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Have an important question about quiting Vicodin/Darvon
by Dale, Oct 26, 2000 12:00AM
I have been addicted to opiates such as Darvon and Vicodin for five years. I stopped taking them two weeks ago. I went through some very painful withdrawals. I feel much better now but I still have no energy and am restless at the same time. I am not able to work. I know that my body will eventually start producing the necessary endorphoins to give me energy again. Until then, I started taking Ritalin. It gives me energy while calming me. (It's the only way I can work) My question is: will taking the Ritalin retard my body from starting to produce its own endorphins to give me energy again. I am not planning to continue taking it. Only until I get my energy level back. I am sure I won't get addicted to them becasue I really don't like the way the way they make me feel. I just need some energy to go about my normal tasks. If they are going to affect my body starting to produce its own endorphins then I will stop taking them. I appreciate any info on this as I haven't found an answer any where else.
Thanks,
Thanks,
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The long weekend is upon you. You will either detox or find more pills, that's a given. Remember that your mind will play tricks on you and your body will ache and all you will want is relief from the monster. I wish I could wave a magic wand and make things better for you(and me too). Keep posting!
You're really fortunate in that. It's a benzo like Valium, but lasts much longer. I recommend taking a relatively high dose (sleep inducing) and then tapering down over several days (depending on how many you've got). But, hell, your brother did you a major solid with that one! Go get the Imodium (immodium). Take it at the store. Run a hot bath and take a good shot of the klonopin. Don't overdue it. You don't have a tolerance for Klonopin as you do with the percs. A high-normal dose, then see what happens. But those are the ABC's: a benzo, Imodium (immodium) and hot baths. Pick up some enteric aspirin, too. It must be enteric. Aspirin is a surprisingly good "ache and painer." You'd be surprised. So, Lynn, get to work and do your ABCs. We'll check back in a bit (after dinner), if you want to talk. If you're drug is perdcodan, it's not going to be easy, I won't lie to you. Anyway, go get the Imodium (immodium). A-B-C. see ya in a bit. (high to J.B., too)
Stopping is the easy part even though it hurts sooo bad. Staying stopped is the mental anguish we can go through for months and even years. It can be pure hell. Best wishes to you!
Tom,
It's a pleasure to hear from you again. Yes, I've tried Valerian Root and it seemed to work. But it did give me the runs! I've also tried melatonin which worked and no side effects. I'm taking Kava, Ginko Biloba and once in a while Ephedrine when I'm wiped out. As I understand it, ephedrine can be dangerous to some people. It's sold by the herbal store I go to so it must be legal. Someone told me that GHB used to be sold as well OTC but now it's a federal offense to possess it? With me it's always been "if it feels good, do it". Must be one of my few shortcomings,he,he!
However, for 'EVERYONE' to suggest that unless you're actively quitting, your voice should not be heard on this forum is exactly why most of us don't ask for help in the first place. Society shames us into silence every day. How many of us would hesitate to ask for help if we could do it without forfeiting our place in our family, career and community? There are also many among us with chronic pain issues. In fact, contrary to EVERYONE's belief, the vast majority of people I speak to here suffer daily pain that, in most cases, hasn't responded to non-narcotic therapy. We're afraid our own doctors are going to be like EVERYONE and simply cut us off from pain relief at the mention of addiction. My wife is disabled from arthritis and counts on my support for her very life. To go public in my case is to seriously compromise a career that keeps my wife and I from the street. I am actively looking for an addiction specialist I can go to who won't bill my insurance in such a way that my employer finds out I'm an addict. I can't risk having chemical dependency become part of my medical record. I want to get on methadone or buprenorphin to relieve both my physical pain from three bad disks as well as my opiate craving. I only hope that one of these drugs can actually deliver both. Without pain relief, I am disabled and unemployable.
Doc Dan told me that methadone, at one time, did both for him. I guess he either doesn't have the pain now or has actually found a way to cope without narcotics. Perhaps I can to, but in the meantime, I'm stuck and truly alone in my addiction without my friends on this forum. It sucks being alone. I hurt from that as much as I hurt from my cotton-picking back.
i don,t think u know what we are going through..i sure do.. 10 years of this f-ing ****. we have each other and i too look forward to the forum...joe..
TOM_____ I think we have the same years of living, your advice is invaluable and your capacity for helping is incredible.For that I thank you. There has been many nights of sitting here alone and hurting,and one way or another you make me smile-thank you!! Please don't feel the need to explain your soul to such insensitivity!!
It seems like there is always someone in someway that seems to feel so far above those of us that they feel are'nt quite a SERIOUS as we should be.You are entitled to YOUR feelings but that does not give you the right to judge ANYONE>
Find another site that will suit you. This is a site that shares and cares. Lynn,Neena--MY thoughts and prayers are with you and have been hang in there, it SUCKS but you WILL make it!!
Detox was four days followed by 21 days of out patient therapy/rehab. We went from 8am to 4pm and 4 hours on Saturday.
About every three days we had to give urine samples. The group could vote out anybody who they thought was a threat to the group's wellbeing, at anytime.
About half the people there were crack addicts(of the 18 in the group). We had two addicted nurses(opiates and cocaine) and a few more who were cross addicted to drugs and alcohol.
We had many lectures, videos and discussions. Plus the introduction to NA and AA.
They had a very strict confidentiality rule in that your employer could not be informed about your problem. My employer never found out even though he tried to.
Not everyone graduated, some couldn't handle the structured atmosphere, some came to class loaded and some simply got voted out due to poor attitude and lack of commitmant. I think 9 people made the 21 days out of the original 18 in the group.
My insurer was billed around $6500 for the whole program.
Does it work? It's hard to say but at that time there was a 70% relapse rate among graduates. It's up to the individual to go through aftercare programs and work some kind of program.
Hope this helps you. J.B.
J.B. thank you for spending the time sharing your experience...that may be a final resort for me.....I am glad to see you made it through it...
As an example, two years ago I graduated from a 21 day drug rehab center. We had a party and everyone was so proud of themselves. I was feeling sooo good that on my way home I stopped at the pharmacy and got a refill of 60 Lortab to celebrate! Pretty insane, huh? You would almost think that some of us are beyond rehabilitation. No, it just takes a lot of time and effort and doing whatever it takes to stay clean. Keep on trying and maybe things will eventually get better for you! Try to start plugging all the holes in your armor.
You can obtain hydrocodone without a prescription at The Pill Box
located in Texas (just search on your web for The Pill Box). This place sets you up a verbal interview over the phone and sends you 100 of two different drugs. You do have to use a credit card - no cash or check accepted.
It amazes me that you don't even have to see a doctor here. You just talk to one on the phone and tell him your symptoms. You can get the original prescription and two refills. I hope this tides you over until you can kick your addiction - I have been clean for 35 days and I feel great.
Charlie
Please Respond People I am here to help. Let me at least tell you details of a healthier way of life for you all. What have you all got to lose?
I care and want to share a healthier way of life-- again please respond before you become "endorphin challanged". I am sorry that I could not reread my post here to check for mistakes but my work is paging me! Doc Dan .....
Incidentally, I have a question for you. Why is it that the majority of people who drink alcohol don't become alcoholics? The same question again for opiates.
Charlie
Sincerely, Dan
However, you have to detox before you can try out-patient treatment. For myself, I detoxed at my home. I was taking anywhere from 30 -40 10mg. lortabs daily. Also, I was mixing oxycontin when I couldn't get any hydrocodone. Needless to say, detox was not very easy. For the first 3 days, I had chills, cramps, diahrrea, etc.etc. I knew if I could just get through the first few days I could make it; it's not easy though. I have been clean now for 37 days and I feel so, so much better. It's nice not to wake up in the morning and not be able to function until "the deal is done", and I have made my connection. Finances seem to improve overnight; every aspect of my life is just better! I wish you luck, which ever avenue you pursue to rid yourself of the drugs.
CHARLIE
If I were you, I would look for an NA or AA meeting and spill my guts. No one will laugh at you because we've all been there and done that. Plus it is free and you can leave anytime you want if you don't feel comfortable.
If you have been able to go seven days in the past without using, you are probably psycologically addicted as physical withdrawals last about four days.
If you go into a rehab program, they will usually point you towards NA and AA anyway.
Your husband is hurting your chances of recovery as you are co-dependant on one-another in addiction. I hope this makes sense to you. Please think about yourself and survival!
CHARLIE
Without drugs- To fell a sence of accomplishment. One might take up a hoby, or seek a rewarding career. With drugs you can just take a pill and sit back or do something small around the house. That is just one of many examples.
After you take them for a long time you loose the ability to become self-motivated. The only way you know to feel anything is to just take your pill of chioce. Thats why when you stop them you don't feel anything, you just want to lay around the house and not face up to anything. When quiting drugs it is a whole reshaping of how you conduct your life. You have to learn how to feel happy, concerned, interested, motivated feel love. Any emotion you can posibly think of has to be relearned, all over again or sometimes even learned for the first time. It is a hard battle but I can say this. When you achieve happyness on you own rather than with drugs it is a deeper feeling, a feeling of treu happyness not the fake happyness from some drug.
My precription will come in 3 weeks and I will take it again. I am just now doing things without the drugs and doing well, but I look forward to that next fix. I hope some day I will get sick of this rollercoaster ride and quit but I am just not ready yet.
Success to all of you
SUCCESS TO YOU ALL:John
I am glad we have each other to talk to. I got a scrip today for vicodin and now I feel much better. I am up and doing thins again. I wish it could be this way without them. I feel like I am cheating. Every one els has to work at feeling good and I just take a pill. I am really cheating my self this is going to get me one day. I have to stop before I hit bottom again. This is a big problem.
this is my first post so not sure if I am doing it right, but will try anyways..
I have been lurking for a couple months now and have found some invaluable information. I know this is an old post and am not sure if Darryl is even reading it anymore, but I wanted to comment on his post about "being afraid to tell his doctor about his migraines because he gets so many of them so often". Have you researched the possibility that you are not having migraines at all,but instead cluster headaches?? I know men do get migraines but from what I have heard the majority that get them are women. but men do get something called cluster headaches. I do not know alot about them and you probably could do some internet searches to find out about them. But i guess they are similar in pain levels to migraines, happen usually on one side of your head and they get their name because they come in clusters, several in a period of days or whatever. I'm not sure on the types of meds they use on them but they tend to happen to men in their 30's and 40's alot. so Darryl don't be afraid to tell your doctor about the frequency of your headaches and ask him if they could be cluster headaches., your doc shouldn't be surprised at all with you telling you get them so often because that is the exact nature of the problem. if have these and lie to him that you don't get headaches very often he can't diagnose you with them properly and you won't be able to get the right treatment/medications to prevent them or make them go away when you have them. I'm also curious to know if men are treated better in the ER when they come in with a bad headache? Do they treat them more seriously than a woman, ie. not like a junkie or it's the typical woman, it's all in your "head" so to speak. I have made several trips to the ER over the years and for most of them have been treated horribly when i come in with a migraine. i've been told they don't treat migraines with narcotics in their ER and i can have a shot of Compazine, which does NOTHING for the headache, or told that Compazine will take away the headache on its own. Last year the doctor went to the trouble of putting an IV in my hand to give me "quick relief" and then proceeded to give me benadryl and compazine in it, which left me with a horrible reaction ( I can no longer take compazine) I thought I would go right through the roof, my legs couldn't stay still, i was panicked, felt like my skin was crawling. I imagine it's what one would feel like on speed. the headache was still there but at that point it didn't matter, I couldn't get out of the hospital fast enough. I told the doctor yes the headache was better and I needed to go home. I did tell him how i felt and he said I had some kind of reaction, can't remember what he called it, but he gave me some ativan in the IV site to counteract it and make me feel better. I guess my point is, if I am in enough pain to go through the hassle of waiting a couple hours at the ER I've already tried my meds at home and benadryl and compazine is NOT going to take away a headache that severe. especially because I would never go to the ER for a minor migraine. It is severe by that time and I am at the end of my rope, but I usually end up leaving without receiving the proper treatment and feeling no better. I was just wondering if this is a woman thing as woman are often treated less seriously about their pain. they think we are whiny wimps who can't handle a little hurt. Beanie
Joedice,I think you already know that abstinence is a very difficult procedure. You must get all the help that you can find. Without this help this disease will stay active and you will have a constant battle. HAVE you tried all the medicines that are specifically for migraines. Cafecort(sp)? inderal,imitrex,midrin and others.Opiates sometimes can CAUSE migraines. Narcotics do nothing for the causess for migraine headaches. You need to have a physical if you haven't already done this to determine that you do not have a medical problem that is causing these headaches. Doctors as you know do not like to keep treating migraine headaches with narcotics. This does nothing in determining what is causing the headaches. I know that you are probably having severe pains to warrant pain killers. You must find out what is causing these migraines. Men or woman who go to the energency room for pain killers are treated the same. Usually. Be honest with yourself. If you are addicted to pain killers do not be embarrased. It can happen to anyone. This disease does not discriminate. Buprenorphine is a opiate pain killer used to help people through withdrawals and pain issues. It also does wonders for depression that goes along with withdrawals. Not all doctors know about this drug yet. You would have to enquire to find out which doctors in your area use this medication. It is much safer for pain than vicodin like drugs. Good Luck, be Spiritual, God bless. Dan..
Joedice did you know that 10 year addicts could be helped by methadone or LAAM?
Dan..
I have tried many kinds of preventative treatment and treatment for migraines over the years, it doesn't mean that I never get another migraine again, midrin is the stupidest excuse for a drug to kill pain of a migraine that there is! Imitrex was given to me once and I thought i would have a heart attack, felt like something huge was sitting on my chest and my heart started racing if that's not enough, it did nothing for the migraine!! I was told by a doc that those types of medicines usually only work if you use them at the very beginnings of a migraine.. I could say that I end up in the ER on average once a year for a severe migraine.. if they were to give me narcotics those times that would be the only time that whole year i had taken a narcotic, if they would give me a narcotic for the pain which most often they didn't..does that make me an addict? looking for a narcotic once a year?? it's been very recent that i have been on daily narcotics for chronic pain(not migraines)...I am glad that you are not an ER doc with your bias against narcotics, and a few of those ER docs also shouldn't be there, just because you had problems controlling your intake, does not mean that every person that takes them or comes into the ER with a migraine or other severe pain is "drug seeking" well yes i was drug seeking, i needed relief from the pain!!! I ask a question about what people thought if men were treated better than woman when they come in with a headache because I have rarely been treated seriously or properly, and from that you want to tell me to find causes and take preventatives and other painkillers that do nothing without knowing how often i am stricken with migraines how severe are they and don't be afraid to admit to yourself that you are an addict!! that is utterly ridiculous!! not only do i feel like i'm laughed right out of the ER when I come in and they treat my severe migraine with compazine and benadryl, but don't you think I would really be laughed right out of an NA meeting when i told them I didn't take any narcotics, but I think I must be an addict, because usually once a year I get a severe migraine and go to the ER for pain control...
that's kind of like someone joining NA saying I am here because I had my appendix out and they gave me narcotics afterwards because it hurt so bad, so i must be an addict because i didn't just suffer, I let them give me the shot..It's people like you in medical fields that perpetuate this whole thing and give someone in pain a bad name... Don't assume everyone that reads or posts on this board is an addict, they may have a friend,spouse or other family member that is an addict(I don't) or they may have other reasons for coming here...I came to see what it is all about, as I have been treated so horribly at times by doctors and hospitals, now I know why....
Beanie
Dan (substanse abuse counselor)
:my bandaids won't stick to my skin any tips?, your answer usually is you are an addict or an addict in denial, methadone is the only thing to help you..If you read my post, you would have seen that I was not asking for advice on my headaches, I was mearly replying to a man that said he had lots of headaches and i wanted to point out that maybe he should find out if they could be cluster headaches, as men seem to suffer mostly from them and he shouldn't be afraid to be labeled a drug addict because he gets many headaches in a row,as that is the nature of cluster headaches,, I then went on to ask him or others if they have had any experience in being treated differently with headaches in the ER versus being male or female, and told how i was treated..I never once asked for any advice as to how to get rid of these headaches, or implied that I didn't know what causes my headaches or anything like that,,in fact i even stated that most of the times i had to go in for a treatment of a headache that was the only time i would have been given meds(narcotics) all year, yet they rarely would treat them with anything other than compazine, which is worthless for stopping a migraine.., then you came back with your post saying migraines shouldn't be treated with narcotics, don;t be ashamed to admit you are an addict, you need a physical they should be looking for the causes of your migraines, like i was getting them every week....so i replied saying I was rather annoyed by your answer and stated not everyone comes here because they themselves are addicts, i said some have family or friends, some may be doing research, I stumbled across this site and wanted to find out what it was with the drugs and why I have been treated so horribly in the past by doctors when i go into be seen in terrible pain, what makes them think that every person in the ER with a migraine is addicted to drugs? after explaining all of this to you, you come back once again and question why i was using this board instead of the chronic pain board for my headaches..(i wasn't asking advice on my headaches, only stating how badly i had been treated in the past) you asked again why i was on an addiction board if i wasn't an addict( i had explained that previously) you questioned why i hadn't mentioned the causes of my headache(i'm female, hormones at certain times of the month are enough to trigger migraines, also not enough sleep or not eating) and you told me once again not to deny it to myself that I am an addict..okay, i must admit I must have been a pretty big addict back then because once a year or so i would head to the ER with a blinding migraine and expect to get treated with narcotics as I know they can knock out a bad migraine for me.....maybe i should be sent to rehab asap..
Since my last post I have started to have some really bad shoulder pain. It only lasted a couple of days, but I went to the ER, and you got it. I got some pills vicodin at first. Then a scrip for 100 percs. Now this three week waiting period befor my next scrip turned into only one. It was a good week tward the end I felt so good to be doing things without the meds. I woke up thismorning and went as long as I could. Then finaly about 1:00, after a morning of just laying in bed a I caved in. I should have known better as long as I have them in the house I will take them. Oh how I look forward to the day that my doctor hands me a scrip and I say "no thank you I don't need them anymore". I don't see me runing out of pills till the first week in Jan. That will be a bad month for me. I know I have to beet this thing. What is it going to take for me? When will I just say I have had enouph? I hate who I am. I eaven feel I only love my wife and daughter and friends because of and, when I am on the pills. My daughter is so sweet. We adopted her right out of the hospital. She is 6 now and everyday she jumps out of the shcool bus and runs tward me with open arms and almost knocks me over. We have a very good relationship. No body knows what I am going through (exept now all of you) and it has been this way for 20 years, and through the raising of three other children. I don't want them to know untill I am ready to really stop and start living a reall life. They all know I take pain meds but they don't know what these drugs are really all about and what they can do to you. I leveled with my wife about a year ago but then I started to tell her I was better. I just wasn't ready then. You all know what I mean. I know we all have our stories to tell. So lets start sharing them with one another. I will be gone in about a week and a half for three weeks. We are going on a cruis to the Bahamas a trip we have been saving for and looking forward too for some time. Of course I have a doctors appt. right befor I go so I have enouph meds.
Lets all keep our heads up and just know that we CAN BEAT THIS THING. Have some faith in that God given will to live. And thank you for all your support. What a great gift we have in eachother.
I will be reading and maybe posting till I leave so till then.
SUCCESS TO YOU ALL
PS I post my posts in many diferent areas on this site because everybody I want to talk to is all over. Thanks for reading. John B.