Opiates for benzo withdrawal

[Guest [Or...]]

Is there a connection between opiates and healing from benzo WD? I've been reading a lot of success stories lately and it seems those that use opiates heal faster.

[[bn...]]

following! I do take a small amount of opioid. Wish I did not but...do! I can't say it has helped in my w/d. I do know that I just can't take them away right now. First got off of a year long w/d from K, than C/T off of Ambein. Will hold on to the opioids until I can get a grip on my life.

[[Fl...]]

I don't know of a connection between them on BB but for myself

it took a good 6 months after stopping oxycodone before my pain receptors would allow any relief from

tylenol and aleve, and just about anything else. But then I started getting sick from the NSAIDS again, after

a few months, cause after 20 plus years of taking them, with a 3 year breather on opiates, my stomach said "NO."

 

To actually go thru the withdrawal/detox from a opiate is very straight forward time-wise - 5-7 days.

It takes a lot longer than that depending on length of use, till the brain bits are not all out of whack.

 

With benzo w/d - seems nothing is set in stone and it's all a crap shoot. :-/

 

edited --- if you mean that opiates can help withdrawal? Sure....trade one thing for another, I think the benzo/opiate swap back and forth work well. I say that tongue in cheek. The depressed breathing brought on by both of them, along with some copd, a good cold and asthma....and it gets way to close to accidentally dying.

 

[[Ba...]]

I'm sure Opiods might help but I would be too scared to try due to the respitory failure risk of mixing to depressants (Heath ledger! Although I believe a barb was involved there too)

[[be...]]

I don't know of a connection between them on BB but for myself

it took a good 6 months after stopping oxycodone before my pain receptors would allow any relief from

tylenol and aleve, and just about anything else. But then I started getting sick from the NSAIDS again, after

a few months, cause after 20 plus years of taking them, with a 3 year breather on opiates, my stomach said "NO."

 

To actually go thru the withdrawal/detox from a opiate is very straight forward time-wise - 5-7 days.

It takes a lot longer than that depending on length of use, till the brain bits are not all out of whack.

 

With benzo w/d - seems nothing is set in stone and it's all a crap shoot. :-/

 

edited --- if you mean that opiates can help withdrawal? Sure....trade one thing for another, I think the benzo/opiate swap back and forth work well. I say that tongue in cheek. The depressed breathing brought on by both of them, along with some copd, a good cold and asthma....and it gets way to close to accidentally dying.

[[be...]]

im over 4 years in this syndrome, and havent been here in months.  i used to take methadone and benzos together in 2010 and was dependent on both for over a year and half.  i had quit taking benzos over a dozen times and only felt slight symptoms, sick, anxiety, but after a week or so i felt better.  then someone would get their script of benzos filled and i would start taking them again.  multiple times coming off benzos and never got the syndrome. why?  because i was on methadone.  i firmly believe if your on a strong opiate like methadone, you will not get the benzo syndrome if you quit taking benzos.  late 2010 i had to go to jail, there i stayed 30 days in a freezing dirty tiny cell, and had to come off both benzos and methadone at the same time, NO MEDICATIONS WERE GIVEN TO ME while i was in there, nothing.  i barely survived the stay and thats why i got the syndrome.  if i would have only came off the benzos and was given the methadone in that jail stay, i truly believe this would have never happened to me.  its the coming off both together, and there being nothing in the brain to calm the excitement, that led the brain to freeze up, get stuck in this flight or fight response, and ultimately lead to the tragedy of tons of symptoms, and being stuck with this syndrome.  im actually taking subutex now, as its the only thing ive found in the 4 years that helps calm the excitement and other physical symptoms.  but i actually need both suboxone and subutex in order for it to work, strange, yes.  if i just take subutex it will eventually give me withdrawal symptoms, so i have to take a small piece of suboxone daily to not go into withdrawal.  things now work backwards, or opposite in benzo withdrawal, and a lot of medications dont work at all.  the brain is not right anymore.  tons and tons of things ive learned over the years, but one of the biggest is, if your on opiates and benzos together, COME OFF THE BENZOS FIRST and do a slow taper.  doing it that way will help insure never getting the benzo withdrawal syndrome.

[Guest [fu...]]

im over 4 years in this syndrome, and havent been here in months.  i used to take methadone and benzos together in 2010 and was dependent on both for over a year and half.  i had quit taking benzos over a dozen times and only felt slight symptoms, sick, anxiety, but after a week or so i felt better.  then someone would get their script of benzos filled and i would start taking them again.  multiple times coming off benzos and never got the syndrome. why?  because i was on methadone.  i firmly believe if your on a strong opiate like methadone, you will not get the benzo syndrome if you quit taking benzos.  late 2010 i had to go to jail, there i stayed 30 days in a freezing dirty tiny cell, and had to come off both benzos and methadone at the same time, NO MEDICATIONS WERE GIVEN TO ME while i was in there, nothing.  i barely survived the stay and thats why i got the syndrome.  if i would have only came off the benzos and was given the methadone in that jail stay, i truly believe this would have never happened to me.  its the coming off both together, and there being nothing in the brain to calm the excitement, that led the brain to freeze up, get stuck in this flight or fight response, and ultimately lead to the tragedy of tons of symptoms, and being stuck with this syndrome.  im actually taking subutex now, as its the only thing ive found in the 4 years that helps calm the excitement and other physical symptoms.  but i actually need both suboxone and subutex in order for it to work, strange, yes.  if i just take subutex it will eventually give me withdrawal symptoms, so i have to take a small piece of suboxone daily to not go into withdrawal.  things now work backwards, or opposite in benzo withdrawal, and a lot of medications dont work at all.  the brain is not right anymore.  tons and tons of things ive learned over the years, but one of the biggest is, if your on opiates and benzos together, COME OFF THE BENZOS FIRST and do a slow taper.  doing it that way will help insure never getting the benzo withdrawal syndrome.

I totally agree. I still take Suboxone and I think it helps. However there's very little chance of any Doc prescribing an opiate for wd pain.

[[xe...]]

It's a bad idea. Opioids exert post-synaptic GABA activity, so there are several reasons to think that they could make withdrawal worse. They are also significantly more likely to be addictive than benzos are.

 

Trading one problem for another, IMO. I do not share your view that people who use opiates do better than those on here who do not; if anything I've noticed that the more drugs people are on, the worse of a time they have, and in the case of opiates in particular there are many accounts of people becoming dependent to both opiates and benzos, and struggling pretty terribly. Some of the worst protracted cases on here started off that way.

 

Just my .02. I've definitely used occasional narcotics for control of very acute pain (not related to w/d, but occurring during it). I don't think that having done so a half dozen times over the past 2 years has hurt me any, but I still wouldn't recommend it.

[[Ba...]]

I did read that Tramadol (a synthetic opiod) blocks the production of glutamine - this sounds like it might help with benzo WD. I had some prescribed for me when I boke my finger last month - took some on the day then gave it away as I'm a bit drug scared currently. This was before I read about the glutamine stopping benefits of it.

 

Ultimately though I don't want any thing else to withdraw from and deep down think I made the right decision. But if someone started their benzo taper already addicted to opiods I would assume giving up benzo's first would be the way to do it. I hear the cravings of opiod addiction is terrible, but at least the worst parts of the physical WD is done in a week. If only we could say that about benzo's....

[[Sh...]]

Just wanted to bump this and get some thoughts...The only symptom I am dealing with since jumping is the chemical depression and OCD thoughts on over drive. If I take oxycodone the depression goes away completely and the thoughts dampen down massively. I am not on it every day. I usually take it for about 3 days in a row and then have a week off. A week is about as long as I can go dealing with this depression before I need some relief from it. I am not stupid enough to get addicted to another drug, and am very disciplined with my use of the oxy. But I guess in the back of my mind I'm wondering if it's stopping or delaying healing? It doesn't work on the same receptors, and from anything I've read it's not an issue, but I still wonder. It's basically the only thing helping me get through this nightmare.