Drug Rehab Options Blog

Hi there! Just wanted to report that I went to see the psychiatrist/addictionologist for my 1 week check up. All is well. He wants me to stay on the plan of taking 12mg of Suboxone. He gave me a Rx for a month, and sent me on my way! It's so nice not to have to go back to see him for a month! Those co-pays add up!! The last few months were so bad, just from taking so many pills....I spent over $400 last month alone, just in co-pays and medicine! I had to pay cash for the meds since I was refilling them early..and so often!! It sucked! Now it's going to take me a few months just to catch up from all that...but, it'll be okay. At least I'm getting better!! Getting off the oxycodone and on the Suboxone is the best thing that's happened to me in a long long time!!! I feel great!!! :ghug2

Okay, a little background first. 3 years ago I had major surgery, a pyloroplasty, which involves repairing the pyloric valve at the bottom of the stomach. It was almost completely scarred shut when the endoscopy was done, and they couldn't even get the scope past the valve.

I have a 'zipper' from belly button to breastbone, and that was the most painful part of the healing process, the long incision.

Today I have given a whole new meaning to 'bust a gut'.

It appears that when I was ill recently with a gastrointestinal bug that landed me in ER, and it took tons of meds to finally get me to stop wretching, I started a tear in the abdominal wall where the surgery was done.

I have one hell of a hernia right now. Seriously, I could audition for the role of an alien-impregnated person for the next sequel to Aliens.

I have to call the surgeon first thing in the morning who did the pyloroplasty and get it fixed immediately.

I am very nervous about coughing right now!

Everyone should have this much fun on semester break! :lmao :lmao

P.S. The good news is my classes don't start till the 17th, so I will long be done with any pain pills post-op and ready to concentrate. :)

has anyone ever tried MS Contin? im currently on oxycontin/codone and my insurance refuses coverage of the oxycontin unless you have cancer...my chronic pain is out of control if i dont take my meds, so because the MS is covered 100% i need to try it as my oxy is almost $400 a month...what has your experience been with it? did it work well/not so well? any bad side effects? any input is appreciated...thanks!

I wanted to start this thread to share my experience of this medication and experiences of other people i know that have taken it as it is easy to just say 'i'm not taking meds' and in my case wasted 7 years of my life sticking to this principle.

I was drinking everyday and was starting to plan how to end my life when i decided to try one very last time to get some help. After finding an English speaking Counseller in Spain I booked an appointment. She referred me to the psychiatrict and he prescribed me 3 drugs:

1. Seroxat (Paxil) as i had taken a text and was chronic on most areas, anxiety, depression etc.
2. Antabuse to provide a barrier to having that first drink
3. A med used to detox and for anxiety (highly addictive, I did not take this one)

Back to antabuse. I have been sober for just over 10 weeks now from drinking everyday. I still have my job and it has been commented on how much my work has changed and it is quite obvious that i was nearing the point where they were losing all patience with me and still live in a wonderful house in Spain.

Without the antabuse i would have found this time more difficult as it provides a reason, a good one, for me not to drink at that given time. The drug lasts up to 48 hours in your system so as soon as you have a craving there is a thought process which would be that I want a drink but i can't have a drink right now otherwise the effects of the drug would make me ill. It is possible to stop taking the drug and then go out and get drunk in 48 hours but the craving is for the moment and not something that i think about logically, so it works.

I take one tablet every morning which is easy for me as i was always an afternoon drinker. Maybe if you are used to having your first drink at 9am this would be more difficult, but that was never my pattern of drinking.

There are no known side effects to the drug and it is completely non-addictive, you can stop taking the drug at anytime and have no withdrawl syptoms whatsoever. These are all facts!

I am still taking my anti-depressents and have another appointment with my psychiatrist on the 15th to discuss how long to take them etc. I am also seeing my counseller once a week.

Now I can't say which part of the recovery is working, but i sure as hell am not going to start experimenting to find out. There is no way i would have been able to stop for 10 weeks+ by myself, i wasted a lot of years trying!

Antabuse is a useful tool in the battle against alcoholism and one which should be given some thought. You should go to a counseller, IMO, rather than a doctor who will refer you to a psychiatrist who will then make sure, as much as he/she can, that you are not going to take the drug and then try and down a half bottle of scotch which could potentially kill you!

I have posted this before but my friend was on antabuse, he downed a can of large beer and we found him on the floor sweating, covered in red blotches and he had pood himself. We called the ambulance and the paramedics, after finding out what he had done and the meds he was on, told him to drink lots of water and not to drink whilst on antabuse (they obviously did the usual tests whilst they were there too!). The point is that if you take a swig of alcohol it will cause a very unpleasant side effect which is the whole point of the deterrant, it will not kill you unless you are trying to do yourself harm and down a half bottle of spirits before the effects of the meds make you ill.

I was given anti-depressants 7 years ago which i did not take, and have talked about antabuse for the last few years. Now it was my time to waste and i don't regret it, all i am doing is pointing out to anyone that stumbles across this post on a search for antabuse is that it does work, it won't kill you and it could mean the difference between getting sober now or coming back, even worse off, and getting sober in a couple/several years.

Obviously the drug helps you stay sober and does not tackle the disease of alcoholism which you will need to address as well through AA, counselling, SR...whatever you find works for you. But as my psychiatrist told me...we can help you but only if you do not drink anymore, if you keep drinking we can't help you...quite clear i thought!

Point...I am taking antabuse and it does work!

Please see Disulfiram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for more information

Good luck on your journey:-)

Too anyone who doesn't think codeine is addictive enough to worry about, or is thinking on giving it a whirl-

Well, I wanted to post this because, even though codeine is a weaker opiate than many out there, it is very addictive none the less.

I am amazed at the "control" over it, that I dont have.
Somewhere in the neighbourhood of about 2 weeks ago, I started using this stuff again because I had to somehow stop abusing other meds.

Swapping one addiction for another is beyond stupid, I know, but in my addict brain, it seemed like a good idea.

But anyway,back to how addictive this stuff is
Now, maybe I'm weaker than a lot of folks.........I dont know, but my use has more than quadrupled (sp) in just 2 weeks.

I've easily taken 1000 pills in 10-14 days and I cant seem to stop.
My skin is itchy and my arms are scabbing up and i have a pain (off and on)where my liver is located.

Now I know that I cant stop on my own, I realized that yesterday.

In all my going to NA (here and there) this will be the first time I will have to use the phone list to stop this madness.

My point is .........codeine mucked me over quick and will do the same for you, if you flirt with it.

Please don't.

I might add............ I am thoroughly ashamed of myself.

Well, I've been kinda quite on here lately, the holidays from halloween through new years are a trigger for me, for some reason that is when things seem to happen, and I just clam up.

I'm leaving for Florida in the next day or two, moving Vicky back down there. I can't even express how much I'm going to miss her and Jordan. But she has to do whatever it takes to be happy and provide for that little baby.

My sister and I had a major falling out, we probably will never speak to or see each other again. I finely enforced some bounderies, no more being walked all over, as a result, I lost her, she was my best friend.

After Jerrys breakdown, he came back, not even remembering what he did, he got back on his meds and is his old self, for him, it is like nothing happened, for me....I feel different about him, but I decided not to make any rash decisions with everything else going on.

Mike tried contacting me a couple more times and then just gave up, thank god.

So when I get back from Florida, there will be no one except Jerry. I'm determined to finish the motel, but once that is done, I don't know if I'll try to run it or sell it. Depending on how things work out with Jerry, I don't know where I'll go or what I'll do. I've decided not to plan on anything, just let life lead me where I'm supposed to go.

I'm really scared to let Vicky and Jordan go back, I will not be close enough to watch out for them or even help them, so I'm holding onto my faith. She has come this far from the hell she experienced, it's time I allow her to spread her wings and fly.

Love you guys,
B

alcoholics are sick people and do sick things. please remind me of all the things i've shared with people here about alcoholics and the disease that destroys them and others.

i'm having the hardest time ever about my thinking concerning alcoholics....i'm thinking things like evil, freaks, what good are they, why can't we corrall all of them up, put them on an island and let them torture the hell outta each other. i'm feeling so much hatred for my xah right now that it is immeasurable.

i don't want that hatred to be a driving force again in my life.

right now, i need to be working on healing, and all i can manage is just to barely cope. get up. brush teeth. comb hair. collapse back into bed. wait 10 minutes and force myself to take my meds. make myself go into living room and say good morning to mama. brush teeth again. stare at self in mirror with toothpaste around my mouth and cry.

someone please cyber-shake me into reality again. give me shock treatments, tough talk, anything.

i've prayed so hard for serenity, peace, knowlege that i am in Gods hands, that he would show me thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

can't eat, sleep, or barely drink. my ole chicken skin that is supposed to be my arms just stand up like little tents when i pinch them. and they stay there. i can make my arms look like a heavily textured ceiling or the ceiling of a cave. this can take up a lot of time.

i ask myself.....what am i getting out of feeling like this? because i know i have the power to change it.......but all i feel is just super sick, and scared out of my mind.

I'm more of a lurker than participant but I feel compelled to share some of my thoughts today. I am a huge believer in gratitude lists. I can sit down and write out the things I am grateful for and somehow it always seems to help. My lists are fairly easy when things are going well, but it's those I struggle to write when I'm not full of sunshine that help the most. Right now is one of those times. I may have some problems today, but all it takes is a minute to remind myself of how my life has improved in the past two years of being sober and back on my meds to be very grateful. Two years ago I was a die-hard junkie - jobless, homeless and broke. I spent six months in a wonderful treatment center and today I have a car, a job, a place to live, tons of support in AA, my rediscovered family and a fantastic psychiatrist!

Fear and a feeling of hopelessness come around once in a while, but all I have to do is remind myself of how far I've come. Works every time!

Happy Holidays!

An anecdotal experience that might be helpful . . .

A few years ago, I tapered off of a 15 mg/day hydro habit down to 2.5 mg. Quitting was pure hell. I suffered from G.I. distress, RLS, and insomnia. Those things were tolerable, but the depression and lethargy weren't. I felt like sleeping all of the time but couldn't. I figured that I was just reaping the rewards of a 8 year opioid affair.

It took a few weeks before I felt civil and a few months before I re-approached anything like normal.

Afterwards, tests run during a routine colonoscopy (i.e. an odyssey to my ileum) determined that I was anemic; specifically I was lacking folic acid.

I started taking OTC folic acid and that fixed my anemia. Today marks the 2nd day of no meds, and except for some gut sensitivity, mentally I'm just fine. I know I'm not out of the woods yet, but the difference is huge.

I'm thinking that WDs are easier this time because I'm a lot healthier. The moral of the story may be to have a thorough check-up and blood work before you quit cold turkey or taper. It seems that certain deficiencies can make the whole process a lot more difficult.

Will post if anything changes quickly . . .

Buzz

My husband and I separated a month and a half ago. It was an ugly mess at the time. He was binge drinking and making my life a living hell. He was living life so wrecklessly that I had to make him choose. It was his family or his bottle. Well, he chose the bottlte and it wasn't any surprise. I knew that it would happen that way. I guess it made it more bearable knowing that he chose his own path. He moved in with his mother and for quite some time he didn't call or contact us. It was a little painful at first but it got easier to handle. He started calling at odd hours...like 2:00 in the morning! He would call me a few choice words and hang up. You know...my heart began to feel nothing. I stopped crying silently in the shower. I told him years ago to stop calling me names and acting like such an idiot that eventually I wouldn't love him the same way anymore. Well, it happened and when the chill hit him his attitude changed towards me. But now I know its too late. Now, he's a wreck. He cries and says that without his family he's nothing, he wants to die, etc. I care for him and don't want anything to happen to him. I believe that he's sincere in his threats. He's bipolar without meds and a heavy drinker. I told him last night that I thought that was a silly thing to say because even without me he still has his children. He hung up in my face.I know that this is another game to make me feel like crap so I'll cave but it really is bothering me today. Help me put this in perspective please.