When you say Swiy knows the classic opiate withdrawal deal, do you mean he's detoxed from other opiates, or just knows from reading about it?
Swie went cold turkey from 300-500mg of codeine a day a few times. For her most of the physical symptoms were a lot less severe and shorter lived than from heroin, but still not pleasant, and the lethargy was pretty bad. She'll second pobb on that one. Maybe it was because the other symptoms were more tolerable that the lethargy was so noticeable, but she doesn't think so, because even after the worst of the other symptoms were gone the tiredness stopped her functioning.
If she were detoxing from codeine now, and doing it CT (i.e. no tapering or substitute opioids), she would do the following:
-Make sure she had a completely free two weeks so that there was no pressure to do anything. So she could just rest and get through it.
-She'd get someone to make her fresh fruit juices and smoothies for energy, nutrition, and hydration (or make them herself if she were up to it), and stay away from quick sugar fixes like sodas etc. She would start eating healthily as soon as she could stomach food.
-She'd get fresh air and exercise as soon as she was up to it.
-She'd get something to help with the insomnia, even if it were just diphenhydramine or another sedating OTC antihistamine. You can find them in most 'drowsy' cough mixtures.
-And she would get a beta blocker or something to keep her blood pressure and anxiety down (a good idea anyway, as it's not healthy to let your blood pressure go sky high as happens in opiate wd).
Even if Swiy can't see a doctor and get a beta blocker or other anxiety med, from 300mg it shouldn't be too hideous anyway. On a scale of 1-10, where 1 is mild discomfort and 10 is the worst cluck ever, she would guess Swiy is looking at somewhere between 3-5. She would say her own was about a 3 or 4 when compared to other wds. But bare in mind that it varies SO much from person to person, and this really is just a guess. There's no way someone else can predict accurately what it will be like for Swiy. All I can say is that Swie herself has found Swiy's dose (and higher) bareable to come off CT (but I mean bareable, notcomfortable).
Swiy can get through it if he wants to though, no doubt.
One important note: If Swiy does get himself any OTC meds to help, make sure he checks (with a doctor ideally, but at least online) for any interactions. When Swie was detoxing from herion a few weeks ago she had a copy of the BNF (British National Formulary) beside her bed - even when she was writhing around in agony she would force herself to look up drug combinations if someone brought her something to help her sleep etc.
04-11-2009, 03:15
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