vicodin

[luna555]

I've taken vicodin for 6 years, 3-4 a day. now I cannot stop without pain and or panic. How can I wean off the most effective and painless way  5/500 strengh Mary Jo

[addictedme]

I agree with ya on the thomas recipe. Whenever someone posts it VALIUM is always the 1st thing on the list. As an addict I read valium and everything else is less important,,but hey maybe its worked for some. For me its like when you would go to the dr and he gives you a scrip for narcotics, maybe a muscle relaxant and something for your genaral health,,,screw the last 2 and fill that narcotic scrip

[mom2rachie]

I think your recipe should be the one that we give to the newcomers........

[beachtowel]

If you don't go into a professional detox it will be very tough people here suggest the Thomas recipe where if you read the opening it suggests to use a narcotic in Valium and addictive med in itself....
It is never a good idea to try to quit an addictive med that is your drug of choice with another addictive med think about it why would you want to do that.........

There are other parts of this so called recipe that may help.........

With a Vic addiction I went through many W/Ds during my years of addiction and the beachtowel recipe goes like this......
Have a plan and a little support helps too
have some amodium for the diarrhea
drink gateraid or water so that you don't get dehydrated
take plenty of showers while the poison is oosing out of your body
something PM to help you sleep sleeping distortions really can get bad
focus your mind on 3-5 days of W/Ds you won't die but you will feel like s h i t
write down every day how you feel keep detailed notes so that you will never forget
if you have a wife or girl friend who can do this with you it helps

remember 3-5 and the W/Ds are done then get your recovery plan in order
you will get hit with cravings, depression, sleeping distortions do you research.

Dont do what many do they quit using and then go through all the W/Ds then they sit on the couch or lay in bed and expect God to fix everything else it does not work that way...........
"If you dont' change your life nothing changes"
get a job and make some money so that you can pay bills and eat.......
work hard to make yourself tired it will help you sleep
Don't do it alone or think that your strong enough to fight addiction on your own
loneliness is a huge trigger to use again
Go to N/A at first hit a lot of meetings your brain will want to remind you how much better you
will feel if you just take a couple of pills....it is here when you should read your notes of what
you went through during your w/ds......

You can do it I swear you can plan it out and focus.......
and good luck to you

[beachtowel]

Welcome to the forum,

Unfortunatley the only true way is go and check into a professional detox center where doctors and nurses will get you through it.........
People here may say you can go to a doctor and get suboxone or even crazy enough to start on Methadone but please consider this.......
You became hooked and an addict because you as an addict could not take pills for what they were intended or how you your suppose to take them....addicts binge they take pills that is what addicts do......so how could you ever expect to be a full blow using addict to suddenly take pills responsibly?

[marcatj]

Hi Mary Jo...

Here's what some of us have done..

If you go to the search engine above, type in The Thomas Recipe.  It will outline a plan and stuff you can take that will help ease the w/d's to a certain degree.

Also, there is a blood pressure medication called Clonidine that alot of us have used, which really helps the w/d symptoms... I'd say by 80%.  I recommend it highly.

You can try to taper your dose to make it easier, but if you've been using for 6 years, I'm guessing you might not be able to do that (as most of us here can't.)  So likely your best bet is to go c/t and choose one of the methods above.

Another option is Suboxone, which unfortunately I don't have enough knowledge on to tell you much about it.  I'm sure you can go through some past posts (if no one jumps on here) and learn more about it.

After 6 years of use, I would suggest you follow up with NA meetings and/or counceling as well.  As some of the "old-timers" say - getting off is the easy part.  STAYING off is the real work...

But you can quit, I promise you that.  Many people have...

warmly,
mj