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Old 12-10-2007, 02:00 PM
  # 2 (permalink)  
bval
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: CA Native
Posts: 2,509
Okay here you go, from someone who's been there:
1. Go to a doctor that knows about addiction and withdrawal issues. Ask them for whatever they can give you that's non-narcotic and will help. My doc, a treatment center owner for 10 years, prescribed me clonidine for the twitches/shakes and neurontin for the pain, along with ambien to sleep at night. This combo was extremely helpful, and no problem to quit when it was time.
2. Take yourself out of the loop of 'regular life' for 7 days. No work, no family gatherings, no parties, no nothing. Pretend you have the flu and have to get well before you do ANYthing (except go to AA/NA meetings - see below). Get some immodium for the bathroom issues. Get some ibuprofen or aspirin to help with the pain. Buy a bunch of your favorite foods, healthy or not, as it's going to be very hard to make yourself eat. Get some Unisom to help you sleep (NOT tylenol PM ... it's not strong enough). Rent movies, video games, WHATEVER sounds fun to pass the time, cause it's gonna be passing REAL SLOW for awhile here.
3. Get rid of your connections phone numbers, or tell your doc about your problem if you've been getting them from a doc. I suspect you're not getting them that way, but...
4. Tell your friends, wife, girlfriend, parents, WHOEVER about what you're going through and ask them for their support and to hold you accountable.
5. Stop hanging out with anyone who parties at all.
6. Don't do any drugs that get you remotely high, and don't drink any alcohol.
7. Begin attending meetings of Alcoholics and/or Narcotics Anonymous. Find meetings with 'speakers', or go to newcomers meetings. Introduce yourself as someone in their first 30 days of sobriety when you are asked to do so. Other than that, just sit there and listen. Buy yourself a Big Book from one or both places. Read that Big Book. Get yourself a copy of Living Sober from an AA meeting. Great book. Read it. Don't worry about the God thing, getting a sponsor, or working the steps or any of that stuff for right now. Just go to meetings, at least ONE A DAY, and sit down, shut up, LISTEN, and LEARN from the people who know more about getting and staying clean than YOU do.
8. Stick around after the meeting and try to meet some people, especially anyone who's story you heard in the meeting and can relate to.
9. And perhaps most importantly, acknowledge to yourself that you are an opiate addict and cannot ever take opiates again ...
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