sooners

Hey kotinhell, hang in there buddy. I have heard from people that it can take from 3-5 days for the acute withdrawl to end. After that you are still going to be dealing with cravings, emotions etc., but the stuff you are experiencing now (e.g., sleeping problems, bathroom problems etc.) should get better everyday, just stay strong, take it one day at a time and don't look back.

There are a lot more people on here with WAY more experience than me, they should chim in pretty soon and they will be able to help answer your questions better than I can. I just wanted to acknowledge your post and let you know to keep posting and coming back here.

Good Luck

NVRAGAIN3PCT

What's up all my SR friends?

Sorry to have been MIA but it felt right as a part of my recovery. I needed to focus on other things.

I was about 2 months in and I had a plan to commit suicide and was put in the psych ward for a week. That was so rough and I"m sure none of you that remember the drama in my life are supprised. I was about to go over the edge. And I did.

I was clean for 3 months, had a one night slip but um, yeah, overdosed and then was in the hospital. Got out and have not touched anything again. Lesson learned.

I'm seeing a very good shrink and therapist. I have full support of my family and what few friends I have left.

I'm getting stronger every day. I got a tattoo of the Om symbol on my left inside forearm and it gives me strength every time I look at it. A symbol of my new life - The past is fading and I've let go of the ex bf, the yearning for pills, to hurt myself, to feel worthless.

I'm very connected to my kids again. Walk 6 miles a day. Feel stronger and less tired every day. Thank the Universe.

Hope you all are well and fighting the good fight. Keep it up!

Love to you all!

Cassandra48

Hey kotinhell I'm in early w/d's just like you. Today is day 4 for me, and w/d's are rough. I try to look at them as the poison leaving my body. One day at a time.....

kotinhell

On day seven now. The sleep issue is improving but can't get a run of more than 3 hours w/o waking up. Appetite has improved. I just feel very empty but from what I have read that will improve. Kinda feel weak also but I guess that's from the **** my body has been going thru. Any suggestions on how to sleep longer or regain my strength

chained

From my own experience and others I know, some good things you can do for your health is start taking a multi-vitamin to help your body "catch up". Drink a ton of water! Really, if I had to pick one thing to do for myself, it is that. The water helps our body cleanse the junk out, assists your body in rebuilding and of course hydrates you. Stay away from pop and caffeine for a while. Get on a schedule to do low impact physical activity. This helped with my sleep a bit, but the ability to sleep through the night was probably one of the last things to come together for me.

kotinhell

Ok on day 10 now and it's getting better. I still think about it when the timkes I normally took a dose but that is getting lighter all the time. last night I slept for 7 straight hours and felt great when I woke up. I can tell I'm getting a little back to normal. The first week honestly was friggin hell and I was a light dose taker so I can imagine the hell some of you heavy dose guys had to go thru and kudos for that. My self image and my pocketbook are so much the better for doing this.

kotinhell

Ok on day 10 now and it's getting better. I still think about it when the timkes I normally took a dose but that is getting lighter all the time. last night I slept for 7 straight hours and felt great when I woke up. I can tell I'm getting a little back to normal. The first week honestly was friggin hell and I was a light dose taker so I can imagine the hell some of you heavy dose guys had to go thru and kudos for that. My self image and my pocketbook are so much the better for doing this.

sooners

Right on! Great to hear and thanks for the update kotinhell!

kotinhell

Day 20 and am feeling way better. I still have sleep interruption on occasion but the empty feeling is going away and the cravings at the old dose times are dissappearing. I think I am going to be ok now. It has been a tough 20 days but worth it as not only am I not taking anything but I am not spending time and money on the effort to attain them. I don't think I am an especially strong willed person at times but this has given me a feeling of accomplishment I hope all you that are going thru it can feel.

sooners

Congrats to you kotinhell! Very proud of your accomplishment and it is a very big accomplishment to be proud of and you are a strong person!! I pray everyone that is fighting this is able to feel the accomplishment you are feeling right now. It takes a strong person to beat this addiction and don't take away from yourself or play it down, you have accomplished something most people do not have the strength to do.
:rotfxko
Merry Christmas!!!

kotinhell

Just hit day 30 and am doing fine now. I want to thank all of you for your kind comments and help while this month has passed. I will check in and see if I can help anyone else. Thank You

Shadow997

YI am soo glad that I stumbled upon this site. My story is a familiar one. 8 years ago I was prescribed Vicodin for severe migraines. Over time I found that I needed more and more to feel any relief until they no longer worked and I moved on to Percocet. Wow, did I feel amazing! I could work 16 hour shifts, clean my house, be social etc. Over time, I had to increase my dose of these as well. Then I started running out of my script WAY before the end of the month and found that I could not function without them. Then came the buying them on the street, only to run out before payday. I was living this 3-4 day binge, followed by a 2-3 day sickness every week. I decided to seek help and ended up on Suboxone for a year. This past July, I lost my job, and my insurance with it. Then things got much worse. I could no longer afford enough meds to keep me from being sick... Oh, but you know I tried! On December 22nd I took my last pill. I went through w/d HELL for 6 days. Clonidine did take the edge off but it was still bad. But, in a way I am thankful that it was unpleasant as the memory of that sickness is enough of a scare to make me never want to even see a pill again! I am now on day 8 and am taking a multivitamin and L-tyrosine to help with the malaise. The question that I have is how long does this horrible depression and panic attacks last? I break down and cry for hours for no reason and dometimes feel like I am going crazy! This terrifies me more than anything as I have always been a rational person. It gets soo bad sometimes that I feel trapped and have to flee my house and spend the night at my parent's because I feel soo lonely and isolated. Especially when it starts to get dark in the evening, which I'm sure the Winter blues aren't helping either. Is there anything that helps this and how long does it last? I heard several people mention SamE and 5-htp and was wondering if they help. I don't have insurance so getting on an anti-depressant isn't really an option for me right now. I feel somewhat better just knowing that this is normal when coming off of pills after many years, I honestly thought I was going insane and that scared me even more. Has anyone else gone through this as well? I just feel discouraged and helpless and need a little support...

FT

Hi Shadow997,

Welcome to the SR forum! You picked a good place to start your reading and posting. This thread has had a lot of activity lately, with some good stories and good posters. You might want to do some reading over a number of the threads. The past few days have been quiet, probably because of the holidays, so be patient about getting responses this weekend. I'll try to hop on if I can, especially if it stays so quiet.

Your story is unfortunately very common, as you may have gathered. A lot of us never even knew about the risk of opiate addiction until it was too late, after we were already in trouble ourselves. That happened to me, too.

I understand suboxone is just as bad as other opiates to detox from, and it sounds like you've experienced that. I can only answer how long the depression and panic attacks happened to me after quitting. I think a lot of us are like me in that I already had problems with depression, which was one of the reasons I thought I got addicted to it. After you go off, the depression is still there if was there before.

Even if you never had depression before, a lot of us get depressed in detox. Opiates work on the same brain chemical receptor sites that have to do with mood, so it is no wonder that happens. Since it has only been a little over a week since you stopped suboxone, you're still early in recovery. The first week is terrible, the second is less bad, and after that you start feeling better for sure.

You're a lot younger than I am, so I hope some of the other younger detoxers will hop on soon. I have a lot of personal experience with the basic detox issues, though, so I'll try to help as much as I can. My own kids have been through addiction and detox, so I know there are other issues besides my own.

I hope maybe your parents can help you in some way. If you continue feeling terribly depressed, you really should see a doctor for that. There are treatments for depression and anxiety, and so don't think you have to continue on in suffering. I'm sure they would be upset if they knew about this. Lots of doctors have sample of medications they can give you instead of a written prescription, so it may not cost as much as you think.

Don't despair, though. This has happened to a lot of people. Young healthy people seem to get over the physical stuff faster. As to the rest, it just sounds like you should not try to do all this alone.

Good luck. Others will likely come along soon to help, too.

FT

Shadow997

Thank you. I just feel better knowing I am not alone and that the depression and foggy mind and inability to concentrate are normal and that there is nothing really wrong with me! I just keep telling myself "crazy people don't know they're crazy, so I must be okay."...lol!.

sooners

Hey Shadow,

Sounds like you are having panic attacks with your withdrawal. I'm not saying that is what it is, don't get me wrong, but I dealt with panic attacks for 20 years. Your not going crazy, can just feel like it at times until you get used to them and know what they are and your not the ONLY person in the world with it. Yes, there are more of you, so don't scare yourself, it's just part of dealing with coming of that poison. Just keep going, one step in
front of the other, day after day and it will get better soon, just don't give up and quit.

Good Luck

FT

Hey Shadow997,

How are you doing today?

FT

ItComesAndGoes

I have been visiting this particular thread since about November 2011. I've been battling an ongoing problem with opiates since about 15 years old (I am almost 21 now). However, my problem got out of control about 1.5 years ago, around my 19th birthday, when I first started abusing oxycodone/roxicodone. I have never been prescribed opiates, and have used them solely for pleasure. I have no history of mental health disorders and was a generally happy kid, prior to abusing opiates.

I realized I hated the direction my life was going in September 2011, and knew that I had ruined all of my interpersonal relationships with friends/family because of opiates. I knew I had to change, and had to finally end my glorious love affair with opiates. I think what clicked for me was when my parents would stop saying "I love you," when we'd end a telephone conversation. I don't necessarily blame them, as I was sober maybe 5% of the day, and I looked/acted/was a prescription dope fiend.

My first true withdrawal experience ever was Thanksgiving 2011, when I abruptly quit a 90 mg/day roxicodone habit. But, I couldn't tough it out, and subsequently left my parents place early. I was back on pills before 72 hours and was loaded out of my mind by the end of Thanksgiving weekend.

After upping the ante to about 150 mg/day of Roxy's for the month of December 2011, I knew it was time to stop, this time for real. I was really just taking roxy's to abuse my body/mind, to see how far I could push the limit. I was a self-destructive mess, and lost all of my sober friends at about this point. My record is 120 mg of oxycodone in a single dose. The day I decided to stop, I went out with a bang and took over 200 mg of Roxy's on New Year's Eve. I don't recommend doing this, but it helped me personally, as for the time I was coherent, I wrote down my exact thoughts about my life in a journal that night. And even though I felt like a god damn King on 200 mg, I knew opiate abuse in my life had to end. I highly recommend keeping a journal of your thoughts while on opiates, just so you can look back at how F***** stupid you sound.

I have been dead sober for exactly 7 days now (No Xanax, no Weed, no Alcohool, no Caffeine, no Suboxone). This is the longest I haven't had any opiates in about 3 years. Going cold turkey sucks, but it was the only way I could stop (Tapering has never worked for me).

Days 1-5: Physical withdrawal is hell. There's no getting around it if you're going Cold Turkey. Oddly, I had no problem with insomnia, as sleep was the only escape from the neverending cramps/runs/pains I felt. I also felt constant panic and confusion for 5 days straight. I would cry randomly, have random bursts of energy, and was practically bipolar.

Days 6-7: On Day 6 I woke up, and suddenly felt okay (physically). Right now, at Day 7, I feel completely apathetic about my life. I have never felt this lonely/depressed in my entire life. My only friends for the past 6 months have been fellow Oxy/Roxy addicts/dealers, so it's hard to adjust to sitting alone by myself sober. I haven't talked to my parents in about 2 weeks, as the last time was when I stormed out of their home coming down off of a 90 mg roxy dose. Maybe I'll give them a call soon. I just don't f**** care really.

But I want to note, all of this is still better than nodding out on roxy's, feeling like a complete failure. I still have a very small apetite and the runs slightly. But things gets better with each day. I still have not had one single erection, nor one sexual thought cross my mind in 7 days (which I hope is going to change soon).

What am I thankful for? That I wasn't kicked out of the Top 25 University last quarter for receiving less than a 2.0. That I am, supposedly, in the primetime of my life. And lastly, and most importantly, that I am smart enough to realize that Opiates ultimately lead to the same dead end : Isolation, guilt, depression, and emotional ruin. My only hope is that I can stave off my addiction for as long as possible, and that I build my life (and emotional health) back up to where I was before I started abusing Opiates. I have been seeing a therapist 1x/week since September 2011. It has helped me tremendously, and I look forward to seeing him for the first time sober, on Monday.

I just want to say one last thing, which has been preached to the choir multiple times... You really have to want to stop taking Opiates in order for it to happen. You truly either do chose 1)Life or 2)Opiates. I don't necessarily blame people for picking #2, as life truly is a B**** and has so many problems assosciated with it, that 60 mg of oxycodone beautifully dissipates. But for the moment, #1 is more appealing to me. My life, mental health, and physical health went to crap before I realized what I had done to myself throughout my late teens/early adulthood. I just hope I'm not changed forever, and that one day I can attain the serenity that opiates first presented me, with sober living.

Thank you for listening. I hope my story has helped someone, and God Bless.

Stride34

All the best ICAG.

sooners

I hope "Shadow997" reads "ItComesAndGoes" post, it will help because they were afraid of panic attacks and anxiety. "ItComesAndGoes" expresses their same trouble in days 1-5. Thanks for the Post "ItComesAndGoes", it will help, every bit of what people want to share has the power to help another, so share away!

God Bless,

GO 49ers!!!

ItComesAndGoes

Day 11 now ... Just thought I'd reflect a bit and give some info on what to expect ...

Days 1-5: Full physical withdrawal. Some people overcome physical withdrawal within 3 days, but I was still sick as a dog on Day 5. The drug I abused was Oxycodone (perhaps longer half-life than smack).

Days 6-7: Physical symptoms suddenly disappear, but I am replaced with depression and apathy. Insomnia begins.

Days 7-11: The past 4 days have been pretty rough. I keep having these vivid dreams about opiates every single night. I now only sleep 5-6 hours per night, whereas I used to sleep 10-11. Sex drive is somewhat back (not quite). I have A LOT of cravings that distract me from normal life ... I hope things change sooner rather than later.

Best,
It Comes and Goes