Comedown - Non-Drug Related Ways to Ease Withdrawal

[dyingtomorrow]

Just wanted to start a thread to catalog some methods of making yourself more comfortable during withdrawals, not related to drugs you can take.

- Laying or sitting in the fetal position on the floor of the shower. SWIM thinks this is the #1 way to ease withdrawals. While you are laying there with warm water pouring over you, you can almost get comfortable for a while. SWIM's condo had unlimited hot water which was really convenient (SWIM would spend literally 24 hours laying there sometimes), but unfortunately doesn't have that anymore. Still, every hour or so, you can get 30 minutes of relief.

- Laying on cold mattresses / pillows. SWIM has found if you keep the room cold, and take a big mattress / futon mattress (or push 2 together, even better), you can roll around on it to the cold spots every so often and it helps a bit. You can also keep pillows cooling and rotate them. Make sure not to have your blanket spread to wide on the mattress, so that the other spots can cool.

- Cold rag for your head / neck, and having a pot full of ice water next to it to keep it cold. SWIM can sometimes almost sit still with a cold rag on his head, or laying across his neck, to cool the blood coming into the head.

- Bananas / yogurt. SWIM can only eat these while he is withdrawing, and they seem to help his stomach.

- Ice water. Having some ice water, and taking very small sips of it occassionally helps.

- Putting a towel semi-tightly on your head and flapping down mostly over your eyes. SWIM feels like this gave him some psychological relief, of being able to hide in a way.

- Bucket near by - to puke in.

- A big towel to drool on. It's so annoying to have to sit up and spit every 10 seconds, and swallowing it makes your stomach hurt (and usually fill with bile SWIM thinks). Having a big towel or 2 next to you to constantly drool on without moving SWIM finds a big convenience.

- Getting a massage, or back rub from someone taking care of you, can help take your mind off the pain for as long as it lasts (although it seems to heat you up even worse).

- Freezing yourself. Sometimes in the worst withdrawals, SWIM would just let himself get shivering cold, because it was the lesser of 2 evils and would block out a lot of the other pain.

- Repeating something / some phrase over and over in your head and rocking back and forth. Usually this just happens naturally from the intense pain and anxiety, but SWIM thinks it helps a bit.

- A DVD series that lasts as long as possible. SWIM thinks that watching one long collection of some story helps keep your mind on it and get you into it. SWIM gets depressed and uninterested just watching random movies for too long. So borrowing some long series (SWIM liked Rome on HBO) can help a lot. Plus you can pawn/sell it if you get too desperate!

- If you are in serious withdrawals while waiting for dope to show up, and not because you are trying to get through it, SWIM found that sometimes he could keep himself from freaking out during the wait by being in a sitting up / laying position, and just imaging shooting up vividly, and trying to get as deep into himself as he could to let his body to know to chill out because it was about to get some dope.

- Coffee! If you are in the beginnings of withdrawals, if you drink a bunch of coffee this can make you feel good and postpone them a couple hours. I guess this is a borderline drug, but also a food/drink which I guess falls in the gray area of the intent of this thread.


Can anyone add more, or amend things on this list?

P.S. Concerning the after effects of withdrawals or getting off heroin: SWIM has been on suboxone for 2 months and is, every day all day, crushingly depressed about not having heroin, and finds that laying in the shower like in #1 with music on kind of gives him some temporarily relief. He does it 4-5 times every day and feels okay for like an hour afterwards (just got out, and wrote this).

[rocksmokinmachine]

2 -3g of vitamin C a day.

L-Glutamine

L-Glutathione

Multi-vitamins

Green Tea ( ot anytrhing else with plenty of antioxidants)

Reputation Comments on this post:

intended to be non-drug related (i.e. excluding anything but "normal" food and drink), but thank you for contr...

[dyingtomorrow]

Originally Posted by rocksmokinmachine

2 -3g of vitamin C a day.

L-Glutamine

L-Glutathione

Multi-vitamins

Green Tea ( ot anytrhing else with plenty of antioxidants)

By drug I meant any chemical/vitamin/supplement/etc., because there seem to be a million threads out there on this forum already with this kind of information. But thank you for the thought and contribution.

SWIM doesn't usually drink tea during his withdrawals, does it help? SWIM actually forgot to add something:

- Coffee! If you are in the beginnings of withdrawals, if you drink a bunch of coffee this can make you feel good and postpone them a couple hours. I guess this is a borderline drug, but also a food/drink which I guess falls in the gray area of the intent of this thread.

[rocksmokinmachine]

The only real way to combat opiate withdrawal IMO is to use methadone/buprenorphine.

Or to use a huge cocktail of vitamins and amino acids and go cold turkey.

[dyingtomorrow]

Originally Posted by rocksmokinmachine

The only real way to combat opiate withdrawal IMO is to use methadone/buprenorphine.

Or to use a huge cocktail of vitamins and amino acids and go cold turkey.

Yah but not everyone has those, or some people want to just get clean and suffer as little as possible, so I just wanted to help those readers in particular.

BTW I love that song in your sig... "going to amsterdam in the new year, top gear there" ... lol gonna listen to it now

[rocksmokinmachine]

Sorry to go off topic, yeah The Streets are great. I have actually spent the last 6 years in Amsterdam, strangley enough.. I'm returning in the new year!

[Richard_smoker]

i've done me a double-posteroo... guess i need to go back and read thru the rule book again (sorry).

I have expanded my original post...it's quite long.

I thought it should probably live in its own thread. Here's the link if interested.

Reputation Comments on this post:

excellent, some of the best non drug related ways of kicking i've ever seen

[ScorpioSunshine]

^^ What a great post!

I don't have any tips to add other than what's already been said.

EXERCISE: this is the quickest way to release endorphins... unfortunately, it can be like pulling teeth to really get that all-out "runner's high" on a consistent basis. The reason is because you still have a HIGH TOLERANCE for your natural endorphins.
SOLUTION?: Establish a daily habit of doing something active. Many people swear by yoga, but this might be impractical for some. The best rec, yoga or not, is to literally FORCE YOURSELF TO WALK OUT THE FRONT DOOR! As I was told, just start walking--in any direction. The first 100 yards might seem like you're killing yourself, but then the next 1000 yards is EASY. TRUST ME. Repeat this every day, always choosing a new & different route when possible. soon enough, you'll be jogging 2 miles, considering joining a gym, and thinking about healthy 'highs' like sex. yes, even sex.

That may be one of the hardest things to do, but swim agrees that it's well-worth enduring the hell you'll feel when you first start simply ~moving~.

[rocksmokinmachine]

Originally Posted by ScorpioSunshine

^^ What a great post!

I don't have any tips to add other than what's already been said.



That may be one of the hardest things to do, but swim agrees that it's well-worth enduring the hell you'll feel when you first start simply ~moving~.

I agree, it is a great post. Any SWIY's Remeber going through those hellish withdrawals unable to get up to go to get ones methadone? Moving can be difficult

Reputation Comments on this post:

YES!!!! Inertia holds you down for a while..but soon enough, forward MOMENTUM will be the new 'rule.' THANKS!!!

[Richard_smoker]

yep...as u can see, i've moved that post and expanded on it a bit. the link is up there.

i agree about forcing oneself to MOVE (at first).

it's funny how that while one's going thru all that shit, there is a definite sensation that one will never be able to rise up out of this horrible sluggishness. Then, like MAGIC, one day you just realize that you've been slowly but surely increasing your activities on a day-by-day basis, until WEEKS have gone by and you're actually taking on responsibilities, meeting obligations, creating "new" things that actually require you to be up and moving and action. ACTION. definitely not difficult anymore. it's actually almost impossible to watch ANY television after swim has spent 2 months hibernating in front of it!

-DICK