Opioids The Opioid Withdrawal Megathread and FAQ

[robertdavies]

Hang in there!

 

[Chris42393]

Yeah I had such a great day on Saturday but then could not wind down. I was so anxious, my heart was racing. It wasn?t until 2mg Lorazepam and 10mg Ambien, 50mg doxylamine succinate that I got any sleep at all.

Took only the Unisom and Lorazepam last night and was waking up constantly still.
The worst part now is waking up so damn cold. I?ve never set my heater at 77F before.
And the cold shakes that hit at random times of day. Day #5 though, at least I?m here.

Good luck! Wish you the best! I'll be coming off opiates soon myself. Just trying to get everything prepared. Not looking forward to it, but it will be worth it in the end. The main thing for me is the RLS, chills/sweating... and then some anxiety. Wont be doing it with Kratom this time (dont want to get hooked on that again too). Once again, wish you luck! You can do it!

 

[Sam Stone]

Great thread...this is my first post. Was doing oxy for 8 months. 60 mg during the work week. Around 150 mg on weekends. Tapered for last 5 days and today is first day with zero oxy. This is my second time around doing this. Was clean for 6 months and went back to using. The PAWs suck and I feel much better on oxy... The pills are expensive though and I hate waking up knowing im dependent on them.
Here is what im doing this time around for WD. A clonidine patch on my arm, have tons of gabapentin on hand and around 30 tramadols. Last time was similar but didnt have the trams so used kratom. Kratom doesn't do much for me...its overrated IMO.
Anyway, the combo is working. Rather be high on oxy but if ur gonna go straight i recommend the drug combo i mentioned. When i run out of trams ill stay on the gaba.

 

[KS78]

New here, i come with my head hung low as last night i admitted to my wife of 20 years im addicted to hydrocodone. Been taking 40mg every six hours on the DOT, i carried pills in my jean pocket if we went out to town to make sue i didnt withdraw infront of thrm. At work i emptied a chapstic container so i could carry 6-10/325's on me at all times , ive borrowed from friends who have LEGIT medical issues, mine were for severe migranes which i still have but i showed my wife the chapstick last nighg n i still had one 10 vic she made me take it before we went to the er,, o the shame walking in there, one for me and two my wife is a nurse practioner there ??? soo its been 24 hrs with nothing but clonidine and ativan still i cant keep from crying from what ive done ALL THE SHAME

How are you doing Gunslinger?

 

[KS78]

Hello. I have been a poly-substance abuser for the most of my life. Nothing became as big a problem as my IV H and cocaine use though. Many years of addiction and all the problems that came with it. After many attempts, I've managed to stay free of intravenous H and C since 2009 or 2010 (not big on counting dates).
Once in a while, I make poppy tea, take a couple E/ Xanax or a couple lines of coke but not so often. Recently, I came across some decent opium. I live in Istanbul and it's quite easy to get heroin or coke but I never try to get them. On the other hand, I couldn't let the opium go and I bought some.
I've been swallowing a pea size ball (about a 7 millimeter diameter) for about 10 days. I go around 24 hours without any signs of withdrawal but I'll probably go through some. It's the first time I might be dependent on an oral opiate(s) so I'm not sure about how intense the withdrawal will be. I have lots of pods to taper with or I might try to taper and stop with the opium itself.
It really annoys me that I don't know the weight of the opium I'm using daily because I can't ballpark the amount of morphine I'll (probably) withdrawal from.
What do you guys think? 10 days of pea sized opium balls, oral route. Isn't it harder to get dependent with this route of administration? Will I have withdrawals? How would you taper, with pods or opium? Do you think that I could stop without too much suffering?
Thanks and more power to all of you.

 

[Sam Stone]

On day three of no oxy...feel worse than first two days. Cant remember when you feel well or if that day ever comes...

 

[KS78]

On day three of no oxy...feel worse than first two days. Cant remember when you feel well or if that day ever comes...

It should get better after the 4th day. You're doing well if you're on the 3rd day. It will get better. Stay strong and stubborn. You'll get over it. Good luck buddy.

 

[Ne0]

I've found loperamide is best for quitting opioids, you have to tapper it slowly. It work throught stomach opioid receptors on low doses so you don't get much widthdraval from it, even abusin 200mg loperamide for long period of times won't give you that bad wd's they last only 1 week. After founding loperamide I never have quit long term opioid use without using lopermaide, works everytime, after that takign 600mg gapabentin for 3 days will go along the way, after that you feel normal.

 

[KS78]

I've found loperamide is best for quitting opioids, you have to tapper it slowly. It work throught stomach opioid receptors on low doses so you don't get much widthdraval from it, even abusin 200mg loperamide for long period of times won't give you that bad wd's they last only 1 week. After founding loperamide I never have quit long term opioid use without using lopermaide, works everytime, after that takign 600mg gapabentin for 3 days will go along the way, after that you feel normal.

How much Loperamide would you use to stop a 60-80 mgs of Morphine (oral because the substance being used is actually opium) after a 2 week consumption? How would you go about tapering the Loperamide? Would it be possible to stop without much drama because I'm around family? Thanks.

 

[nznity]

How much Loperamide would you use to stop a 60-80 mgs of Morphine (oral because the substance being used is actually opium) after a 2 week consumption? How would you go about tapering the Loperamide? Would it be possible to stop without much drama because I'm around family? Thanks.

I'd say 8-10 loperamides for the first 2 days once a day is enough then if you have some gabapentin on hand u can take that aswell.60-80mg morphine orally is not that much imo so ur wds won't be that harsh. Good Luck on it, i'm on day 3 myself i only have diahrrea and some mild chills, i just took my gaba so it hasn't kicked in yet.When it does i might feel better. Stay safe NZN

 

[Ne0]

How much Loperamide would you use to stop a 60-80 mgs of Morphine (oral because the substance being used is actually opium) after a 2 week consumption? How would you go about tapering the Loperamide? Would it be possible to stop without much drama because I'm around family? Thanks.

Instead of 8-10 lops (which is 16-20mg loperamide which is very little) that nzity suggested I'd recommend 32mg, but you can try 10 first, problem is that it takes 5 hours to get the full effects of loperamide, so if 20mg loperamide don't help and you take more you have to wait another 5 hours, take them as soon as you wake up and to empty stomach, 30mg DXM might help with WD's and will potent loperamide, also grapefruit makes it stronger, if it's available take tablet form of loperamide not the capsule ones.

I would start straight from 32 mg and see if it helps, if not take another 32mg at the same day. Max. recommended loperamide dose used daily for various diseases is 16mg as it can cause even life threatening problems with heart at very high doses over 100mg, but I've never had them and I've used loperamide over 100 times max. dose 220mg with amphetamine even. But 64mg is fairly safe. If it's enough I would start to dropping it by 10mg per day, or even 20mg, just look how you feel, sometimes for me it's enough to take it once in 2 days, if I quit codeine I need to take it every day, with oxycodone it's enough to take every other day for some reason, also I get much more faster wd's from codeine than from oxycodone.. I've quit my many long opioid binges with starting 64mg next day 32mg, and after that 32mg and then 20mg and 10mg. Some people taper with it 6 months, dropping the dose very very slowly, 2mg a day.

When I used huge doses of opium/poppy pods/seeds whatever was available for 2 years without single break (so I had some opioid in my bloodstream 24h every day) only 200mg loperamide stopped the WD's on days when I run out of poppies, 200mg oxycodone didn't give any feeling only took the wd's off even when taken with poppies I didn't feel anything, but 200mg of loperamide with poppies/opium made me nod hard if I did once a month. In the end only fentanyl gave warm feeling and 200mg of U-47700 got me nodding very hard (and that is very strong dose considering that 50mg is very high dose according to psywiki) after that 2 year poppy binge, and I didn't get any nodding from the poppies for a year no matter how much I took it made me actually very stimulated like on speed. I made tea from it and basically drunk it like alcoholics drink alcohol, so every 1 hour. Smoked few times real opium but that was very hard to get, maybe with that I would nod even after 2 year use.

When I quit 2 year use of poppy products I took loperamide 120mg only 1 day a week and then gabapentin, pregabalin, phenibut, GHB, amphetamines or benzos rest of the week, after 1 month I was fairly ok, last dose was 32mg and after that got mild WD's but still had insomnia and sweating for 1 week, so I took quetiapine or mirtazapine for sleeping, quetiapine also reduces anxiety IMO. 2 weeks opium use shouldn't give you that hard WD's so low doses loperamide is ok.

I'd say 8-10 loperamides for the first 2 days once a day is enough then if you have some gabapentin on hand u can take that aswell.60-80mg morphine orally is not that much imo so ur wds won't be that harsh. Good Luck on it, i'm on day 3 myself i only have diahrrea and some mild chills, i just took my gaba so it hasn't kicked in yet.When it does i might feel better. Stay safe NZN

He used opium which means there are 7 different opioid alkoloids and the morphine half-life in poppy products is as long as methadone. It's much harder to stop opium than oral pure morphine. I've done both. Years of daily use of poppy products and then stopping it cold turkey is one of the most terrible experience I've had, only my daily 2g pregabalin use for 4 months can be compared to it. Interesting thing is that when I quit 2 months of daily 1g tramadol (with small doses of diazepam to prevent seizures) I used buprenorphine 0,5-1mg for 3 days and didn't get any WD's.

Also now I get good buzz from jsut 60mg of codeine, which didn't give any feeling to me even when I was totally opioid naive, 20mg oxycodoen is enough for me, my opioid toelrance have gone totally zero even far beyond because they work much better than the first times 15 years back.

 

[KS78]

Instead of 8-10 lops (which is 16-20mg loperamide which is very little) that nzity suggested I'd recommend 32mg. When I used huge doses of opium/poppy pods/seeds 2 years without singe break (so I had in in my bloodstream 24h every day) whatever was available only 200mg loperamide stopped the WD's. I would start straight from 32 mg and see if it helps, if not take another 32mg at the same day. Max. recommended loperamide dose used daily for various diseases is 16mg as it can cause even life threatening problems with heart in veyr high doses over 64mg, but I've never had them and I've used loperamide over 100 times max. dose 220mg with amphetamine even. But 64mg is fairly safe. If it's enough I would start to dropping it by 10mg per day. I've quit my long opioid binges with starting 64mg next day 32mg, and after that 32mg and then 20mg and 10mg. Some people taper with it 6 months. When I quit 2 year use of poppy products I took 120mg only 1 day a week and then gabapentin, pregabalin, phenibut, GHB, amphetamines or benzos rest of the week, after 1 month I was fairly ok, last dose was 32mg and after that got mild WD's but still had insomnia and sweating, so I took quetiapine for sleeping, it also reduces anxiety IMO. 2 weeks opium use shouldn't give you that hard WD's so low doses loperamide is ok.


He used opium which means there are 7 different opioid alkoloids and the morphine half-life in that is as long as methadone. It's much harder to stop opium than oral pure morphine. I've done both. Years of daily use of poppy products and then stopping it cold turkey is one of the most terrible experience only daily 2g pregabalin for 4 months can be compared to it. Interesting thing is that when I quit 2 months of daily 1g tramadol (with small doses of diazepam to rprevent seizures) I used buprenorphine 0,5-1mg for 3 days I didn't get any WD's.

Thanks Neo. I have a question though: Why does the Morphine in opium has a half life as long as Methadone? It doesn't make much sense to me.

 

[nznity]

He used opium which means there are 7 different opioid alkoloids and the morphine half-life in that is as long as methadone. It's much harder to stop opium than oral pure morphine. I've done both. Years of daily use of poppy products and then stopping it cold turkey is one of the most terrible experience only daily 2g pregabalin for 4 months can be compared to it. Interesting thing is that when I quit 2 months of daily 1g tramadol (with small doses of diazepam to rprevent seizures) I used buprenorphine 0,5-1mg for 3 days I didn't get any WD's.

Well, i have a lot of experience with morphine and trust me it's half life is very short, well i bang morphine so idk what's the bioavailability of poppy seeds/opium is but trust me it's not like methadone. The bioavailability of morphine is just like 4-6 hrs but of the other alkaloids in opium i have no idea, so probably what he should do is wait at least 24 hrs after his last dose and take the loperamide then.That's when it works better, when you can't stand the withdrawals anymore.That reminds me when i've gone cold turkey at rehab, god those days were awful.I didn't get off the bed for at least 2 weeks and they had me on shit loads of psych meds aswell. Anyway hope my experience helps a lil bit. Stay safe guys NZN

 

[Ne0]

Thanks Neo. I have a question though: Why does the Morphine in opium has a half life as long as Methadone? It doesn't make much sense to me.

I'm not sure in that matter, but I know many people who have used opium for years and they say they need to dose it only once a day. But I know in some Burma villages there are addicts who gather together (mainly man) smoke almost whole day and cant get work done so all the woman do the work heh, but smoked opium has much shorter effect time than eaten IME. One guy told that he don't get any wd's for 24h from last dose of poppietea, but I got wd's just after 9 hours, as nznity said morphine should have short half-life so that must be the reason, But I actually took every 2 hours in the end, I was totally functional addict, I just had 2l of liquid made of poppies or seeds (same effect, also opium eaten have the same effect IMO, only smoked opium is much better of course), and just drunk it and was veyr effective worker.

When I first started using poppy tea and opium on weekends it worked 24h, if I took them at the morning 9:00, I still had warm and euphoric feeling next morning 9:00. How long does opium/pods/seeds work for you when eaten? And if you ahve smoked opium how long it works for you?

 

[KS78]

I'm not sure in that matter, but I know many people who have used opium for years and they say they need to dose it only once a day. But I know in some Burma villages there are addicts who gather together (mainly man) smoke almost whole day and cant get work done so all the woman do the work heh, but smoked opium has much shorter effect time than eaten IME. One guy told that he don't get any wd's for 24h from last dose of poppietea, but I got wd's just after 9 hours, as nznity said morphine should have short half-life so that must be the reason, But I actually took every 2 hours in the end, I was totally functional addict, I just had 2l of liquid made of poppies or seeds (same effect, also opium eaten have the same effect IMO, only smoked opium is much better of course), and just drunk it and was veyr effective worker.

When I first started using poppy tea and opium on weekends it worked 24h, if I took them at the morning 9:00, I still had warm and euphoric feeling next morning 9:00. How long does opium/pods/seeds work for you when eaten? And if you ahve smoked opium how long it works for you?

I still have a buzz the next morning. I know that many people make a ball with opium and swallow that. Could this act like a time release? I usually squeeze that ball and it becomes thin as a paper then I ingest it.
I just can't believe that I will withdrawl from literally a pea size ball of opium a day After my prior IV Heroin addiction 10 years ago, it seems like such a small amount and it's eating the stuff not injecting. We'll see.

 

[Ne0]

I still have a buzz the next morning. I know that many people make a ball with opium and swallow that. Could this act like a time release? I usually squeeze that ball and it becomes thin as a paper then I ingest it.
I just can't believe that I will withdrawl from literally a pea size ball of opium a day After my prior IV Heroin addiction 10 years ago, it seems like such a small amount and it's eating the stuff not injecting. We'll see.

I've also noticed that opium or poppie pods and seeds seems to give much easier WD's, you used this time only 2 weeks right?. After I quit I tried it again only once 6 months after quitting, I got just from the one day use 1 month WD's, not that harsh like before but still very very unpleasant, after that I've done only other opioids, I am able to chip, never gone over 3 day use anymore, but codeine seems to give WD's from 3 day use but tramadol or oxycodone dont give any WD kind of side effects after short binge. But yes it is like timed release when you think about it, when smoked you get it all at once, but eaten it most likely get absorbed all the way until it comes out from the other end heh. But what I have read from other users, they say definitely one of the most unpleasant opioid to quit.

 

[Sam Stone]

Day 5 and i feel SO tired... Job flew me out yesterday to go fix some heavy machinery at a customer site. Dragging my sorry ass around sucks. How long before i get some energy back???

 

[Shortec Stublue!!]

As was mentioned, Loperamide if you haven’t yet, can be a miracle worker.

It is effectively peripheral hydromorphone. This was shown to us when I was an under grad in NeuroPharmacology. Wouldn’t go above 50mg if you can manage with that or less.

Note: Lope half life = 12-14hrs, I used to drop by 4 capsules every 48hrs, worked better than anything else!! Hope this helps.

 

[Ne0]

As was mentioned, Loperamide if you haven’t yet, can be a miracle worker.

It is effectively peripheral hydromorphone. This was shown to us when I was an under grad in NeuroPharmacology. Wouldn’t go above 50mg if you can manage with that or less.

Note: Lope half life = 12-14hrs, I used to drop by 4 capsules every 48hrs, worked better than anything else!! Hope this helps.

Yes I think still too little doctors know about how useful loperamide is for quitting opioids. And yes, best to find the smallest does that helps, but for me usually is now 32mg if I've done 1 week different opioids (usually tramadol, codeine, oxycodone), for some reason with codeine I need to take loperamide every day but iwth oxycodone eveyr otehr day. Last time when quit short binge with oxycodon it was enough to take first day 64mg 48h later 32mg and 48h later only 16mg, after that none, after that I had only minor sweating and some insomnia. It's great drug, it also make the mood much better totally normal and happy even. at least with 32+ mg doses. Capsule ones will take much longer to work with tablet forms takes only 2-3hours before working.

 

[Shortec Stublue!!]

Oh you’d be surprised, there are other similar compounds that have gone before it, in the 1970’s unused new painkillers synthesised by big pharma, had their molecules tweaked to prevent BBB entry as much as possible. This offset their initial research to make money back as an anti-Diarrhoeal or anti-tussive, hence why the likes of Imodium appeared etc.

Absolutely though Neo, couldn’t agree more, defo a mood boost at higher doses no placebo involved at all. If I can find the info of failed opioids used as a peripheral I will post it. E.g take Oxy and stop it crossing the BBB and it will obviously still cure your physical withdrawal symptoms, and slip through slightly the same as lope.