These symptoms MUST be normal.  I am currently attempting to "detox at home" but i am suffering from leg & arm cramps at night.  Unlike your husbands, mine ARE painful & VERY uncomfortable.   I have been awake all night due to them and have been online for about 2 hours trying to find out what i can do to help the pain (besides using).  Your post was the only thing that i have seen so far that mentions anything about leg & arm discomfort.  Please if you find anything let me know.  I am desperate for sleep!!!

Tine2525

My beloved 46 year old nephew....who was like a son to me (he was not born under my heart but, in it).....died two weeks ago.  I knew he had a very, very bad back and I knew he was on far too many prescription drugs.  I talked with him, I begged him, I fussed at him...I sobbed to him as to how much I loved and needed him.  But, he was my nephew and I had no legal rights.  His father knew but, ignored it...maybe he thought the cost was too great to get him into a rehab.  He had graduated from college...with honor grades...could not find a job...smoked 2 packs a day....was overweight...dated, set a date to be married....found a job that could have led to better things.  

He had a heart episode in 2005 but, could not stop smoking.  I believe the combination of loritabs...3-5-8 #10's a day...plus antidepressant provided by his addict brother....medication for high blood pressure, etc. led him to excessive eating...real excessive eating.

Nothing I did could help him and now he is gone.  I would tell him that I did not know how I could go on without him, etc. and now he is gone.  I am angry...but at whom...too many people involved.  I know I did everything possible and he knew I loved him as a mother...he was "my son" and he signed "your son".  

I understand the physician gave him prescriptions...he got them from a woman who got them from the VA hospital and then sold them...creating a real cash problem for him and for the family.

I wish I had had the legal right to intervene....if anyone does, use it....the life you save might be your own.  I don't know if I can make it without my beloved son/nephew.

His Aunte Mame.

My husband started taking Loratabs for back pain a few months ago.  He has tried to keep it a secret but I have found the pills.  He started taking the 500's, then he went to the 750's and now he is taking the 10's.  He is taking about three 10's per day now.  He takes benedryl with them and I have found empty "stay awake" pill bottles also.  He is taking more than the doctor has prescribed and has gone to the dentist to get more pills when he has run out.  He only comes home to sleep now.  His whole personality has changed.  I am seriously considering divorce.  He does not think that he has a problem.  Do you think that I am making more out of this than it is?

My husband is coming off of loratabs. He has been clean for about 12 days but is having tremors in his legs, arms, & sometimes back when he tries to sleep at night. He says this is not painfull just very uncomfortable and only moving around helps this. Is this normal? How long will withdrawl symptoms last?
Thanks,
Tara

I dont know what it will take for him to stop the Loratabs. We have tried rehab and hes been in jail. Ive kicked him out. But the kids love him and its hard as heck without him. I love him but im about to give up. He seems to just get more and more dependant on them. He says he hates it and wants to quit but we dont have the money for rehab again. But if he really wants to quit why cant he stop.

If you suffer from addiction and you don't stop feeding it, one of three things will happen: 1) you will go to jail; 2) you will be put in an institution; or 3) you will die.

Not a nice ending, but it's better than the story that precedes it.  The scary part is what will happen to you (and anyone who happens to care about or depend on you) along the way to one of these three ends of addiction.

Along that way you will lose sight of who and what you are.  You will give up everything you once thought dear or important.  You will do things without a second thought that you would have once thought impossible.  
I know that by the time I started to *wonder* if I was GETTING into trouble with lortab I was already WAY over my head.  

That seems to be the case with most folks I know in Recovery -- we grossly UNDERestimate the degree of trouble we're in and we grossly OVERestimate our ability to do anything about it.

The only way I was able to avoid one of the three-ends (so far) was by getting as much help as possible (professional, support-group & family/friends) and stopping my efforts for a self-help Recovery.  I had to learn to treat my addiction as the relentlessly, progressive, fatal illness that it is.

If you treat it like that, and follow directions from professionals/folks with "Good Recovery," it's a suprisingly easy disease to handle - most have to work on Recovery virtually every day to keep it, but it's not that big a deal -- certainly take much less time than the geeting/using/lying/worrying of active addiction and the rewards are much greater too.

CATUF
Day-748

*(&^%*^%$ -- I just closed the wrong window and deleted a fairly long post to you by mistake..... I hate it when that happens!

I've got to run, but the high points were:

1.  My wife to a VERY hard line regarding my addiction - once she knew what was going on, I was out of the house until I was clean and I was only allowed back into the house as long as I stayed clean.  This was necessary for her and the kids (we have 4) - no one should have to live around the chaos of active addiction.  It's as mentally unhealthy for them as it is for the addict.  It was also very important for my recovery too -- I needed to know that there simply were no conditions under which my using would be tolerated... NONE

2.  Read the books: "End Your Addiction Now," by Charles Gant; "Seven Weeks to Sobriety," by Joan Larsen; and "The Mood Cure," by Julia Ross.  Also read "Staying Clean & Sober," by Miller & Miller; and "Staying Sober," by Gorski & Miller.

3.  Think about going to some Al-Anon meetings.  There will be MANY YEARS of experience at any meeting with dealing with the sort of issues you face right now.  You have to help yourself and the kids first.  That's your job right now.  Take care of that and turn him over to God (that's what my wife did)

4.  Most states and many counties have free or extremely low cost addiction treatment available.  Find out what's available in your area.  Sounds to me like if he doesn't get cleaned up soon he's going to be dead soon!  50 tabs in one day!  That is A LOT of acetaminophen --- most tabs have 500 mg acetaminophen, so that's 25,000 mg (or 25 g) of acetaminophen in one day --- he should be dead all ready.  

5.    You all really haven't tried rehab.  I'm pretty sure that the standard 28 days rehab isn't enough for anything but mild to moderate addiction problems, but I KNOW that 4 days ain't gonna do it.  I went for 28 days in late Dec '04, relapsed almost immediately when I got home in late Jan and was back in a 2nd rehab in early June,  '05.  That 2nd rehab was exactly 4 months.  I MIGHT have been OK to come home after 3 to 3.5 months, but I know for sure I needed every day of that first 90 days.  

I'll pray for all of you.

I'm doing pretty well.  Each day is a challenge, but I guess that reminds me that my blood is still pumping!  This sobriety thing is really a doozy!!  Hard work!! But, seems to be worth it.  Hope things are well out your way!
Tom

its not really me that is addicted to the Tabs . My husband is .He has been known to take 50 tabs a day. He went to rehab, only stayed 4 days. He has ovecome lots of other drug and alcohol addictions. But just cant drop The pills. It is breaking our family apart. We have to small children and the money is tight these days. Him spending all of our money is really killing us . Also he has mad withdrawls. Im worried about him. Hes started bleeding when he goes to the bathroom bothways. He cant get out of bed to go to work if he dosent have the Tabs. I dont know what to do. Help

How the heck are ya???  

from dad of 7 (fish)

More than likely, if it is like lorocet, you pain receptors will get so fried that it won't have much of the desired affect that you might be getting now.  That is what happened to me anyways.  Also, if there is Tylenol, which I think there is, in Loratab, if you are ingesting more than 4 gm's per day (4000 mgs), you can do serious damage to your liver.  I got to the point where I could take 25  325/10's a day and it wasn't even keeping me from going into withdrawal.  I checked into a treatment center and by the strength given to me by my Higher Power, I am on day 28 clean.  Look into possible treatment.  They will handle you right!  God Bless, Tom