“What are some ways to help with getting through withdrawals?”
(Disclaimer: if you happen to be withdrawing from alcohol, stop reading this and go to the ER. Alcohol withdrawal is extremely dangerous and it can KILL YOU)
1. Sleep - this should be a complete no-brainer. If you are going through some really crappy withdrawals, then the preferred method of coping with it is to sleep right through it. When I finally managed to kick cigarettes successfully, I pulled a little trick on myself where I stayed up all night and got really, really tired, and I timed it so that I would be starting to go through the worst of my withdrawal symptoms right then. It was a piece of cake at that point to fall asleep and stay down for a good twelve hours. When I finally woke up, I showered and grabbed some quick food, then managed to fall asleep again. After waking up that second time, I was well on my way to being through the worst of my nicotine withdrawals.
2. Burn off nervous energy – If you can’t sleep, the next idea on the list is to find creative ways to encourage sleep. You can stay up all night and try to time your withdrawals accordingly, like I did with cigarettes, or you can also try other things to help you sleep. Depending on what substance you are detoxing from, you might very well be wired wide awake, and full of nervous energy. If that is the case, try taking a really long walk, say for a couple of hours. This will burn off a lot of that nervous energy, and also facilitate the detox process by producing some sweat. You’ll also develop an appetite, which will come in handy later so you can eat a big dinner. The extended exercise (nothing to strenuous, just long and consistent) combined with a fairly big meal, should do wonders at producing some level of sleepiness in you.
3. The Power of Distraction – If you just can’t figure out a way to sleep through the worst of it, then the next best thing is to not think about it. That’s right: you have to find some creative ways to distract yourself from the misery that you are going through. One popular method of doing this is to lay on your couch all day and watch television or movies, although this is not necessarily recommended. If you are well enough to move around, then getting out and moving around is going to benefit you much more in the long run. Go to the mall or take a walk in the park. Chances are good that you can burn up some energy and hopefully be able to do a little sleeping when you get done moving around.
4. Medically supervised – If you can afford it or have it arranged, then try to get into some sort of medically supervised facility for your detox. This is definitely the safest route to go, and is absolutely essential if you are coming off of alcohol. There are other benefits to going to a treatment center detox as well, and the medical staff can usually give some sort of non narcotic medication that will ease your withdrawal symptoms, depending on which substance you are coming off of. Out of all the detox centers I’ve seen, they only make you do one thing: sleep. That makes this the safest and most comfortable route to go.
5. Take a Vacation – This one might sound a bit bizarre, and it certainly doesn’t fit for every detox, but planning and taking a major vacation can be a huge opportunity to make it through your withdrawals. Another interesting idea is to time it so that you go through the worst of your withdrawals at home, and then immediately following that, you leave on a vacation. The power of distraction comes into play here, and the excitement of going on a trip can help to offset what you are no longer doing/using/drinking. It can also feel like a reward for yourself to be on a major vacation, as you are starting out on a new healthy lifestyle.
6. Ween Yourself Down – There are bound to be lots of mixed results and opinions with something like this, so always shoot for a fully medically supervised detox if you can. Barring that, attempting to ween yourself off of a substance can sometimes yield good results. But again, this method is controversial at best, and can be somewhat dangerous, so always try to encourage a medical detox instead. Remember, getting through the withdrawals are just the beginning….they are the key to your new life. Now you have to learn how to live and be happy without chemicals. (It’s possible, I promise!)
Finally, I want to remind everyone out there to be especially cautious regarding alcohol withdrawal symptoms, as they can be fatal. I urge you to seek medical help if you or a loved one is detoxing from booze.
First time here? Be sure to check out these posts:
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I realize that no one is going to read these for years, and the chances of that are even slimmer, but if my experience can help one person who is going through it- then I’m glad to suffer… Well.. Gladder..?
Day 8 or 9? Woke up feeling great, then slid backward into the usual cramping, no energy, etc.. But I think I’ve passed the going to feel like crap less stage.. So that gives me hope that tomorrow, being the 4th of July, my very own Independence Day… I will feel even better..?
I ate breakfast, have to keep my stomach fullish.. Or it starts to cramp and hurt like nobody’s business. I can sit still for longer, read a book, listen to music. I’m not debilitatingly sick anymore… Still no energy, bathroom all the time, but I’m getting better finally. I can feel it like a sneaky happy seed in my heart… Waiting to flower in a few more days and grant me the peace and serenity I’ve been craving (bodily anyway).
The mind? Well… Let’s just say:
“my soul will have to wait..” -sublime
I’m still so weak! Man it’s crazy how much effort it takes to rise… But I feel ok. Other than that. :)
Sleep is still troublesome, and my stomach is in knots (cause I’m hungry, yay) but oter than that I think I’ll live. Thank frak.
Coffee this morning. Hope it helps. Happy independence day everyone!
Hang in there Matt. Sounds like you are through the worst of it.
Keep it up!
Wow. So it’s been a week and a half.. Almost two weeks, and today I woke up feeling 85% “normal.” besides the occasional weird scents, stomach issues, and weakness (chalk it all up to general dysphoria) I can honestly say: I am so grateful to be done with that shite. The past two days have been beautiful and 85-87 degrees, vacation coming up next week… Life is beautiful.
So again starts the reset in my brain that usually heads into positive places. When I cleaned up in my 20s I went back to school and got my degree… Maybe this time I’ll be able to finish my book and get a dang life. One that isn’t ruled by the whims of a maniacal addiction..?
I’m 34, and I cantrun from my demons as fast as I used to be able to. Looks like it’s time to see how bad they really are…
Thanks for being here. Good luck to all. :)
7/7/11 and i am free…
Hey Guys how do you even remotely get to the stopping point when you haven’t felt pain in over 9-10 months its one of the hardest things in my life that i have ever had to do… Another thing is that its not just me its my wife too. we want to do what we have to and all that but this has definitely put a damper on a lot of things and if i dont want them she does when she doesnt i do thats whats making it so hard and all the stress that comes with the relationship already we are intensifying it by 1000 ya know so if anyone has any tips just give us a shout i appreciate it
John-
In my experience, when two people are faced with the situation we’ve gotten ourselves into, it can either be the greatest asset or the worst nightmare… I’ve been there, albeit we weren’t married, we lived together, and we couldn’t quit together. It took her getting clean and going to tx then me pulling my head out and doing the same. (we were using H, back in the day when I was 22).
It was hard.. And in the end we didn’t last, I had to choose between her and staying clean. It sucked. But that was 12 years ago, in another life…
I don’t envy your situation, but I know how hard it can be to want to get off the opiates and feel trapped.. But i do know that you can’t make that decision for anyone other than yourself, and if you do, then it’s the first step in the right direction that any of us will take.
I’m two weeks off of Suboxone and today is the best day yet. There is light at the end ofthe tunnel, and it’s not just a headlight coming right at me.
Good luck.
It pisses me off! the last times and only times I’ve gone thru withdrawals is due to my best friend for life. (hydrocodine). I am also an alcoholic and a smoker but Those are the least of my worries right now!!! These withdrawals are the worst!!! I have an addictive personality! X, coke, meth, and acid, he’ll you name it ive been addicted to it (with the exception of H and crack). I’ve always managed to say “I’m done!” And I was.
I was one another path not too long ago, well a little longer then I realize now. I was about to stop dunking. But something woke up in! The urge to splurge, my last horaah. I feel in love with the feeling of taking 6-8 10mg and drinking and the the cherry on top of course a smoke!! After enough cigarettes my body would shake and sweat. I would get the urge to throw up! I couldn’t move I just wanted to curl up in the fetes positions, a sip of water and a fan pointed at me!
I Have never concisely ever thought of the possibility of suicide ever! I think it’s wrong! It’s for the weak! and that “we all have to earn our right to die!!”
But here I sit with the conflict and option to purchase some pills. $5 a pop, and I usually buy by the 20′s if not more! But my sub concise is saying “your committing suicide, only in a slower sense!” I was told I Am a phene to something greater like heroin, but I believe it’s something more sinister, like a addiction to death, I’m seeing how close to death I can get by taking 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 pills. Eventually until I cam take no more in a literal sense! I mean after all the reason of ODing is because it’s never enough. So ultimately I know what I want and what I want for those around me! It’s not a distant faded memory, it’s that I want to live! But not this life, not like this anymore! So I’m going to try to ween off the self prescribing. I will get passed the WD’s as I did before and hopefully have the knowledge to say no next time!!
I AM GOING TO DO THIS! hopefully I can eventually even stop drinking. But as I said before that’s the least of my worries right now! I’ll keep you posted. But if you do not see a post it is because I have givin in to a life I don’t want and youll never see me again!
(PS I have 3 halfs of 10 mg skittles as I like to call them, either I ween of, take em all at once and buy more, buy more and more, or stop being a hypocrite and start living!)
PSS…. I know I didnt run a spell check on that last post, but I can barely control my arms and thoughts. It’s a bunch of jibber jabber but honestly it kept my mind busy and I almost forgot about the withdrawals!!!!! Feeling a Lil better already!
Its night two, I feel like shit about last night after I made that post I took 4 Tylenol pms trying to sleep through the withdrawals when normally I can take two and I am out, it wasn’t working so I started drinking and took one half of a 10mg, wasn’t working so I stayed up drinking until my sister who also struggles with drug abuse walked in and saw the state I was in and offered up another half to calm me down and just talked to me! About life
About drugs about change, about power of the mind, about “the secret” the book, and of course my favorite the power of suggestion during sleep! I’ve heard if it before, like with babys, u play classical music or whisper in there ear while there asleep and change eventually comes.
We talked until I finally got sleepy, the whole while I was drinking, so I don’t know if it was the beer the Tylenol pm, the 10mg a mix of all of it or exhaustion but I actually sleep not good but better then I usually do, I remember my dreams, vivid dreams which
Is highly unusual when i drink, take pms or the dones. So very suprising after it all.
I mean when i usually go thru withdrawals I have those eternal nightmares, the ones that feel like in reality you litarally have a blink of sleep but your stuck in a nightmare that lasts for 10 mins.
But the ones last night weren’t that bad I vividly remember my sister talking to me in my ear in my dream giving me advice , I don’t know if she actually took the time to whisper in my ear while I was asleep or if it was all a dream, but I actually woke up in a good mood today!! I asked her is she did and she says as she always does about everything ” it is what you think it is” which is not the answer I wanted but something I understand more when she is the one saying it! (another story that’s creepy that I can’t really explain)
The first thing I think about when I wake up is “where are my pills, how many do I have and do i need to get more!” today was different and I blame my sister, but I realized when I was at work that I hadn’t even thought about my pills (and then for a breif moment i was mad at the fact that not only did I not bring any with me to work but then I realized i was tryig to quit and only had one whole 10 mg pill and that I can’t buy more cause I told my self I wasnt) but then I was like wow this is a good thing! I’m one the right path ( did I mention I went to the dentist yesterday, and due to my sister referring me to that dentist ((that dentist was suppling my sister with pills until she knew she was an addict and cut her off, so after the fact my sister was talking down on her but I had already been going to her, but knowing who my sister was she would not prescribe me pain pills unless I went in and had a valid reason of pain to give em to me)) well she actually offered to prescribe me pills without me even asking! It was like the devil popping up! Pills wonderful pills that are only $20 for 30 instead of $5 a pop?!?!? And I actually said no?!?!?)
I know I might have lost you there but I’m just rambling, Today was a good day I thought, it was so easy! Until around 9 pm! I could feel my body starting to ache, I could feel the restlessness, the mood swings, the heat the cold, and of course my Gage reflex return when I smoke or smell something that just doesnt sit right. I realized the only thing I’ve eatin in 2 days is a salad so I try to eat and that’s not happening, wtf happen I was doing fine all day!?!? (I honestly think it was because I lost my joy, I woke up in a good mood, kinda happy and the more I thought about no more pills the less happy I was as if they are making me happy in the first place?) I found some stairs and ran up and down them at work, I did push ups, it helped while I was doing them nothing really more then that!
So all I know now is the WD’s are back! It’s hard to explain but probably not to anyone reading this, the “restless arm syndrome” like my arms have there own brain and are trying to escape my body, like terrets, like I have no control over them, I can honestly say to someone that actually would!, cut them off!! Please!! So here I am on the couch so I don’t beat up and keep up the wife thru the night! It F*%#ing sucks, the worst feeling I have ever had, and I have experiences alot of pain in my life, physically and mentally, but this right now is the worst.
I have 4 beers I plan on drinking, with another 4 pms and one half of the 10 mg, and I really dot care if anyone reads this but
Once again it does distract me while I’m writin this, but I know when I stop I’ll be shadow boxing the couch and walking around the room like a mad man lol but I AM GOING TO DO THIS!
PS… I DO NOT RECOMMEND drinking and taking any kind of pills, I hate doctors! But now that I’m not taking the pills as much, I can feel this pain, a pain that I assume I couldent or cant feel while on pain pills! but there’s something serious going on in my liver or bladder or kidney I don’t really know but I’m thinking about going to the doc to of course hear of all the fun damaged I have done to my system! (90 % of my mouth is fake due to a Lil candy when I was younger but mainly crystal meth when I was addicted to it, my sister lost all her teeth!) So please if there is actually someone reading this that hasn’t done drugs or hasn’t done as
Much drugs, listen to reason and JUST SAY NO!
Night 3
I kinda said f it Friday right? Not really, all though I did give in to temptation I took two 10 mg when I only had one half left, lol wtf happen?
Either way I really have none left, I can get more I realized for $5 for $3 or $2, I can get 30 for $20, i can get em for free! But I told my self I wasn’t and now that I am out I will not ask for more, I told anyone an everyone around me I don’t care how I look or what I say DO NOT GIVE ME ANYTHING!
So right now all though I didn’t take 5 or 6 pills, I did take more then what I was weening off of! So I know I only hurt myself more, I know my withdrawals are going to be worse even then what they were, but I kinda felt like I could keep finding and getting halfs and halfs and halfs and I was tired of it, it’s hypocritical because I am now feeling fine and f’d up. But I know after this it’s no more! Its like being in a Long term relationship knowing the whole time it’s going to come to an end you just love every min of it, you take any second you can, the hurt the pain! The make up sex the arguments anything that you can to hold on to this feeling! But it’s going to end and it’s going to end in a very bad way!!
So here I sit f’d up, like the last love making session, and knowing the worst is about to begin again, but this time I wont let her back, she fucked me over tooo many times! I used to love the feeling of pain, I would cut myself for some kind of release. So she made
Me numb to the feeling of life, like she’s more important then it, and that is not the case at all, so as any first love relationships gos, I’ll view it now like she was worth it like I’ll always love her and hopefully, shell hurt me so much with the withdrawals that a year down the line I’ll be like damn! I USED TO LOVE THAT GIRL!?!??? And shell be like all the x’s, just another chick in Texas!!!
I can’t even say anything I came home last night like I was on top of the world I didn’t want a pill I didn’t think about a pill I actually wanted to go out and have a good time. I told the wife let’s go out tonight she said okay, shell round up the peeps.
Well one of the peeps was of course a close friend but currently one of my many dealers, it’s funny how the prices are hiked up until your number one customer is on the brink of sobriety lol, hell the first ones always free right? !? Well turns out the last several are too, i know this will come as no surprise but I took advantage of that, I know he was just doing his job and is awaiting a phone call! And right now I’m thinking I might just call him tomorrow! Wtf happen?
Haven’t had anything besides a smoke, started running, still no appetite, in the past 48 hours I’ve gotten about 6 hrs of sleep, I’m starting to get these headaches but hoping theyll pass
What happened to Clint? Where did you go? How are you doing?
I’m really inspired with your writing talents and also with the format to your blog. Is that this a paid theme or did you modify it your self? Either way keep up the excellent high quality writing, it’s uncommon to look a great blog like this one today..
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