Opiate Withdrawal

[mattymo]

Hello All,

I've been opiate free for about 12 days and I will say I'm feeling a lot better. The worst part about opiate withdrawal hasn't been the physical part but mental. During the day at work I feel fine but at night time I become very depressed and can't sleep without sleep aid. I've gone through a lot in the past couple months and I can't turn my mind off. I want to be happy again like I use to. I hope I can at some point go to sleep unaided and get natural sleep. I think this will only happen when my life straightens out.

Thanks for listening

[Luckytwice]

Another thing you have to learn, is how to change your focus. Although you feel crappy etc.;  you also have times where you feel better, right? Now try think about what you were doing during those times. Chances are you were completely focused and engaged in something, thus not thinking about feeling lousy etc. Thats why it helps to keep busy at something, something that demands your complete attention that you can become totally engrossed in for long periods of time. With a little practice over a few days, you will find you will find it easier to keep your mind from dragging your attention away from where you want it to be, to where IT wants you to be.

Hope that makes sense, LoL! but this is what everyone means when they say your mind tries to trick you. You have to remember though that IT is addicted, and wants you to take the action it can't, and that is to medicate it and make it feel good. But YOU  are the one who controls it, plus all the appendages of your body. The brain is just another organ which YOU, your conscious self  controls. otherwise your brain would have you walking around feeding itself, and doing whatever pleases and pleasures it, and your conscious self would just be along for the ride, LoL!  

[Luckytwice]

It takes a long time for your brain and body to regrow the neurons associated with the bodies natural production of the endorphins such as dopamine which control mood, anxiety, pain etc These get turned off when you take opiates, and the opiates bond to the receptors in the brain and body that normally receive the bodies natural endorphins, supplying them with the artificial opioids instead.  Those neurons that produce natural endorphins die off, because they aren't needed.

This results in those receptors, after the opiates wears off, being starved for endorphins that you body just can't produce much of when you first quit. This is why you get aniety, depressed, feel tired and crappy.

The good news is that they do grow back to normal, and produce and regulate all the endorphins your receptors call for. within the first 30 days, your endorphins levels should be about 45-50% of normal, and within 9 months to a year, they will be back to 95-100%, and you will feel great again.

You can do a lot to help this by eating a good diet of foods which promote the regrowth of these neurons and their production of endorphins essential to your feeling of well being. You can find diet suggestions at the bottom right of this page.

Hang in there! it's  just a mind game at this point, you have to constantly be telling your brain what to do, and resist it trying to trick you into using something to feel better. keeping busy even though you don't feel like it at all, and keeping focus on something else helps you get through those rough patches. it's like quitting smoking in some ways, those feelings and urges come quickly and sometimes are strong, but they are short lived.  But by day 30 they will only be half as strong and last half as long.

You'll get there, but you have to remain determined and on guard until you do.

[mattymo]

I was taking ambien but that seems to increase my depression more. Sometimes I can get away with 3mg of melatonin but now I'm on Tylenol pm.

[laurel453]

sorry that your thread got overlooked, with these new "improvements" is easier got overlooked...

first of all, congrats on your 12 days !! :)

you are right, the mental part is quite tough...the lack of sleep, energy or motivation linger in time after detox but they get better.... besides, you need addressing those anxiety symptoms you are showing.... otherwise they build up inside us... sometimes it is not possible to solve our problems in life and we have to learn how to live with them, this is my experience at least. I was having a lot of problems in my life ( recession and so ) after detoxing and my anxiety kept building up inside me so i was feeling terrible after six months... when i started therapy and after some time i felt much better, therapy gave me some tools to deal with anxeity... i have the same problems now but i don't feel so bad nor with such an anxiety that kept me from sleeping at night and waking up at 4 in the morning each night worrying non stop until i got up in the morning....

Follow a healthy diet and exercise.... when you have those automatic negative thoughts address them with constructive thinking to break up the cycle of negative thoughts, don't try to blank your mind, they will keep coming unless you address them each time with positive, rational thinking... and as you have said, things will get better if your life straightens too , step by step....

btw, what type of sleeping aid are you taking ?