Is opiate tolerance permanent?

[blase deviant]

I remember when 240mg dihydrocodeine used to make me glow, but now I take it and all I feel are a few itches.

Are the meds I'm getting degrading in quality, or is it just because I've gotten used to OC and Dilaudid (which were also weak, the amounts I had to snort of those weak-ass probably counterfeit pills should've ODed me).

 

[billywitchdoc.com]

tolerance keeps growing if you keep using. take a month off and it should lower. opiate tolerance is a bitch, time heals all, so try and cut back the days of usage to start with than you can try cutting your doses, or stop cold turkey. itll go down, eventually

 

[MrMoss]

About as permanent as British Rail punctuality ... it'll take a few months but things will get back to normal

 

[MDPVagrant]

Had a few habits in the past, & something is different now... probably just psychological. I don't really enjoy opiates much anymore, for some reason.

 

[SKL]

Physiologic tolerance truly grows and thrives only when you are using on a regular basis. A drug holiday will reduce your tolerance dramatically. Psychological tolerance is another matter altogether. You get used to the effects of the drug, appreciate the lower-level effects substantially less, and want to push the envelope more and more and more.

 

[blase deviant]

How long is the averafe fdrug hioldiday/

 

[pennywise]

While your tolerance will drop if you abstain, the speed at which you will become physically habituated will increase with each new habit. It only takes me like 3-4 days of using every day to notice an increase in tolerance and some withdrawal symptoms now, whereas when I never had a habit before it took several months of using every day to experience the same effects.

 

[Ham-milton]

The only tolerance I think is truly permanent is benzo tolerance.

 

[Kenaz]

The only tolerance I think is truly permanent is benzo tolerance.

One problem, I think, is that there are a couple of different things going on under the rubric "tolerance." First you have the physical tolerance, i.e. the biochemical changes which require increasing dosages to get the same effect. Then you have a psychological tolerance, for lack of a better word. Your body becomes accustomed to some of the negative effects which plagued you during your first experiments with the drug: you are better able to handle the nausea etc. because you expect it, and you may even be able to tune it out altogether. This allows you to use increasing dosages of the drug -- and if you're chasing euphoria rather than pain relief, it's highly likely that you will do just that.

The physical tolerance goes away: I'm not so sure the psychological tolerance does. Once you've become accustomed to X amount of euphoria, you'll have a hard time settling for anything less than X + ... and so a $10 shot is never going to feel to a regular user the way it does to a newbie, physical tolerance be damned.

 

[burn out]

The only tolerance I think is truly permanent is benzo tolerance.

no, weed tolerance is also permanent. and alcohol tolerance as well in my experience (and probably lots of other drugs). i mean, my tolerances goes down if i take an extended break but never back to how it was before i ever started. i know i'll never be able to enjoy weed again, it just lost it's magic for me.

come to think of it, are there any drugs which DON'T produce a permanent tolerance? once you abuse a drug heavily enough for long enough, even taking a long break doesn't bring your tolerance back to zero in my experience. are there ANY drugs which take exception to this?

 

[johanneschimpo]

weeds may have "lost its magic" but that doesn't necessarily say much for tolerance.
1 hit and I'm feeling it, a few and I'm gone. My tolerance definitely decreased over time


and opiate tolerance does go down, its just does so slowly. then it quickly goes back up.

 

[burn out]

One problem, I think, is that there are a couple of different things going on under the rubric "tolerance." First you have the physical tolerance, i.e. the biochemical changes which require increasing dosages to get the same effect. Then you have a psychological tolerance, for lack of a better word. Your body becomes accustomed to some of the negative effects which plagued you during your first experiments with the drug: you are better able to handle the nausea etc. because you expect it, and you may even be able to tune it out altogether. This allows you to use increasing dosages of the drug -- and if you're chasing euphoria rather than pain relief, it's highly likely that you will do just that.

The physical tolerance goes away: I'm not so sure the psychological tolerance does. Once you've become accustomed to X amount of euphoria, you'll have a hard time settling for anything less than X + ... and so a $10 shot is never going to feel to a regular user the way it does to a newbie, physical tolerance be damned.

this is another point which i could have touched upon but didn't because i didn't want to write a long post. but since you brought it up, i will elaborate. basically i agree with what you're saying. there are different kinds of tolerances. and so even if your physical tolerances goes back to normal (meaning it takes you X amount of drug to get high) that doesn't mean you'll experience the same high.

i still disagree with benzos being the only drug that produces a permanent tolerance though, even if we're speaking on a strictly physiological level, i think years of alcohol consumption alters the way the liver processes alcohol and even after years of not drinking, a former drinker's liver will still process alcohol at a faster rate than someone who never drank.

 

[burn out]

weeds may have "lost its magic" but that doesn't necessarily say much for tolerance.
1 hit and I'm feeling it, a few and I'm gone. My tolerance definitely decreased over time


and opiate tolerance does go down, its just does so slowly. then it quickly goes back up.

right, see my above post about physiological tolerance. so it depends on what we mean by tolerance, whether we mean strictly the amount of drug you use or the way the affects feel. but even if we're talking about the amount of drug you need, then i still think alcohol is an example of a drug that produces a semi permanent tolerance. weed, no. weed actually produces a reverse tolerance in my experience, whereas i would be LESS able handle one hit of weed now then before i ever started.

 

[jake.conk]

The simple answer, no opiate tolerance is not permanent. Actually tolerance comes back really fast.

 

[Madmike]

In My Opinion , opiate tolerance is forever raised to some base level. It is the expectations that do it. But I think you can get to a level where only 30-60 mgs of codeine (or comparable) will say something to you.

 

[biggerstronger]

My tolerance never went back to square one when I stopped for 1.5 years but it did drop a bit. However it raised back to the old levels within 2 or 3 weeks tops. It sucks. As others have said opiates have lost their magic because I can't afford to take enough to get high. It's sad.

 

[phr]

One problem, I think, is that there are a couple of different things going on under the rubric "tolerance." First you have the physical tolerance, i.e. the biochemical changes which require increasing dosages to get the same effect. Then you have a psychological tolerance, for lack of a better word. Your body becomes accustomed to some of the negative effects which plagued you during your first experiments with the drug: you are better able to handle the nausea etc. because you expect it, and you may even be able to tune it out altogether. This allows you to use increasing dosages of the drug -- and if you're chasing euphoria rather than pain relief, it's highly likely that you will do just that.

The physical tolerance goes away: I'm not so sure the psychological tolerance does. Once you've become accustomed to X amount of euphoria, you'll have a hard time settling for anything less than X + ... and so a $10 shot is never going to feel to a regular user the way it does to a newbie, physical tolerance be damned.

Good post. Most people think tolerance is just physical, when in fact it is not. The psychological aspect plays a big part IMO.

Also, once you've been addicted for a long enough time(1+ year daily), even if you stop for a few years, once you pick up using again, your tolerance will increase a lot faster than it originally did. Damn that was a long sentence!

 

[burn out]

Good post. Most people think tolerance is just physical, when in fact it is not. The psychological aspect plays a big part IMO.

Also, once you've been addicted for a long enough time(1+ year daily), even if you stop for a few years, once you pick up using again, your tolerance will increase a lot faster than it originally did. Damn that was a long sentence!

which to me suggests there is some kind of permanent tolerance. the fact that your body so easily readjusts to the presence of the drug makes me think your body somehow "remembers" how to metabolize it.

also, on the notion of psychological tolerance, i think the term is somewhat misleading.

i mean, i think you could split it up even further and actually say there are different kinds of psychological tolerance but only kind is purely psychological. the others are due to neurochemical changes. true psychological tolerance would be you simply becoming used to the drug, just like you can become used to any other feeling and it doesn't feel as strong anymore. but another aspect which also contributes to the fact that drugs don't feel the same over time is that your brain is responding differently physiologically, which results is psychological differences.

 

[bulldog8b]

Opiate tolerance for me never seems to go down, although I have only taken a few months off. But even after say 3 months, my tolerance has not gone down much, it has gone down though, just not by a whole lot. And then when I start using again, it goes up faster than before and with in no time I am back to where I left off. Now, if you took years off I think eventually your body would go back to almost normal, though I don't think you would be the same as you were before you started. I think that once you have had a habit or a tolerance, if you use again, no matter how long the break, your tolerance will come back with a vengance.

 

[saveyour]

more: i can no longer get high on oxycodone