How can I safely stop taking Fiorinal

[Alicia Marie]

I have been taking Fiorinal for 13 years to treat vascular headaches. (2 pills, 3 times a day) I wish to discontinue and have cut back to one pill three times a day for the last five days. I plan to gradually decrease over the next week. I have been experiencing discomfort.(Body aches, and poor mood) Is this safe? At what point does the body return to normal? Should I expect days, weeks, or more? Thank you for your help.

[suezq914]

I sit here, after just leaving my doctor of 15 years. Thank you, Vicki.  Fioricet withdrawal is one of the hardest things a person can go through.  I take between 15 to 20 per day along with 2 to four valium (10 mg.)  I am tired.  I am depressed.  I am frightened.  And I HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE.  I detoxed in 1996 (home and without a doctors help) from 30 valium daily and over 30 fioricet daily.  How I am here... I do not know.  I stayed off a few years, after going through the very worse 6 weeks of my life.  After the detox... It took me many months to start to "come into myself again".  After, I stARTED to actually feel good for a very long time.  It is 2012.  I am 47 years old with many herniated and buldging disks w/ stenosis/neuropithy/ and nerve damage.  I live in constant and severe pain, but somehow I need to do this.  For me, my family, and most of all my son.  Pray for me please.  God bless you all.  

[vicki595]

I think it's a matter of opinion and that's yours. Truly, you didn't take very much Fiorinal for very long and it's dabatable whether you were addicted. So, that's your experience but it isn't the experience of most people.

Also, the person you posted to has not been here for ten years and this is a very old thread. You can post your own comments by going to the top of the forum page and clicking on "post a question".

[rj789]

i've gotten off a ten tramadol ten vicadin a day habit.. for over 5 years and my doctor actually gave me fiorinal with codeine to get me off the opitates... trust me i've been through both and fiorinal withdrawal is NOWHERE NEAR as bad as opiate withdrawal..anyone on here saying otherwise has not experienced opiate withdrawal.. i took the fiorinal for about 6 months.. 4 a day then down to 2 a day then cold turkey... i felt uncomfortable for a few weeks..similar to quitting smoking..but nothing close to opiate withdrawal so don't be scared the ones who think it is so horrible are the ones who know nothing about opiate withdrawal.

[vicki595]

LA-  You posted on a very old thread.  Maybe you could start your own thread by posting where the "ask a question" icon is at the top of the forum page.

I understand what you're saying about your addiction but I have to tell you that your addiction will be a huge problem for you if Fiorinal is not available or prescribed to you anymore. You might consider tapering off and finding a different treatment to manage your pain.

All the best!

[LACalifornia]

I have been taking Fiorinal for 30 years.  Now all of a sudden "the doctors these days" won't prescribe it (or at least the ones I see don't).  They tell me that they don't give them to anyone.  Interestingly none of my doctors care what I'll have to go through to get off them.  I have pain-causing health conditions and this has been the only drug I can tolerate without major stomach upset.  There comes a time when one should ask "what's worse, the addiction to the drug OR the body pain?"  I personally think that addiction is the very least of my problems ... that if addiction was the only thing I had to worry about in my life then I'd be very happy!  But few people can understand this because those who are not understanding must walk a day in my shoes to understand.  Everyone is different and just because some people think this drug is poison does not make what they believe true.  And, interestingly, last month I had a hepatic test done as well as countless blood tests ... and everything came back "perfect."  So this so-called dangerous drug did not harm me one bit after 30 years!  It's just these young "new generation doctors" who don't want to believe that an old drug (Fiorinal is about 50 years old) can in fact be a fine choice.

[RoxyRoller2]

My father suffered migraine headaches since I can remember. He took fiorinal to treat his headaches and I now am not sure why except that they made him somewhat "high" and better able to cope with the pain. When I was a teenager I became aware that he was not acting right and we would sometimes make fun of him for not remembering my boyfriend's name (someone I might have been dating for a year) or doing silly things, like a person who was high. He would have a headache and then become very "talkative" at times when he took more medication than other times, but would never remember our "bonding session". Other times he kept to himself.

I am now 40. I have found out that he stopped taking Fiorinal finally when I was in my mid-30's. His new wife helped him to stop taking the meds. She told me that he would have blackouts at work - he would have a presentation and blubber on and on about nothing coherent and then forget about the whole thing. For 20 years or more he had been taking at least 12 Fiorinal per day. Now he suffers from pain that was masked from all the years of taking the pain killer. He has degeneration of the spine and constant pain from that (and ironically does not help his headaches). His stomach is now "shot" - he is retired and 65 and cannot enjoy wine or scotch or many of his favourite foods... ever again. He did not have a proper relationship with us since we were small kids. And he could not stay married to my mother. I consider my father a recovered addict and so does his wife. I have no idea what it has done to his organs as he is only recently opening up and owning up (to me) regarding his problem. He has bad arthritis in his knees and hands, which previously went undetected and untreated.

Good luck to you all. Remember your families and you kids and all the time lost with them that you can regain once you get off the meds. And the future that you can enjoy together without feeling constantly ill from the drug's long-term consequences.

This is not a guilt-posting, just another perspective and maybe another reason or inspiration to help stop the meds.