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Opioids need help tapering off

oxyfen

oxyfen

Bluelighter
Joined
Mar 5, 2008
Messages
289
Hello, I'm on 60mgs Oxycontin 5xD. I want to taper down to 10mgs 2 or 3xD. Is it possible to do so and not have WD's?
I hate this medication but I am a chronic pain patient but do not want to involve the doctors until I know it's possible to get to a low dose and it works. I did take 80mgs 4xD and ask the doc to give me 60's 5xD and that is what I'm on now but I want to know from the experienced people here what is the next step.

I started 45mg's tonite, I split a 60 to 2 30's and split a thirty to 2 fifteens and take a half a tab and a 1/4 tab.
 
I also used a pill crusher for the oxycontin so it would work faster, it was a bad thing to do but I now take the pills without crushing them and went through 4 weeks of WD's while having my script, the 45mg's last about 3 hrs then the cold sweats kick in.
 
Crushing it causes it all to release at once, which is not that much a difference from taking a whole pill it's enough to notice.

Try taking a smaller dose more often then a big one all at once. Like 5 mg every hour or something then start reducing one dose at time.

You'll never escape withdrawals, but you can draw them out so they are less severe.
 
The 45mg's are lasting about 4hr 15min's at the moment. I start to feel hot on the top of my head and skin and this is an indication of the cold sweats on their way. If I get the 45mg's in-in time I will escape the WD's of cold sweats.

Taking 5mg's every hour is ridiculous, I would be in constant WD's.
 
Probably... It's just a suggestion that could work, but as you can tell is probably not the easiest. It just was meant to express only you can figure out the right dose, but it takes a lot of self restraint to adhere to a schedule. If you go on wd every 4 hours then dose the lowest amount every 4 hours reducing by around 5 mg or as much as you can as soon as you can. Don't force yourself to go faster than you are ready you need to just go at it dedicated so you can finish using once and for all. If that's your goal it's the only way to do it without suffering severe wd although you'll likely still suffer from post acute wd depression and fatigue for a while as well joint tension and muscle soreness too. Not severely, but enough to be a temptation to use again.
 
taco, thanks for your replies, I do not intend to completely quit because of the chronic pain but I do want to reduce my intake as much as possible because I know I don't require 410mg's a day. Right now I get the cold sweats around 3.5 to 4.25hrs, I was at a point; 60mg's every hr so I am making some headway. I plan that maybe in 2-3 months I will get to my target and that is taking it easy so I do not get the cold sweats, I hate changing T-shirts every few hrs and the discomfort that goes with the cold sweats.
 
I understand you. Honestly if you can use methadone for maintenance yet retain the oxy for breakthrough (literally only if you can't handle the pain and before bed so you don't suffer wd at night although no more than 15 mg). Don't go higher than 20 mg on the methadone and reduce it by 1 mg a day or 2 mg every week whatever you feel comfortable doing. It will manage pain and reduce your tolerance in the most controlled manner as the clinics can measure the syrup to the mg allowing you to drop so precisely. It also is an nmda antagonists, which are known to reduce tolerance when used with opioid antagonists, but also leads to the anti depressant effect similar to K in a manner I call irrational happiness that actually leaves me more anxious and prone to depression long term so he aware of that. Also be aware you'll likely end up with a label going to a chemical dependency clinic so I don't know if you're comfortable enough to discuss this with your Dr's. Methadone is also very potent and can easily raise your tolerance and must be used carefully to truly be a tool to reduce tolerance.

Just take some time to research the subject online through other reports of people's experiences. While harm reduction boards in regards to drug use are a great resource for people struggling with opiate use while there is discussion of pain management it's usually discussion around hitting rock bottom. If you go to medical boards discussing pain management including opioid medication management you'll find a wider spectrum of experiences more focused on pain management.

Anyways good luck.
 
It's easy to taper yourself off if you have control over yourself, just use slightly less every two days, gives your body enough time to adjust to the new dose and it also gives you a chance to work through the slight pain.
 
Taking 45mg's and I'm getting anxiety, I know if I up my intake I will loose the anxiety but I need to get my intake much lower. I'm at 3hrs on 45mg's right now and expect to start getting the cold sweats soon, I am wanting to stretch out as many minutes as possible. It's strange that sometimes I can go 4hrs and then the CS's kick in but then sometime only 2-2.5hrs and the CS's kick in. I'm just wondering how long this taper will take to get to my target point which is about 40mg's a day. I hope it doesn't take months
 
The anxiety is bad, is there anything OTC that will help? I don't want anymore prescribed meds. The anxiety just irritates me bad, I can't sit still.
 
Damn, the anxiety will make you want to take more Oxy just to rid of the feeling but I'm holding out for the CS's.
 
How much Oxy do I need to take in order for it to show up in the urine test? I know years ago when I first started taking opiates I was on Oxycodone 5/325mg's every 4 hrs and it would not show up but taking the same hydrocodone it would. I was almost dismissed from the program because of it.
 
The anxiety was getting a bit much so I took a 20mg Oxycodone IR 7mins ago and it is helping a little.
 
Will I have the anxiety the whole time I'm tapering? Boy it's sux.

I just took my 45mg dose
 
If you have a prescription tapering should be easy. First, find a dose and schedule that keeps you well--that is, symptomless, but not 'high'. Then start chipping away say 5 mg from each dose every week or so. If 60 mg taken 4xD keeps you well, surely 55mg will hardly be noticeable? Then just keep at it, dropping 5 mg every week--50, 45, 40, and in a few weeks/months you'll be where you need to be with minimum discomfort. If you have a prescription that currently keeps you well if you take it as prescribed, there is no need to go through the pain of withdrawal. Go back to your prescribed dose and try a more gradual taper. I would also consider talking to your doctor--they are generally quite open to the idea of dropping narcotic drug dosages.
 
No way do I want the doctor involved, when I do get to my lowest dose possible I can stash the rest, we never know when a SHTF situation will generate. At a time like that narcotics will be worth more than gold, literally. An ounce of my 60mg Oxycontin pills are 100 pills which comes to 5-6000$ an ounce so yeah it worth about 3X more than gold. I never thought of this until just now weighing the pills and gold being 1228$ oz just blew my mind.
 
Just living life strapped to these damn pills is a prison sentence, of course it's not as bad as prison but it sure seems so.
 
I think a big part of this tapering going so well is I quit crushing my pills. I have not been waiting for the CS's to kick in but I will this time, my last dose of 45mg's was at 2:49pm and it's 7:53pm so I hope I can coast to at least 8:49.
 
9 more minutes and it will be 6 hrs on 45mg's, that's the longest so far.
 
Tried lowering my dose to 30mg's but nogo. The cold sweats come hours early. I went about 7hrs on 45mg's but less than 2hrs on 30. I only stayed on the 45mg's for 2 days then switch to 30mg's so 2 days is a bit fast. I should at the least stay on the 45mg's for a week and going to 30mg's may be a bit much as well. I will try 37.5mg's when I step down on Fri morn.

Maybe I'll try 37.5mg's tonite, I take 45mg's 4XD so I'm wondering if I take the 37.5mg's 4XD as well but I'm not sure on the time factor since no-one from the forum other than
tacodude, agarttha & sunvol has cared to post so I decided to make this a somewhat guide for others that are trying to taper down on their meds. I hope it will be helpful.

Friday my total intake was 405mg's which is awful because my normal prescribed intake is 410mg's so basically I'm really getting nowhere. But I did quit crushing my pills which caused me to take more and be short for 1-2 days. In the short days I would take hydrocodone. It was awful because I would have to take 14 5mg's hydro every couple hours and talk about upset stomach, all that nasty Tylenol!

So yes I have accomplished something even though MG's wise it shows no advancement. I have to realize that this will take time while tapering and if I want fast I need to go cold turkey which I don't have the will power to do or the courage. I've been on this for 15yr so my body is polluted with Oxy and to deny my body of a small amount is going to have my body cursing at my brain to replenish it.

So yeah I have to accept the fact that this is a time consuming feat. I really wish it was a fast cure.
 
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