It's boring for sure but what I struggle with are inner tension, nervousness and anxiety. Had these things before, yet the drugs put a cuddly blanket over them and I forgot their intensity, then even their existence over time - repeatedly, was always my cause for relapses. Even professionals tell you that withdrawal is primarily physical discomfort and is often described as being flu-like - which is probably an understatement. But in rehab I've seen people in withdrawal, sweating, shivering and still socializing - I just can't. Hate it to even just prepare food and avoid leaving the room as much as possible, minutes become hours when everything is overwhelming and boring at the same time. Also physical withdrawal can be somewhat managed with things like loperamide and there are pharmaceutical possibilities to avoid a good part of the withdrawal entirely but what remains is the post-acute stage which doesn't seem to fade away anytime soon.
Memantine is interestingly a great aid both with acute as well as PAWS but it's not well known, hard to get a script for and can be too expensive (off-label). Also again a mental dependence, it agonizes D2 receptors so they won't recover on it. Stopping mem. was much heavier than 200mg/d morphine after 2 years with it, and it still remains to be..
Is it just me or a common phenomenon, which the clinical withdrawals covering only a few weeks fail to cover?