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Addiction: Substance Abuse Community
This community is a place to share information and support with others who are trying to stop using drugs, prescription drugs, alcohol, tobacco or other addictive substances. Discuss with others, the symptoms of addiction, addiction recovery, ways to quit like tapering and cold turkey, and withdrawal symptoms. If you are interested in general "chat", please visit our Addiction Social Community.
Addiction to oxy.
by lilyan, Dec 05, 2002 12:00AM
Yes I am 24 years old with a college education and I teach Middle school. However Me an my soon to be husband are addidict to oxy. HE has to have them because he has serious chronic back problems and gets them from the doctor a very respectted doctor. However we like them alot. I cannot go on when I have one I am on top of the world but if I don't everthing is useless. I know I am better than this. The problem is some people run out of funds and caanot go on . This is not our problem we have tons of money an access to money. I would say if we do not have any from his perscripition we spend about 1500.00 per week on this. I need help now! Right now I feel Like just giving up. I would like to go get help but my family would die. I am about to the point were I dont care. Plaese contact me and let me know what I can do.
I was also addicted to oxys. At my peak, I was using about 200mg a day (snorting it all up my nose). I had a script as well but would blow through it in about 10-14 days and then buy the rest of the street. I was spending about $2k a month. The last couple of months that I used I was so sick of the pills. I honestly didn't use them any more to get high. I just used them to get by. I took my last opiate 25 days ago. I am FINALLY starting to really feel good. It has been a long, hard battle but now that the withdrawal symptoms are almost gone, I feel so good. It is so worth it.
I also had severe back pain. It definitely has returned since I quit using. However, I am doing a lot of stretching and exercises to help out my back. Each day it is getting better. The pain that I have is bad but not unbearable. I can function. Most of all, I am clean.
Please provide more details about how much you are both using and how you take the pills. If you are snorting them (like I was), your first step should be to start swallowing them. You'll use a lot less and you can begin to stabilize your use.
You will get a lot of support and help here. Congratulations on finding this site. It means you are looking to quit. That is the first step.
Best Regards.
Heed the words of 1day - those words have helped strengthen me for the last month.
There is tremendous power in coming out of the closet so to speak about your addiction, to someone at least. (By now you must be feeling some relief to know that you are not alone. In fact, I would say this is a problem that is a silent epidemic. We pick up up to 5 new posters here everyday. You have arrived at a place that will help you get you life back.)
Cindy McCain, the wife of the senator was hooked on pain pills as well as Matthew Perry from Friends, so don't think you can't go public.
However, read some of the posts here and you'll find a wealth of info.
As an example, many is us here comitted to a 2003 sobriety challenge, where we all started tapering our doses on Dec 1 with Jan 1 as the ZERO date. You are welocme to join us and you will find lots of info here to help you.
Good luck
Rex
I am living proof that you can get clean and stay clean, even with strong pain. I got clean thanks to this site over a year and a half ago, from a 30 a day vicoprofen habit. I don't know what the equivalent in oxy is, but I used to take somewhere between 200 and 300 mg of hydrocodone a day. I stopped cold turkey using the recipe I found on here, by Thomas. It was very, very hard. Sheer hell for 4 days then I felt better, just had lethargy for a few more weeks. From what I have heard, you feel withdrawal symptoms for longer when coming off oxy. I don't know why that is, especially if the oxy's are crushed and no longer time released. Does anyone know anything about why that is?
Anyway, welcome, and feel free to join in the clean challenge some folks are doing together. There is power in numbers! I am incredibly grateful to be clean and could not have done it without this site.
I do still have pain, but the pain the addiction caused the rest of my life was waaaaaaaaay worse than than the back pain I endure. I may be getting fusion surgery soon, but that is something I've not said yes to yet. Stretching and excercise help a lot. There are very very occasional times where I ask my husband to give me one pill if my pain gets very bad, but over a year of complete clean time went by before my back got so bad that I truly had no choice. That may never be a good option for you if your husband is also an addict. I just never trust myself with pain pills.
Congratulations on wanting to get clean. That is the first step. It is hard, but if you want it with every fiber of your being, you can and will do it.
Getting clean is easier than staying clean, so once you get there, make sure you have a strong support system to make sure that you have the help you need to battle the cravings.
Also, you don't have to cold turkey it, if you have the discipline to taper, go for it. I couldn't taper. If I took one pill as part of a taper, five minutes later I'd say the hell with it and take ten. lol I was really bad. You can also look into buprenorphine as a way to get off the oxy. Or methadone even.
good luck,
WW
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Thomas Detox Recipe
PLEASE NOTE: I am not a doctor, simply a long-time Rx opiate junkie who has had many opportunities to develop a way to detox. This is a recipe for at-home self-detox from opiates based on my experience as well as that of many other addicts. It is not intended as professional medical advice. It is always wise to make sure none of the recipe ingredients or procedures conflict with medications you may be taking. Likewise, if you have any medical condition, disease, allergy or any other health issue, consult your doctor before using the recipe. Thanks, Thomas
This recipe is designed for cold turkey opiate detox. It assumes that you can get about 5 to 7 days away from your job or household responsibilities during which you can sleep, veg and act as miserable as you feel. Opiate WD mimics the symptoms of the common flu, so, if you need a smokescreen, hide behind a bad case of the flu.
If you can't take time off to detox, I recommend you follow a taper regimen using your drug of choice or suitable alternate -- the slower the taper, the better.
For the Recipe, You'll need:
1. Valium (or another benzodiazepine such as Klonopin, Librium, Ativan or Xanax). Of these, Valium and Klonopin are best suited for tapering since they come in tablet form. Librium is also an excellent detox benzo, but comes in capsules, making it hard to taper the dose. Ativan or Xanax should only be used if you can't get one of the others.
2. Imodium (over the counter, any drug or grocery store).
3. L-Tyrosine (500 mg caps) from the health food store.
4. Strong wide-spectrum mineral supplement with at least 100% RDA of Zinc, Phosphorus, Copper and Magnesium.
5. Vitamin B6 caps.
6. Access to hot baths or a Jacuzzi (or hot showers if that's all that's available).
How to use the recipe:
Begin your detox with regular doses of Valium (or alternate benzo). Start with a dose high enough to produce sleep. Before you use any benzo, make sure you're aware of how often it can be safely taken. Different benzos have different dosing schedules. Taper your Valium dosage down after each day. The goal is to get through day 4, after which the worst WD symptoms will subside. You shouldn't need the Valium after day 4 or 5.
During detox, hit the hot bath or Jacuzzi as often as you need to for muscle aches. Don't underestimate the effectiveness of hot soaks. Spend the entire time, if necessary, in a hot bath. This simple method will alleviate what is for many the worst opiate WD symptom.
Use the Imodium aggressively to stop the runs. Take as much as you need, as often as you need it. Don't take it, however, if you don't need it.
At the end of the fourth day, you should be waking up from the Valium and experiencing the beginnings of the opiate WD malaise. Upon rising (empty stomach), take the L-Tyrosine. Try 2000 mgs, and scale up or down, depending on how you feel. You can take up to 4,000 mgs. Take the L-Tyrosine with B6 to help absorption. Wait about one hour before eating breakfast. The L-Tyrosine will give you a surge of physical and mental energy that will help counteract the malaise. You may continue to take it each morning for as long as it helps. If you find it gives you the "coffee jitters," consider lowering the dosage or discontinuing it altogether. Occasionally, L-Tyrosine can cause the runs. Unlike the runs from opiate WD, however, this effect of L-Tyrosine is mild and normally does not return after the first hour. Lowering the dosage may help.
With breakfast, take the mineral supplement.
As soon as you can force yourself to, get some mild exercise such as walking, cycling, swimming, etc. This will be hard at first, but will make you feel considerably better.
PLEASE NOTE: If you have any medical complications, first check with your doctor before detoxing to verify that this regimen is safe for you.
You're doing great. No one here has to join my plan, any plan is great as long as one exists.
Rex
This site is incredible. I am very grateful I found it. The people here literally saved my life. I found the strength to quit by reading posts here.
You are doing an outstanding job of carrying the torch! You bring hope to those in need. Keep up the fight. Even if you don't feel good today, you WILL feel better soon--that is a certainty. I went up and down the first 3 weeks. As soon as I thought I was in the clear, bam! the next day I would feel like ****. Mentally, it has been the same rollercoaster. I feel positive one day and then dark depression the next. Now, physically I feel really good. The episodes are becoming fewer and farther between. Despite the pain and anguish, there is something so satisfying about being clean. Living in reality, whether that reality is good or bad, is so much better than living in a perpetual fog.
Congrats on setting a schedule and living by it. If you have the will to do that, there is NOTHING you can't accomplish. I, myself, was too weak to taper. I had to quit cold turkey. I was lucky because I had help in a detox center. I deeply respect the fact that you are doing what you are doing on your own.
Best wishes.