How Fast Does Tolerance To Opiates Go Down?

[SumoCat]

SWIM's wondering how fast tolerance goes down when one had, say, a 5 to 6 pill/month dosing schedule at 10 mg?

SWIM went an entire month taking no opiate of any kind -- then, over the weekend -- came across one 5mg vicodin.

SWIM took on a relatively empty stomach, assuming her tolerance was still somewhat high. Effects: very mild relaxation/euphoria, followed by an hour of *extreme* fatigue and realizing she desperately needed to eat something.

What's up with that? It seems odd that a mere 5mg would hit so hard at this point.

Also, has anyone noticed a difference in effects based on whether they dose early in the day versus at night? SWIM personally is finding that late evening to nigh-doses just aren't very enjoyable anymore..but, early in the day, they provide focus and energy.

Thanks!
-Sumo

[IHrtHalucingens]

Opiate tolerance goes down within 2-5 days being completely gone in a week or so depending on the person.

You say the 5mg hydrocodone gave SWIS very mild euphoria and relaxation, which are the recreational effects of the drug. The hunger is most likely completely seperate, and the fatigue might have a little to do with the vicodin but most likely not with 5mg, even with no tolerance. Seems to me that the 5mg did what they should do, and the fatigue and hunger were just cooincidence. And if not that than i would suspect the placebo effect.

Yes SWIM has also noticed that dosing anything earlier on in the day provides for a more ebergetic focused high purely because you do have more energy, its a lot more noticeable with drugs that ellicit a depressive effect, such as opiates.

[Forthesevenlakes]

hmm, ordinarily IHrt i agree with most of what you and swiIHrt say, but i think i may have to take issue with tolerance being gone in a week. a week or so is usually how long it takes to fully withdraw and not be physically tolerant on most opiates (except methadone and maybe some others), but that doesnt mean the tolerance goes down. if someone is only taking 5 mg a couple times a month, maybe itd go down that fast.

i talked to swim though and he said theres been times where he's done 20 mg oxycontins a couple times a month, and still built a tolerance to them over a couple months, ending up having to take 25 mg, then 30 mg after maybe 8 months of this infrequent use.

someone swim knows also recently went through the full physical withdrawal from 80 mg oxy a day, and then slipped up about 10 days after stopping...it still took him 40 mg to get high, which would be his usual dose. so swim believes that the larger the habit, the longer it would take for tolerance to return to baseline. he's thinking maybe a few weeks to a couple months, but he'd like a definitive answer on this too!

IHrt is definitely right about the hunger and fatigue things, swim says, and swim also agrees with having more energy when dosing earlier in the day (part of the reason morning opiate doses are so damn hard to cut out!)

[SumoCat]

Thanks to both SWIYS for replying thus far. SWIM is definitely unsure about the tolerance going down that fast. Hmmm..one thing SWIM forgot to mention is that the "5 or 6 10mg per month" came after at least 1 year's worth of 20 or so of the 10 mgs per month.

Believe it or not, SWIM had no real withdrawals to speak of, mostly just the psychological 'craving' in terms of pain relief.

So, SWIM wonders how month's worth of tolerance to 10's could go down to feeling slammed by a 5mg...just b/c SWIM had heard it can take 6 months to a year or more to go totally back to baseline.

Then again, SWIM managed to stay satisfied with 10mg-15mg all this time, which is nothing for people who use frequently. Maybe some of SWIM's other medications had something to do with this?

SWIM's not complaini', though Just morbidly curious.

[Forthesevenlakes]

some other medications (dxm, propranolol, cimitadine, many more i'm sure) can affect the metabolism and bioavailibility of opiates, so this could definitely be a factor! or perhaps 10 mgs at a time was not enough of an increase to lead to a huge tolerance, and it was able to drop down to allowing a 5 mg buzz in a short amount of time. or maybe swiy's diet that day played a factor, etc.

swim has had similar experiences, where after usually taking 30 mg oxycodone to get a buzz, one day he ingested 15 mg of a different preparation of oxycodone (it was in liquid oral form), and it felt literally as if he were on drugs for the first time ever. so the moral is that these things can be very unpredictable and susceptible to environmental influences! swim is glad that swiy didnt get any withdrawals and had what sounds like a nice experience off a low dose. was this experience with a morning or evening dose? because swim thinks that morning doses usually hit him alot harder.

[IHrtHalucingens]

Originally Posted by forthesevenlakes

but i think i may have to take issue with tolerance being gone in a week. a week or so is usually how long it takes to fully withdraw and not be physically tolerant on most opiates (except methadone and maybe some others), but that doesnt mean the tolerance goes down.

Very true, SWIM wasnt thinking about the mental tolerance just purely the length of time in which the drug physically stays in the system. Good catch! forthesevenlakes.