Day 5 still can't sleep

[suppdawg]

I am a cronic pain sufferer. I have been on and off of pain meds for years going from 6-18 months at a time without the meds but as the pain gets bad I return to the meds. I only take them for pain and only as ordered by the doc.  For the past 16 months I have been on Norco 10/325 up to 8 per day. The past month I had tooth pain and got permission from my MD to increase the dose. That scared me because it increased my tolerance. In the past I have been on the avinza and duragesic and don't want to return to them as they are too strong and tough to quit. Anyway I stopped taking my meds 10pm on Saturday. In the past I would feel like **** for 72 hours then be fine. This time I am on day 5 and can't sleep. Because I have been unable to sleep I broke down and took a single norco this am thinking the benefit of sleep would out weigh any other issues. It did not work and didnt have any real effect on WD symptoms. How bad of an idea was this? I will get some Ambien tomarrow and hopefuly that will help. any thoughts?

[allaboutmary]

This is what I have found with the pills , each time you detox and go back the withdrawal gets worse. I have a sister dealing with this also. Her withdrawals were not too bad the first 2 times.  I tried to tell her they get worse the longer you use and begged her to get off them now while its still fairly easy. I used pain pills for almost 5 years and the depression and lack of energy lasted months.
As far as you taking the 1 pill, it shouldn't have done too much damage, but dont do it again it will only set you back in your detox.  You haven't been using all that long and could get off fairly easy. I know the lack of sleep is awful, but it will come back.  I can't stress enough how important it is for you to do this now , it does get so much worse.  Keep reading on this forum and posting.  You will find that use of pain pills long term actually increase's pain.  Stay strong and keep going forward. Best wishes.   Mary

[GoingToMakeIt]

That was probably not a good idea. You want to totally stay away if your goal is to quit. Have you tried melatonin? You can take up to 10mg. Eat bananas and take a calcium/magnesium supplement. This also relaxes muscles and body. If you want, a hot bath with Epsom salts helps relax too. Loss of sleep and energy is very common. In a few more days, I would think you will be sleeping again. You still will need a sleep aid, probably.