Opiate addiction, withdrawal & clonidine questions

[hlfway2sumwhere]

Ok this may be long so I apologize but I am feeling very alone and scared and hope someone might have some advice for me. I have been on either norco or percocet on and off since November. Lately I have been on it continually except for when I run out. I am waiting for medical assistance to be able to have surgery on my back for which I am being treated with pain medicine. My problem is that I am addicted and I always run out before I have money or another RX to refill and I start to experience horrible withdrawal , mostly just the full body anxiety and hot/cold sweats that makes every minute feel like an hour and I get close to being suicidal becuz I am willing to do anything to make the feeling stop. The Dr did RX me clonidine becuz I am also having high blood pressure, but since I have been taking it (only 2 1/2 days) I am feeling even worse. It seems like when I take it and the percocet, the percocet has no effect on me (no high, no pain relief) and I've actually been having WORSE sweats and anxiety. I only have about 8 percocet left and wont be able to refill for a week and I will run out before that. I am taking usually about 8 per day. I was hoping that by taking the clonidine while I still have percocet would keep me from having as bad of a withdrawal when I run out but its making me feel pretty awful. I am really scared and dont have friends and family here and cant do the inpatient detox cuz I have pets and no one to care for them and I am just really freaking out. I just tried to take more percocet to see if it would help the symptoms and now I am sweating and feeling awful. I guess my question is, how has everyone used clonidine in withdrawal and is it a bad idea to be taking it with the percocet? It certainly is making me feel worse and is making me feel the withdrawal symptoms almost and Im wasting the percocet since it is having no effect. I am just really scared and dont know where to turn. I am unemployed and need to be looking for a job and with how awful I am feeling physically I just dont know where to turn. My dr who is RXing the percocet is not being very helpful and doesnt think it's withdrawal symptoms becuz he doesnt know exactly how many I am taking and isnt really interested in helping even though I expressed my concern about withdrawal. I am feeling really scared especially becuz I know once these 8 pills are gone I am going to be feeling like I want to die again and its scaring the crap out of me.

[mookie377]

Hello,you are waiting for an operation,well explain the situation,say the Pain is getting worse,Forget all the addiction,dont tall him,you cant get a Buzz.But say Dr. as a result of my increased pain please give me adequate medication.One helpful thing might be to get a 5-day at a time,dispensation,as that way it will make it easier than having a Big jar of pills.I have been in your shoes,Please ask yourself is it really the pain,or the Buzz.I took pain meds for yrs,long after any pain. All the best john

[hlfway2sumwhere]

John, I am brand new to the forums so I am not sure if you can send private messages, but if you can, let me know how or if I can contact you. Thank you for your response. Well since I don't have medical insurance, the Dr I see charges $140 a visit so I can not afford to see him often. He refuses to prescribe more pills or a higher dose, even though he should understand that after awhile at the same dose your body gets used to it and you need a higher dose. It is both the pain and the addiction that I am struggling with. When I take the clonidine the percocet does absolutely nothing. No buzz, no pain relief, no anything. I am not saying that I am looking for the 'buzz', just that I am not feeling ANY sort of effects from the percocet since I have started the clonidine. I am having hot/cold sweats and major anxiety since I started it, the same way I normally feel when I am off of the percocet, even tho I am still on it, if that makes sense. I have talked to my Dr about the withdrawal symptoms and, I am not kidding, he literally just told me to find someone who smokes weed and to start smoking weed to help with the withdrawal and anxiety. First of all, I don't smoke weed, I have asthma (which the Dr knows), and even if I did, I sure don't have the money for that. Not to mention that I am trying to find a job and I'm pretty sure when they drug test me they are not going to care if my Dr told me to smoke it or not (since it is still illegal in this state.) My Dr even told me to move to Montana cuz it's the closest state that has legal pot use. I am feeling terrifed here and I dont know what to do. I wish I never would have started these pills.

[LeaAnn807]

Clonidine, when used for opiate WD, should be used for just that.....withdrawal.  You really will feel bad if you take it and the pills too.  I think that you could just have some generalized anxiety though? I have taken clonidine a lot, and I have never had it cause me any anxiety.  When taken during WD, it's the opposite.  It should calm you.  Only you are not taking it during Wd, right?  When your pills run out, you should look up or ask how to take it then.  And.....be done with this junk once and for all! : )

Good luck!

[vicki595]

Yes. The clonidine is a med for hypertension and is used quite often for opiate withdrawal with excellent results. It's not to be taken with Percocet per se'. Percocet is,of course, a prn med so it is just not often that those two would be used together.

I know you'd like the doctor to help you. Have you been completely honest about the amount of Percocet you take per day? Have you told him/her you're addicted?  I think if he had all the info and a timeline as to the date of your surgery, he could better assist you.

Give the doctor a call and best of luck to you!

[hlfway2sumwhere]

Yes I have explained everything to my Dr and explained the the severe anxiety that makes me want to die happens when I am off the pain meds for 8-12 hours, especially when I first wake up. His answer was to try smoking pot. He has tried me on anxiety meds and they did not help with this problem so he is reluctant to try any other ones. He said (and I also asked the pharmacist) if percocet and clonidine could be taken together and they said yes, that it would just make me more drowsy, which it does. I called my Dr yesterday in tears and he just wont seem to listen to me. He told me to get counseling and go the the ER. He said he is not going to up the amount of pills Im taking, even tho Ive explained that I run out before the next one becuz I have become tollerant of them. I am not as much mentally addicted--I do crave somewhat, but nothing unbearable. It is the full body anxiety that I feel like my body is attacking me and I wont make it another hour, thats really doing me in. Unfortunately I can't go to a different Dr, and this particular Dr charges a fortune (half of my weekly unemployment allowance) and will only give me 1 weeks worth of meds at a time, even tho I am suppose to continue on these until the surgery. I cannot take any nsaids or prednisone due to bleeding ulcers which is why they started me on the percocet in the first place. I wish that I had never started and would like to stop taking them all together, even before the surgery. I can stand the back pain WAY more than I can stand the anxiety. It literally makes me feel like I cannot go another minute without dying and it is so scary. I wish my Dr was helpful since he is the one who has been RX'ing this to me the whole time. He has not been very responsible in letting me know the risks and listening to me when I explain that it's getting worse and I need to take more. He is telling me to take less, even tho the pain has not changed, and will not change, until I have the surgery. Currently I have been taking the percocet with the clonidine, becuz my hope was that if I started the clonidine a few days before I ran out of percocet, that it would already be in my system and start working right away when I go into withdrawal, instead of waiting for it to build up in my system, if that makes sense. I was trying to be proactive. But I dont know if its the clonidine itself, or the mixture of the two, but I have really bad hot/cold sweats and clamminess, as well as anxiety (tho not quite as bad as the w/d anxiety) and the percocet is doing nothing to help the pain. It's like I didnt take anything. So I feel like Im already not taking the percocet as it is as Im having no benefits from it, so mentally Im handling that ok. Its a little frustrating that it isnt helping so I just wasted a bunch of pills, but at least I know that mentally I am going to be ok without the "high" and dealing with the pain. The pain is pretty bad right now but I would still take this over the w/d symptoms any day. I wish I knew the right question to ask, but hopefully someone will read this and give me some ideas. I've already been taking the clonidine for 2 days now, should I stop taking it until I go into withdrawal? I had heard it takes 2-3 days for it to start working, and those are the first few days of withdrawal that I can't handle, which is why I started taking it earlier. But the side effects are horrible. STILL not as bad as w/d side effects tho. At least I feel like it is somewhat preparing me mentally for not having the 'high', and I found some resources that help with the mental part, am speaking to someone about counseling tomorrow and also spoke with a church and a member of NA about starting meetings too. I'm basically on my own with this since my Dr has no desire to help me and literally just continually tells me to start smoking pot and it will help with the pain, withdrawals, anxiety etc. But doing that is just not an option for me--in part becuz it is NOT legal in this state, and for various other reasons I believe that I listed above. The ER did absolutely nothing to help me but give me a small dose of percocet to offset the withdrawal (which didnt help cuz it was such a low dose) and gave me a shot of ativan, which also did absolutely nothing. I have heard that benzos do not help with the anxiety of w/d either. I am SO scared and alone. I am on the verge of being evicted, having my phone/internet turned off, electricity turned off etc due to not working, and I am afraid to even apply for jobs right now becuz of what I am going through. It is all way too much for me. P.S. I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but I DO have high blood pressure. It bounced around a lot but has always been higher than normal, and my pulse has been through the roof. That is why he was willing to let me try the clonidine. When I explained that I thought I was having bad side effects from mixing the 2, and that the real problem was withdrawal, he told me to just stop the clonidine and smoke some weed. So yeah, no help. I have begged and pleaded and it seems like he just cares about getting my $$ ever week and I am really upset becuz, since I see him so often, I have felt almost like he was family, and I trusted him, and now I feel like he is totally letting me down.