butalbital

i doubt anyone here knows me. i don't comment much and when i do it's usually on posts relating to barbiturates or sometimes benzo's. i know a lot of people here struggle with opiates and the like. i have always felt that my addiction wasn't the same...that i didn't have the ability to understand opiate addiction because i had never experienced it. i still feel that way to some degree. this has held me back from talking about my own addiction because i feel when i do, there are only a few who can say "oh yeah, i've been where you are".....and i know that addiction is addiction no matter the drug, but i think to a degree it is true that we feel we don't fully understand unless we've 'been there' so to speak. anyway, all that aside, i think i've grown to understand that my addiction to butalbital is very much as hard to tackel as an addiction to anything else. i think i've spent too much time thinking about HOW addicting things are and too little time thinking about how to get sober. my mistake.

i wanted to make a post about the things i've learned about butalbital and a short summary of what my life has been like taking it. i wanted to do this because i feel that maybe it could help someone else in the future who is searching for information about this drug. i feel it's important because barbiturate's are drugs of the past. they are almost never prescribed anymore except for primarily butalbital. for this reason, information is hard to come by. i also don't feel that barbiturates should be compared to benzodiazepines. they are used for similar purposes, but to the addicted mind, they are very different.

so anyway, my experience with butalbital started around the age of 8 or 9. by 10 or so, i was a full blown addict. i didn't know i was becoming an addict. i didn't have any clue what that was.  i just knew i HAD to have those pills and couldn't live without them. my dose from the age of 10 to around 15 was anywhere form 10 to 20 pills a day. i have no way of knowing for sure since i never counted. at around 15 i was slowly tapered off agianst my will. over the next couple years i went into a severe severe depression that i think was caused by withdrawal from the pills. i believe the depression was related to the way these types of drugs effect GABA...but since i'm not a doctor i don't know for sure. also part of it was just from normal withdrawal and being a teenager. but i got clean and stayed that way till i was around 20. at this time, i was living on my own. i got an rx for fioricet. STUPID....but i did it anyway.

it took me a few months before i even took that first pill....and when i did it was a HUGE disappointment. i wondered how i ever got addicted in the first place. but then one stressful day at work i came home and took another. it relaxed me, but again i wondered how i ever became an addict. a few more times of this over the course of a few months and i became addicted again. sadly i've been on them agian for 3 years and can't imagine life without them....but my dose has remained low. 2 a day. still, i can't stop. i hate trying. i HATE it.

anyway....my mistake was ever getting it filled agian. i hate myself for it. that aside, i've experienced major problems with anxiety. i think that most of these problems are problems i would be dealing with if i wasn't an addict....but i also think it's made far worse by the barbiturate itself.  like xanax, long term use ends up doing far more harm than good. i've also experienced physical symptoms like twitching. this is  a trademark of benzo withdrawal and addiction also. it feels like this drug has aged me 20 years. i feel like i might not even make it to my 30's.

anyway, enough about me. the reason i'm posting this is because i think i'm done here, but before i go i wanted information that i've found to be made available to those who don't already know it but might find it useful. many people probably already know what i know, but the reason i'm here to begin with is to share it with people who don't know it.

barbiturates fall into a few catagories...ultra short, short, intermediate, and long acting barbs. the most abused barbiturates of all time were seconal, nembutal, and amytal. i call them the big 3 in barbs. phenobarbital has been abused...but not nearly to the extent of the others, the reason being it is a long acting barb...it doesn't make for a good high and it's also not as addicting. seconal and nembutal are short acting barbs and amytal is an intermediate barb. tuinal is amytal and seconal combined. i mention these drugs because this is the difference between butalbital and phenobarbital...butalbital is in the same class as amytal and seconal....it's a short to intermediate barb. this is important because it has flown under the radar for so long, and yet it's the same type of barb as those in the 'big 3'....

i find it important to mention this because butalbital is not a controlled substance. fiorinal is...but the control is limited to fiorinal only, which is butalbital, asprin, and caffeine. it's a C-III. fioricet and all other butalbital compounds are NOT controlled, with the exception of those that contain codeine. why? no one really knows, to be honest. but it's for this reason that doctors and patients alike assume they aren't dangerous. it's for this reason that so many people really can accidentaly get addicted to them. doctors should know better, but honestly there's just too many that really don't care.

if a person does become addicted, withdrawal is very hard. i had HUGE mood swings my first time around....but going cold turkey is a TERRIBLE idea. with barbs, you REALLY CAN DIE if you go cold turkey. seizures are not uncommon. i suggest to anyone looking for info on this drug and taper plans to talk with their doctor. never try to taper on your own. why? because if your friend had the same addiction and did a very successful taper and then suggested this taper to you, you could try the same thing and end up in the hospital.  the only solution is to undergo a doctor supervised taper.

anyway, i wanted to post this because for the most part it's what i say to people who post about butalbital. i don't think this will even have mattered......but i wanted to post it just in case someone were to find it useful. this will be my last post, and even though i never really talked directly to anyone or posted very much, i've grown close to this community. every day i feel entirely alone in my addiction...but when i come to this forum, i feel like it's full of people just like me...people who want desperately to get their lives back and who are trying to do so. some have succeeded and just reading their stories, even though i don't comment, gives me huge hope for myself and others here. so anyway...thats that. i've said what i have to say and i'm done.  i put this in the 'social' forum because it's not really a question.

[vicki595]

Good post, Mayberry.    I sent you a private message...
V.

[dominosarah]

I hope you stay here and continue to support others who are battling what you have been thru.  

Very good post~~~~~~~sara

[avisg]

My mayberry great post ,you have given alot of wonderful info .Plz don't leave there are not very many people with alot of knowledge of barbiturates it would be a big loss to the forum.I hope you change your mind

[my_mayberry]

i am not sure why this post got moved to a different forum. i had hoped it would stay where it was. surely i'm not loosing my mind....i''m pretty sure i posted this in the social forum...

oh well. it's very possible i'm loosing my mind. wouldn't be the first time.

[vicki595]

Hi~  Posts are moved by MH sometimes.  It's not a bad thing.  They must have felt
this post would be better served on the addiction side so more folks would see it.
Please don't go...I can't do this alone...LOL   We need to help bring this drug to the
forefront!!
Think it over,okay?
V.

[LeaAnn807]

Hey!  Hang with us over here.  There is not very much info and support for people getting off barbs, so you can be a lot of help!

[avisg]

Tram ,is right its was great info med help moved it over here .

[sssssss1234]

Completely right and true; under the radar or never heard of being addicted to it...you hear of all these other things but nobody hears of fiorcet addicts...very true. And when they are prescribed its never expressed how addictive or if they are addictive or dangersous for you. You think its just a headache pill period; and nothing more and before you know it...your hooked and the withdrawal is similiar to opiate addicts except w/ fiorcet you have extreme anxiety that xxanx doesnt even subside...but excellent post; its good to know that PEOPLE are not alone in it. My friends mother died from fiorcet addiction...had a major seizure/overdose from it...had know of SOMEBODY else who has struggled off and on as well since 14 with this issue...but thank you for your post

[my_mayberry]

Wow, this post is a year old. I didn't expect to see it surface again. I'm glad you commented though. It's sad that your friends mother died from this demon. I'm glad you commented though, because it lends credit to how dangerous this drug really is.

There are only special situations that lead to a person getting a script for this drug. Mainly tension headaches and sometimes migraines. This is a far more narrow field than that of the opiates because opiates are prescribed for general pain anywhere and everywhere in the body. Fioricet and butalbital products in general have no effect on any pain other than headaches, and since triptans have taken over the market, they're prescribed even less. What i'm getting at is that only a very small number of people are ever RX'd barbiturates anymore and this leads to the drug flying under the radar. My hope one day is that it becomes a controlled substance. I think people have a right to know when they get this script filled at the pharmacy to use caution. Currently, half the doctors that prescribe it say it isn't addicting and they base this assessment on the fact that it ISN'T controlled. Yet, in these forums alone, there are MOUNDS of posts from people who can testify otherwise...and countless others who never make their way to these forums. If only a small percentage of these people became addicted based on ignorance of its addictive properties, it's still too many. People should be informed when they get this drug to the extent that they are when they get something like Vicodin or Percocet. This, at least, would give warning. Beyond that, if it will be abused, then it will...at least it would save SOME people from addiction based on ignrance.

[K_L_M]

I'm trying to end my addiction to fiorinal with codeine. It's butalbital, caffeine, aspirin and codeine.  20 years on this stuff for migraines and tension headaches. Taking 150 pills a month as prescribed by my dr. Went to a neurologist who said I have to get off this stuff. I don't think of myself as being addicted to the med but I am definitely addicted to relief for my headaches. It's been a hard three weeks. Major mood swings. I'm down to one a day. It's just so hard. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[gnarly_1]

HEY LADY PLEASE DONT GO your a valued member of our community you form an important part of what makes medhelp medhelp we can help just about anyone that come our way we got the experiences in just about every drug out there and yours is no different I have detoxed off countless nonnarcotic over the yrs I had my battle with benzos and it was no fun but we all share a link that a chemical changed our brain chemesty to the pleasure zones regardless of the chemical you have knowledge that others dont posses it is priceless hereon the forum and even if its only one you help isent it worth it knowing you spared them agony you have went threw??dont leve us you part of our community my forte is methadone I done the pills but methadone had me in its grip now I can share WHAT i have learned with others each one of us has a story that needs to be told there is someone out there that needs your help and after detoxing off many drugs I caN OFFER ME SUGGESTIONS  it will be a great loss to our community if you leve please reconsider your a wealth of information without out you we wouldent have it and evey addict knows if you can just save one its worth it your friend Mark    

[vicki595]

Mark- Who are you talking to?  KLM?

[littlebit010101]

Awesome post mayberry and its like fine wine gets better with time....thank u for taking time to share...I would have never known....thanks....

[gnarly_1]

to mayberry ......Vicki

[cleaninitup]

Its an old post that someone brought back but I think Vicki was referring to mayberry is a dude why he has female on his profile nobody knows lol

[cleaninitup]

My mistake its changed to male lol

[gnarly_1]

my fault dident look at the date she is still with us and going strong

[vicki595]

FYI:  My_Mayberry is a MAN!  Right Sara?  LOL!

[dominosarah]

He is ALL MAN and a very caring one at that~~

[vicki595]

Agreed!  I'm happy to call him my friend AND the only one I know who understands completely about this crazy DOC of ours!!

((((Matt))))