There are a few choices when it comes to opiate withdrawal for the person who is struggling with the challenge of quitting and opiate dependence whether this may be from prescription medications that contain hydrocodone or heroin. It you happen to be thinking about stopping your opiate use then it is good to know one has a few options.
Cold Turkey opiate withdrawal at home
The first way I will share with is called how to stop opiate withdrawal cold turkey.
Some people simply have no other options than to go cold turkey a lot of the time this is due to no insurance. This is a very hard way to detox from heroin. I would only use this method as a last resort. I would search for private funding or county funding in the area I would like to get help to detox for heroin.
To me one of the best ways to go through an opiate withdrawal is treatment so I would suggest that you find a local treatment center. Give them a call find out about there funding and make arrangements to get in. If you do not have insurance most places will take Medicaid if this does not work look into getting Government funding to help pay for your stay.
Once you get in to rehab they will usally detox you for opiates, this can take 3 to 5 days using prescription drugs to help manage your opiate withdrawal. Most places will make you very comfortable because they know how sick we get when we stop using opiates. They can help regardless whether you are withdrawal from heroin or hydrocodone pills like vicodin.
When you complete your opiate withdrawal the next step is residential treatment. Here they will help you to get the information how to live a great life clean without the use of drugs. If you only detox there is no doubt in my mind you will use again maybe as soon as you leave treatment. When you do leave make sure you have an after care plan this is essential for all recovering addicts who leave treatment.
Here is a video on opiate withdrawal
Hi, my name is Heather. I am 30 years old and I have been taking Loritab precribed by a doctor for a year in a half. I recently went Cold Turkey because I was tierd of being on Medications. I found that my tolerance went up and I craved the drug more and more and it made me feel bad. I went cold turkey because I knew tappering off wouldnt work and I wasnt going to go to a treatment center because I knew they give Methodone, wich is still an opiate and I refused another opiate to be in my system!! I have never felt so much pain in my life then I did from the withdrawals. I went in thinking I would have the normal side effects they mention. but it wasn't even close. I ended up having convulsions where my body would hold its breath as every muscle in my body tensed up so bad that it would through my arm one way and my head the most. It went on for days like that. The anxiety is what gets to you, so I called my doctor and told him what i was doing and he called in Roboxian for the muscle spasms. It is a drug you will not get high off of, but it is WONDERS for opiate withdrawals. I am now on my tenth day and still struggling with the mental and some body withdrawals, but I am so proud of myself. I looked it up because I couldnt understand what was really going on with my wd's. I found out that Hydrocodone litterally takes a chunk out of your dna and replaces that chunk with it's self. It actually physically becomes a part of your body/GI/and Brain!!!!!!! That was crazy to find out. I never knew that it actually becomes ur DNA.. I wish I had and I wish there was a way to get out what "addictive" really means with Hydro because it's not addictive it is Dependence!!! I promise u can make it through it if you get off it will be hard and I didnt get help till the fifth day. I even got videos to show the stages and how bad it is for your body. So please take this seriously and I promise you will be better to go through the unexplainable withdrawals but it's better now then later or death from distruction of your kidneys and liver.
ReplyDeleteHi Heather
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing with us. I think that your story is very inspiring and will give others a lot of hope. I do understand what you said about the methadone and wanting to be free from all opiates. I have to tell you that I do not know you but I am proud of you for sticking it out. I can only guess how painful it was for you being that it was not me, but I have had my share of withdrawals. I am glad the Roboxian is helping you and trust me your mental and body withdrawals will get better. Just hang in there and Congradulations on 10 days clean you are indeed a miracle!
Thank you for this site and bless you. I am about to start a long journey of w/d hell myself. I've been through it before, though only about 3 times in 6 years. :( Wish me luck!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations good for you I wish you all the luck in the world. God bless
ReplyDeletecan someone please help me with some advice,wellive been using heroin for 5 days and i feel it getting a grip,todayis my 1st day off it,and im starting to feel the withdrawels kicking in.How long will the cold turkey last for me ?
ReplyDeleteWell if you have only been using 5 days you will be OK in a day or 2.
ReplyDeleteI went to dotox for 6 days and then slippd up once and now I am back to 3 days clean instead of 23, I have suboxone but am realy worried that taking it everyday will simply be replacing the heroin and other opiates, and I've been hearing that studies are showing that one mg. of suboxone could be equal to 100mg of oxy-watever... and that it may be just as hard or harder to come off compared to a regular opiate dependency. But back to my 3 days of sobriety, one thing that I can turn into a posative from that slip-up would be that I was completely unsatisfied when i tried to get high, I felt that I had thrown away my 10 or so days of sobriety away and didnt even get a real "high" from it, and that feeling of guilt will hopefully continue to remind me that it was never enough and that giving everything that I want to get back in my life up for an attempt to escape reality just one more time, that was completely un-enjoyable, was clearly NOT worth it. I do worry that I could convince myself that I just needed to do more, but I already know that thinking like this will only lead you down one path. One question I have is how long after the main physical symtoms of withdrawels start to dissapate, do the mental aspects such as stress, anxiety, and depression start to get easier? and do you think I should take my suboxone on days where I feel I'm doing just fine? or use it more when I feel at risk?
ReplyDeleteHi there you thanks for your questions. You asked.....
ReplyDelete"One question I have is how long after the main physical symptoms of withdrawals start to dissipate."
This can depend on several things for one how much you were using the number of years you were using and what you are doing to stay healthy now.
They can last up to 2 years and this is known as post acute withdrawal syndrome.
Simply put if you do not do something that is recovery orientated you will probably continue to relapse. I am pretty sure in rehab that they stressed going to meetings. Were you attending meetings when you relapsed. If not you may really want to consider going.
We have to change the way we do things if we want to stay clean its as simple as that and it takes action to change. Without action it will you can expect the same results for doing the same old thing.
good luck