steven71

Anyone have experience with attempting to come off both opiates and benzodiazepines? I have been addicted to hydrocodone, klonopin and xanax for over 10 years and am looking to sober up. Terrified of going into treatment though as I know how bad benzo withdrawal can be. If anyone has been through this I would greatly appreciate some feedback. I am taking between 50-80 mg of hydrocodone per day and around 3 mg of klonopin and/or xanax per day.

freshstart57

If you check out a website called 'benzobuddies', you can learn about how to reduce your benzo intake by very small increments, giving your body and noggin time to adjust. It is much easier to reduce your dose by 5% a week, than it is to say cut it by half. Sorta sneak up on getting clean.

I don't know if this might work for your opiate issue, I think that there might be other things at play there. I know that tapering is generally useless for alcohol addiction.

At any rate, make sure that you are getting the proper medical advice that you need. See a professional to make sure that you are doing the right thing in the right way.

IvanKatz

If you were coming off Opiates alone, I'd say you would be having a tough time ahead but no serious medical problems. Since your taking benzos too,
I do not recommend doing this without a doctors supervision because it can be deadly.
See you doctor

Stopdropburn

@steven Glad you made it here. A lot of people here have experience and a history with all of those, myself included. But as was stated, and as you will most likely see again, talk to your doctor about this. Opiates are one thing, a hell that you can break through, but benzo's have an entirely different reaction to a complete cease in dosing, the last thing you want is a coma-inducing seizure right now. Do some research and go to the doctors with the truth and your concerns. Good luck.

IvanKatz

Benzo W/D is not something you can simply "tough out"! I'm being VERY serious about this!
Everything I've read and head about this says you need a doctor's supervision because the W/D process can have some extremely serious health ramifications.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE see a doctor.
We cannot give you ANY medical advise other than see a LICENSED MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL!

Do not screw around with this! As SDB stated, opiate W/D is one thing but benzo's are a whole different can of worms!

BTW, I will tell you that I am VERY glad to see you here. Once you get on board with a doctor, we'll be here to see you through through the rest. This board has been instrumental in getting me through my issues as well as MANY others.
THis is a very good group of people that will support you as best as we can.
Welcome home!

steven71

Thanks a lot guys, I really appreciate the feedback. Yea, I'm pretty familiar with benzo withdrawal as I've don't cold turkey on several occasions and been very close many other times when I've run out of meds. I did a cold turkey withdrawal in June of 2010 and ended up totally dellusional, paranoid and developed intractable insomnia, could not sleep for over a month. Finally went into treatment, docs precribed phenobarb but this did nothing to quell the withdrawals, which is why I'm scared to do the rehab thing again. I've visited benzobuddies, it's informative but just not to my liking.

I was just wondering if anyone here has had success dealing with these two addictions combined. For me, opioid withdrawal is worse in some ways because the cravings are so bad. Every time I try to taper or tell myself I'm only going to take two a day, enough so I don't get real sick but it never works. I've thought about sub but will not touch methadone, known too many folks that have died from that stuff and it doesn't seem reasonable for a hydrocodone addiction. I take norcos so I'm not real concerned about tylenol overdose although I'm sure it's done some damage to my liver.

It's going to be tough talking to my doctors, they don't know I'm addicted, at least the one who is precribing the norco doesn't. Fortunately, my shrink knows I have addiction issues and might be willing to work with me on a taper.

Many thanks for the feedback, I like what I see so far in this group as I've had some good experiences with the 12 step program in the past. Any of you guys go to meetings? I live in Minneapolis so we have a ton of groups around.

sophiamarie2007

I was addicted to opiates and benzo's (and throw in a ampethamine addiction too) for years. My doctor had me first detox off the opiates, which I did cold turkey. In fact all of the pills I was on I detoxed cold turkey except the benzo's. My xanax use was the last to go. I worked with my doctor slowly decreasing my dose. I was taking 12 different kinds of pills and the benzo was the last. Talk to your doctor and have them help you taper off of it. It's been three weeks for me and I am sleeping through the night and feel great. It can be done but it's not something to do on your own.

lonestarTH

Pretty much the same thing what Sophia said, but I was addicted to both opiates and benzos. I quit the opiates cold turkey and my doctor had me start working a taper. I was on 2-3 mg xanax a day for about 2 years. I went down .25 MG a week until I got down to .25 MG. Once I got there I took half a .25 MG pill for a week then half of that for a week, and a half of that for another week. It got to the point where it was such a small dose it was all in my head.. You can do this you just need the help of your Dr.!! Exercise helped me a lot with benzo w/ds and managing anxiety even if its just going for a walk.

steven71

Thanks Sophia, Lonestar. Actually, I take klonopin and xanax so I'm thinking I could cut the xanax out reasonably fast because the klonopin is longer acting and should cover any severe xanax withdrawal symptoms. Won't make a move until I see my doctor on the 1st though.

The pain clinic I go to is going to be none to happy about me admitting I'm addicted, since my nurse practitioner complains all the time about pill seekers and addicts. I'm thinking she won't be pleased to find out that I am an addict. Although I don't doctor shop because I've been burned in the past before this way, doctor shopping can get you into a heap of trouble. Not sure how I will go about this, perhaps I can work with my psychiatrist and simply quit the hydro and cancel my appointment at the pain clinic, don't know if it's a good idea to be totally honest with them. I know it's an honesty program but some things are better left unsaid. I'm assuming it's just a matter of time before they catch on to me anyway, pills counts or whatever. I came up short on my last pill count and got a good tongue lashing from my NP.

MemphisBlues

I detoxed cold-turkey from 20 milligrams of Klonopin a day. Not pretty. I pounded beers and smoked tons of pot.

Could you go to a doctor versed in addiction and benzo withdrawal? does the pain clinic know of you benzo addiction?

Please find a doctor to help you. I ended up in the psych ward for 10 days. And since you are in Minneapolis, have they learned the protocol for benzo addiction there? Substituting phenobarbital for benzo withdrawal doesn't seem like the solution, as tapering as been proved to be the most productive way.

steven71

I have been on between 2-8 mg of some form of benzo for about 12 years, with a few months off here and there. The withdrawls for me have been unbelievably bad, so much so that I was far worse off than anyone in treatment when I did inpatient in June/July of 2010. I ended up in the psych ward because I literally did not sleep for about a month. While all the heroin and oxy addicts were feeling jolly after a week, my withdrawals were just kicking in to full gear.

Phenobarb is the protocol for benzo withdrawal (here) because it prevents seizures but it does absolutely nothing for withdrawal symptoms like insomnia. I went to the ER before I went into treatment and the doc gave me 100 60 mg phenobarb, I took 300 mg one night and still didn't sleep. Suffice to say, it may not be wise to check myself into an inpatient facility, they simply do not understand the severity of withdrawals and are certainly not willing to be educated by an *addict*

No, the pain clinic is not aware of my addiction issues, otherwise I don't believe they would have given me norco. I think my best course of action here would be to cancel my appointment and simply not go back. Going in and telling them I'm an addict wouldn't make much sense, since they would probably just berate me and fire me as a patient anyway.

I've yet to meet one doctor who seems to understand the severity of benzo withdrawal. I had several tell me that the withdrawals would only last a couple of weeks at the most.

I guess my plan now is to discuss this with my shrink, she seems to be very level headed and capable of making choices in her patients best interests. Right now, I think she is my only shot other than attempting to taper on my own.

logo

My experience with what you are going through. I detoxed from 45mg. methadone using suboxone. At the same time I was detoxing from Xanax after 4 years of use. The suboxone worked well for the methadone and it took me 6 weeks of tapering until I was taking crumbs of suboxone. The Xanax was a whole different ball game. It took me over a month to detox from the Zanax. I was hell bent on getting clean. I did this detox at home and like I said it was no cake walk. I would not suggest this type of detox to anyone. I think I was just lucky. You need to see a Dr. for the help you might need. Good luck on your journey into recovery. Love and Respect. Logo

steven71

Awesome, congrats for getting off the methadone, one of my best friends died from a methadone overdose in 2008, although he was mixing it with xanax and taking much higher doses, over 100 mg. I've heard methadone withdrawals can be nasty. I used methadone for a couple of weeks to fight withdrawals years ago, but I read so many horror stories about mixing it with benzos, that I quit, afraid I wasn't going to wake up in the morning. On the other hand, I know it's really helped a lot of addicts. I have nothing against it but it's just not for me.

When I went off xanax in 2010, I had protracted withdrawals because I didn't taper, I was sober 6 months but I was still having withdrawal symptoms when I started using again.

Yea, I plan on seeing my doctor on the 1st of April, I'm praying she will be supportive. I have a months supply of klonopin with two refills, I've been staying at the precribed dose now for 4 days, it hasn't been easy. I'm hoping she doesn't freak out or get pissed off and canel my refills when I tell her about my addiction issues. She knows that I've had addiction issues in the past so I'm thinking she'll be supportive but it's hard to tell with docs.

MemphisBlues

Yes, Steven, benzo withdrawals is a very special hell and rehabs are not very well versed on it. I have yet to meet a smack jack, booze hound, coke poke or meth head that wouldn't undergo detox from those drugs a dozen times instead of the protracted withdrawal from benzos.

At six months I still had the insomnia, shakes, foggy cognition, hell...I couldn't walk without my knees shaking and my hands shook for a year. I'm 18 months out and still have emotional blunting, etc.

Again, I was on a much stronger dose than you prescribed by a shrink. I would latch onto the doctor who knows about benzo withdrawal. From what I have read switching over to Valium and doing a slow taper is the only way to go.

Check out Benzo.org, a United Kingdom site, which I found to have the best information on benzos.

Best of luck and you inspire me by your courage to face this beast. I'm in AA and NA and when I talk about protracted withdrawal symptoms they think I'm crazy.

I've read that perhaps meth addiction is the only other drug that messes with brain chemistry as much as benzos do.

steven71

Well, once you get over 4 mg a day of Klonopin/Xanax and you've been taking it for 5+ years, I think you're in for one hell of a mess, whether it's 8 mg or 20. I've taken as much as 20 mg of Klonopin in one day and honestly, I could still function which is pretty scary! I did abuse my scripts but between 2003-2010, was prescribed 6-8 mg a day but on many days I took a lot more.

BenzoUk is an excellent resource that I had forgotten about, I thought I heard the site was down but I will check it out again, thanks for the tip.

Yea, I didn't get much sympathy from my comrads in treatment or the halfway house that I went to regarding benzos. Some would admit to using them but deny withdrawal symptoms. I frequently heard stories, a lot of BS really, about guys taking 100 bars a day or taking 200 mg of klonopin per day for six years. The withdrawals were very real, any kind of withdrawal sydrome that completely dialates your pupils and causes a fever is pretty serious.

Thank God I never got into meth. Once I had a cocaine OD in 1993, I stayed away from all stimulants! Congrats on being 18 months clean from benzos, no easy task and few ever get there!