Withdraw duration? What's yours?

[Politicalchalk]

Hey all, Swim's been trying to drop his opiate use altogether. He was hoping to hear of swimmer's personal experiences here, ie: with no op's coming in, what's w/d time for you? This is assuming you're going (relatively) cold turkey.

Swim lasted about 4 days...that's when they started easing up, but Swim got some free Vicodin, and uses unsparingly.

How long does pure opioid withdrawal last for you? Swim's got access to other... "supportive drugs" in this case, but wouldn't mind stopping altogether. He can get buprenorphine, but prefers to just stop.

Any recommendations, also, to help with the W/d sweats? There's usually meds out there to combat w/d symptoms, but anyone with recommendations?

Swim notes his cat occasionally like to smoke her evening-bowl of THC.

[snggrl35]

Swim has been an addict for the good part of her adult life.Started with hydros and is now into pod tea. When she kicked hydros she went into withdrawels that lasted for 7 or 8 days with cold chills, sweats,legs cramping ,headaches,nausea- u name it she had it! The only thing that helped at all was benadryl. It helped her with the leg cramps and made her relax. I hope this helps..

[msmogadon]

Originally Posted by Politicalchalk

Any recommendations, also, to help with the W/d sweats? There's usually meds out there to combat w/d symptoms, but anyone with recommendations?

SWIM seems to find Britlofex (Lofexidine) is very good at easing 80% of the sweats. As the name suggests this is a British drug and I believe over there there is something similar like Clonidine. SWIM however has purchased Clonidine before and did not think the effects were anything as good as the Lofexidine, in fact the Clonidine made SWIM feel quite shitty.

Sorry its probably not available to SWIY but SWIM finds hers useful.

Instead of taking more pills SWIY could try talc. It dries up the sweat for a while and stops that weird wiff that seems to come from pores while clucking.

SWIMs w/d duration is different everytime she does it. It also depends on what the individual can tolerate. One may be feeling a sweat or a shiver that would occur naturally and automatically put it down to opiate w/d. SWIM thinks this when she looks at the size of her puplis when clean. She thinks they look massive but they are just normal - she is just so used to looking in the mirror and seeing them pinned.

Good luck

[thebige]

I always thought if swim was going to experiment with drugs you can learn your body and find out how w/d will last ...for you....Swim finds that he can go on a run for a week (dosen't matter how much or how often)and suffer mild w/d(1 to11/2 days ).....a two week run will be mild -to moderate(1 to 2 1/2 days) after 2 weeks it all goes down the toilet...........alot of it is in your mind.........like life its all about how uncomfortable do you want to be.....for swim anyway..your results will vary...as it works out,it dosen't seem like a bad pleasure/pain ratio to swim

[tyrus568]

SWIM has horrible withdrawals from what he considers not very much use. He has only had experience with poppy tea and sometimes vicodin but with the tea SWIM might use it 3-5 days and then suffer pretty terrible withdrawal. A week or more of use and he's looking at a vertical wall he has to climb.

SWIM agrees that a lot of the withdrawal can be psychological, but it's difficult especially for SWIM to ignore. SWIM uses techniques like distraction and concentration (take a shower, go walking or running, play a game, read a book) but they don't help enough.

Using poppy tea (say, 6-12 grams a day, he knows you can't define potency this way though) for five days then stopping, he sees physical symptoms - severe listlessness and restlessness that is on par with nothing he's experienced. It's the first time he's experienced panic attacks. Mostly it is restless legs syndrome, inability to be still in general, an overwhelming feeling of desperation and craving that is impossible to satisfy or ignore, headaches, fatigue, and joint pain, insomnia that may keep him up 30 hours or more, alternating deep, thick sweats and spinewracking chills. Oh yah, his guts feel weak and watery but hardly any real gastrointestinal disturbances.

Benadryl (diphenhydramine) makes things worse, especially with the restless legs. Pacing in circles is common.

He can't help but do the worst thing you can do (besides using): laying around, agonizing about his condition and unintentionally amplifying the withdrawal effects by focusing on them so much. Even playing a game or watching a movie (or writing, reading, or..) can't be sustained for long. SWIM has a difficult time, lol. He couldn't imagine what he would suffer if he had anything anyone would actually consider a habit!


SWIM forgot to add that with the tea/pods withdrawal usually starts a full three days before he notes any symptoms, then w/d usually lasts about 6-8 days, for a recovery to baseline at nearly 2 weeks after last use.

He's thinking about trying not to use opium anymore because of this difficulty, and he's tried Krotom and tells me his single experience with it was awesome ("enhanced" 5 grams).

[sbt8080]

Originally Posted by tyrus568

He's thinking about trying not to use opium anymore because of this difficulty, and he's tried Krotom and tells me his single experience with it was awesome ("enhanced" 5 grams).

This is exactly why SWIM is done with opiates. From the sound of it, he doesn't have WDs as bad/long as SWIY's (his last 5-6 days at most), but he finds himself with the same dilemmas... no matter what he does to take his mind away from the WD symptoms, he can't help but concentrate on them, and usually finds himself taking 1 or 2 days off of work and alternating between pacing in circles, and laying on his living room floor staring at the ceiling.

Kratom can be a godsend; one time SWIM had a large supply on-hand, and they eased the WD symptoms immensely. However, SWIM has also found kratom to be a "gateway drug" of sorts... when he has tried using kratom to kick opiates in the past, he found himself basically substituting one drug for another, and then developing a kratom habit, which eventually led back to an opium habit again.

SWIM has concluded that for people like him, there is only one true way to avoid feeling like utter crap ever again... complete sobriety. He prays that he has the strenght to maintain it this time...

[infekt]

for swim, heroin withdrawals lasted about 5 days. Buprenorphine, however was another story. A week and a half at the least..

[sbt8080]

To clarify a little more, SWIM has never been hooked on heroin, but he has been hooked on hydro/oxycodone as well as poppy tea.

The pills had a shorter WD duration than the poppy pod tea... about 4 days for pills and 5-6 days (8-9 days before he felt 100%) for the tea.

[Politicalchalk]

sbt8080, kind of off topic, but thought it worthy of mention

In regards to kratom being a gateway drug....the RAND corporation, a non-profit research/think tank (which often supports PBS ) ) -- they recently did a study regarding the "gateway drug theory." They found that the way the data was collected for the people who proposed the theory was flawed, and that a genetic link is much more probable. Sorry Swim doesn't have it immediately handy, but this 2007 study has shed a lot of doubt on the hypothesis that some drugs are "gateway drugs"

[sbt8080]

Originally Posted by Politicalchalk

Sorry Swim doesn't have it immediately handy, but this 2007 study has shed a lot of doubt on the hypothesis that some drugs are "gateway drugs"

Thank you for this information. I must clarify what I said.

I also do not believe in the "gateway drug" theory, at least in terms of it being the drug's fault. One might read my statement about SWIM's habits and conclude that I meant that kratom itself forces SWIM onto other drugs. This is not the case.

I believe that one must be genetically predisposed for any such "gateway drugs" to have a gateway-like effect. One must be inclined towards addiction. In this case, ANY drug might act as a gateway drug. As I stated, SWIM substituted opiates with kratom in order to break his opiate habit. This was the wrong way to go, since SWIM is prone to addiction, so developing a habit with another drug (kratom) was not a good way to break his habitual abuse. Basically, continually abusing kratom made SWIM more and more inclined to switch back to opiates, until he eventually did.

But whether it was kratom or not is irrelevant. SWIM is an addict, and I believe that anything he habitually uses he is going to get addicted to.

[Psych0naut]

SWIMs withdrawl from IV Heroin lasted 10 days. They were pure hell, although Tramadol and Buprenorphine did ease his first couple of days quite a lot. Unfortunenately though, he ran out of those meds in just a few days, after which he went through full on w/d's ...

[dyingtomorrow]

Back when SWIM only snorted heroin, he tried to go cold turkey once, and had 3 days of withdrawals and then was fine on the 4th day. They sucked, but they were nothing as bad as IV withdrawal.

SWIM never could make it through IV withdrawal. After 48 hours of IV withdrawal, SWIM always limped his ass out and stole some shit or whatever, to do anything to make it stop. Not too long ago, SWIMs bro (IV heroin user) took some bupe too soon after shooting up and tried to kill himself from the withdrawal pains (bupe puts you in full blown withdrawal if you take it too soon after any other opiate). He was in the hospital for 6 days, and heavily doped up on benzos and clonopin and other shit, but after 7 days he came out clean and not really in pain, albiet unable to sleep.

dyingtomorrow added 1 Minutes and 21 Seconds later...

* clonodin ... oh, and most of those 7 days, even tho he was blasted with shitloads of drugs, he was still moaning and writhing around in agony.

[lorzapmail]

Swim has only taken norco 10/325, 7.5 percocets, 50mg Tramadols and Soma. With proper supplies on hand, W/D's have been only a small problem. Swim cleans up every two or three weeks. Benzos great for anxiety and blood pressure. Don't forget imodium, B-complex and potassium. It's your choice of drugs but "H" is the end. "Everyone will always disagree. I agree."

[Dickon]

It so happened that a twin of mine in a dream quit methadone 3 weeks ago after a reduction, and still is not right, although the worst symptoms seemed to abait after 10-12 days, he is still exhausted and is longing for the day that he can bounce out of bed and be his real Tiggerish self. He's counting on being good in 4-6 weeks, but he's heard of people needing 3-6 months to fully recover, although until now he's always been very sceptical of this. He always found heroin or morphine w.d. much quicker being about 10-14 days to be roughly good to go. Maybe 3 weeks before he could do the more active things.

[Richard_smoker]

i dunno. i think that there must be several steps following simple withdrawal that are necessary before one can safely feel completely re-integrated into a normal, drugless functioning society.

with buprenorphine, he spent 2 solid months on taper with varying degrees of withdrawal. he has been clean now 20 days.

ever since approximately day 13-14, he has been much more energetic (basically all-day) while incorporating several new activities into his life.

HOWEVER, last saturday night, he experienced something quite painful, akin to early withdrawal signs. no matter what he tried to encourage sleep, he found himself instead struggling, struggling, the more he tried to sleep, the more bubbling with energy he felt. this made him so frustrated that he wanted to start punching something. so after about 4-5 hours of this bullshit, he finally started trying to take things into perspective, and as most things, the anger eventually passed.

i can see where meetings might be helpful at this stage in the game--as would be a sponsor. it's just so much easier for some reason to 'rally' through the withdrawals, compared to staying clean in the immediate post-withdrawal phase.

head's still up though. no plans right now to do anything stupid. -DICK

[Freak_]

SWIM still could feel some withdrawal symptoms (to feel cold/being in cold sweats) after 6 weeks of stopping IV use of H.

[bigearl]

withdrawls from pills will last 3 days of jonesing; then 2 weeks for them to be out of your system but that 2 weeks is the hardest part. If you've been on them for years like swim its an addiction not a need. Thats the toughy to beat. Swim is on adderall for add and when swim is on it, swim doesnt think about blow heroin weed or pills. You need to find a stimulant for when your going off them. As far as other drugs, swim doesnt have withdrawls those are recreational basically cause of cost. Pills are free or 5-10 each but blow and heroin in dc area is fuckin nuts.

[kaloochi]

It's true w/ds are different evry time. Just a couple of days ago swim tried to stop a £20 heroin habit [smoking] by taking subs. I'm sure i took the subs either at the wrong time or wrong dose but that first night was among the worst single w/ding i've ever done and i've detoxed from just about all amount s of all mainstream opiates.

[rokman nash]

This swim I know took his last pop of h on wed. thurs 60mg done, fri 60 mg done sat 40mg done sun nothing clonapin to sleep hot bath for aches. vitamins and exedrin migraine since. Its thurs and swim is not a happy camper but the cleanest he's been in 4 yrs. Hope to start fealing human soon.

[TheContrivance]

SWIM used Oxy, Heroin and Buprenorphine for roughly 18 months very heavily. Withdrawals lasted 3 weeks, with sweats, RLS, and sleeping trouble lasting over a month and a half. It was pure hell for SWIM.

[deathhead]

W/d is obviously worse the longer you use, swims lasted about 4-5 days once he finally got off for good.

deathhead added 0 Minutes and 27 Seconds later...

and like 3-4 days when still using, and just dope-sick.