Need Help Is this PAWS?

[MrManners]

Hi guys. Feeling awful at the mo. I have been a codeine addict for 3 years. I quit codeine 4 weeks ago and I can’t work out what the hell is going on. I went through a brutal 2 week withdrawal, the worse I’ve ever experienced. After 2 weeks my symptoms pretty much disappeared. I was sleeping well and feeling great. At the 3 week mark I had a minor relapse and did a cwe. I didn’t really enjoy it and I’m quite glad I did it as it kind of reinforced my desire to stay clean. Anyway I felt a little crap the next morning but it soon wore off. A couple of days later I’d started to struggle sleeping again and feeling run down. Now 10 days after that small relapse I’m an absolute mess again. I can’t sleep and I feel like I’ve got intense physical symptoms of anxiety. Pressure headaches, an extreme tingling down my arms and back of hands and awful runny shits. It’s like I’m in day 2 of withdrawal again.
3 months ago I took diazepam for4 weeks during an unsuccessful attempt to get clean. I only took 30mg once every 3 days. I felt rough for a couple of weeks after stopping so I assume this was a small benzo withdrawal. Before that I’d taken zopiclone for a week at the end of January and again for a week at the beginning of March. I did the 4 weeks of Diaz starting mid March.
So I’m wondering what’s going on. I have had loads of blood tests and stool tests from my GP and all came back clear. Is this PAWS from codeine addiction? Or is it waves of protracted withdrawal from the benzos that I’ve read about on benzo buddies? I made a post on here about my situation around 3 weeks ago and the general consensus was I wasn’t experiencing a benzo withdrawal which put my mind at ease. Anyone know what’s happening? Please help

 

[dopamimetic]

Opioids have the mad property of withdrawal memory. That is to induce heavy withdrawal after small relapses and it's in many cases not really related to the amount taken or for how long. You don't rush into full on withdrawal but some symptoms, that are probably very individually dependent and while some docs know about it, they are mostly ignorant about the why as with many addiction related things.

I am struggling with the same, for me it's too anxiety, insomnia, tension but also diarrhea and slightly runny nose which is problematic in times of Corona.

Found that a short tramadol taper (1-3 weeks, start with 100mg and increase as needed until the symptoms disappear, continue on this for maybe a week, then taper off) can offer great help. A doc recommended this to me for morphine PAWS and to my surprise it helped.

The gold standard though are NMDA antagonists. The low strength memantine completely does it but might require pretty high doses which can and do make you manic so I'd say if you either live in South America with their non-Rx policy or happen to have a decent doc, then combine both.

DXM aka dextromethorphan which is OTC in many countries as a dry cough relief can help too, and it doesn't need trippy doses. Avoid it if you ever had psychotic symptoms but otherwise it's usually well tolerated in pure form, that is caps or tablets. Try maybe 100mg to see if youre a slow metabolizer and go higher if you feel nothing or just a slight buzz but you shouldnt require 300mg.

I wouldn't call this PAWS but readily re-occurring withdrawal. PAWS is if you have been abstinent for some weeks and continue to feel bad, which I get too and NMDA antags help too but it's much more complicated. Luckily most users don't get it to a relevant degree.

 

[MrManners]

Opioids have the mad property of withdrawal memory. That is to induce heavy withdrawal after small relapses and it's in many cases not really related to the amount taken or for how long. You don't rush into full on withdrawal but some symptoms, that are probably very individually dependent and while some docs know about it, they are mostly ignorant about the why as with many addiction related things.

I am struggling with the same, for me it's too anxiety, insomnia, tension but also diarrhea and slightly runny nose which is problematic in times of Corona.

Found that a short tramadol taper (1-3 weeks, start with 100mg and increase as needed until the symptoms disappear, continue on this for maybe a week, then taper off) can offer great help. A doc recommended this to me for morphine PAWS and to my surprise it helped.

The gold standard though are NMDA antagonists. The low strength memantine completely does it but might require pretty high doses which can and do make you manic so I'd say if you either live in South America with their non-Rx policy or happen to have a decent doc, then combine both.

DXM aka dextromethorphan which is OTC in many countries as a dry cough relief can help too, and it doesn't need trippy doses. Avoid it if you ever had psychotic symptoms but otherwise it's usually well tolerated in pure form, that is caps or tablets. Try maybe 100mg to see if youre a slow metabolizer and go higher if you feel nothing or just a slight buzz but you shouldnt require 300mg.

I wouldn't call this PAWS but readily re-occurring withdrawal. PAWS is if you have been abstinent for some weeks and continue to feel bad, which I get too and NMDA antags help too but it's much more complicated. Luckily most users don't get it to a relevant degree.

I’ve got to the stage now where I don’t want to take any more darn pills, supplements or any Chems other than weed. Last week I started weight training at home as I used to be in love with it before I became a codeine addict. I felt great last week then bam! 5 days after that relapse and I’m in hell again. Thank you for your advice. So you think this is some kind of rebound withdrawal after the small relapse?? It does feel like a withdrawal all over again but doesn’t make sense to me that it’s now 11 days since that relapse. I always want to understand what’s happening and get frustrated when things don’t make sense to me. I know I just need to ride this out. I was so happy last week, i felt like I’d really took a massive step to beating this addiction. I’ve barely had any cravings and was eating, sleeping and exercising. That relapse dose was stupid I know but it’s helped me. I know I didn’t enjoy the high all that much and maybe what I’m going through now will just reinforce my knowledge that just one dose might set me back to feeling so shitty again. The weird thing is that I get all the physical symptoms of anxiety but without any real worries in my head. But that’s very typical of me during withdrawals, physical symptoms not psychological.

 

[dopamimetic]

Sorry that I can't really help you but as said I am struggling with the same and when you say it's been 11 days that indeed might fit into early PAWS.

People will say ride it out but I am an advocate of slow taper - depends on your personality maybe, if chances are that a taper will make you continue use then it might be better to stay away but specially when you decided that you want to be sober but struggle with this, tapering might be worth a try to give your body more time to reach equilibrium again.

Unfortunately most things that work are Rx only and not many docs are open to this.