Unusual, but hopefully successful, method of quitting opiates

[darawk]

SWIM is currently addicted to Oxycontin. At the moment, he consumes about 5 OC80's a day. Considering that these generally cost him quite a bit per pill, this is an extremely expensive habit. Not to mention the damage it is doing to SWIM's nose. SWIM has been addicted for about two months now, and this addiction is really starting to eat into his finances. Even though he has a good job and make good money, he's not even breaking even with his paychecks. That means he's consuming over $1,700 worth of Oxycontin every two weeks. He really, really needs to quit.

However, his primary dilemma is that he simply can't be laid up for two weeks with hardcore withdrawals. He has work to do, and if he quits, he'll be incapacitated for quite a while. So, "just stopping" isn't really an option for him. SWIM has tried simply "tapering down", and sometimes he can get down to 1-2 pills a day for a little while, but it just never lasts. Somehow he ends up back at 5 pills a day, and never manages to get totally clean.

He is planning to purchase Subuxone to help him out, but he's not sure he's going to be able to make himself use it consistently, because he is pretty strongly psychologically addicted to snorting the Oxycontin. He knows that if he simply swallow the pills, he could avoid withdrawal and manage to taper down much more easily, because there is very little psychological addiction factor when you swallow them - at least, far less than snorting them. However, for some reason he has been unable to make myself do that:

The risk and severity of addiction to drugs generally - including cocaine are significantly affected by the wya they are administered into the body. The method of administration determines the onset, intensity, and duration of the effects from drug use. Generally the faster a drug reaches the bloodstream, the faster it is distributed throughout the body, and the faster the user feels the desired effects. The intensity of a drug's effects generally is greater for methods of administration that deliver it most rapidly to the brain. However, the methods of administration that bring the most intense effects - smoking and injection - also have the shortest duration, thereby necessitation repeated doses to sustain its effects and increasing the likelihood the user will develop an addiction. Smoking (inhalation) and injection typically produce quicker onset, shortest duration, and more intense effects from drug use than snorting and therefore increase the risk of addiction

-- Source


Other times he has attempted to quit using a homebrew cocktail of anti-withdrawal medicines, which was:

- Dextromethorphan :         Explanation
- L-Tyrosine :               Explanation
- Valium/Xanax :            To help with anxiety and getting myself to sleep
- Dramamine :                Nausea
- Various NSAIDs :          To help with phantom pains
- Frequent baths/showers:  Same as the last one
- L-Theanine :                Explanation
- Vicodin :                     Only for the first couple of days, and only if absolutely necessary - Hydrocodone in vicodin is a weaker opiate than oxycodone in Oxycontin, and would server to eliminate my withdrawal symptoms very effectively

This formula is extremely effective at controlling withdrawal symptoms, and I highly recommend it to anyone else in SWIM's situation. That being said, it does not control the other component of addiction: Pyschological desire. While some of you might say "it's just about self control" - those of you who say that have never had an addiction. Though it is just about self control ultimately, it is extremely difficult.

But, he has found a solution. Some of you might think SWIM is crazy, but he is quite confident that it is the key to breaking this aspect of the addiction. And that key is:

- Cocain

The extreme euphoria associated with cocaine, along with the energy it gives SWIM, completely suppresses my psychological desire for Oxycontin. It is also less expensive. While SWIM is somewhat worried that he will get addicted to coke, he thinks coke is a much easier addiction to break than Opioid addiction for him, for the following reasons:

- SWIM doesn't like being coked out nearly as much as he likes Opioids.
- There are very few physical withdrawal symptoms when stopping cocaine use, and they are far milder than opioid withdrawals.
- The small physical withdrawal symptoms that come with cocaine addiction are relatively easy to control with other substances
- Energy: One of the biggest things SWIM notices when he hasn't had any oxy in a while is that he gets extremely tired all the time. Obviously, cocaine solves this problem.
- Mood: When he hasn't had any OC in a while he gets irritable and physically uncomfortable. When he's on blow, he couldn't be irritable if he tried.
- Control: Interestingly enough, though the opposite is true for most people, SWIM can actually control my cocaine use pretty well. Doing only a few lines an hour isn't very difficult for SWIM.

Although a cocaine addiction would be far worse for my body than an Oxycontin addiction, I think this is going to be the easiest and most certain way of quitting oxy, and I think the possibility of getting addicted to coke is fairly remote. I'm just not really enough of a stimulant person to want to be coked out all the time.

I don't know if this strategy will work for everyone, but i'm pretty confident it will work for SWIM. I will keep this thread updated with his progress.

Note: He does not intend to quit oxy cold turkey. He is still going to be doing a little bit of it at first, but he will be doing very significantly less. At the moment, he is doing about 5 pills a day. I think tomorrow, with SWIM's coke, he will do no more than 2 OC80's, and probably taper down by a half or a quarter pill each day from there. He also intends to start swallowing his OC's instead of snorting them - except in the early morning when he need opioids in his system immediately because he wakes up shaking.

If this succeeds, hopefully it will become a roadmap for others to follow, though anyone considering it must spend a significant amount of time honestly analyzing whether or not this is right for them. SWIM thinks it will be effective in his case because he does not enjoy coke all that much and so he doesn't think it's the kind of thing he would become addicted to, but for others, that is not the case. Even if this works for SWIM, it may not for you, but if it does work for SWIM, it will be an addition to the list of things to consider.