Not many people are willing to go through heroin withdrawal cold turkey, which is why so many people stay hooked on the drug to begin with.  Getting sick is no fun and it is bad enough and intense enough to send most people out running to get one more dose.  So what are your options, and what if you are forced to go through withdrawal cold turkey?

If you don’t have a choice then you have to make the best of it.  There is not a whole heck of a lot that is going to make you feel better during heroin detox if you are at home on your couch.  There are a couple of general guidelines but you won’t find any miracle cures here:

1) Sleep as much as possible.  This should go without saying, really, but most cannot sleep well through detox.  If you can’t sleep, then don’t.  Don’t lay there and frustrate yourself further.  Instead, get up and distract yourself.  Stay up all night long and all the next day without any naps. Then you will sleep extra good the next night because you will be dead tired.  Don’t take a bunch of dangerous pills to try and force sleep.  This will only complicate things.  Just stay up if you can’t sleep and plan on sleeping good the next night.

2) Drink lots of fluids.  You might be nauseous but you can hold down ice water.  Keep drinking fluids.  Juice is good too.  If you can eat, eat.  But make sure you at least do plenty of fluids.

3) Use 3 medications over the counter to treat withdrawal symptoms.  Never exceed the dosages on the box unless your doctor tells you to.  You can alternate Tylenol and Ibuprofen every 4 hours and you can also take Benadryl 50mg every 4 hours for anxiety and restlessness.  It is not much but it will help.  Again, never exceed the recommended dose, it is just asking for trouble.  Taking more won’t help more, it will just screw you up.

4) Distract yourself – the power of distraction is very important.  If you are in an empty apartment with nothing to do and no distractions and you actually have some heroin on hand, guess what?  You don’t have a prayer.  But if you are completely out of drugs and you have some friends come and get you and take you on a magical adventure somewhere, then guess what?  Withdrawal will be a lot easier, at least from a psychological standpoint.  If you are craving drugs then you need to distract yourself.