|
Anonymous #1
|
Opiate addiction
#7839650 - 01/06/08 02:11 PM (16 years, 26 days ago) |
|
|
Ok, so I want to stop taking opiates but when I do I can't go to work and I turn into this other person. The non-opiated me thinks everybody is an evil subversive genius manipulating me in any number of ways and life is hell. I am sure anybody who responds to this knows what I'm talking about... So, I'm at the point where I am seriously considering seeking professional help for this, because it's fucking up my life. I don't take very much, but I have to have it every day. The physical withdrawals aren't that bad, I get stomach problems and chills and goosebumps on par with a bad flu, but it's the mental thing that sends me back every time. Should I seek treatment for anxiety and switch to a benzo for a couple weeks to get all the opioids out of my system while maintaining the ability to interact with other people? As low as my dose is, and because of the fact I'm not addicted to a refined pharmaceutical product or heroin but to opium tea (I figured out I consume aroung 50-75mg morphine/day, along with whatever other alkaloids are in poppy pods, to 'maintain'), I have the feeling wherever I go they're going to snicker and say "just suck it up and deal with the withdrawals, they're not that bad, people come in here addicted to multiple bags of heroin a day and you need help to get off of your <100mg/day habit?!?!"... I just have trouble believing I'd get any assistance from an opiate treatment clinic, especially where I live, where there are tons of people on the street living fucking terrible lives due to their massive addictions...
So here's my question. If you've gotten professional treatment for narcotic addiction of any sort, what was it like? Where did you go? What did they tell you? Is it even possible to get on some sort of maintenance dose of an opiate and taper off of that when you have a habit as relatively small as mine? I find it a little absurd that I can't get off of this shit, but it's not like I shot heroin every day for a year and was fine before that, I've got "mental issues" (ever since I was a kid, I have documentation) that I self-medicate with opium, but after the first year and a half it's not working that well, it just keeps me from going totally BAT SHIT INSANE! So, what is opiate addiction treatment like? Would I be better served to get some benzos and try the switch/taper thing myself? I need opinions. Thanks -Anonymous shroomerite
|
Huehuecoyotl
Fading Slowly


Registered: 06/13/04
Posts: 10,685
Loc: On the Border
|
|
I suggest that you first deal with the issues that you are medicating yourself for. After this psychological need is met the problem is reduced to a physical/biological dependency. THEN deal with quitting. I tried this strategy with alcohol, and had great success.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
|
BirdsIView
Mr. Helms

Registered: 07/19/07
Posts: 736
|
|
Have you tried a low dose of shrooms while off opiates to try to change your perspective on things?
|
Anonymous #1
|
Re: Opiate addiction [Re: BirdsIView]
#7839766 - 01/06/08 02:28 PM (16 years, 26 days ago) |
|
|
Yeah, I did. I remember it being really intense and meaning-filled and thinking "wow, it was time to stop", but it actually led me to come up with a lot more justifications/reasons to take more and I started trying to find a heroin connect right after the trip until I realized what I was doing and started drinking tea again again a week or so after that trip. I was actually thinking about doing that agian, but mushrooms usually leave me with more questions than I had when I started.
|
Huehuecoyotl
Fading Slowly


Registered: 06/13/04
Posts: 10,685
Loc: On the Border
|
|
Self examination is needed. Learn stalking.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
|
Anonymous #1
|
|
Stalking like following people around and looking up their history, finding out where they live, calling them all the time, freaking them out? I know how to do that but I don't see what it has to do with the discomfort induced by opiate consumption...
|
some1whoisntme
Stranger


Registered: 09/21/05
Posts: 882
Last seen: 8 years, 11 months
|
|
Hey man, sounds like a control thing to me... You feel like you can't control your drug intake and you can't control yourself without drugs... you said: "Ok, so I want to stop taking opiates but when I do I can't go to work and I turn into this other person" There's a fine line between taking responsibility for your life and just "letting go" and being blown along like a feather on the winds of change. It's not easy but you need to do more of the letting go.
-------------------- "Ignore the distortion you're forced to percieve and believe that what supercedes is love, but who agrees?"
|
Huehuecoyotl
Fading Slowly


Registered: 06/13/04
Posts: 10,685
Loc: On the Border
|
|
I mean self stalking as described by Carlos Castaneda. You stalk your own behaviors as though they were prey and you are the hunter. For more info read Castaneda's works. Particularly "Journey to Ixtlan". I overcame a similar dependency with the info in that book.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/3S7QQZIXA61EN
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
|
Anonymous #1
|
|
Interesting. I will have to find a copy.
|
Diploid
Cuban



Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
|
|
I suggest that you first deal with the issues that you are medicating yourself for.
People don't always opiate themselves to deal with internal psychological issues. Some do it to escape a shitty reality.
I take opiates because they help me forget about suicide bombers, George Bush, obnoxious busybody religious fucks who want me to live like they do and push legislation to that effect, retarded laws that keep me living a dual life (druggie in private and non-druggie in public), 55+% belief in creation among Americans, and all sorts of other shit on this crap planet full of morons that I'm stuck on.
Opiate addiction is only a problem if you can't get opiates. 100 years ago, a large fraction of the population lived in constant opiate addiction, and we got along just fine.
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
|
Anonymous #1
|
Re: Opiate addiction [Re: Diploid]
#7856332 - 01/09/08 09:45 PM (16 years, 23 days ago) |
|
|
Reality is subjective, and opiates do make my subjective life less shitty. I remember things not being as shitty before I started taking opiates. Thus, I have come to the conclusion that opiates are slowly but steadily decreasing the quality of my subjective experience. There's also the detachment and loss of emotion that comes along with taking opiates every day.
They're making me less happy in the long term but it's difficult to escape the immediate "pull". I'mna go drink mah tea.
|
appleorange
Rainbow Technician



Registered: 12/30/07
Posts: 4,868
Loc: Reykjavík
|
|
One of my best friends was addicted to morphine, he got on suboxone, I think that's what it's called. He made a wonderful turn for the better.
Opiate addiction is evil and you are going to need more than just will-power to get over it.
|
Diploid
Cuban



Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
|
|
Opiate addiction is evil
Opiate addiction is evil only because of backward, busybody laws that limit the supply and use guns to put users in cages and destroy their lives and their family's lives.
If opiates were freely available as they were for thousands of years before the invention of the DEA, they would not be a problem any more than taking naps are a problem.
The ONLY problem with opiates (natural substances that grow by themselves out of the fucking dirt) is that obnoxious busybodies with guns put people in government cages for using them!
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
|
appleorange
Rainbow Technician



Registered: 12/30/07
Posts: 4,868
Loc: Reykjavík
|
Re: Opiate addiction [Re: Diploid]
#7856761 - 01/09/08 10:55 PM (16 years, 23 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Diploid said: Opiate addiction is evil
Opiate addiction is evil only because of backward, busybody laws that limit the supply and use guns to put users in cages and destroy their lives and their family's lives.
If opiates were freely available as they were for thousands of years before the invention of the DEA, they would not be a problem any more than taking naps are a problem.
The ONLY problem with opiates is that obnoxious busybodies put people in government cages for using them!
um...
legal or not, have you ever witnessed someone go through heroin withdrawals?
just take a look at alcohol, a legal substance which still ruins lives.
|
Diploid
Cuban



Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
|
|
legal or not, have you ever witnessed someone go through heroin withdrawals?
Been there, done that. Don't talk to me like you know better than me. Or that you know what's good for me better than I know myself. You are not my mother.
I'm a tax payer. I don't bother anyone. I keep to myself. I don't drive under the influence of any substance. And I do my drugs in private. Opium has been used by responsible adults for thousands of years without societal problems.
If some irresponsible drug user is causing social problems, deal with them harshly, but GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY LIFE!
You don't fix bank robberies by making banks illegal. You fix them by arresting bank robbers!
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
|
WhiskeyClone
Not here


Registered: 06/25/01
Posts: 16,509
Loc: Longitudinal Center of Canada ...
|
Re: Opiate addiction [Re: Diploid]
#7858012 - 01/10/08 07:47 AM (16 years, 22 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Diploid said:
Opiate addiction is only a problem if you can't get opiates. 100 years ago, a large fraction of the population lived in constant opiate addiction, and we got along just fine.
How do you know that? I'd bet money you'd have a lot more to complain about (and to escape from) 100 years ago. You think fundamentalism is widespread today...
-------------------- Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it. ~ R.W. Emerson, "Self-Reliance"
|
Anonymous #1
|
|
Quote:
Huehuecoyotl said: I suggest that you first deal with the issues that you are medicating yourself for. After this psychological need is met the problem is reduced to a physical/biological dependency. THEN deal with quitting. I tried this strategy with alcohol, and had great success.
This is what I did. 5 days without opiates now and going strong! This was definitely not something I could have fixed on my own... Mental health care professionals can help. It's what they do. Goddamn they sure like money though...
|
BrAiN
Art Fag


Registered: 03/01/01
Posts: 6,875
Loc: Chocolate City
Last seen: 2 years, 5 months
|
|
I don't know if this is the best advice, but smoking lots of weed helped get me off the hard drugs (uppers in my case).
|
Huehuecoyotl
Fading Slowly


Registered: 06/13/04
Posts: 10,685
Loc: On the Border
|
Re: Opiate addiction [Re: Diploid]
#7903455 - 01/19/08 08:34 PM (16 years, 13 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Some do it to escape a shitty reality.
That is what I call a psychological issue.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
|
Huehuecoyotl
Fading Slowly


Registered: 06/13/04
Posts: 10,685
Loc: On the Border
|
|
Good deal. Keep it up.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
|
|