Kickin the habit is so hard =(

[lunatick90]

swim has been using heroin daily for 3 months and wants to quit soooooo bad. today is swim's first day trying to quit, it has been 16 hours since last dosage and swim is in soo much pain. swim has aleve, immodium, vitamins and herbs to help but it is still very painful. swim hopes that the monkey will not get the best of swim +(

[Dickon]

Best of luck lunatik90! It's a big ask, I've found writing about my own experiences helped me a lot. If you can get hold of Clonidine that can be really helpful too. I am sending all my best wishes and support. I'm on day 28 of giving up non-self-incriminating things! It's been a really tough couple of months cutting down and then giving up. Anything we can do to help just ask! I know it's not a lot we can do, but I speak for all the good-un's on here in wishing you every success. It really does get easier, and life off is infinitely better than life on.

Dickon [my own long and rambling story is a thread called "screaming in the night air", in this section of the forum. It might give you something to read if you're bored. It really helped me writing it, and I just didn't care what others were thinking, so just ignore it when I go off on one!]

[infekt]

it is hard. But I do believe it is worth the effort. Detox is the most real swiy's gonna get with swiy's addiction. The ugliness of it all is finally confronted.

I wish swiy the best.

[Mrs. Brownstone]

Swim just recently quit a daily habit that lasted for over a year. The first 48-72 hours are the hardest, but then swiy might have a pretty severe depression that could last for a month or more. The only thing that got swim through was knowing one day swim would wake up and feel almost normal. It happened, although each day is a struggle. Swiy just has to be strong and to really want it. Exercise, swim found, to be the best thing in helping get all the toxins out of swim's system and help the mind. Good luck to swiy.

[teddybearpicnics]

Swim would suggest getting some suboxone. They work miracles. Swim would love to type more to you but it will have to wait until he gets off work. Good luck my friend.
.teddy

[ScorpioSunshine]

Give that to swiy.

[beena]

Can I just say lunatick90 that although it is undeniably hard after any amount of time, SWI-lunatick90 is in a really good position to have realised after 3 months that heroin is no good for SWIY and want to quit now. It is hard yes, but it will be far easier to do it now then 2 or 3 years down the line so please, please perservere.
SWIM has been on crack for 9 years and opiates/heroin for 2 and believe me SWIM wishes she had made the decision to stop many moons ago. It gets harder every time (SWIM has stopped, and relapsed, several times).
Still, SWI-lunatick90 should try and build up a support network now. Quitting is only half the battle, staying off is just as hard so be prepared for that.
In the meantime if SWIY is determined to go cold-turkey alone then just make sure SWIY takes in plenty of fluids and vitamens to keep SWIY's strength up. Something like Immodium for diahorrea might be useful and nurofen or something containing codeine can take the edge off. Last time SWIM tried to stop she did CWE's to get codeine to take the edge off but it wasn't much help if she's honest.
Then there's not much SWIY can do apart from cuddle up under a blanket and shiver your way through it! A doctor might prescribe some sleeping pills for when the insomnia sets in and that can help take the edge off to (or perhaps a mild benzo).
If SWIY doesn't do this time or relapses in the coming days/weeks/months please don't beat SWI-self up over it. It takes the best of us many attempts before we finally do it for good so don't be all doom and gloom. My best advice where that is concerned is simply: 'don't give up giving up'.
Long term if SWIY finds it too difficult to do alone then consider detoxes (3 week stays are the norm) or rehabs (4-6 months). They can offer medication, counselling and group therapies to get SWIY through it.
Also consider NA as a way of building up a support network to help SWIY stay clean.
Another important thing to consider is filling SWIY's time with other activities as boredom is a major factor in relapse.
Good Luck and if SWIY wants to talk privately feel free to pm me.

[dark12]

SWIy should try the herb Kratom. SWIM hears many good things about it helping people reduce the symptoms of opiate withdrawal.

Trust SWIM that kicking a strong heroin habit could very well save his life.

[dyingtomorrow]

SWIM would recommend suboxone as well. SWIM's first time trying to quit was after about 3 months. He got thru it, but went right back after his first hangover. Now is really the time for you to quit before it gets worse (it can always get worse, you learn that as the years go by addicted to H), but honestly SWIM has never heard of someone kicking the H habit, especially after IVing, without everything in their life being destroyed first and their being penniless. I really hope you pull through though, and learn the lesson that almost nobody does.

[AvidFan]

Originally Posted by dark12

SWIy should try the herb Kratom. SWIM hears many good things about it helping people reduce the symptoms of opiate withdrawal.

Trust SWIM that kicking a strong heroin habit could very well save his life.

Be careful with kratom. SWIM has found he easily replaces one addiction with another. SWIM posted about getting over kratom addiction in a thread last year. SWIM then had a load of utter crap happen in his life and at the same time got hold of a steady supply of Oxycodone. At first, you know the story, it was great to relieve the bad stuff and occasional, then it was suddenly daily and the dose was going up. SWIM has now been using for about 9 months. SWIM has tried to get off Oxycodone and got through 10 days once with no withdrawals by using kratom - but then finds the kratom very hard to come off again. So SWIM is on a bit of a treadmill, constantly trying to give up - managing to quit the OXY for a while but then ending up stuck with the kratom and ending up going back to OXY to get off the kratom (SWIM's monkey says the OXY will be easier to get off than the kratom, of course it's not true, before long the monkey is saying some kratom would help to get off the OXY).

SWIM finds the hardest with the OXY is day 6 - SWIM keeps getting to day 5 or 6, then gets uncontrollable cravings - feels like he will explode if he doesn't use some.

SWIM can't understand why this happens around day 5 or 6, although SWIM can see that it usually happens if something stressful or hard has to be done the next day. SWIM can't currently find a window longer than this to make a better go of getting off the OXY - it is really the mental side that SWIM finds hardest. SWIM finds it immensely hard to function as it is in the winter (seasonal affective stuff) without depriving SWIM's system of OXY as an extra thing to deal with.

SWIM might post a new thread about this, he found Dickon's screaming thread quite inspirational but SWIM feels weak at the moment, can't seem to find the resolve to beat the mental torture that the cravings induce

SWIM is glad he is just crushing up and eating OXYcontin, rather than snorting (it blocks up SWIM's nose anyway!) or IVing (SWIM has zero interest in trying this at all).

On a heavy day SWIM will do 300mg of Oxycodone, but has got it down to about 100mg just in the evenings at the moment - but after a few days of lighter use, the cravings start coming earlier in the day

SWIM is just so sick of the treadmill - SWIM quit smoking for good three years ago, and quit kratom last year for a good few months, but the addiction was just lying in wait -