about comming off hydros.i was in a bad car wreck a year ago (PLZ READ) I need help?
ever since wreck ive been on pain meds hydro 5mg 3 times aday . and at first taking 3 aday was fine but now I have to tke more then that to just feel normal and I don't feel myself. withdrawls are bad without them and so is my pain. but I feel I need off them cuz I took 9 yesterday and then had a breakdown. I go to my doc in a week and was wondering if he might no anything that could help me off these horrible things. but still find something to help my pain(frm my wreck) ive tried stopin cold turkey but I have a kid and a fulltime job and couldn't function. was super sick....plz tell me something...anything helpful or encouraging. nothing mean...I mean I want the truth but not rudeness this is super hard for me and I just need some help and good advice
oldgoat2014-02-08T14:46:52Z
Favorite Answer
Cold turkey never works. You have seen why. What you need to do is sit down with your doctor and figure out a tapering schedule.and come off nice and slowly a little bit at a time. You can do it without your doctor but it is more difficult, since you may need some smaller dose tablets or a weaker drug to get to the end. The big problem is nobody is going to baby sit you and give you your medication at the right time and in the right doses. So it's really up to you and how serious you are about quitting. Lots of people talk a good game, good enough that they even convince themselves that they're sincere, the they fall back in to the same old pattern of abuse. So look in the mirror and ask yourself how much you really want to quit. It's ok to tell yourself you rather keep taking drugs. If you can't be honest with the person in the mirror who can you be honest with? At least then you will know why you are not being successful in quitting and that there's more to it than just the nastiness of withdrawal that is keeping you from quitting and there's a mental issue that needs attention as well. Nothing to be ashamed of. There's people a lot smarter than us who have fallen in to the trap. A taper though is really the answer. You may feel slightly crappy every time you drop a dose, but it wont be the kind of explosive, can't stay out of the bathroom, withdrawal that you get going cold turkey. If you're going to try to do this on your own, opiate withdrawal takes about 3 days from the last dose to the end, so dropping your dose down every 3 or 4 days should be fairly comfortable. How much to cut is a hard question to answer since the amount you have been abusing has not been steady. If 6 a day is about right, cut your dose to 5 a day for 4 days, then 4 a day for 4 days, etc... If you get to feeling awful to the point you can't function, snap a pill in half and drop a half pill instead of a whole one. People sometimes think cold turkey is easy because you only have to get through 3 days of it. Those are people who have never had a taste of withdrawal at it's worst. It's bad advice all around, there are some drug types where cold turkey can cause seizures, convulsions, or even kill you. You should always check with a doctor or at the very least do a web search on whether it is safe or not to stop a medication suddenly. Most drugs have some type of withdrawal syndrome attached, so don't think it just applies to narcotics. You can do this. Best of luck