lortab addict

[KI2onic]

Hello to all, i have posted in the begginer forum and was refered to this forum. I am severly addicted to lortab, i take aprox 20 to 40 10mg pills a day. Tonight is the first night that i have done without, and mind you i am only doing without becouse my script has ran out. I am having leg craps like you wouldnt believe, a nonstop headach, and my body just feels like i could throw up at any time. I cannot sleep and dont plan on it anytime soon, which is something new to me becouse along with my lortab at night i take nighttime medecine on top of occasional drinking. I am in NA becouse i think my biggest prob is the lortab, im pretty sure i could do without drinking anything.

I would really like someone to talk to in this matter, and to find out what i have to look forward to. I have searched for local meeting groups in my area and have found several, but my prob is that my wife is almost as addicted to lortab as i am, and i dont think she will stop becouse she has legitimat pain. There is no way i can do this on my own, and as i sit here tonight i now for a fact that im going to have to do this on my own, (for she is asleep in bed)..
Our script is going to be filled tomorrow and it would make me the happest man in the world to be able to not take any, but most people in this forum knows if the pills are availbe there going to be taken.

Thanks for listining, and anyone with some words of advise, or words of wisdom i would be much appreciative. Ill be on most every night unless i give in and get back to the lortab

[ashley80]

KI2, I am also a pain pill addict, lortab, norco, vicodin, oxy, whatever. It started out as treatment for pain, but that was long ago.

I am very afraid that trying to come off such a high dose (200-400 mgs/day) is going to be very difficult, without some medical help. I'm assuming that you've tried to taper your dose, without much success. Some can do that to minimize the pain of WD. It used to work for me, but my addiction progressed to the point where I could no longer taper. I'd just eat all my pills till they were gone, then frantically try to get more. Ugh - what a way to live!

Have you considered a detox facility? There is also the option of suboxone, which you can take at home, for a short detox (1-2 weeks). It basically eliminates the withdrawal symptoms. It must be obtained from a specially licensed doctor. To find one, go to www.suboxone.com and follow the links to find a doc in your area.

There are also other drugs that a knowledgeable doctor can provide that can help with detox symptoms. I would really recommend contacting a drug rehab facility or checking out a suboxone doctor.

The issue of your wife continuing to use/abuse lortab will certainly complicate things.

I would definitely suggest trying out an NA meeting and letting people there know that you are new, and struggling to get clean. You will find many people there that have been where you are and that have successfully turned their lives around.

You mention that you are getting a new Rx tomorrow? You COULD seize this moment and reach out to somebody - a doctor, a non-using friend, or an NA meeting - and then you would NEVER have to go through this again.

You could be free of the obsession to use these pills! It's not easy, I won't lie to you. But it is SO worth it. And so are you.

I'm sure others will be along to add their support. I hope you do try to break free!

I am not trying to push NA on you - I know that I was Very resistant to that idea when I first came here in January. But I've found that it works for me, after many failed attempts to do it my way.

I wish you luck and success with getting your life back!
Ashley

[Moontime]

Welcome! You are never alone in NA. My sponsor would say nobody has ever died of lack of sleep either. If you want to stop using drugs, lose the desire to use and find a new way to live, NA is for you. I couldn't do this alone and had to reach out in the rooms of NA, did I want to be there? Heck no, but it saved my life, I'm clean today. Keep coming back!

[Magic21]

KI2onic,

You can read my thread I wrote about 2 weeks ago, I've linked it at the bottom of this message. Just in case your wondering Vicodin/Lortab = same thing. But I've been clean 21 days today!

You posting here really means you want to do something about it. In my post I listed the meds the Chemical Dependancy Doc gave me to help with the WD. Trust me I know all about the pains of the WD sytmptoms. But the meds they gave me, all helped ease the WD symptoms, and let me focus on my sobriety. I can't tell you how much better I feel everyday know. I never really seen how much those pills controlled my life, until know. You can PM me anytime if you need someone to talk to. Just keep in mind that the high dosage that your taking now is killing you slowly. NO BULLSHIT!!!

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...ad.php?t=34885 (Vicodin Abuse)

[bobbyd]

You are taking a dangerously high dose of drugs.
I was in the same boat about two years ago and somehow found the courage to stop. I was basically in fear for my life.
I went to an NA meeting, got a white keytag and asked for help.
It wasn't simple or easy-it was the hardest thing I have ever done and it was worth it.
I hope you are more afraid of dying than you are of running out of pills.
That's what it took for me.
This is a serious situation your in and you probably wouldn't have posted if you weren't interested in getting clean.
With the withdrawals you will experience, it would be a good idea to get professional help.
Try going to some NA meetings. Be completely honest about your addiction and you will have a chance.
I wish you the best.
bobbyd

[mike001ex_hydro]

Originally Posted by KI2onic

Hello to all, i have posted in the begginer forum and was refered to this forum. I am severly addicted to lortab, i take aprox 20 to 40 10mg pills a day. Tonight is the first night that i have done without, and mind you i am only doing without becouse my script has ran out. I am having leg craps like you wouldnt believe, a nonstop headach, and my body just feels like i could throw up at any time. I cannot sleep and dont plan on it anytime soon, which is something new to me becouse along with my lortab at night i take nighttime medecine on top of occasional drinking. I am in NA becouse i think my biggest prob is the lortab, im pretty sure i could do without drinking anything.

I would really like someone to talk to in this matter, and to find out what i have to look forward to. I have searched for local meeting groups in my area and have found several, but my prob is that my wife is almost as addicted to lortab as i am, and i dont think she will stop becouse she has legitimat pain. There is no way i can do this on my own, and as i sit here tonight i now for a fact that im going to have to do this on my own, (for she is asleep in bed)..
Our script is going to be filled tomorrow and it would make me the happest man in the world to be able to not take any, but most people in this forum knows if the pills are availbe there going to be taken.

Thanks for listining, and anyone with some words of advise, or words of wisdom i would be much appreciative. Ill be on most every night unless i give in and get back to the lortab

i am assuming you got your script by now. and i do understand. It saves the day and days to come until you run out. when you have them you dont care about the time you will soon be running out. but time does fly by and i am sure you have figured this out. I was taking 70 exra strength vicodin for 10 years and i am only in my 20s. i have told this story for alot of people. I do to the amount i was taking i had to get on methadone i stayed on it for 2 years. i just stopped cold turkey at 50mgs and HOOOOOLY SH***T my legs did not ache, they were on FIRE!!!!! talk about screeming oh man i went 35 days with no sleep nor food or water, i was running fevers everynight while shaking screeming into my pillow. i am telling you this because it can be much worse. if i could go back i would go through with the pills. methadone lasts about 2 months, loratab-vicodin ect.. lasts about 4 to 8 days at the peak so keep in mind you will be okay. the only problem is the mental dependancy. i know you want that feeling, the warm fuzzy loaded feeling, yes it is wonderful but is it worth it everytime you run out? you cannot do this for the rest of your life. this stuff has tylenol in it and the amount your taking will and i am not joking, it will F*ck your liver to hell. i was one of the lucky ones. Now this suboxone is just as addictive as methadone but it shouldnt hurt detoxing with it. just please dont go on maintence with it. they have a good detox program but this is only for the physical part. all of us who have been addicted to pills for long period of times have a severe metal dependency to it, so you need to be around other people like yourself. you need some will power to do this, mine was my daughter i had to do it for her and myself. show someone you can do it. i promise you will feel like your on tope of the world I hope this has helped, any questions email me at Mike_Farley01@yahoo.com
god bless and take it easy. study this stuff we are telling you, so when this next script runs out, you have some advice. from all of us here.
Mike Farley CA

[Dawn10]

You do need medical supervision to get off the drugs. That is a very high dose and the withdrawal is dangerous and uncomfortable to do alone. Please let your doctor know you are addicted. That is the first step. He/She can refer you appropriately.
I am almost 6 years in recovery and it is freedom! It can be done and you can do it.

[2stop]

PLEASE do see your doctor..get some help with this! I was up to 50 pills a day at atimes, fentanly patches, oxy's....I did it alone, had two kids no money for rehab....but if had to do over again I would haVE BEGGED SOMEONE TO HELP ME. IT IS VERY VERY DIFFICULT ON YOUR OWN. I think another reason we resist treatment is because it kinda cements the stopping reality of it, the fear is overwhelming..but it does pass! And it is so awesome. was offered pills a few minutes ago..I said NO way! THAT for ME is a miracle...I would never turn down pills..not me! WANT this more than anything else....and commit to going through with whatever it takes....the pain of withdrawal stops...the pain of active addiction is dead serious.

You can do this! Go to meetings, talk to people, keep reaching out, WHATEVER WORKS FOR YOU..WORK IT!..we will find what we seek. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

(((((WARMEST HUGS)))))

[KI2onic]

I did get it filled, and i feel like **** for doing it, but my body feels better
wish it was easy to do, but we all its not.

[godsonmyside]

Many of us didn't even realize we were addicts until the drugs ran out. I can understand the not wanting to go through all the withdrawal, but face it, 2 addicts on one bottle of pills, looks like you are gonna face alot of pain and suffering. I know about that because I ran through 180 oxycontin 80's and 240 percocet 10/325's in less than 3 weeks every month. I wasn't ready until I was beaten either. I really do hope that you can get yourself some help, and do understand there is a better life, life without the use of drugs.

[KI2onic]

i have been out for 2 days now, and i fell like i can make it another day. My wish now is that i can find someone that will lone me a couple lortab so that i can make it

[godsonmyside]

If you have been out for 2 days without any, stop looking for the person to help you continue with your addiction and go to a meeting and stay off the meds. If you are looking for the drugs after you say you can, than do it. Look for solutions to live life, it can be done. If you find a couple you do them, then you will look for a couple more, its a vicious cycle and it never ends unless you do something about your problem. If you have to desire to not use, then you never have to use again against you will or better judgement, Try going to an NA meeting, what have you got to lose. There is hope, and you can find that hope if you give youself that chance.

[charliebrown]

Hey! Hang in there, it'll get better. I have gone thru withdrawals from lortab several times, and felt like I had a terrible case of the flu for about a week. Get to a meeting, if you can!!

[KI2onic]

I hate myself.... I went 3 days and most of my withdrawls were starting to go away, but my wife found some lortabs for herself and i just couldnt hold back I tried everything to occupy myself and i just couldnt do it... I tried to get my wife to go to a meeting with me and she wouldnt so i told myself maybe i didnt need it, when i know i really do... So now im setting here at 1:46 am high as a kite off lortab and wishing i was as strong as some of you. What do you do when you want to get off of narcotics but there right in your lap? I wish i was as strong as some of you guys, but im starting to believe that i would sell my house and my family for just 1 or 2 lortab. I know that sounds horrible but unless you have been in my shoes you will never understand. I want to keep posting in this forum, but ill understand if you guys give up on me, i wouldnt blame you... Every time i get close to getting over the withdrawls it seems that the devil himself puts lortab in my hands and i just cant say no. So good night to you all, and i thank you for all your support........

[mickdel]

No one here will give up on you, because we have all been where you are now. I'm alcoholic/addict - my drug of choice was dihydrocodeine - which i don't think you get in the US. Its next down from morphine here and used mainly in hospitals and for severe pain. I also gobbled ultram, baclofen, diazepam and anything I could get my hands on. I even used to take handfuls of ibuprofen when I ran out of the other stuff, because I knew it was a painkiller, but had no idea it wasnt a narcotic!!! You live and learn. I could never stop when I had pills, and used to get them from my family who all got scripts for DHC and ultram, and I got ultram myself. I used to gorge myself when I had the tabs, then drink like a fish when I didnt - I was going into bad withdrawals and used alcohol to get over that. Of course in time it left me a raging alcoholic with a raging habit. After a couple of detoxes for alcohol I managed to cut that out - but was still on the tabs. It took a rehab and a proper opiate detox to get off the codeine. Even after a two week detox, I was feeling bad for a couple of months.. My liver function tests are still abnormal four months later, so you can do yourself some serious damage.

My advice would be to tell your doc and get a detox. Its too painful to do it cold turkey. Don't expect to feel "normal" for quite a while after, as it takes time for your body to readjust to living without opiates and before it starts to produce its own endorphins in sufficient numbers to alleviate pain naturally. I would advise going to NA - I don't know what to tell you about your wife still using. It would be too much temptation for me if there were tabs around. I visited my family a month ago, and found a big supply of DHC and baclofen. After looking at it for three days, I took a pill one night. Then two the next day - on day three I took a huge mixture of DHC/Baclofen and OD'd. I have never been as sick in my life. I really thought I was dying, and so did my wife. Maybe you could accompany your wife to the Doctor and discuss the problem - it might be possible she could use non opiate pain relief?

Anyway, please keep posting - it helps me to write about it too. But remember - it is sooo much better when you're not clucking, or withdrawing from opiates all the time - that stuff just takes over your life, and ruins your experience of most things. And when you don't have it - well, you know what thats like already. But in the end - they will stop working. I was taking them and they weren't doing anything for me except to hold off the withdrawals. No "high" anymore, no nice warm, relaxed feeling. Just horrible depression.

Best wishes

Mick

[Dawn10]

We will never give up on you since we all know EXACTLY how you feel. Been there, done that over and over. You asked what do you do if the cravings get so bad? GO TO A MEETING. Once you go to your first meeting the others are much easier. Once there, you will find others who can support you. You can call on each other in those times you would do anything for a pill.
I also agree, you need to be honest with your doctor and ask to get into rehab. That will help you over the physical withdrawal and connect you with therapists who can help you understand the pyscholigical dynamics of your illness. Remember---it is an illness. You wouldn't think of trying to recover from pneunmonia without your doctor's help, would you? Why try this alone?
Keep posting. WE care!

[servicejunkie]

I just wanted to share that, for most addicts, willpower has absolutely NOTHING to do with stopping. I used many many times against my will, using drugs when I didn't want to. I would have prostituted my mother for one more......whatever. I did lots of opiates also, heroin, oxy, lortab,lorcet, percacet, vicoden, morphine, methadone, fentanyl, delotid, ext........all let to the same place. It wasn't until I came to NA until I discovered that we can do together what I could NEVER do alone!! People in this room and in NA will not give up on you. When the pain of where you are at is greater than the fear of where you are going, you will change. I'm glad you are here and that you are getting near the end of the road. Please Private message me if I can help you in ANY way. Keep commin' back, Mike.

[godsonmyside]

We would not give up on you, just as we weren't given up on. I was hopeless myself, got my oxy script and 2 weeks latter was out and had to find ways to get more every month. We are people here that can and do understand where you are in life. One concept I learned through this proccess, "If you don't like the way you are living, CHANGE"!! Go to an NA meeting if you want to, don't want to, if you're happy, not happy, if your ass falls off, any length. I really hope soon we will talk to this guy on here that changes his life through NA, we see you want this and you keep coming back!!

[KI2onic]

You guys are great, i have to say if it wasnt for my wife, the people in this forum would of helped me 100 percent.... Mickdel you are the first person that i really connected with, it seems you are the closest to my problem. I wish i had your strentgh. Service i would very much like to talk to you 1 on 1 but it would be late here, like 12:00 - 1:00 am atlantic time. It is 12:14 am here and once again my wife is at the stove making more needles of lortab, and i am craving the same thing
I know im going to do it, its just a matter of time. I have never seen a forum were everyone is so nice and i thank you all. But im not sure if its my wife that needs to take the next step or if its really me. She wants no part of stopping, and its not me that is seeing a docter its her, thats how we are getting our scripts of lortab. There is no way she would ever let me say anything to her doctor about our addiction. Im trying to get her in a na group, but she wants no part of it. I actually feel closer to this forum than i do my wife, as sad as that sounds. My prayer goes out to you all, (and for my wife, and most of all me)..... Good night to you all, im still not off this **** but i think im on the right track

[KI2onic]

Man oh man, how hard is it to get off lortab... I have went 5 days trying to wing myself off of my addiction, i started with cutting down to 5 lortab last thursday. Friday i went to 4 and so on. Last night i had 1/2 of a 5mg lortab, and for the first time i slept, mind you not very good but much much better. I started out with minor leg cramps and i woke up every couple of hours, but over all the withdrawls were so much less than normal. But im here again in this forum to admitt i got another script today of lortab 10. It is 5:00 pm and i have already taken 5 pills (which is still much less than normal), but the day is not even close to being over, and i have a whole bottle of pills calling to me. If you have been addicted to lortab you know what i mean by calling to me. One good thing is that i am sick to my stomach and dont feel like taking anymore, but i know that feeling will go away. I keep telling myself to flush the pills, but how stupid would that be. What do you do when you have an entire bottle of pills that a week ago you would of sold your house for? Oh well i tried for almost a week and did pretty good, but now im sorry to say it looks like im hooked again I mean i could sell them but is that any better than taking them myself? Oh well i tried, and ill prob try again when im out, but for now im ashamed. Anyone got any suggestions on what to do with an entire bottle of pills?

[Dawn10]

You are physically and psychologically addicted. You need supervised detox and therapy. If you want to stop bad enough, you will get help. Until then, you will most likely repeat the cycle you just described. I am sorry to be so blunt, but I think I can be since what you described was me over and over for the years I thought I could do it alone.
I am praying that you will get sick and tired of being sick and tired.

[mickdel]

I'm sorry I didnt see your post til now. I've been tied up in my own world of uncertainty! I've just got in from a meeting - my second in three days. I wasn't getting anywhere on my own, and if I stay away, I just listen to myself, and I know that doesnt work!! I stopped going to meetings shortly after leaving the treatment centre because I became obsessed with the idea that the Higher Power is my Catholic God of my religion - and as I knew I was a "sinner" by Catholic standards, I thought I had to follow my religions commandments - even though I had rejected a lot of it. See how screwed up I got? Anyway, I managed to get back to the rooms and am beginning to accept that the HP is of your own understanding. I feel much better.
Sorry - I'm probably speaking for my own benefit, but I just wanted to make the point that I would have started drinking again as well by now if I hadnt gone back to the rooms because I was starting to lose touch with where my addiction had taken me before. Anyway....

You have to decide that you do really want to get off. I needed a detox in a residential centre for 6 weeks and therapy etc (check out www.clouds.org - where I went - it will give you an idea of what there is available) before I could see half way clearly. I needed to be in an environment where there where NO DRUGS or ALCOHOL available, and surrounded by fellow addicts/alcoholics. People who was going through what I was going through. I went to my first meetings at AA & NA and it was so beautiful to hear people had gone through what I had and I wasn't "unique"!

That gave me the strength to decide I didnt want to continue using and drinking. I cut off my supply of drugs by admitting to my family and Doctors I was an addict (I got scripts from different family members as well as my own doctor) so I won't ever be prescribed addictive drugs again. I still get cravings, and I have seen what happens when there is a supply in front of me. If I had been going to meetings at the time, I could have shared about this or if I had a sponsor I could have called him. But I was alone by choice and I ****** up. I don't know how you will do it, but you need to cut off your supply. If your wife won't acknowledge her addiction or is unwilling to get and stay clean, then you need to put yourself first. Recovery has to come before everything. I've been told that whatever you put before Recovery, you will eventually lose - and I accept now that is true.

Hugs

Mick