Pods - Daily use for 3 months. Will tapering work?

[PsychoActivist]

So SWIM has been using Pods daily for about 3 months. Lately he makes 2 cups a day (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) for each cup he uses between 25-30 Grams (give or take a few depending on how his stash looks).

His life is quite managable. He is just sick of spending so much money and also does not want to make the withdrawals any harder by prolonging his use.

He was curious if anyone had any experience with tapering in order to quit. He has heard it is quite hard with pods. He understands that it would probably have to been done slowly. What he needs is a way to quit without the withdrawals and he was wondering if there is a way to taper right to avoid them - Say maybe if he just used one Gram less per each cup everyday?

The reason he cannot afford withdrawals is because of his job. His job is very valuable to him. He works hard, he has never called out of work, and he always shows up on time. However if he gets dopesick He doubts he will be able to manage a day of work through it.

Unfortunately SWIM has no access to Benzo's either. His brother has a prescription to Clonodine which he has heard can be helpful.

Any experiences or insight would be really, really appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

[OhCasey]

Id look into Kratom because opiate tapering can be really hard for most and even with a taper youd feel a lil down days afterwards.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Thanks for the reply.

[Dickon]

You want a painless withdrawal. I want world peace! I also want many other things too which I'm not going to get. That said, you might get a painless withdrawal if you're not addicted yet. Otherwise what you ask isn't going to happen.

I'd suggest getting going on your taper plan. A gramme a day reduction (or even two a day at first) sounds as good a plan as any. I'd suggest using the clonidine as and when needed (especially at night). However it will floor you to a greater or lesser extent. So if your work is physical it will make that hard. However, if you get sick enough to need the clonidine, work is going to be very tough at that point.

Start reducing now, and with luck you'll get down to zero in a fortnight or so. The longer the taper the more chance of developing addiction, hence my recommending 2 grammes a day not one as per reduction.

Post back and let us know how you're doing. We can advise as and when, but probably can't really help too much in advance. I'd not go to Kratom, certainly not at the moment. I've seen people have problems coming off it too. That's just my view, though.

Having used for only 3 months daily (I'm assuming it wasn't a year of most days before that which would cause more problems) you should be able to reduce fairly quickly. If it's painless you are one very lucky bunny.

Best of luck

Dickon

[OhCasey]

Kratom can be tapered to no withdrawals even in individuals who have been on high amounts of extracts for a long time. The effects of Kratom WD's consist mainly of tiredness, which anyone whos been through an opiate WD can tell you isnt that severe.

[PsychoActivist]

Thanks for the reply's so far guys. Dickon you cracked me up with the "world peace" thing! I knew someone was gonna say something like that! Yeah, SWIM knows it will not be 100% painless nor is he expecting it to be. He was just hoping there was a way to make it managable.

Unfortunately SWIM is already addicted. He tested the waters the other day and tried going 24 hrs. without any. The first 12 were fine but he woke up the next morning and went to work and ended up only staying half a day. He was getting terrible cold sweats and felt quite feverish, very shaky, a little stomach pain (not much) and his eyes and nose were pretty runny. He had the runs too even after 4 mg's of Loperamide. At the same time he believes he really did have a cold too so he was able to play it off to his fellow employees. But after that he knew he was in for trouble if he just stopped.

SWIM will start his tapering on Monday (what a procrastinator!) and will be posting regularly to document it and keep you guys updated. he may purchase some kratom to use as well in conjunction. He is not sure exactly how he plans to do everything yet.

SWIM also knows that the hardest part about this will be actually sticking to the tapering and not getting down to 6-10 Grams and going "Well damn, I'm down to less than half my usual dose. I bet those 25 Grams would fuck me up right about now! Hmmmmm.....".

[gmeziscool2354]

well, kratom can produce strong withdrawals, so don't think its a free pass out of them. Kratom is also a little pricey. Does SWIY's job give SWIY health insurance? somebody suspects that if SWIY were to walk into a doctors office withdrawling like a mofo it would not be all that dificult to walk out with a diagnosis of anxiety and some sort of a prescription.

[PsychoActivist]

Originally Posted by gmeziscool2354

well, kratom can produce strong withdrawals, so don't think its a free pass out of them. Kratom is also a little pricey. Does SWIY's job give SWIY health insurance? somebody suspects that if SWIY were to walk into a doctors office withdrawling like a mofo it would not be all that dificult to walk out with a diagnosis of anxiety and some sort of a prescription.

SWIM does not get benefits right now. He works through a temp agency but has been at the same place since July so he will most likely get hired on eventually. SWIM can't get a benzo script again anyway. He used to be prescribed 6 mg's of alprazolam and 60 mg's of Temazepam a day for a few years and he would abuse the hell out of them and a monthly script would be gone in a week. He has already withdrawaled from benzo's and it was hell and does not want to have to go through with that again.

Also, SWIM knows all about Kratom. He was addicted to it right before he switched to pods about 3 months ago. He would rather withdrawal from Kratom than from pods so he may switch back during the tapering.

Originally Posted by betsym

If swiy can successfully taper, then he will spend considerably less in the future if he plans to use pods again. Also knowing that swiy CAN successfully taper will also let him know not to let it get too out-of-hand again to the point that it might no longer be doable without having to miss work, etc.

Yeah SWIM definitely needs to at least cut back on the amount he is spending. His habit right now costs him about $150 a week - sometimes more.


Thanks for the replies.

[gmeziscool2354]

yeah, pods are great but its a double edged sword. They are cheap, for SWIM they costa bout 3-8 dollars for a good dose, but he sees how tolerance could go through the roof. after only using daily for 3 days, he found his tolerance went up so he had to take double what he took on day one just to feel similar effects. SWIM admits to irresponsible use during the period of time.

if SWIY can't get prescriptions, maybe SWIY should check out an online pharmacy and purchase soma. it can help to taper off.

[PsychoActivist]

So SWIM has begun slight tapering. No problems so far except that SWIM is not really getting high off his lowerd doses. Thats ok though as he has to do this.

However he has a new question. Today he purchased 45 "5/500 mg Hydrocodones. He was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on using these to also help him quit the pods. Maybe like taper down on the pods, then switch to 10 mg doses of the hydros and then down to nothing? Would this be feasible or is this a bad idea?

[moda00]

Originally Posted by PsychoActivist

So SWIM has begun slight tapering. No problems so far except that SWIM is not really getting high off his lowerd doses. Thats ok though as he has to do this.

However he has a new question. Today he purchased 45 "5/500 mg Hydrocodones. He was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on using these to also help him quit the pods. Maybe like taper down on the pods, then switch to 10 mg doses of the hydros and then down to nothing? Would this be feasible or is this a bad idea?

One problem I could see with that is that, with the pod tea, one is not getting any sort of quantifiable amount to work with. Now, a taper still makes sense, because if you are able to work in terms of the grams of pods used, you'll still be getting a consistent and reasonably steady reduction (given that the pods are from the same source and reasonably consistent). But, with the pharmaceutical opiates like hydrocodone, you're talking milligrams. It just seems it would be very hard to make an effective switch in this case to facilitate a taper, but others might have other input.. Also I think the half-lives and dosing approach could be somewhat different? May be better to stick with one form/opiate for the duration of the taper, and then if one wants to switch to something after stopping the pods entirely, stick with a non-narcotic like clonidine if needed, or a muscle relaxer as well as the OTC basics- loperamide, acetominophen, etc. for any residual symptoms as needed. Best of luck either way! Swim has no experience with pods, only other opiates, so someone else might have better insight.