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LARCETS AND WEED?
by GLOCK, May 28, 2001 12:00AM
Hi all i was wondering if you can help me .
I'm a 37 year old male i do realy well in life i have a good family and love life but i've been doing drugs for 24 years and like weed i realy don't like any other drugs any more .
I started doing larcets aroung a year ago on and off and i find lately if i don't have thim i feel like i'm turning inside out!
I use to smoke weed 5 to 10 time aday but if i smoke now i feel like i do when i'm not doing larcets.
I know i need help but i can't go to rehab i have a family that loves me and i love them i just want to feel better can any one tell me how long i have to not sleep,eat or feel good before it go's away?
Any info would be cool.
Any sites on LARCET addiction would be a great help.
I'm a 37 year old male i do realy well in life i have a good family and love life but i've been doing drugs for 24 years and like weed i realy don't like any other drugs any more .
I started doing larcets aroung a year ago on and off and i find lately if i don't have thim i feel like i'm turning inside out!
I use to smoke weed 5 to 10 time aday but if i smoke now i feel like i do when i'm not doing larcets.
I know i need help but i can't go to rehab i have a family that loves me and i love them i just want to feel better can any one tell me how long i have to not sleep,eat or feel good before it go's away?
Any info would be cool.
Any sites on LARCET addiction would be a great help.
Thomas has excellent advice on cutting back/eliminating the Lorcets. I recently went through a prescription of Lorcets myself and was terrified I'd have withdrawals, but I had none at all! I was lucky, I guess, though I was using a small amount for a short time. You'll find some great advice & wisdom on this forum, and I wish you well.
Milo
I remember doing every dam drug there was growing up and never had a problem like i have now.
I've been stoned for 24 years and dam scared how i feel these days. I allways said i see nothing wrong with drug use as long as ya can hold your life in check.
Like i said i'm well off and when i try to qwite the **** i go 3 to 4 day's and i feel better and then i have a bad day and am all up tight i'm off on the chase with all the money i need.
The only drugs i do these days are lorcets and kind bud.
So why do i feel so bad??
I've done coke/pills{ups&downs}/acid/every dam thing and never felt like this i sure hope someone can help me i know it's time to qwite but it's scarie.
Any way if any one here want's to talk and help me my ICQ number is 110564321.
I'm sure glad there's a post like this.
peace!
But if you can go 4 to 5 days without being hit by true narcotic withdrawal from the lorcet, you'e in an excellent position to get on top of this problem. But you are going to have to do some rehab. At least outpatient rehab, because what's really driving you after those five days is the psychological need more than the physical. If you were really and truly addictd physically, you'd be after lorcets every single waking day or you'd be too sick to function.
personally, when I'm withdrawing from hydrocodone (lorcet), pot atually made me feel worse. It seemed to increase the muscle aches and anxiety. If you smoke while you're doing the locets, it's just a waste of some good painkilllers. If you smoke while you're withdrawing, you'll probably make the symptoms worse.
here's the recope cindi mentioned. I hope it's not too long for one post ...
Believe me, I know EXACTLY what you're going through. I admire your resolve to quit before you become someone like me. I've been addicted to prescription narcotics for more than thirty years. I lack the courage to even attempt to calculate what this lifelong obsession has cost me - not in dollars, but in all the ways it has limited my life experience. I call it a lifelong obsession because I cannot consider myself simply a pain patient who inevitably became addicted to the source of his pain relief. I love narcotics. Not like them. Love them. I have wasted a good deal of the time I have on this planet chasing drugs with the same ardor as a man pursuing the love of his life. Why? Thirty years later and I still haven't a clue.
The good news is that you've seen where this activity is leading you at an early stage. The last time I entered a rehab (at the court's "request"), I was taking seventy-five Vicodin per day, seven days per week.
Of course, that doesn't make what you're going through any more bearable. The nighttime body and especially thigh and ankle pains are textbook Vicodin withdrawal symptoms.
I know you're trying to get through this cold turkey, but, man, Vics are one of the most unpleasant "cold turkey experiences" going. Do you have, or can you get access to some benzodiazepines - drugs like Valium, Xanax, Librium, Klonopin? Without them, what can I say, it's going to be rough whatever you do. Perhaps you've got a friend or a relative with a few in the medicine cabinet - it doesn't sound like you've got a family doctor to turn to. Assuming you can get some Valium or one of the other benzos, plan for about 4 or 5 days on the stuff, starting the first couple days with enough to basically keep yourself "out of it," then gradually decreasing the benzos down to nothing.
Of course, there's the ever-popular runs! Get the brand-name Imodium and take two at a time at each hint of the runs. This symptom will pass after the first few days and is easily taken care of by the Imodium.
Whether or not you can get any benzos, the only thing that really helps the leg cramps are hot baths or Jacuzzis - as many as you can stand. I've found that Enteric aspirin can help the aches and pains, as well, but not to any dramatic extent.
Sometimes, if you can just get yourself to sleep to begin with, you can make it through the night. When I didn't have an rx for it, I found a double dose of benydryl helped put me out - it's also called sleep-eze and is over the counter. But don't expect miracles. It will either work or it won't. Don't increase the dose if it doesn't.
Now for the interesting stuff:
Go to the health food store and buy a bottle of 100 of the 500mg L-Tyrosine capsules along with a bottle of B6 capsules. Your Norco use has caused your brain to become depleted of several neurotransmitters responsible for your ability to function and feel good. Until these substances are restored, you'll feel like **** no matter what you do. They will come back by themselves, but it will take a long time. Taking the L-Tyrosine and B6 provides your brain with the raw materials it needs to rapidly create and replenish these vital brain substances. This is how you take it:
Take 4000mg (four-thousand - eight 500mg caps) plus 200 mgs of B6 on an empty stomach, either at bedtime or in the morning. I never have an empty stomach at bedtime, so I have always taken this formula in the morning. Get up early if you can, so you can take the dose at least two hours before you have to leave for work. (Don't eat any breakfast for at least one hour after taking the dose.) I say two hours because that much L-Tyrosine can go through your system and cause some mild runs, and you certainly don't want to be in your car when that happens. It's caused the runs in me about 20% of the time I've used L-Tyrosine. Also, the L-Tyrosine, among other things, stimulates the production of norepinephrin (SP?) a neurotransmitter responsible for mental energy, alertness and ambition. So don't drink any coffee with this stuff!
The good news is that many recovering narcotic addicts feel the difference after the first dose. You can suddenly think straight, your mood turns a bit more optimistic, and, in general, you start recovering your faculties, your energy, your enthusiasm and ambition for living life.
At your state, I'd recommend taking the L-Tyrosine and B6 EVERY morning for the first four days, then every other morning until you don't feel you need it anymore.
Beyond that, I'd highly recommend some kind of exercise, even if you feel like hell while you're doing it. It helps get rid of all that tension that builds while you're pacing the room wondering how you got yourself in this mess. Even just a swift walk will help.
That's what I know about handling the physical side of this problem. The hardest part to deal with, however, is that thing in your head that made you go on the Norco to begin with. I cannot recommend strongly enough that you seek out and attend some AA or NA meetings. I always get a lot of guff from certain of my friends on the forum for this, but I recommend AA over NA. Why? I can only go by my own experience and tell you that I found a lot more sobriety in AA and a lot more people working stronger programs than in NA. Besides, almost everyone I know in AA is also a pill addict, anyway, so it is not as inappropriate as it sounds. I'm sure there are some fine NA meetings, I just didn't find any. Granted, I was incarcerated in a residential program and my choice of NA meetings were all in hardcore neighborhoods. Many of these meetings turned into sessions spent listening to homeless heroin addicts begging the other attendees for money, a place to stay, anything. That is definitely not what we go to these meetings for. I say, just seek out the meetings (and a sponsor) that for whatever reason helps give you strength to go one more day without the Norco and go with that.
Just to keep myself honest here, I have been free of Norco or any opiate for about four months, so I still have a lot of challenges ahead of me. My biggest problem is that I liked the benzos so much I became addicted to them and now, every time I try to get off of them (or run out), I have a seizure. Nice, huh? But don't worry, if you use the benzos just to get off the Norco, you won't be running this risk.
Just remember: You've done nothing of which to feel ashamed. You're a normal, decent human being who succumbed to a weakness we all, as members of the human race, share…
Thomas
Anyway, here's cheers to everyone...keep fighting the good fight! God bless, Beth
You're also dead-on about the brand-name Imodium. The generic brands seem to produce cramps and other "Fun" side effects, while the brand-name Imodium just does its job. The advice to take two at a time is also wise & to be followed.
Irony: beore I ever started abusing Rx drugs, I missed a lot of work due to real, honest-to-goodness physical illness. I was taking Valium & Zoloft at the time but not abusing them. I was also taking Fioricet now & then, which I was abusing. But I wasn't staying home so I could stay high! I was too damn sick to go to work. So now I try like hell to make it to work no matter how bad I feel. I also avoid Fioricet on workdays.I'm still very resentful at the people who assumed I was absent due to drug use. I feel I've been condemned without appeal. Any thoughts on how to handle this? Milo
PS Thomas, I'm in the writing game, too.