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Oxy Withdrawal, How I did it
Hello everyone, I am finally posting to this forum. I have been eating Oxy's for over two years, at my worst: 6 / 20's a day. I have been reading your posts for a couple of months now, I have had enough and decided to quit so here is how it went for me.
You guys all seem to agree that a gradual "taper" is the way to go so this is what I tried, with no help... My wife didn't even ever know that I had a problem, or should I say, HAVE a problem. Yes, as boring as this sounds, admitting your problem is the beginning.
Anyway, from 6 pills to 4 was easy over maybe 3-6 days then to 3 pills for a couple of weeks, I need to say that, and this is very important, your body is a "creature of habit" and prone to conditioning. I never liked the way I would sleep if I had taken the drug to close to bed time so I never took any after about 5:00 PM and this was never a problem, never felt cravings at night as my body was "tuned" to this.
Now in my withdrawal, this still holds true, if I make it to 5:00, my symptoms just slacken to almost nothing until the morning (because this is how my body has been conditioned). So I find that tapering is easy if you just take your dosage and spread it evenly throughout the day so there is always some in your system. And don't take them at a time when you didn't as your body will be O.K. at this time and it's a nice place to be, no drugs and no symptoms, or at least very reduced symptoms, it's a time to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
So back to my withdrawals, from 3 it got a little harder (1 at wake, 1 at noon, 1 at 4:00 PM). I think because less than 3 you stop feeling the "nice" or highness.
I went from 3 to 2 1/2 , I just went from 1 at wake to 1/2. This is where it started to get hard. I did this for about a week then it was time to go to 2 so I started to take just halves, in 2 you have 4 halves so I now went to 1/2 @ wake, 1/2 @ 10:00AM 1/2 @ 12:00PM 1/2 @ 2:00 PM and 1/2 @ 4:00 PM, about every 2 hours. I did this for about 4 days. At this point I was feeling like I wanted more, not real bad, doable, no real symptoms yet besides the depression, this was starting to get to me but I knew where it was coming from so I fought it knowing that it would end.
I now had to start changing what my body wanted so I decided to stop the morning dose, I wanted to extend the time from my last to my first and start getting used to not having any, remember, I don't take after 4-5PM so when I took my first of the day now at 10:00AM it has been about 18 hours since my last and now I am feeling the pain of withdrawals, all of them. (I am not a writer and am doing the best I can, I hope this is making sense) This is where you will be tested, you just want the high all the time now and keep saying to yourself, ****, I'll just get high once more, it wont hurt and then I'll go back to my plan.... ********, DON'T GIVE IN. Somebody once said to me, "If your going to do something, do it, give it your all... If your not going to give it your all then don't even try, it's a wast of time and energy. ARE YOU GOING TO QUIT OR KEEP DOING THESE ******* PILLS??? Now is the time to decide what it's going to be, go one way or the other, don't kid yourself, there is only 2 choices, not three... remember this, Not three.
I went from the two pills, all halved, to now I am just taking 1/4 pill at noon and 1/4 pill at 4:00.. The pain is bad from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM but at it's worst from about 2:00 PM till 4:00PM. By 5:00PM I am feeling OK and by 7:00PM I am like normal (as well as I can remember what normal feels like) So this has been my experience, I have posted this because I spend some time looking for a post like this so I would know what I was up against. I found that the more posts like this one that I read, the more I felt that I could handle this without going to a drug rehabilitation center. I am now at this stage, my wife still doesn't really know or understand what has been happening (I say this so you realize how easy it is to hide this problem, we are close and she doesn't even know??? go figure???)
Now I don't know how to proceed, 1/4 at noon and 1/4 at 4 and I am in pain, really want more... Should I now just quit or taper more?? I'm thinking quit, so tomorrow I will not take any, it has been over 2 years and tomorrow I will take no more... Wish me luck, I will let you know how it goes for me.
I hope this helps even one person, please stop as this is the highway to HELL.
Tom...
You guys all seem to agree that a gradual "taper" is the way to go so this is what I tried, with no help... My wife didn't even ever know that I had a problem, or should I say, HAVE a problem. Yes, as boring as this sounds, admitting your problem is the beginning.
Anyway, from 6 pills to 4 was easy over maybe 3-6 days then to 3 pills for a couple of weeks, I need to say that, and this is very important, your body is a "creature of habit" and prone to conditioning. I never liked the way I would sleep if I had taken the drug to close to bed time so I never took any after about 5:00 PM and this was never a problem, never felt cravings at night as my body was "tuned" to this.
Now in my withdrawal, this still holds true, if I make it to 5:00, my symptoms just slacken to almost nothing until the morning (because this is how my body has been conditioned). So I find that tapering is easy if you just take your dosage and spread it evenly throughout the day so there is always some in your system. And don't take them at a time when you didn't as your body will be O.K. at this time and it's a nice place to be, no drugs and no symptoms, or at least very reduced symptoms, it's a time to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
So back to my withdrawals, from 3 it got a little harder (1 at wake, 1 at noon, 1 at 4:00 PM). I think because less than 3 you stop feeling the "nice" or highness.
I went from 3 to 2 1/2 , I just went from 1 at wake to 1/2. This is where it started to get hard. I did this for about a week then it was time to go to 2 so I started to take just halves, in 2 you have 4 halves so I now went to 1/2 @ wake, 1/2 @ 10:00AM 1/2 @ 12:00PM 1/2 @ 2:00 PM and 1/2 @ 4:00 PM, about every 2 hours. I did this for about 4 days. At this point I was feeling like I wanted more, not real bad, doable, no real symptoms yet besides the depression, this was starting to get to me but I knew where it was coming from so I fought it knowing that it would end.
I now had to start changing what my body wanted so I decided to stop the morning dose, I wanted to extend the time from my last to my first and start getting used to not having any, remember, I don't take after 4-5PM so when I took my first of the day now at 10:00AM it has been about 18 hours since my last and now I am feeling the pain of withdrawals, all of them. (I am not a writer and am doing the best I can, I hope this is making sense) This is where you will be tested, you just want the high all the time now and keep saying to yourself, ****, I'll just get high once more, it wont hurt and then I'll go back to my plan.... ********, DON'T GIVE IN. Somebody once said to me, "If your going to do something, do it, give it your all... If your not going to give it your all then don't even try, it's a wast of time and energy. ARE YOU GOING TO QUIT OR KEEP DOING THESE ******* PILLS??? Now is the time to decide what it's going to be, go one way or the other, don't kid yourself, there is only 2 choices, not three... remember this, Not three.
I went from the two pills, all halved, to now I am just taking 1/4 pill at noon and 1/4 pill at 4:00.. The pain is bad from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM but at it's worst from about 2:00 PM till 4:00PM. By 5:00PM I am feeling OK and by 7:00PM I am like normal (as well as I can remember what normal feels like) So this has been my experience, I have posted this because I spend some time looking for a post like this so I would know what I was up against. I found that the more posts like this one that I read, the more I felt that I could handle this without going to a drug rehabilitation center. I am now at this stage, my wife still doesn't really know or understand what has been happening (I say this so you realize how easy it is to hide this problem, we are close and she doesn't even know??? go figure???)
Now I don't know how to proceed, 1/4 at noon and 1/4 at 4 and I am in pain, really want more... Should I now just quit or taper more?? I'm thinking quit, so tomorrow I will not take any, it has been over 2 years and tomorrow I will take no more... Wish me luck, I will let you know how it goes for me.
I hope this helps even one person, please stop as this is the highway to HELL.
Tom...
Day 3 is here,
I feel better and got some sleep last night.
I woke up realizing how fortunate I am. I am glad I am getting off the drugs, I truly don;t even want one now, withdrawals are minimal, no cravings... Biggest thing is the head thing, it's like I have been sick for some time and my brain is turned off.
I can't tell you how good it feels that I am doing something about this and how convinced I am that I will succeed.
I just reread the past posts here, thank you all for your support and I hope you all don't think I am too crazy, lately I have been feeling a bit crazy but normally I am pretty level... Believe it or not..
Tom...
I feel better and got some sleep last night.
I woke up realizing how fortunate I am. I am glad I am getting off the drugs, I truly don;t even want one now, withdrawals are minimal, no cravings... Biggest thing is the head thing, it's like I have been sick for some time and my brain is turned off.
I can't tell you how good it feels that I am doing something about this and how convinced I am that I will succeed.
I just reread the past posts here, thank you all for your support and I hope you all don't think I am too crazy, lately I have been feeling a bit crazy but normally I am pretty level... Believe it or not..
Tom...
You have classic w/d symptoms, In my opinion you should just keep off the drugs, all of them.
I am no doctor but from my experience you don't need to have cravings to experience w/d.
The secret to being drug free is by not taking any drugs, you are 2 day in, you should keep going. The sickness may be with you for a week, maybe not.
Hope you get off the drugs.
You should post at the top in the main forum, you will be seen there and get a lot of support. You will not be seen here at the bottom of my post.
Good luck, Tom...
I am no doctor but from my experience you don't need to have cravings to experience w/d.
The secret to being drug free is by not taking any drugs, you are 2 day in, you should keep going. The sickness may be with you for a week, maybe not.
Hope you get off the drugs.
You should post at the top in the main forum, you will be seen there and get a lot of support. You will not be seen here at the bottom of my post.
Good luck, Tom...
i just want to tell you guys what i'm experiencing. if you could just tell me whether these are normal or not. today is the second day that i'm not taking any ms contin. and here are my symptoms: Anxiety, depression, hot and cold flashes, loss of appetite, runny nose, sweating, tearing, lack of energy, can't sleep, sneezing, weakness, and severe diarrhea (i mean i just feel like i'm not digesting anything, sorry to tell you guys but it's almost colorless) i haven't eaten anything since last night except an ice cream which is really weird because it made me even colder. i mean it's 80 degree here in the house an i'm really cold. the good thing is that i absolutely have no craving for ms contin because it made me sick and that is why i stopped taking it. anyway there is no way back for me. just someone please tell me when these things will go away? by the way because of my extreme back pain i had to take something so i took one vicodin this morning and if i have to i'm gonna take another one at night. please advise me guys if there is anything i can do to make this process easier.
OK, day 2 is coming to an end and I need to report.
I am amazed that I don't have any cravings, at all, yes I am surprised. I guess this is the end result of a taper gone good.
The bad side is that I feel terrible, I have no ambition, no energy and am as depressed as I have ever been. The real scare is the lack of brain I have, I went to the post office today and didn't even want to talk to them in fear that I would not know what to say, I didn't even want to talk.
I have strong feelings that I will conquer this beast, I don't at this point want any more drugs and do want to feel better.
I have been tapering for some time now and during a taper, all you think about is the drugs... Now going thru w/d's I have had enough.
It is better during the day because I am alone, Laura will be home soon and this will be harder as I don't want to show my true colors and this requires more effort, I just don't have the energy.
My big fear is that I will not sleep again tonight, haven't slept for a while.
I am waiting for anything good, just a small feeling of being better... This keeps me going.
Tim & Calzy,
Thank you for your concern, I haven't a doctor that knows that I am addicted, don't want to go and explain, don't want more drugs, a couple of more days and I will be feeling better.. I can hang until then, I am strong. I am going to check into NA and see if this is something for me.
Please keep reading and posting back, you guys are great friends in my time of need.
You both seem to be doing sooo well, you must be very proud of yourselves and now you hang here and help others, way to go... my hat's off to you both.
Tom...
I am amazed that I don't have any cravings, at all, yes I am surprised. I guess this is the end result of a taper gone good.
The bad side is that I feel terrible, I have no ambition, no energy and am as depressed as I have ever been. The real scare is the lack of brain I have, I went to the post office today and didn't even want to talk to them in fear that I would not know what to say, I didn't even want to talk.
I have strong feelings that I will conquer this beast, I don't at this point want any more drugs and do want to feel better.
I have been tapering for some time now and during a taper, all you think about is the drugs... Now going thru w/d's I have had enough.
It is better during the day because I am alone, Laura will be home soon and this will be harder as I don't want to show my true colors and this requires more effort, I just don't have the energy.
My big fear is that I will not sleep again tonight, haven't slept for a while.
I am waiting for anything good, just a small feeling of being better... This keeps me going.
Tim & Calzy,
Thank you for your concern, I haven't a doctor that knows that I am addicted, don't want to go and explain, don't want more drugs, a couple of more days and I will be feeling better.. I can hang until then, I am strong. I am going to check into NA and see if this is something for me.
Please keep reading and posting back, you guys are great friends in my time of need.
You both seem to be doing sooo well, you must be very proud of yourselves and now you hang here and help others, way to go... my hat's off to you both.
Tom...
You are feeling the effects of w/d's and are at the begining of them. I felt the same way and I promise you it will pass eventually. You sound like a real fighter to me and it will get better. Try to keep as busy as possible and ask your doctor for something to ease the anxiety and depression. You were on a lot of narcs and it will take some time. Please have another talk with your wife and tell her what you are feeling. She will be there for you. I also knew what I was doing when I kept on taking the pills after my pain was gone. I have a addictive personality and this has happened to so many. You are not alone and you are not a bad person. Please stop thinking this way and give yourself a break. Hang in there and you will feel better. Stay on the forum and read posts, vent and if you believe in prayer, now is the time to really pray hard. I would go to a AA/NA meeting and get a sponsor. You can do this!!!! Your emotions are on a roller coaster ride right now and it is pure hell. I am rooting big time for you Tom.
Tim
Tim
The way you are feeling is why this forum exists because the w/d's are a ride thru h e l l and back and so many ppl give up after a few days. You did everything right with your taper but the body knows when it's missing something and screams for it. The crying is normal and good to get out, just keep taking hot baths and find something to fill your mind. There are alot worse pains the body can feel than w/d that last alot longer than the w/d will so there is light at the end of the tunnel. If you got the oxy from your doctor, that him or her that you decided to quit and you need some clonodine for the withdrawals a.s.a.p. , unless you already take blood pressure medicine.
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