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Opioids Heroin withdrawal is "just like having the flu"...right?

Sixbuckets...influenza is just a blanket term. The one that killed so many people was spanish flu. There are many other types of fluenzas out there....my favorite being "afluenza" which only killed four people.

It is why you get a different flu shot every year because the virus changes. It is kinda like the difference between a northern gray squirrel and a southern ground squirrel. They are both squirrels and they have a very common ancestry, but they are slightly different. So like the virus has a family tree where some versions are crazy infectious and can kill the elderly and infants, and others are very mild and not very infectious. The reason you don't keep getting the same flu is because of antibodies that your body builds up. Antibodies are kinda like the vaccine to that specific strain of virus. If you have had that version, your body will fight it off easily, however if it mutates your flocked. Here is an example. I have had an immunization to hep b. I have those antibodies in my system. Whenever I get a blood test they are there, and will always be there....unless I get some crazy immuno deficiency problem going on at some point.

So to answer the question opiate withdrawal is like some crazy version of the flu that causes different effects in everyone however it is extremely baffling in the fact that it makes you suffer profound emotional problems throughout its duration and months after. Consider having the flu and then finding out your cat burned down your house with your prized collection of rare spoons inside after your wife left you to be with your brother who also was renting the house that burned down so he made of with your woman, your home, your cat, and probably your spoons. Wow I am really rambling...lets just leave it at opiate withdrawal really sucks.

Sounds like a country song, no?

I haven't used H, so no first hand experience. I did nurse someone through morphine withdrawals, and from what I saw, this is an accurate description. I've seen posts that lower level opiods/opiates, such as codeine, kratom and hydrocodone produce lesser withdrawals. From what I've observed, they all suck.
 
Can someone help me out? I have stopped using oxycodone yesterday. I had my last dose in the am and I am on day one of withdrawl. I took a methadone to ease the symptoms. I only had one. It will be last thing I take. I am feeing ok. I have immodium and vistaril for my nerves. I have taken oxycodone 80mg daily for about 3 months. Please help me understand what I will experience and how bad it will be. All of your replies help. Thank you very much
 
if ibogaine is as effective as some claim, if it truly dials back tolerance, then it seems like the heroin addicts 'get out of jail free' card..you could theoretically use heroin for months, then use ibogaine to kick and reverse toleerance then just go right back to using heroin..i dunno about anyone else but this sounds way too good to be true..

the whole point of it is that it shows u how horrible life as an addict is apparantly, while at the same time, resetting all your receptors so u won't be dopesick at all. from what i have heard, you come out of the experience with a new hope and passion for real life, and a disgust of drugs. truly sounds like a miracle cure.
 
Can someone help me out? I have stopped using oxycodone yesterday. I had my last dose in the am and I am on day one of withdrawl. I took a methadone to ease the symptoms. I only had one. It will be last thing I take. I am feeing ok. I have immodium and vistaril for my nerves. I have taken oxycodone 80mg daily for about 3 months. Please help me understand what I will experience and how bad it will be. All of your replies help. Thank you very much

What you are going to do is go into sober living and post a thread called help me get through opiate withdrawals. You will get more responses there.

You can expect a nightmarish first couple days followed by lots of sadness and a feeling of incompleteness. Just stick to it. The prize is attainable and believe me it is amazing.
 
If possible, get some memantine (NMDA antagonist that alleviates a good part of the overexcitation happening during w/d) and clonidine (lowers norepinephrine, takes care of other parts, restlessness, anxiety and insomnia), maybe loperamide (peripherally acting opioid against physical symptoms especially diarrhoea etc.) but the latter isn't even necessary in milder cases.

Gradually increase the dosages of these meds over some days (I just dosed straight on 50mg memantine and 150mcg of clonidine as necessary but this isn't recommended) and they'll help you so much over the withdrawal, not just masking the symptoms but actually helping to recover especially the memantine ... unless you're on some really crazy high dosage, it should work to some extent. All I had left over was some sweating and here and there a little bit of anxiety, mostly overall lethargy. Watched TV during the days and slept at night, after three days most was over and after 2-4 weeks you can taper the memantine down again. I wouldn't have managed to get through a single day without these meds.

Dextromethorphan works for some too.
 
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Smoking lots of crystal meth works too, if you want to fast forward through withdrawal (the acute phase, anyway).

Of course this runs the risk of getting you hooked on methamphetamine but a lot of heroin users I know dislike meth (through personal experience), so the risk of making it a problematic habit isn't that big IMO since it's not their DOC. Meth isn't really a drug that "grows on you" either, you're either into it or you're not

Different people have different responses to WD...I know some people who are terrified of being "sick" and will complain endlessly when they are, and others who just power through WD. It seems to affect older users more strongly than younger users. I don't have a huge amount of experience with H but I don't think I've experienced true WD...the most I've ever done was a month straight of using H, usually multiple times a day (as a result of hanging around certain people mostly) and I didn't really experience any noticeable WD symptoms upon cessation, at least not as they're described to me (i.e. feeling really sick and puke-y, etc.)
 
There has been the somewhat interesting theory brought up recently on BL that it's mostly about dopamine and some can actually switch to (sky high) dosages of cocaine and get over the opioid withdrawal this way ... somehow I don't believe that this works as well as the NMDA approach for most and it certainly sounds more risky (memantine & clonidine are quite safe meds and will actually protect you from excitotoxicity and seizurogenic activity), but there seem to be people for whom it worked. The sodium channel blocking properties of cocaine might add their own part possibly.
 
Yeah that's supposedly how Billy Idol beat opiate addiction, by just snorting massive amounts of cocaine for weeks on end.

Attempt only if you have access to 1980's Billy Idol-quality blow. :)
 
Would indeed confirm my little theories about dopamine being a modulatory agent that is not only excitatory but also inhibits glutamate (as well as norepinephrine) by downstream mechanisms ... this makes sense too regarding the effects of psychostimulants and their rebound effects.

Free cocaine for everyone! ;)
 
It's been awhile since I was in withdrawal but I remember it being much worse than flu. I wasn't even on smack or anything my pain clinic cut me off and I was taking lots of pills. Flu? I wish. One person was right on here physical is kinda like flu but mental is horrible. I had feelings of dread that seem to last forever. Terrible experience. I'm back on um at a better pain clinic and I never go over my daily limit. DXM might help like ice heard and also Imodium helped me. I can't remember the name of the drug in it. Lorpamine or something. I was told to take like 15 of those and it did ease it. I'm in no way telling someone to do this I'm just sharing my experience of what helped me. I had vomiting and diareah at same time sometimes but the immodium helped with that to. Opiates are the devil, I swear. The buzz is so pulling but withdrawal is so bad. Good luck
 
When I'm sick with the flu--I can comfortably lay in bed or on the couch and snuggle up and lose myself in a good book or a movie.

When I had opiate withdrawal there was no such thing as laying comfortably. Restless legs, etc


When I'm sick with the flu I can sleep away much of the time that I feel like crap. It's like being in a sort of half awake daze a lot of the time but the time goes by pretty quickly.

When I had opiate wd I couldn't sleep. It made every day endless. And if I did manage to fall asleep I would wake up thinking hours had passed. And it would be only 10 minutes.


When I had the flu I would at least have hope of feeling better the next day

When I had opiate wd, until day 4 or so, you knew you weren't going to feel any better come morning. And you'd probably feel worse. And when I cold turkey withdrew from methadone every day after day 5 I would hope to feel a little better--and every day was disappointed. Til around day 16 where I felt slightly better. (Had i known just how long it would take to return to normal I probably would've hung myself. And I'm not suicidal)


When I have the flu I know there is absolutely nothing I can do but deal with it

When I have opiate wd I know a phone call can make me 100% better. Unless I'm locked up in which case that doesn't apply).


They both have runny noses, sneezing, watery eyes, GI issues, chills, sweats, delerium. But withdrawal has soooo much more that the "flu like" symptoms are just a part of it. Still, when trying to explain wd to someone who has never been there it is probably the closest analogy
 
im not thinking of the common cold...lol, having a cold doesnt even register much oon my 'uncomfortable' list..i remember the flu, in bed and sick with various symptoms but the biggest thing is during the flu u can lay down comfortably and watch netflix..when dopesick, u try to watch tv, u are so restless u cant lay still, every ounce of joy is sucked out of your life..u wonder hoow the people on tv can actually be smiling..u are that depressed and mentally out of it..

i do wonder what causes the almost 'waking nightmares' during heroin withdrawal?i remember being so plagued mentally during withdrawals, painful memories of the past, paranoid thoughts about others etc etc..feeling that i had never experienced in real life even during the worst of my depressions...the mental agony of being dopesick cannot be explained imo..someone who has never been through it would never understand it..

never heard the comparison to chemo though
 
anyone else taste it in their mouths sometimes or see what looks like a line of brown on your sink? This happened to me so much when I was in detox. Sometimes little baggies floated in my vision when I closed my eyes...it was horrible.
 
The nearest i can get to heroin w/d, is a toothache. You can't eat, in constant pain and you can't sleep. But having said that the mental pain and depression,! I can think of nothing even close.
 
You obviously got your hands on some great gear, if you smoked or snorted good heroin, let alone used it a needle for a month, you'd either still be doing it, in prison, dead or in rehab.
 
I'm about to go thru this although not cold turkey. I have several reasons I don't wanna take opiates anymore but it will still hurt. I'm gonna use mostly Kratom and weed. DXM occasionally and immodium but not nearly the amounts that have been suggested elsewhere. I have colon and ostomy bag so I don't wanna fuck myself up. Even immodium is small doses can help and gonna see if my dr will prescribe me clonidine. Supposedly helps a lot. I have enough meds to taper down slowly, thank God. But I'm tolerant so I'm used to it in my body so tapering down still sucks. I just took a bowl hit first since May and I feel great. My one true love has always been cannabis so I'll be better off and happier smoking than being a prisoner to opites. I hate them!! Oh yeah, cocaine for opiate Withdrawl? That def seems self defeating cause then you gotta kick Coke too. I hear some crazy shit out here. Anything I've forgotten or any additional tips would be appreciated. Be safe!
 
anyone else taste it in their mouths sometimes or see what looks like a line of brown on your sink? This happened to me so much when I was in detox. Sometimes little baggies floated in my vision when I closed my eyes...it was horrible.

i always literallyh had a bad taste in my mouth during withdrawals..everything tasted nasty and one effect i seemed to get that not many others did was, everything STUNK..i remember my sense of smell was off..
 
ehh im against stimulants for opiate withdrawal..i remember using adderal and ephedrine in the first stages of withdrawal and it did boost my mood and energy but it also worsened my anxiety and when i crashed, i felt even worse than before..
 
I'm using ephedrine right now but like you said, it just adds to the anxiety and insomnia and shit. I can't do DXM. Maybe gel tabs but I never see them cause liquid make ostomy output go crazy. That's just 100mg too. You're right Belford, unless you've been thru it you can't understand it, I gratefully don't have to go thru that again. Be safe
 
Someone on bluelight told me he found it easier to quit heroin than stop smoking cigarettes. Is that true for anyone
 
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