Day 4 opiate withdrawal--ANXIETY IS TOO MUCH!!!

[Buckeye27]

Advice please!! I am trying to survive day 4 of opiate wds. Can anyone give some advice on THE ANXIETY!!  I need relief----which is best--------a supplement? a doctor's script for panic attacks/anxiety? a glass of wine??  the half of a perc I have left??  I'm looking for a quick solution to the saturday evening hell PLEASE and also long term advice for anxiety (I have tried xanax from my doc before & didn't like them---instead I abused opiates and that's not a solution!).

[Debg57]

Hi I am on day three and whenever I start getting bad anxiety I drink green tea. It honestly calms you and relaxes you. I have been taking vixodins for over six years but only take two 5mg a day so my withdrawals are much milder but believe me day two was the absolute worse. Had a bad anxiety attack earlier and drank a tall glass of green tea. Try it and let me know if it works

[nicky_83]

thanks to everyone for your words of inspiration. I'm currently detoxing and just knowing that others have made it through the fire helps build my courage to know that I can be strong and make it through as well.
bless you all and good job!

[Tbsweetpea]

Has anyone here gone to a medical detox that does not use methadone or subs. They just do benzodiazepine and other meds to keep you comfortable. I am tapering now but am thinking of going to detox to just get it over with. I am currently on 105 mgs IR Oxycodone per day an am scared to death. Anyone with experience with a medical detox would surely put my mind at ease.  Thanks in advance

[weanerone]

Michele, I just wanted to let you know I am about to go into complete detox mode. I have greatly reduced my intake of opiates over the past few months gearing myself for complete withdrawal and boy let me tell you it's so hard. I wish I would have never touched these devilish pills. They are hell on earth, but one thing you pointed out about smell seems so true. My sense of smell kind of stinks for lack of better words. I went off my pills for a week to test my theory and my smell seemed better food actually meant something and my constipation improved. That's another thing the constipation with opiates, it's terrible! I am glad you are clean and hope you still are, I know this is an old post, but I found you through a google search!

[micheleTX]

I can do some of that! lol, well, I don't know if this was just me or if others went through this, but I could never sneeze on pills.  Ha, now I sneeze all the time, and I really don't mind it, I have allergies anyway...also, couldnt smell things very good.  My sense of smell is wonderful now.  They just cut the grass outside my trailer and it smells so sweet and springy comin in the windows.  Little things but things I truly enjoy.  Food also tastes a bit different, I'm more aware maybe of the taste of it, and I can taste different spices whereas before I couldn't or just didn't,,  My head is so much clearer.  What I mean by that is I had a headache every day on pills.  I don't usually suffer those, and I don't anymore...that is a relief.  I don't have trouble concentrating at all.  I do crossword puzzles and puzzles of that kind, find I am thinking clearer if that makes sense.  I don't have that "sense of urgency" that the pills gave me which I thought was "energy" back then.  It wasn't really.  It was just going from one thought to another in my brain at lightning speed lol.
I just feel more confident in my own skin,,,whereas where I had to have a pill to face the public eye (you probably understand that one), i don't anymore.  I just do what I have to do, and enjoy it.  
I hope this helps somehow.  I'm so proud for you.  Keep feelin better :)

[Buckeye27]

Thanks for the supplement advice.  I feel like today, day 6 CT, I may make it thru this after all!! AMEN!!  I wanted some benzo help horribly this weekend but I'm thinking my first trip to a gym today will help.
I think I will need permanent tools to deal with anxiety in my life, (something better for me than abusing opiates) but if by the end of this week, my first week to 10 days sober, the anxiety can lesson, I will be ok.  
Thanks to you all for your help fighting the good fight.
If anyone has some happy things I have to look forward to in the next days of my sobriety, let me know.  Anything good to look forward to would be awesome.
Buckeye

[rkjo84]

I am currently detoxing off suboxone for the 10th time or so...the best way to combat the anxiety other than benzo's (xanax, kolopin etc.) is to take herbal supplements...this isn't just folklore, they actually work and work well.  Go to your local GNC or vitamin shoppe and get a bottle of Valerian extract.  It works wonders for dealing with the anxiety of opiate withdrawal and has been a lifesaver for me at times.  Your need to take much more than the recommended dose, so if you get the extract take around 3-5 pills and wait an hour and see how you feel.  I would say this dosage of valerian has the same calming effect of 1 or 2 valiums.

[kris123]

I know it is the pits.  I remember one day I had to go to the hosptial I had so much anxeity.  Just try to relax, but it is hard.  It will pass.  I still have some anxeity but I know what you mean.

[micheleTX]

me too!  I am addicted to this and my photography forum.  I hardly even go to facebook anymore lol...all my poor fish and uh plants just die there, so sad!!  

[Addict63]

Congratulations on your 117 days!!!!!!  I know what U mean; about what we've gone through and not want a repeat performance ever again.

You can't get out, but your setting an example by doing the next right thing. Your helping people with words of encouragement and spreading your experience strength and hopes on here. Just being on here is fellowship.

I'm addicted to this site myself lol. When I boot up it's the first place I go. :)

[micheleTX]

That is so great!  I am so happy that you have a place where you feel at home with other people going through the same thing we are.  I cannot physically make it to meetings right now, I've been clean for 117 days now.  But I can tell you that I have cravings every now and then, and I think back on what I went through to get clean and I know I cannot go through that again.  It was pure hell. Not just the physical part.  The mental feeling of really seriously wanting to "die",  Like right then.  I hated that more than the physical part.  I never want to put myself through that again.  Hardest drug I ever had to get off of.  I wish I could go and talk to others who deal with this, maybe someday I will be able to.  I know it helps so many people.  Just glad to know you are doing so well with it.  Continued success to you my friend :)

[Addict63]

I've been in AA quite awhile with complete success until, I had to go on pain management with a back injury, which instantly became a disaster. Now I'm also in NA.

I found it was impossible for me to put together any time C&S left alone with my own addict's thinking. One of the worst things an addict can say is "I've been thinking"! Being alone with myself, I'm in the worst company I can keep.

NA/AA is simply something to try. I tried it and have been looking forward to my meetings ever since. It's a fellowship, not a religion. When you look up the word fellowship you get "a group of people meeting to pursue a shared interest or aim." The group of people you find at a meeting is the actual attraction. I feel they're all just like me, folks of all walks of life, trying to stay clean and sober together. One meeting I go to in the heart of downtown has lawyers and former street people, all at the same place, respecting one another, just staying C&S. In the metropolitan area I can find the exact type of meeting I want. But then when I vacation in an area, like the remote outer banks of NC I can find fantastic meetings also. It's everywhere. And anywhere in the world I walk into a meeting. I'm home.  :o)

[Buckeye27]

and addict63....

Hey there,
Hang in there!!! 20 minutes ago I didn't think I could do this but right now---WE CAN DO IT!  It's funny how we ride the wave, one minute we're in and the next we are defeated!  I'm going to see a doctor Monday if the anxiety is still bad.  I'd rather have to take something short-term than relapse with vicodin.  That's NOT AN OPTION!!  

Thanks for the follow up Addict63...I'm guessing in the real world you have a calming voice because in the virtual world you do:)  One thing you've help solidify for me is that I am an addict.  I'll never get away from it. I've quit before and then somehow justify just a couple for vacation, that's how I ended up high again for 7 months.  It's a disease and as much as I didn't want to believe it before, I know it now! (although I am still having reservations about NA/AA, not sure why).  

[Addict63]

...and also Back2Me,

This too shall pass. Ride it out. Ain't going to be this way the rest of your lives. Both of you will be okay soon. Day 4 was hell on wheels for me also. Major depression and anxiety. I hacked up a couple of my wife's xanax 1mg and took halves when it got too bad. But never went further than that on the xanax. Scared to death of the stuff, being an addict. By day 6 I was pretty much done give or take a panic attack or two.

When I was able to see my doctor he gave me Clonidine 1mg. It's for BP and helps with sleep and anxiety. Non addicting. Seems to work. Right now I'm tapering with Ambien, been on it for 10 months during my Opiate using. Ambien is WAY WORSE to kick than opiates. Horrendous. Can't do CT on Ambien. It will hurt you. Clonidine has worked for me.

Your doc knows best, not me. I look for answers, not give them.

[Back2Me]

Wow I am sooooo where you are at exactly right now. I can barely stand it. I just had a major attack. I don't want to do anything stupid but this is unbearable. We just have to find a way to deal I guess. I am on day 4 exactly like you. A few more days and I am hoping to be out of this madness in my head. Oh and Ativan made mine WORSE when it wore off.

[Back2Me]

Wow I am sooooo where you are at exactly right now. I can barely stand it. I just had a major attack. I don't want to do anything stupid but this is unbearable. We just have to find a way to deal I guess. I am on day 4 exactly like you. A few more days and I am hoping to be out of this madness in my head. Oh and Ativan made mine WORSE when it wore off.