I read this post here:
http://blog.ronronmx.com/battle-drug-addiction/

and it brings me right back to where I used to be a while back. A person gets injured, they are prescribed pain meds to HELP with the pain, the next thing they know they are hooked. Then their whole life starts to change. I mean everything, their personality, their focus and their goals. Their focus starts to be on their pills, how many they have left, when they get their next refill, and if they develope a tolerance how they are going to get more.

My heart goes out to the person, and I hope he gets a seed planted. I personally am an active member of a 12 step program to helpme with my ongoing support and growth. Once a person gets clean they need on going support to help them keep the ugly head of addiction at bay. Just because a person gets clean, doesn’t mean it’s going to go away. Especially with an opiate drug, it will be there for the rest of their lives, waiting in the corner doing pushups getting stronger and stronger waiting for a weak moment, and then it moves in for the kill.  Opiate addiction is a problem that effects the brain in a long term, sometimes permanent way.  Depending upon the amount and length of time the person was using opiates will determine the extent of the damage done from the abuse. After a person gets off of opiates the brain has to relearn how to make endorphins again and that can take a long time. During this time the person will experience a wide range of roller coaster emotions. Anxiety, depression, happyness and so on. This period of time in which the brain is trying to get back to normal is called Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome or PAWS for short. This is and can be a dangerous time for the recovering opiate addict, because they probably just want to be back to normal, have a normal everyday life and experience normal everyday emotions instead of the intense range of roller coaster emotions they are feeling. There are several ways for the person to deal with this, one is to just push through it, for the next 6 months to a year or two, or do more opiates. There is also the way I went and that was with Buprenorphine treatment.  Buprenorphine fills the receptor sites where opiates used to fill, which is also the endorphine receptor sites as well, thereby acting like endorphines and keeping the person from having this wide range of emotions. One thing that I experienced was a feeling I hadn’t had since before I took pain pills a few years ago. It was the happyness I had from before being on pain pills. it was the feeling of normalness, the feeling of I had my life back and everything is going to be fine. I am so happy to have had this back.

Anyway back to what I was saying, PAWS is a critical time for the recovering pain pill addict where they need all the support they can get. From friends, loved ones, parents, wives, husbands and whoever else is close to them in their life. I mentioned the 12 step group, I have found a whole new set of friends through 12 step program I am in and I now have the support I need anytime I need it. I left a comment for the owner of the blog I linked to, This young man will get  a copy of my report if he wants one.  I can only wish him the best. He’s scared and I have been there too, it’s not pretty what opiates and pain pills do to a person.

anyway, hope all is well.
good night…

PS I forgot to mention that he is on his way to rehab. Rehab as I mentioned in another page here, is a rather costly way to get help, which doesn’t always do the job AFTER the person gets out. Rehab sometimes gets the person clean and detoxes them off the pain pills, but when they are done with detoxing they usually exit the rehab with no support tools for ongoing sustained recovery. Many times a person will relapse, and either re-enter rehab, or they will stumble onto somethign that might help them. What rehabs need to do is introduce them to AA or NA.

One more thing that I heard recently is sometimes a rehab center will use buprenorphine for detoxing a person, but once they are done they cut them off. Which is the wrong thing to do, they need to be on buprenorphine for a period of time until the brain gets back to some normalcy and the person gets some addiction recovery support system in place.

ok anyway now it’s time for bed.

ciao…

I’ve made an Updated Post for: The Thomas Recipe Alternative: Larry’s Recipe for Opiate Withdrawal, Please refer to this for a complete list of supplements to help you get off Painkillers.

I use a supplement that I accidentally stumbled upon when I was looking to get off of painkillers a while back. It’s not too expensive and it have several qualities about it that I really like and still take it for and it’s called 5-HTP.  5-htp, otherwise known as 5-Hydroxytryptophan, is a precursor to serotonin, and is used as an antidepressant, appetite suppressant, and sleep aid.

While researching things in regard to opiate withdrawal it is one of the things that I took to help improve my mood and relieve pain from the withdrawal of an opiate. I have since kept using it as an appetite suppressant to help me lose a little weight, as well as helping me with ongoing improved moods and lessen anxiety

The thought that 5-HTP can cause increase in serotonin levels by causing the brains serotonin making neurons to increase activity in the making of serotonin. Increased serotonin making actiovity leads to increased serotonin release levels which then causes an improved mood. It is also said to help with anxiety, tension and appetite.

Some health care professionals say that a usual dose of about 50mg is right and doesages of 100mg+ is considered high. The higher dosages have also had some side effect that should be looked at. Before taking 5-htp consult a physician about it and your health to see  if it is a supplement you should take.

5-htp can be ordered at Amazon to be delivered to your doorstep here:

Their both good, I have my bottle of the Natrol right here next to me.

Anyway, hope that helps…

When talking to people who are not addicts or addicted to pain killers, I always find a recurring theme in that they do not understand the nature of addiction or addiction to pain killers or opiates as a whole. Opiates are a derivative of opium and  Opioids are synthetic opiates, or man made opiates. Many arguements have been started on which is more addictive but the fact remains they are both highly addictive and hard to get off and stay off of. There is just so much a person who has never been addicted to opiates just doesn’t understand because they DO NOT know the feeling, and believe me, opiate addiction is definitely a Feeling. When you such an intense gnawing little voice of fear, pain and need pulling at your whole being, it’s hard to say no. what I am talking about is opiate withdrawal. The clinical description of this would be something like this:

Stress resulting from the brain’s fear that the current lack of opioids presents a threat to its survival

and symptoms look like this (to put it mildly):

This is just the initial withdrawal from painkillers, we’re not talking about the post acute withdrawal period in which “post acute withdrawal syndrome” (PAWS) can occur. After the initial withdrawal or detox, then you have residual detox and the brain trying to function normally, but it just can’t. At least not yet, and it can take months or years for a persons brain chemistry to get back to normal. It is this period of time that can be the most difficultfor many to STAY OFF of the drugs, because it is here where the nagging and gnawing little voices start talking. I am not talking hallucinations, but I am talking depression and anxiety and the want to just be happy again. What happenes when a person is addicted to pain killers is their brain stops making endorphins, the bodys natural pain killers and the thing that keeps us from getting depressed. When a person starts taking pain meds for an extended length of time, their brain stops making endorphins because opiates look just like endorphins to the brain and the brain stops making them.  After so long the brain can’t make them and the pain killer is not depended upon for endorphins or the imitation endorphins. Clinically the opiate dependance is spelled out like this:

“Opiate addiction is recognized as a central nervous system disorder caused by continuous opiate use. Extended opiate abuse leads to the nerve cells in the brain to stop functioning as they normally would and stop producing natural endorphins. Because the body is receiving opiates and is no longer producing endorphins, the nerve cells start to degenerate and cause an opiate addiction.”

Pain Killer addiction is not somethign to be taken lightly. Remember the old cammercials that said ” Just say No!”, heck if it were that easy we would have just said no. but it just isn’t as easy as that. Opiate dependance is a huge problem in the world and it isn’t going away anytime soon.

There are now outpatient detox and treatment programs that use a new method of treating pain pill dependance. Part of the initial detox plan is with the use of a new drug that mimics the pain killer chemistry but it:

• doesn’t get the patient high
• it allows them to stop using pain pills immediately
• stops the symptoms of withdrawal such as bone and muscle pain, anxiety, nausea and all the rest..etc.
• let me just say this again, painless withdrawal from pain pills
• is easy to get off of once the patient is detoxed off the pain meds
• is affordable and is outpatient

which is as we all know much much less expensive than an inpatient treatment, and can be done at home. Another thing about treatment at home, especially with adolescents and teenagers, is it is less stigmaticizing than a big production of going to inpatient treatment and the person is more likely to cooperate with this than the other.

If you would like more information on this and the treatment  I speak of please sign up for my newsletter. You will recieve a 7 part series on addiction and recovery from pain killers as well as learn about the latest treatment drug and outpatient help.