Oxycodone/Oxycontin dependence help please

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I wouldn't ask a Dr. for Suboxone! My last Dr. told me that Subs are commonly used for pain, so, i thought OK, i'll try it (because the oxy's & roxy's weren't working too good) but thankfully my Pain Management Dr called me about MRI results, so i asked him about the Suboxone & he said don't do it! He told me to come in later that day & told me something most people don't know...If you are prescribed Suboxones, once you bring that RX to the pharmacy, you are red~flagged! Which means, whatever state you live in, if you try to fill any RX that is an opiate, it will come up in ALL pharmacy's computers that you are red flagged (cannot get any pain medications!) You are pretty much marked "an addict" for life.
I would definately just ween myself off of them! Withdrawals suck, but the mg you are taking, you'll be off them in no time! I try to tell myself it's mind over matter, but it isn't fun~I am prescribed Oxy's 2X's per day & Roxi's 3X's per day and there are times i go out of town for the night and forget my meRAB & i start withdrawing, definately not fun!
Good luck with it~You'll be fine, i'm glad you weren't in deep, some people are so hooked they are doing 10+ 80's a day!
 
glad to hear :) i don't know many people that have quit cold turkey so good for you :) yeah i don't understand why they give my roommate such a hard time about the carries.. its not like he's abusing the lorazepam.. he gets them from his doctor for anxiety , but i guess it doesn't matter. He's on 110mil of methadone and is trying to get off the lorazepam so he's able to get all his carries so he doesn't have to keep going to the clinic every day. From what i've heard -methadone is really hard to come off of too. I wouldn't know, because i'm not on it, but if its anything like coming off oxys then i can imagine it must be hell. Anyway, good to hear you're doing well. take care :)
 
Yeah the methadone carries I was talking about are not exactly legit. I know people who use methadone because it's cheaper until they can get oxy. It's pretty terrible. I've heard the same thing about methadone being hard to come off, although it doesn't make sense to me due to it's incredibly long half-life.

I wouldn't say I have an incredible will, I was probably just on oxy for a short enough time and at a low enough dosage that it wasn't the hell that it is for a lot of other people. I actually feel like a bit of a baby that it was so difficult for me as I know people who are upwarRAB of 300-400mg per day for years. I'm so sympathetic to oxy detox now that I've had a taste of it.

As an update to my situation, today I went to work and felt nearly 100%. I still don't have much of an appetite and I didn't sleep well last night again. I'm still very restless but mostly only at nighttime now. I'm hoping tonight is much easier as I'm running on about 4 or 5 hours sleep total for the last 4 days or so and that's really hard as I've got midterms going on and work as well. I expect over the next day or so I will return to 100% but we'll see. I luckily haven't suffered any of the horrible depression I have been reading so much about, which I think is related to the short duration I was using.

I'm very grateful to all that helped me through this process, especially musicman who's advice I used to go cold turkey instead of tapering which in retrospect seems like it was the right decision.
 
So I made a pretty stupid mistake a few months ago and started taking oxycodone recreationally. It's actually oxycontin, but since it's being crushed, it's just oxycodone.

Now I've been "reasonably" careful in the amount I allowed myself to use. I'm up to between 50-60mg per day, which I realize isn't a huge amount. I really want to stop and have set my mind to it. I can easily live without the high, so I don't think there's much of a psychological component. It's just the physical withdrawal symptoms. Now here's the problem...

I have a demanding job and am what most people would consider successful. I also go to school part time for a second degree. Obviously this is a demanding schedule, and I really don't have the ability to take any time off other than weekenRAB.

Does anyone have any tips for getting off this drug? Tapering seems to prolong the pain of withdrawal, but I guess it's the right way to go. Is it worth seeing my doctor about? Would they ever prescribe suboxone or methadone for someone taking this kind of dose? I realize it's not a massive dose, and maybe I'm being a baby, but any tips would be appreciated. Or similar situations/stories.

Thanks,

Jeff
 
JeRABter...I have to be honest with you, you need to do what ever you have to do to get off of Oxy. My 29 year old Nephew struggled with Oxy for years and a on 9/2/10 he was found dead of an accidental OD one week out of rehab. Once you start abusing this drug and doing recreationally it gets progressivly worse, it cause psychological problems and take over your life where you wind up doing what ever you have to do to get the next dose. My Nephew Anthony has been in rehab several times for this, the last time was for a month but I guess he thought he could take what he usually took and it was to much after detoxing.... His brother has the same addiction and is on methadone and is now weaning off that, it's just a visious cycle. I say take a leave of absence from your job, put school on hold and check your self in anywhere you can for the minium 90 days. Please take this seriously, it has devestated my family we felt helpless when he was addicted and now guilty that we should of done more now that he is dead. ...also google Oxy and addiction, you cannot believe how bad it is to be on any Opiate. Good luck and take care...
 
Thanks guys, I'll probably continue to post status updates through tomorrow and possibly Monday if nothing else to keep myself busy. I went for a walk because I was so restless which felt OK but I started feeling pretty sick so I came back home and back on the couch. Still eating and drinking lot's of vitamin water / gatorade / water. I've heard to avoid caffeine, but if I miss my daily coffee it gives me a MASSIVE headache, so I had one coffee today. It didn't seem to make it worse. I'm now approaching the 24 hour mark and honestly I don't think I feel any worse now than I did at my last post. I'm feeling like I may actually get some sleep tonight but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Thanks for the replies guys. So far I'm glad I took Musicman's advice on cold-turkey rather than tapering. Get it over with. I honestly feel that without the restlessness it'd be totally tolerable. Such a weird feeling. I've had small bouts of restless leg or something, but this is like restless leg in my legs arms and whole body x100.
 
Definitely cold turkey. I am going cold turkey next week after my relapse. I jsut am waiting to start vacation. I did cold turkey last week but i cant call in sick to work so I decided to go back on the percs until I am off on vacation. I was on day 4 last week and starting to feel better but my job is travelling and it wasnt safe to do that while flying all over the country.

I am at 50-80 mgs mostly on during 10 years. I never have taken more and never have built a tolerance, but I hate taking narcotics. It is no longer fun. I get massive anxiety from them.

Be careful with the benzos. Even though you said you didnt have a problem it is still a bad class of drugs and should be used sparingly.
 
Oh musicman, also about your dehydration, I'm sure you've already tried the following, but in case there are any new ideas, they might help you. These experiences come from one time years ago where I contracted e.coli. I didn't know what it was and it was 2 days before I finally went to the emergency room (and another week and a half in the ER of utter hell). During the time before I went into the ER, I was vomiting or dry heaving every 3-5 minutes without a break. I also had the runs very badly. One of those "sitting on the toilet while holding a bucket" moments. Both of these things obviously are a recipe for severe dehydration which I knew was a possibility.

The great thing about water is that it passes through the stomach without being digested. This means that even keeping down water for a few minutes before vomiting will actually get you some needed water.

Try soups if you can eat at all. Jello is another great one as it's almost all water. Also ice cubes if you have nothing else. For me, there's something about the liquid being really cold that helps for some reason. Those giant freezies were a lifesaver.

For any extended period of time, water alone is probably not enough in that state. You need electrolytes. One thing I've always wanted to try is making gatorade popsicles or cubes.
 
Not true. I was on suboxone for 5 months and I am still able to fill my percocets without issues whatsoever.
 
You are doing well Jeff. 72 hours is the turning point and it slowly gets better. I was actually feeling a bit better last week, but as I said, I have had 10 days of a lot of work to do and it wasn't safe for me to continue the detox while travelling the country.

The restlesness is the worst. That is why I take as many hot baths as I can stand. I will be so glad to get this over with. I juts have to make it through 5 days and then I do ok. Even though I have the arabien and the xanax, they really do nothing.
 
Jeff, Take immodium. It will help and it does not effect your withdrawal. I would rather you take the immodium than take the opiate to get you through!! Immodium has always helped the bathroom situation for me.
 
Im sorry but the comment about being red flagged and not being able to get pain medications because of being on suboxone..... does nt it seem pretty fair to say that modt of us people who are on methadone or suboxone probably are on it because we DONT WANT them??? i have been on methadone for almost a year and i MAKE SURE that i TELL MY DOCTORS (any) doctors that i am on the methadone program and that i DONT want ANY opiate based medications , or anything close to it!!! !Just seems like common sense to be!! not to be ruse or anything, but have you been reading ANY of this??
 
okay so reasoning for your day 1 walk in the park... simply because you probably still have enough of the oxy in your system to keep you feeling not too bad... as the days go and so do the oxys, the worse the withdrawls will be..... understand? as the oxys go out of your system you will feel worse.. yes 72 hours is the timeline of it getting out of your system but ... being someone that was also addicted to the oxys, and have gone through it time and time again i will give you MY advice and you can chose what you would like to do with it....... IF... you can do it "cold turkey" all the power to you , but i dont know anything about your situation : like how many mgs you have been using or how long you have been addicted to them.. i will give you my experience... Last october i found myself in a complete disaster and landed myself in jail ( lets just say because of the oxys) i ended up being in jail for 31 days before i got out on bail... i did my last 40 , 20 minutes before i got arrested.. so my night in the holding cell wasnt soo bad, the next day i spent the day in court and was transported to the jail.. by the time i got there i was feeling the withdrawls a little more. i went to sleep for the night and by morning i was a mess.. i dont need to explain the withdrawls because you already know what they are .. the jail gave me a cocktail to help with the withdrawls (immodium, gravol, and something else to help with the restlessness .. i cant remeraber what it was called) they gave that to me for 14 days, by then .. it was over.... HOWEVER it was only the PHYSICAL part of it that was over..i still thought about it all day every day... by the time i got out (31 days later) i wasnt thinkin about it as much and i promised myself i WAS NOT GOING TO DO IT.... at day 45 . i ran into an old friend... they offered.... i took... put myself right back into the hell i had finally just gotten myself out of ( i should tell yu that before my arrest i was taking anything from 5 to 6 80s a day or more.. whatever i could get.... so i tried going to N.A. , addictions outreach, whatever addictions services i could find and even though i was able to tapper myself back i couldnt get past the last 20 mgs or so. even though i hated what i was doing i just couldnt stop.... SO , i ended up going on to Methadone, i take 85 mgs a day and have been off of the oxys since march. i finally feel NORMAL again!! so, MY ADVICE TO YOU IS, think of your situation.. how addicted are you? if you DO quit cold turkey do you think that you have the self control to keep yourself from going back? Because there is alot more to an addiction than actually doing a drug! And i know what some people probably think about Methadone, its just a substitute for another drug, but from someone who is on it , would you rather be jamming pills up your nose or however you take them , trying to come up with money or ways to get another pill a couple times a day, trying to find someone to get them from etc (whatever your situation is) why not atleast take a trip to a clinic and talk to a DOCTOR who KNOWS more about it than any of us do, ( trust me it will be worth it) even if you decide not to go onto the methadone or suboxone they might be able to offer you more supports to help you through it !! You asked in one of your posts if you can even go on methadone at such a low mg intake and someone replied that you have to have it in your system to be accepted onto the program, not true, the will give you a urine test , yes and even though you might not have any in your system at the time if you could.. would you?Plus you will also have to do blood work before going on the program. Im sure that when you talk to the doctor and explain your situation , they would be more than willing to help. the difference in your situation with such a low intake is that methadone might not be right for you because it is intended for people who take more and have a harder time getting off them (like me) so Suboxone might be the right choice for you ... they would simply put you onto the suboxone and taper you off of it. Im not trying to tell you what to do, im simply trying to give you insight and options ,so please dont mistake that.like i said it is up to you what you decide to do with this.. Somehow this ended up being more like a novel (sorry) i hope it helped !
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Thanks for the appreciation Jeff. Just be there for me when I go cold turkey which is either going to be Sunday or Monday at the latest.
 
Thanks for the support. I may try cold turkey tomorrow, but if it's too brutal I may continue to taper which seems to be working pretty well.

As for the benzo addiction stuff, in research I've done it appears (and a lot of doctors will back this up) that the addiction statistics for benzos are misleading. The reason is that benzos are almost always prescribed for detox from other drugs and especially alcohol. Alcoholics especially, and people with very addictive personalities are obviously more likely to become addicted to benzos. Seeing as that is one of their primary uses, it potentially skews the nurabers a little and makes them seem more dangerous than they actually are from an addiction standpoint.

Either way, it's good advice, and again I only take 1-3 mg per day for this WD. I had been off them for a few months prior due to not wanting to take benzos and oxy together.
 
Well day 2, it's been 42 hours or so since my last dose. Today is much worse than yesterday. I couldn't sleep last night due to the restlessness, but managed to get a very uncomfortable nap in the middle of the day today. All my symptoms have kicked into overdrive. Bad diarrhea now (Which I heard was the first to come and first to go, so I'm a little surprised by this). More nausea than yesterday and the restlessness although a little better right now, was absolutely torturous last night and this morning.

I don't have a thermometer but it definitely feels like I'm running a fever. Nose and eyes are running constantly and I am absolutely exhausted to the point that getting up to use the bathroom is a chore of great magnitude.

I'm scared because I have work tomorrow and I don't think I'd be able to go in in the state I'm in right now. I'm very much hoping it improves, or else I will need to take a dose tomorrow morning before work. I really really really don't want to do this, but I cannot miss work tomorrow. Blah. Here's to hoping I feel better in the next 12 hours.

I've read a lot of places that said the first and second day were the worst, but my first day was a walk in the park compared to my second day.
 
Quick update as I'm getting no responses :(

I'm taking 30mg per day now by taking approx 5mg every 3-4 hours. My reasoning is that 5mg doesn't give me any type of "high" at all, it just makes me feel less sick. I think this is important. I feel crappy but it's tolerable. Since I'm crushing oxycontin it's REALLY difficult to get exact dosages, but my plan is to extend the time between doses to 5 hours, 6 etc. Today is better than yesterday so I'm hopeful that I can reduce my daily dose by 5mg every couple of days. Since the weekend is coming up, I may try to reduce by 10mg or so and just suffer through the weekend, then stay semi-stable through the week next week and try to cold turkey on a Friday.

I've had moments where I've seriously considered asking a Doctor for help. I'm not THAT erabarrassed so it's not that holding me back, but I don't want to ask for anything like suboxone or methadone unless I absolutely have to.

Due to anxiety, I have a bottomless prescription for ativan which I'm using to sleep (I still wake up in the middle of the night really restless to take a dose).
 
Hi JeRABter and musicman. I spent several hours last night reading the forum on u guys and this topic. I just now registered and signed up to be able to post. I am wanting to know how it turned out and if you are both doing well and who is still on or did you make it off? I am dealing with huge problems and will say more later. I just wanted to see if you both were going to update your progress. Sorry if you have on another topic area. I am new so I am reading up.

Thanks much. I am happy to find this forum.
 
Thanks, maybe I'll try the immodium. As for the previous poster's recommendation of aspirin PM with the muscle relaxant. Robax has the same thing, which I had considered trying, but in my daze (really really hazy, and the ativan probably doesn't help that) I've been a bit concerned about mixing medications and keeping track of when I've administered them.

I may try the robax or aspirin PM for the muscle relaxant if the restlessness continues into the night tonight though.
 
So to keep myself busy I've decided to post some updates as I go along this process.

I was tapering down and was at about 30mg per day, 5mg every 4 hours or so. I quit cold turkey last night (Friday) at midnight. That was my last 5mg dose. I figured that would let me get at least a partial night's sleep before the horrible WD's. At least that was my reasoning.

It's now 7pm, so it's been about 19 hours. I've been taking ativan for the anxiety and restlessness which seems to be my worst symptom. I feel pretty exhausted and miserable (flu-like), have some diarrhea but nothing major. The biggest thing is the restlessness. God it's really really really annoying. Based on what I've read it's only going to get worse although I'm hopeful that due to my short duration of medication as well as the relatively small dose I was taking, mine won't be as bad or last as long. I'm also going from freezing to BOILING hot every few minutes which is really annoying. Not much nausea and I've been able to eat. I'm also taking ibuprofen for the aches.

To be honest, I'm pretty surprised how relatively good I feel. This is not to say I feel good by any stretch of the imagination, but I expected it to be much worse. Maybe I just haven't got to the worst of it yet? I certainly hope I'm in decent shape by Monday as I absolutely have to go to work even if it means taking more drugs which I REALLY don't want to do. If I had to go to work feeling like I do right now, I could probably manage it but it would not be pretty.

Anyone have any stories they can share about their withdrawal as it relates to these symptoms or provide any input on mine? Do you think I'm even close to the hump yet? Should I expect it to get much worse before it gets better? At what point during your cold turkey WD did you get to "the worst"?

Thanks!
 
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