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How Long Untill You Are Normal?
by G'Kar, Sep 25, 2001 12:00AM
I have a question for those who have been there before. It has been 10 days since I have taken anything. Stopped cold, with no supplements. I was taking approximately 350 mg of Codeine a day for almost a year. Smaller amounts before that for about 3 years.
When could I expect to feel normal again? The really bad part is 90% gone, but I feel depressed and tired and very very unmotivated!!
The most important thing is accomplished. AND WILL STAY ACCOMPLISHED!! Now I just want my life back. A lot of people have made references to it, but if anyone can share with me (and everyone else) how many days, in real numbers, until you felt totally normal?
Thank you all for your help.
G’Kar
When could I expect to feel normal again? The really bad part is 90% gone, but I feel depressed and tired and very very unmotivated!!
The most important thing is accomplished. AND WILL STAY ACCOMPLISHED!! Now I just want my life back. A lot of people have made references to it, but if anyone can share with me (and everyone else) how many days, in real numbers, until you felt totally normal?
Thank you all for your help.
G’Kar
It took me a full 3 weeks after my withdrawal week was over to feel completely normal again, so it does take a while. The fatigue and lethargy are the worst!
Congratulations on stopping. Celebrate having your life back and being free from the slavery to those pills! Yeeeeehaw!
I'm doing fine today...back pain is back to its normal state, no craving for the meds at this point. ::phew
I'm about to leave for a week away, so won't be able to check the forum for a while. My love to all of you. Take care of yourselfs and I'll see you soon.
love,
WW
As for me, it took probably 90 days before I started to come out of the depression and lack of motivation. I was told that it takes that long for all the toxins to leave the body. A lot of exercise is recommended during this time if you can manage it.
Keep in mind that we are all different so the amount of time is a moot point here. The main thing to worry about is relapse prevention. Relapses can sneak up on you at any time and are so hard to fight. A good support group goes a long way in helping you out with relapse prevention.
Good luck to you! It sounds like you are on the right track. J.B.
the human body is incredible, and will get things back to 'normal' if you let it.
you are fabulous, Witchy woman. i remember a year ago your posts were quite different. i'm really glad to hear you are feeling well. cat
Supplies you'll need first:
As many Valium, Xanax, Librium or Klonopin that you can get your hands on.
--- first day off the lorcet, use enough Valium or whatever, to, if possible, sleep through most of the first couple days. Then start decreasing the dose until you're down to nothing in about 5 or 6 days. You'll have to do the math. The Valium or one of its sister drugs will help tremendously with the anxiety and, somewhat, with the body aches.
Around-the-clock access to either hot baths or a Jacuzzi.
--speaking of those goddamn mostly thigh cramps that seem to love to show up in the middle of the night, have that hot bath or Jacuzzi at the ready. Don't hesitate to spend the majority of the week in that hot water if it's what it takes to get you through it. You may be wrinkled, but you'll have your sanity. Don't underestimate what the hot baths can do to relieve the withdrawal discomfort. They really work. Heating pads between the thighs can help with those cramps, too, but not as much as the hot baths.
Brand-name-only Imodium (over the counter at the supermarket)
-- if you're a normal hydro addict, you'll be getting the runs by no later than the second or third day off the lorcet. In my experience, it's an especially unpleasant variety. At the first impulse, take two or three and respond to returning urges with two tabs. It's important that you do it immediately.
L-Tyrosine (qty 50 of the 500mg caps) - an amino acid available at the health food store.
-- thanks spook for this info: chronic use of narcotics depletes the brain of several critical neurotransmitters responsible for well-being and mental performance and attitude.
Plus:
Bottle of 100 mg B6 caps
-- Spook says every other day, but my experience detoxing with this stuff says take 4000 (four thousand) mg. (8x500mg caps of L-Tyrosine) with two 100mg B6 caps every day for your "detox week" to provide your brain with the raw material it needs to replenish its stores of these neurotransmitters. Many feel the difference on the very first dose. ***Take it on an empty stomach, either first thing in the morning or at bed time. You can continue this regimen after the first week if it continues to make you feel good. I continue to use it every other day with very few exceptions.
Multi-vitamins (most junkies don't eat too well, so this one's just for good sense)
Anyway, if you want to do it yourself and have a chance of being free of all narcotics instead of getting hooked on methadone, one of the hardest to get off of, by the way, you might try my formula. (It's "battle-tested" and works!)
2ND. one,
you will not come right until you replace all the zinc/mag you have leached out of your body over the past few years - this is what 'hanging out' really is - it's your body craving zinc/mag (zinc stops cravings/magnesium stops depression). If you don't do this it will take up to 2 years to return to normal as the only other source your body has for zinc/mag is food and then it is in such tiny amounts it takes years to build up again. If you get a blood test done you will find your levels of both are way down on what they should be.
A typical tablet contains somthing like this:
Zinc amino acid chelate 75mg
Magnesium amino acis chelate 37.5mg
Vitamin B6 10mg
Manganese amino acid chelate 10mg
Viatmin A (1000I.U.) 300mcg
Grading your habit on a scale of 1-10 (1 being occasional use and 10 being long term methadone at 100 plus mg's a day) you should take the following amount for a period of one month then slowly reduce to a daily amount of 2-3 per day.
Habit scale/size - Number of tablets per day for a month
10 10
9 9
8 8
7 7
6 6
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 3
1 2
0 2
You will notice that I recommend you never go below 2 per day. This is because zinc/mag depletion was your original problem so you should give yourself an ongoing supplement to make sure it does not happen again. I now take 2-3 per day to maintain my health. I have had no failures with this treatment (everyone OK after less than a month) and have treated addictions (including my own) as varied as methadone and cigarettes. The cigarrete smoker reduced from 2 packs per day to just 5 cigarettes per day in a week without any discomfort. If you suffer any kind of 'hang out' just increase the zinc/mag dosage and give it a liitle longer to take effect (a week or so). Don't beleive all the bullshit about drug addiction you have heard - it's all **** - this is the real deal. The drugs themselves are not actually addictive but they do leach all the zinc/mag out of your body by increasing the metabolism of them creating a shortage that gets worse the longer you use unless you replace them while you are using in which case you don't hang out when you stop - you just come straight - this is true beleive me I have tried it as have a few other people I know and none of us sufferred any hang out when we stopped.
Comment By: Wizard to Doc, P.S. on Thursday, August 09, 2001
Doc, here is a more recent version with a web site at the bottom that Thomas recomends. Again the credit is his for the research.
Good Luck, Wiz
Thomas'recipe:
Here's my re-print for the inth time of my cold turkey recipe for coping with narco withdrawal. You may benefit from just getting some brand name Immodium and stopping the runs. The runs leads to dehydration very quickly, which could be conributing to your general malaise. Check out the L-Tyrosine and B6, too. That stuff works on non-junkies as well! Good luck.
Thomas
Here's my tried-and-true do-it-yourself "cold turkey" detox protocol.
Supplies you'll need first:
As many Valium, Xanax, Librium or Klonopin as you can get your hands on.
--- first day off the opiate, use enough Valium or whatever, to, if possible, sleep through most of the first couple days. Then start decreasing the dose until you're down to nothing in about 5 or 6 days. You'll have to do the math. The Valium or one of its sister drugs will help tremendously with the anxiety and, somewhat, with the body aches. Valium may make you eat like a pig and, when withdrawing from narcotics, one usually craves sweets, so I'd be ready to indulge myself, along with some good escapist movies. That always worked for me.
Around-the-clock access to either hot baths or a Jacuzzi.
--speaking of those goddamn mostly thigh cramps that seem to love to show up in the middle of the night, have that hot bath or Jacuzzi at the ready. Don't hesitate to spend the majority of the week in that hot water if that's what it takes to get you through it. You may be wrinkled, but you'll have your sanity. Don't underestimate what the hot baths can do to relieve the withdrawal discomfort. They really work. Heating pads between the thighs can help with those cramps, too, but not as much as the hot baths.
Brand-name-only Imodium (over the counter at the supermarket)
-- if you're a normal hydro addict, you'll be getting the runs by no later than the second or third day off the lorcet. In my experience, it's an especially unpleasant variety. At the first impulse, take two or three and respond to returning urges with two tabs. It's important that you do it immediately.
L-Tyrosine (qty 50 of the 500mg caps) - an amino acid available at the health food store.
chronic use of narcotics depletes the brain of several critical neurotransmitters responsible for well-being and mental performance and attitude.
Plus:
Bottle of 100 mg B6 caps
My experience detoxing with this stuff says take 4000 (four thousand) mg. (8x500mg caps of L-Tyrosine) with two 100mg B6 caps every day for your "detox week" to provide your brain with the raw material it needs to replenish its stores of these neurotransmitters. Many feel the difference on the very first dose. ***Take it on an empty stomach, either first thing in the morning or at bedtime. You can continue this regimen after the first week if it continues to make you feel good. I continue to use it every other day with very few exceptions. After a few weeks, I cut down on the dosage, though, as it can cause the runs at high doses.
Multi-vitamins (most junkies don't eat too well, so this one's just for good sense).
Take a look at this link. According to this doc, you also need to add copper, phosphorus and Vitamin C to complete the dopamine, norepinephrine. You might have to do some hunting at the health food store to find the right vitamin or vitamins to supply all this stuff. I got a pretty good result from just the L-Tyrosine and B6, however.
I also understand from another contributor that zinc and magnesium help replenish and restore vital substances depleted by narcotics use.
Here's a link dedicated to L-Tyrosine ...
http://www.mindfixers.com/pathway1.html
WARNING: This same site says to avoid L-Tyrosine if you're on an SSRI (serotonin reuptake inhibitor