mean he'd have to had taken less than 45mg/day for a time, or started taking 45mg all at once instead of spacing it out through the day. It'd be pretty easy to tell if he is taking it all at once vs spacing it out(visually see, ask about habits, or if he is nodding out more than one "episode"). Also if he stopped taking it completely for long enough to have his tolerance drop, it'd be pretty obvious as he'd be terribly dope sick in a way that couldn't really be hidden.

I can't say conclusively, but based on the information provided I'd be surprised if he hadn't relapsed. To be honest, if he is still buying drugs off the street then that is a major part of the problem. That's a bit like trusting a child to only buy 1 piece of candy when it has enough for 20 and no supervision. Idk what personal experience you have with addiction, but the disease incentives people to lie and cover up their drug use. By lying, they get the neurochemical reward of the drug; by telling the truth they get the neurochemical punishment of withdrawal.

In my opinion, you should leave him if he isn't willing to get help. Apart from the dishonesty, addiction will cause you all kinds of problems if it is left unaddressed, and it is not your problem to address. You can support him but you can't do it for him.
 
As I said he started his tapering in July of last year so he has been using for almost a year.He went from taking orally in the very beginning to snorting and I know he continues to snort it he went from what he told me was 6 30mg blues and is now supposedly down to 1 and a half 30mg pill and cutting them into 16ths and spreading them thru the day. Befor I even know about his addiction or had any clue I had a vivid dream of him using heroin and I told him about it i guess it was my subconscious and gut warning me about something wasn?t right it was an abserd dream because he was never into anything other then
Occasionally some coke at friends party?s. So now I know it?s oxy because he opens up to me and told me when he got scared one day that he was peeing blood and we went to the emergency room the news hit me like a ton of bricks when he told me but not I live in fear especially now seeing him nod off that he is on heroin because the oxy is expensive. Originally I was the one in control of cutting his pills and giving him his days worth and ever two to 3 weeks he would taper down a quarter but now too many red flags I am noticing befor he would seem mild withdrawal like you mentioned but now I am seeing him nod and his eyes rolling in the back of his head. We have been together since we were 13 and I love him so much we have a 3 year old and I am due in June with our second child. I am at a loss it?s killing me to watch this and our family fall apart I just want to help him thru this but I have lost all trust in him. I was hopping to get some insight from ex users on what I guess I already know that he is lying to me it?s just so hard it?s really breaking me.i just don?t know what to do.
 
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Tell him you need a sober father for your kids.

P.S. peeing blood is a VERY bad sign and can be something moderately bad or severely bad. He was right to go to the hospital.
 
EDIT- Hey CH I think this will probably get more taction over in TDS, as it's about dealing with addiction. OP certainly isn't alone in her situation and hopefully we can offer more support.

Julia- You really have to trust your gut and stand your ground here. I'm not even sure how someone could cut a 30mg oxy pill into 16 equal pieces without crushing it and using a mg scale. But even if he did, that's less than 2mg oxycodone per dose, which assuming he's bigger than a toddler, there is no way that amount in those doses are causing nods even snorted. The best thing you can do to help him is to take care of yourself and children first, and only offer him help after he has begun to really help himself.
 
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OK I'll move this to TDS. If anyone wants me to bounce it back, hit me up.

moved to TDS as per request
 
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