Iain901

Hi all,

So, it's been a week since I first posted. I just had a question. I haven't really done anything different lately and it seems that my body hurts alot lately. My wife thinks, and I agree with her, that it's probably my mind giving me phantom pain to try to get me to get something to take. Anything like this happen to anyone else?

I imagine it's a common effect of coming off the painkillers. That's how I first got hooked on it anyhow. I'd start having back pain and so I'd pop a pill. If it is, it's kind of interesting how your mind can play games with you to try to get you to do what it wants.

Other than this phantom pain, things have been going well. I sleep better at night. I have more energy. And friends say that my conversation is alot more interesting now. I started my job just a couple days after I quit taking painkillers and things are going very well there. I've already had one promotion and I am already proving myself competent and motivated enough that I may get another one sometime this year. I'm really enjoying how much more energy I have as well as slowly regaining the ambition that I had before I ever got hooked.

If this is how I feel after only a couple months, I'm very interested in seeing how I will feel and where my life will be in a year or even five.

~Iain

c'est la vie

Congrats on the clean time. I don't know specifically about painkillers, but I know that addiction is very connected with mind games. It's not surprising that your body is doing what it "needs" to in order to get what it thinks its missing. You're doing great not giving into it. Keep up the strength!

weroisafl333

I am on Suboxone right now... was addicted to OxyContin. It's perfectly normal to feel muscle/body/"bone" aches when coming off of painkillers. It is your body readjusting and getting to used to producing endogenous endorphins now that they are not coming in from the outside. You will notice that your pain threshold will actually be HIGHER when you are completely done detoxing. Sometimes people can endure a post-acute withdrawal syndrome where the depression, insomnia and body aches linger for a few months, but not in all instances. That usually only happens in long-term users. In my signature, there is a website w/ a forum specifically for opiates and the dude who runs it is extremely knowledgable.

Doug

There's a definite maental and physical withdrawl that happens, even a "depression" of sorts that affects the body as well as the mind, and of course, the addiction needs to be fed too. It won't always feel like this, and every one day without, is one day closer to being free from the pills.

Try some alternatives for the pain. Baths, showers, heating pads, exercise, aspirin, Gatorade or juice, etc.

Good luck, and keep posting.

Anna

It sounds like you're doing great and have been moving forward in your life. And, yes, I think our minds continue to play games with us for a long time, on and off, hoping to catch us off-guard. But, as long as you maintain your perspective, you'll be fine.