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Advise for Tapering Strategy
I've been using opiates for about the last 5 years, but only really heavily for the last 2 1/2. By heavily I mean I currently take about 60mg vicodin a day and lately I've come to the realization that aside from the fear of taking too much and never waking up, that one cannot continue this forever. Wow, I know some of you out there know what I mean buy this, but even admitting I have a problem and laying the facts on the table brings a sense of relief through me.
I've went through withdrawls before from stopping cold turkey when I was into methadone for about 5 months (I swear at the time I had no idea how strong that stuff is... stay away!!!). I don't think the withdrawls of vicodin will be that strong, because of previous times I've stopped, but still I'm familiar with what I have to face. I just wish I could not have to deal with going to work for like a month while I go through this.
Can someone offer me the best strategy for weining off or tapering down to make it the easiest? I hate to say this, but I have plenty of pills to accomodate a slow wind down, but I want to seek advise from you guys for what you'd recommend. Is something like 5mg / week too fast? Too slow? And at what point do you cut it off for good and just suck it up?
I've went through withdrawls before from stopping cold turkey when I was into methadone for about 5 months (I swear at the time I had no idea how strong that stuff is... stay away!!!). I don't think the withdrawls of vicodin will be that strong, because of previous times I've stopped, but still I'm familiar with what I have to face. I just wish I could not have to deal with going to work for like a month while I go through this.
Can someone offer me the best strategy for weining off or tapering down to make it the easiest? I hate to say this, but I have plenty of pills to accomodate a slow wind down, but I want to seek advise from you guys for what you'd recommend. Is something like 5mg / week too fast? Too slow? And at what point do you cut it off for good and just suck it up?
Yea, I think a lot of people including myself psych ourselves out for the withdrawls and if you want it over in 3 days, then you can CT it, but if you want to take a little bit of it each day, then you can taper and spread it out. It seems that when I tapered last time it really wasn't that bad, but I wound up going back, so shame on me. :(
I think I'm pysching myself out too much with these withdrawls because I know what it's going to feel like, I know what they are, what they do and that they WILL pass. Is there really though no way to get around them? Is it possible to taper so much that you hardly feel anything?
This sounds bad, but the previous times I went through the wd's, that's what I used a little bit. But see, I'm not an alcoholic by any means, I don't drink beer ever but once in a grey moon (like every 6 months) I may take a couple of shots. I would take about 4 shots of Grey Goose and that actually made things go a little better.
has anyone used alcohol to help get by the withdrawal? i know thats a terrible subsitue but im on day 2 of cold turkey and im goin nuts. aches, anxiety, etc, its terrible. alcohol seems to kinda num the pain
powdered theanine or a good theanine supp which is the root of green tea works so well for anxiety ...bulk utirtion sells the powdered type or go to a real asian market and get the true green tea...SAMe and 5htp also help but theanine is the fastest and beat i have found..the real stuff tho
Im currently taperin to man. Was taking 120-160mg then to 60-80 then to 40-30 then to 20 then to 10 and today none. my situation is a lil different as i kinda have a panic/anxiety disorder already for which i have meds prescribes as well as ADD. Ive been takin my adderal along with my xanax which ahs really helped me stay motiavtd to stay off the ****.of course, adderal itself is a hihgly abussed addicting drug, but it agrivates my anxiety so as much as i like the way it motivates me and makes me normal and think straight, i never take over what im supposed to or i flip my ****. lots of green tea and calming team with stevia has really helped me out today. felt somwat nacious but other then that i felt fine and was able to work at my fathers resteraunt
Good Luck I just posted recently to I am tapering off Hydro using the method of cutting down on pills not mgs til i am out. I wish you luck and know with all the great people here you will have great advice. I know reading all the comments and stories are helping so far, I am only on tapering off day two but still. Lack of motivation I have but I think that comes from within to, I get so unmotivated feeling sometimes but I keep thinking when all is said and done things will be better or I just force myself to read, paint, exercise etc etc etc lol til My motivation comes back... Good luck to you.
pain patches are not supposed to be cut in quarters or halves or at all...can be dangerous..thought i read that in a post above....that is a real bad idea
i've been reading these posts for months thinking obout the day that i could quit hydros. i wasn't taking as much as some people that post do, but i was taking around 3 10/325 norco/day for a little over a year. on tuesday a ate my last 2. i think the worst part of the wd's is the worry about not having more. it defininitely is like a terrible flu. legs ache zero focus and a bit edgy. the first 2 days i did nothing but sleep, and now i feel much better. still want the hydros. in fact my connect called today to see if i wanted to refill the script. i really wanted to say yes, because now that i am through the worst of it i can control my use, but i declined. i'm 3 days clean now and really feel good. i used a variation of the thomas recipe that i've seen a hundred times. anyways, just wanted to post my story. maybe it will give someone hope.
My doctor perscribed me Cymbalta (anti depressant) and mentioned that it would help me through withdrawl. and it did. then i weaned off that too. no problems either.
as far as the motivation thing. i had gotten to where i could not even take a shower without some pills-hah. when i quit i started taking the amino acids and it really got my brain going and working better than ever. a really good diet helped with the motivation thing and you just gotta push it at first.my best friend is an IT and she does it fine with no drugs at all. She works from her home and finds that the first few hours you are up is the time to get as much done as possible. your brain is at optimum and energy too.
it is good that you are thinking about the after. the better you plan that out, the less panicy you will be as it gets near.
as far as the motivation thing. i had gotten to where i could not even take a shower without some pills-hah. when i quit i started taking the amino acids and it really got my brain going and working better than ever. a really good diet helped with the motivation thing and you just gotta push it at first.my best friend is an IT and she does it fine with no drugs at all. She works from her home and finds that the first few hours you are up is the time to get as much done as possible. your brain is at optimum and energy too.
it is good that you are thinking about the after. the better you plan that out, the less panicy you will be as it gets near.
Thanks for the help guys. To keep me busy I program... time flies when I'm doing it. But it's a double edge sword because I don't program when I feel bad... but I'm going to establish a plan and stick to it. Hopefully in 2 months I'll be myself again. And I think I'm going to talk to my doctor about anti-depressants. Think he won't prescribe those if i tell him what I'm going through?
Tapering is different for everybody as there is no test to figure just how addicted you are and what the minimum amount to get you through the day is.
I am currently weening off of oxymorphone on a plan with my doctor with a clonidine patch.
I am starting out cutting my dose by 1/4 with the patch and it seems to be going well so far(Day three). By day five I will be at 50%. By day 10 I will be at 75% or 1/4 of my normal dose. Then by the end I am supposed to be down to 1/10 of my dose to 0% whenever I feel as though I can function without it. But this is different for everyone, so you should do what makes you most comfortable. If you have insurance, talk to your doctor. If you're serious about getting off the narcotics, they will help you. They may be dickhead trying to scare you but they will help you in the end. The patch has been a godsend. It's unbelievable. The first couple of days will be bad, period. Accept that now. Next is discipline and as you said that isn't a problem. If thats the truth then there should be no problem.
As far as the lack of motivation, I've been there. It sounds silly, but you kind of just have to force yourself to be active. The lack of motivation is depression. You can try anti depressants but they do not always work.
In the past I forced myself to work out and get into shape because I got fat after getting though the physical withdrawals and the lying around with no motivation. It does go away. Working out releases endorphins as well as serotonin. The more you do this the better you'll feel.
What I did was I found a girl that worked at the market near my house. She was light years out of my league. So, I started working out with the motive in mind to ask her out once I felt comfortable with the way I looked again. Not all people are as vain as me, but maybe you want to run a marathon or you want to join a softball team. Find a underlining reason to motivate you to be motivated to get active. Then force yourself. It's hard but not impossible to be done. Within a few months you'll probably be better than you were before you ever touched a pill. Eat right and remain focused.
Pick up halthy habits like chewing on ice or gnawing on carrots or something. Start writing. Do anything at all possible to keep your mind of the drugs and force yourself to be active. If you can't do that then you are seriously ******. Sorry.
I am currently weening off of oxymorphone on a plan with my doctor with a clonidine patch.
I am starting out cutting my dose by 1/4 with the patch and it seems to be going well so far(Day three). By day five I will be at 50%. By day 10 I will be at 75% or 1/4 of my normal dose. Then by the end I am supposed to be down to 1/10 of my dose to 0% whenever I feel as though I can function without it. But this is different for everyone, so you should do what makes you most comfortable. If you have insurance, talk to your doctor. If you're serious about getting off the narcotics, they will help you. They may be dickhead trying to scare you but they will help you in the end. The patch has been a godsend. It's unbelievable. The first couple of days will be bad, period. Accept that now. Next is discipline and as you said that isn't a problem. If thats the truth then there should be no problem.
As far as the lack of motivation, I've been there. It sounds silly, but you kind of just have to force yourself to be active. The lack of motivation is depression. You can try anti depressants but they do not always work.
In the past I forced myself to work out and get into shape because I got fat after getting though the physical withdrawals and the lying around with no motivation. It does go away. Working out releases endorphins as well as serotonin. The more you do this the better you'll feel.
What I did was I found a girl that worked at the market near my house. She was light years out of my league. So, I started working out with the motive in mind to ask her out once I felt comfortable with the way I looked again. Not all people are as vain as me, but maybe you want to run a marathon or you want to join a softball team. Find a underlining reason to motivate you to be motivated to get active. Then force yourself. It's hard but not impossible to be done. Within a few months you'll probably be better than you were before you ever touched a pill. Eat right and remain focused.
Pick up halthy habits like chewing on ice or gnawing on carrots or something. Start writing. Do anything at all possible to keep your mind of the drugs and force yourself to be active. If you can't do that then you are seriously ******. Sorry.
being afraid of withdrawals is like being scared of a medical procedure that must be done to save ur life.....it is a few days of feeling flu-like....nothing in the scheme of things..taper and hand ur pills over or jus flush em and get it doen....keep posting
ah motivation... I have no answer for that question. LOL, I bet our motivation will come back some day..after we're clean! You're on the right track with tapering. 5mg a week is a good taper plan, if you feel too sick when you try the 40 mg a day, then I would suggest to start at 50 mg or even 55mg if you've been on an average of 60mg. the idea is to keep yourself from getting sick while you're tapering. I got all excited and started WAY too low for what I was taking and got pretty sick for a few days, and realized that I needed to slow it down a bit. But of course, now I'm planning on CT off 50-60 mgs next week, everyones different, you sound really motivated though!! :) thats a good thing and coming on this forum is sooooooooooooooo helpful!!! I believe that it may have saved my life. I'm always around if you want to chat :) ttys!
The worst part for me that I'm afraid of is not the withdrawls, but is what lies ahead in life with no pills. I think that is going to be an even harder challenge. The reason that I started doing pills in the first place was because I'm in IT (Technology) and I would find that when I would program I got done about 3 times as much as when I was sober... so it became a mental thing for me getting more done. Sure it felt good, but I was really more focused on the results. Now that I've been doing this for so long, I know my problem will be the same as it was the previous times I stopped. I know I can make it through the withdrawls but after they stop, I'm just not motivated to do anything. I just don't want to program anymore, I don't want to do any cleaning, any work, not anything. It's almost as everything seems too monumental to take on, whereas before it was like if I needed an instant motivation booster, I could just pop pills. I honestly am not going to miss the hi feeling, but I am going to miss the motivation.
This may sound silly, but is there anything legal and non dangerous that can help with the lack of motivation?
This may sound silly, but is there anything legal and non dangerous that can help with the lack of motivation?
I think you are getting the idea. It is a day by day thing. And yea going a couple of days without and then with like 30mg one day. The thing is to keep that quit date and always working towards it. No matter what that is the last day. And you are always getting ready for it.I tappered for 1 month.
The day before quit day, i went to the grocery store. Got lots of good foods. The amino acids, some vitamins and a bottle of wine in case i couldn't sleep. More ammodium. The melatonin for sleep. Valarian root for calming down. I also had a couple of sleeping pills from my doctor. And then i just dug in by myself and it wasn't that bad. I think over the month of tappering i had psyched myself up pretty good to handle whatever was going to happen and was ready.
Now look at all the people that have done this. You can too.
The day before quit day, i went to the grocery store. Got lots of good foods. The amino acids, some vitamins and a bottle of wine in case i couldn't sleep. More ammodium. The melatonin for sleep. Valarian root for calming down. I also had a couple of sleeping pills from my doctor. And then i just dug in by myself and it wasn't that bad. I think over the month of tappering i had psyched myself up pretty good to handle whatever was going to happen and was ready.
Now look at all the people that have done this. You can too.
No, I don't have someone to hold my pills as I'm ashamed to say most everybody is not aware I'm a user. But, I'm not worried too much about that, self discipline is usually not my problem as I've stopped before and I KNOW I have to keep going to get to normal.
When going through tapering, I thought about maybe dropping down to 40mg a day then after 2 weeks down to 20mg then 2 weeks and down to 10mg. Also, if I can go like 2 or 3 days without any, and then I give in and take 30mg to get me through a little bit, is that a bad thing? And is there anything I should be taking while doing this? Should I ask my doctor for anything?
When going through tapering, I thought about maybe dropping down to 40mg a day then after 2 weeks down to 20mg then 2 weeks and down to 10mg. Also, if I can go like 2 or 3 days without any, and then I give in and take 30mg to get me through a little bit, is that a bad thing? And is there anything I should be taking while doing this? Should I ask my doctor for anything?
everyone is different..tapering was hard for me...have to have alot of discipline..do u have someone to hold ur pills? 1/2 pill a week would be a slow taper and doable if u dont lose motivation as u r talking several months to quit....spread ur doses out into small doses thru the day....pick a time off work to quit and it is a good idea to write it out...each day/time a dose....when people start to feel uncomfortable during the taper/to the point that quitting would just be easier/they often jump off then
Thanks guys for your help. To answer Marebears question, I haven't done methadone for about 3 to 4 years now, but I believe they were just 10mg pills and one would last me the entire day. It was weird because I tried taking them only on weekends, but then after about 3 or 4 months I started to feel "wierd" during the week starting on Monday. I honestly had no idea why I was feeling the way I did (cold sweats, chills, etc).... then it hit me it may of been because of the pills. So I stopped CT to see if that is what it was... holy smokes did it come crashing down my first weekend without them. I felt like I was going to die.. I couldnt' focus on anything, not motivated to do anything. I would walk around outside and look at anything and just not understand how any human being would be motivated to build that thing. lol. But, just like everyone on here says, it DOES go away.
Hey broknbck, how long did you taper off 90mg for?
Hey broknbck, how long did you taper off 90mg for?
I tappered off hydros from 90mg/day. I found that you can't really come up with a schedule in stone. You do the best you can and work towards the date that you have picked. If it's possible to go without one day, than that will bring your tolerance down. Some days i would do what my taper was on and if possible less. You know than the next day maybe back to the regular dose. just don't ever go higher.
Also i only took it twice a day. no matter what the dosage i was at. that was my rule.
that way you have to stretch it out as long as possible and therefore you are not taking it right out of bed each day. Good habit to get into huh?
wish you the best!!!!!
Also i only took it twice a day. no matter what the dosage i was at. that was my rule.
that way you have to stretch it out as long as possible and therefore you are not taking it right out of bed each day. Good habit to get into huh?
wish you the best!!!!!
I can not offer any advice on a taper plan but there are many here that can. I did the CT route. Someone will come along i promise. It seems many are not on tonight. Just wanted to bump ya back up and say welcome!! This forum is a great place to find support and so many wonderful people are here!! Stay strong and good luck to you!
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