First your gonna want to get a tapering plan together, write it out on paper, and try and stick to it.. whatever drug your using to cut down with you need to somehow control the dose, easier with prescribed meds obviously., if your using street heroin get some scales... try to switch to smoking or snorting if you inject.
The trick for the most comfortable detox is to taper as slowly as possible, most people find they hit a brick wall when they get down to a certain dose, usually around 10mg methadone (or it's equivalent)
If you have access to a shorter acting opiate it may be a good idea to swap over for the last few weeks of the taper, methadone has such a long half life and hangs around for weeks... If you can swap to something like MST or dihydrocodeine you will find things easier.
You can even swap to something like codeine phosphate or even immodium for the last bit.
Drugs/Treatments that help withdrawal are:
- Benzo's - Diazepam, Temazepam, Xanax, Nitrazepam, Lorazepam etc (Comfort meds, helps sleep, relaxes aching restless legs and relieves anxiety)
- Immdium - For diorreah (Can also be used for the tail end of the taper as is an opiate)
- Quinnine for cramps and RLS
- Magnesium bath salts - Hot baths regularly are the only thing that have got me through some detoxes, you can take it orally too
- Plenty of water! - The last thing you wanna do when detoxing is eat and drink but you really need to flush the toxins out!
- Something like clonodine of you can get it, be careful though as this messes with your blood pressure, better to be taken only under medical supervision
- Acupuncture - Helps you relax and relieves anxiety
- Massage
- Acupressure/reflexology
- EXERCISE! - Get your endorphins flowing.. last thing you wanna do but it really helps!
- Masturbation/Sex ;) - Another natural way to get endorphins flowing again.
- Vitamins and supplements that can help are - Zinc, Magnesium, All the B vitamins, Vit D & C, L-Tyrosine
- Valerian and St Johns Wort can help relieve depression
- For lethargy rhodelia rosea helps
Alternative/Controversial ideas for opiate withdrawal include....
Ibogaine (See my blog!)
Salvia
Kratom
UROD
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Cold turkey is gonna be hard whichever way you look at it, the above can help, but above all your going to need willpower, determination and discipline!
Tapering successfully can be done, I've done it and it was the easiest withdrawal I ever did, but I had to be so disciplined, I didn't use any heroin for the eighteen months it took to taper and stuck pretty much 100% to the taper plan, I couldn't manage more than a 1mg(1ml) drop of methadone every four days.
When I got to 10mg methadone I hit 'the wall' and swapped to subutex for the last 12 weeks.
Before I stopped the sub I got down to literally a couple of crumbs of a 2mg tablet.
I remember being incredibly anxious that I would go into horrendous withdrawal when I stopped altogether and it took some persuasion to take that leap and let go of that last 0.02mg of subs but I did it, and it was FINE! Just like any other drop...
I didn't suffer PAWS as such, and I put this down partly to the fact I wasn't as clued up as I am now and didn't even know there was such a thing... I think if i'd heard of PAWS I would of psychosomatically made myself ill.
I did suffer depression, and after some googling found out that venlaflaxine (Effexor) was good for ex opiate addicts. It helped, I used it for around a year after and eventually tapered that and stopped.
