C/t or Taper?

[Summer123]

O.K.  I've tapered down to 15 mg percocet a day and am suffering from no sleep, chills, sweats and nausea.  I plan on tapering until I feel better and then going down 1/4 or 1/2 pill at a time.  Am I just prolonging the agony?  Would it be better to go cold turkey?  Thanks!

[Summer123]

Haven't gotten my pain dr. involved, just the shrink I go to for anxiety (the valium and paxil guy-to taper the valium).  Afraid to involve my pain dr. until I'm free of the pills in case he cuts me off.  Actually, saving up almost my whole dose of percocet and valium for night time to be able to sleep.  Doesn't seem to work though.

[imanaddict]

LOL! Yes, I feel the same way, I didn't realize it could happen to me until it did. In fact, I never really understood the whole pain pill thing until I actually went through it. Have you mentioned not sleeping to your dr.? It's good you are getting him involved, maybe he can come up with a plan that better suits your needs. But, at least give the ol' exercise a shot. It never hurts, and it could be essential for WD's as many people have said on here.

[Summer123]

Yes, tried Tylenol PM, Rozerem and Ambien and nothing works.  Good idea about exercising though.  I think tapering will work for me (even though I was on pain meds for 12 years) cause I never exceeded dr. recommended dose (but they recommended a high dose).  Also, recently got off of Paxil (in June) and 2 days ago called dr. to get back on it due to increased depression (probably from tapering) and xanex (switched to valium to taper).  Guess that's why sleep aids don't work.  If valium doesn't work for me, probably nothing will (have kept my dosage at 20 mg which was probably equivalent to 1 mg of xanex -was on 4 mg/day for years).  Started tapering off both the xanex and oxycodone at the same time.  After switching to valium, quit tapering to taper off pain meds first (cause they are supposed to be hardest).  Didn't realize how much of a prescription drug addict I was.

[imanaddict]

It depends on you and how  your body is reacting to not getting as much medicine as it's used to. Normally people taper for a couple of months. You have to ease into it in order to be successful and not go into WD. The only problem with tapering for a few months is you run a higher risk for relapse. Tapering isn't for everyone, lord knows it wasn't for me! LOL!

As far as sleeping goes, have you tried taking Tylenol PM? Or some other form of sleep aid? Do you exercise? If you work, maybe you could go for a jog on your lunch break. Do some sort of exercise during the day, and by bedtime, maybe you'll be exhausted enough to sleep. It will also help with your taper, it will get your endorphins up and moving around again!

[Summer123]

Thanks so much.  Got any idea on when I'll be able to sleep again?  How slow is slow?

[imanaddict]

Tapering for a while is the best way to do it. Go slow and you will have better results. Just don't jump back into taking more than your taper plan calls for and you should be just fine.