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Opioids need help tapering off

Thanks ABetterWay, I love coffee. I usually drink 2 of the 5 cup dispenser/canister. One in the mornings and one in the evenings, when I get anxiety the coffee seems to help calm me down, I'm not sure why but it does seem to help it.
 
I really hate how slow this tapering/weening process is. I see people trying to come off a 45-100mg habit a day and I would love to be in their shoes but I realize it is just as hard tapering off that amount a day as it is 400mg's a day. I cannot wait to be on a 45-50mg's day, if I can stand the pain at that level, that will be freedom in my book. I guess people on a 6-700mg a day habit wishes they were in my shoes, anyway good luck to us all.:)
 
no NSAID's

Is this your decision or your Doctors ? Usually they throw large quantities of NSAID's at anyone in pain before progressing to Opioids. I know they can be a hassle because of GI issues but they are efficacious in some.
 
Is this your decision or your Doctors ? Usually they throw large quantities of NSAID's at anyone in pain before progressing to Opioids. I know they can be a hassle because of GI issues but they are efficacious in some.
Doctor's, I've been on opiates for 14yrs. I started out on NSAID's
 
Try tapering to lowest possible dose then jump to zero and after that if you do get some WD's I suggest you to get one week worth of pregabalin (300-900 mg daily dose according to feeling). Also GHB/GBL works greatly but it's pretty compulsive drug so I can't really recommend it if you don't know the substance, there have been studies using GHB on opioid WDS with positive results.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8397726

I say after 3 years of daily poppy use one shot of GBL took every single WD away (ok expect the sweating) or 300 mg pregabalin (without tolerance). Just be sure not to continue using these over 2 weeks daily, as they might give WD's of their own.

Actually it doesn't matter if you taper to lowest possible dose as you can just jump from high doses to zero and just use pregabalin or GHB. I did like that, as it was extremely hard to taper something that had very varying degrees of morphine. But you still should try the tapering first and see if you get any WD's, maybe then there is no need to use other drugs (that can be addictive by their own).

Really, pregabalin and GHB are the most powerful opioid WD's treatment drugs, I can't understand why they don't use them in controlled environments to get people off the opioids, I guess totally useless laws prevents that. Usually they give benzos which didn't give any relief, expect etizolam.
 
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Trying to stay on schedule is proving difficult, it's relating to all the pill crushing I've done in the past. I have been doing so much better, I have crushed to be able to sleep but that is also not acceptable. During the day I do take it without crushing and more nites than not I do not crush. I just have to get it through my mind that this will take time and not to rush it.

All the anxiety came from the chantix I was taking. I quit chantix and the anxiety went away, thank goodness.
 
During the day I do take it without crushing and more nites than not I do not crush. I just have to get it through my mind that this will take time and not to rush it.

You can't taper 250+mg in a couple days and not feel WD. A taper that big is going to take you several months to do painlessly.
Everyone is different, I would try 25mg a week. I would still feel that, personally, but effective enough to continue work on not be sided by WD.

Not trying to offend you, but you came asking for advice and have taken no one's advice so far as I can tell, and rather kept a sort of journal to for us to see your struggle step by step. The community here, most have gone through your situation countless times for years. I personally have gone through opiate WD more times than I can count in the last ten years. I successfully kicked my last habit (heroin) and have been clean for 6 months now.. longest I've made it in those ten years.

I am glad you have finally realized that the kind of taper you are doing will take a considerable amount of time, because the way you have gone about it is comparable in discomfort as it would be to just cold turkey kick. There is a way to do this painfully, and a way to do this with discomfort... if that makes sense. Go SLOW, or substitute it temporarily with a med like Methadone that is known to be a taper medication.
 
They seem to be doing pretty good.... I haven't seen them update for while, but they did say they were down to 30 from 45 mg earlier.... That is quite an improvement from multiple hundred mg.
 
Not trying to offend you, but you came asking for advice and have taken no one's advice so far as I can tell, and rather kept a sort of journal to for us to see your struggle step by step. The community here, most have gone through your situation countless times for years. I personally have gone through opiate WD more times than I can count in the last ten years. I successfully kicked my last habit (heroin) and have been clean for 6 months now.. longest I've made it in those ten years.

I am glad you have finally realized that the kind of taper you are doing will take a considerable amount of time, because the way you have gone about it is comparable in discomfort as it would be to just cold turkey kick. There is a way to do this painfully, and a way to do this with discomfort... if that makes sense. Go SLOW, or substitute it temporarily with a med like Methadone that is known to be a taper medication.
I'm not taking advise to switch meds, I need pain meds but I want to cut it down as low as possible with what I am taking. I will never get off the PM's because I need them, it's just "I" believe I can do a much lower dose than I am prescribed. I appreciate all the advise but I am not going to switch PM's, I want to taper down not quit.
 
be careful if you use pergabalin for wds too long and you get worse wds.
 
Opiates, hmmm. I've had a problem with opiates for over 20 years. I've tried everything from Lock down rehabs to 12 step programs, detox, everything available to people who have a problem. I even tried methadone clinic. I must be one of those hopeless people who just can't get it. I'm 47 and believe me when I say I figured I'd be long gone by now. But I'm still here and can't understand why. I hate who I am and what I do, more so to the people who love me , than myself. It's not a good way to live, actually it sucks.
 
Hello Not, opiates ends up a nightmare when taken for recreation but wonderful if taken for pain relief. It's inevitable for chronic pain patients, an necessary evil.
 
Lately I've been on 240-270mg's daily, I am taking 60mg's 4xD and not crushing so that's a big change, if the pain is too bad I crush 30mg's to get me to the 24hr point. The sweats have all stopped which tells me that this taper is working very well. I did raise my dose from 45 to 60 because the sweats were constant but when I went to 60 4xD it stopped. I plan to lower it to 45mg's 4xD on Monday and run that for a week then try 30mg's 4xD. If I can get to under 100mg's a day I will consider this taper a huge success and than use a 2 week slower taper per dose.
 
Dropping from 240mg/ day to 180mg/ day overnight might prove to be very difficult and unrealistic. Dropping 60mg over a week is more reasonable and much easier on your body as a whole. Even splitting it up like 60mg in the morning, 45mg at noon, 60 in the early evening followed by 45 at night would be easier and more productive then dropping 60mg overnight and having to jump back up to 240mg the following day. Slow and steady is a far more prudent option than fast followed by failure. I'm not sure if you have GI or liver problems but the occasional nsaid during your taper can be helpful with the increased pain as well. Either way let us know how much you drop and how it works out. Good Luck
 
Sticking with 240mg's, 240 is still tough and I get about 6hr relief per 60mg pill. JA speaks the truth, going to 180 is ridiculous and unrealistic for now.
 
I haven't taken any Oxycontin for the past 3 days, I am taking 20mg's Oxycodone IR now. I have taken 4 today so far and expect 2 or 3 more by midnight. I know this is about my limit when not being very active. So overall I have ditched the 300mg (60mg 5xday) Oxycontin but sticking with the 20mg oxycodone ir.
Thank you all for your time and help. Wow what a journey it has been. The anxiety just up and stopped a few weeks ago, that was a 9 month nightmare. I refused to take the anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds that my Dr kept prescribing. I've heard many bad stories about ppl trying to quit those meds.
 
I'm completely off opiates now, one year nine months. Talk about going through a mind fuck man it's been hell and I'm having bowel movements about once every three days instead of once every two or three weeks so I can tell everything's coming back to normal. I still have cold sweats.. Now I'm addicted to fucking Suboxone. I was taking 500 mg of OxyContin a day, I will never take another opiate the rest of my life. I don't see how anybody would take one after going through those withdrawls.
 
To all that replied and to those that think I disregarded whatever you said I want to thank you all.
 
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