Advice on Hydrocodone (Lortab) quitting

Hi All,

About 5 months ago, I royally f'ed my knee up. Tore ACL and about everything else you can think of.
Surgery went well and I am going thru physical therapy.

Thing is, along the way I picked up a pretty thick addiction to hydrocodone.
Not a big deal now, since I am still in pretty bad pain at times so the addiction is at least fuctional, but I know another month or so and I should be able to go without the Lortabs.

BUT I know the withdrawls are going to be pretty nasty. There was once about 2 month ago my script ran out on a Friday and I missed getting a refill till Tuesday so I went thru a bit then and it was not fun. (Plus my knee hurt like hell)

Anyone have any advice when the time comes to quit?
Already have a couple xanax to pop and help relax, but just wondering if anyone else has experience?

Thanks everyone,
nnJ

 

Quitting hydrocodone is not so bad. Its more
psychological than physical, unless your taking
upwards of 40 mg's a day, which I doubt, being
that they are probably at the most 10mg pills.
If I can quit morphine addiction on my own, Im
sure a 37 year old can handle this.
You need to train your mind that when you say
no, you mean no lol. Dont let your habits rule
your life. Just move on.

 

Hey thanks Relayer,

I'm taking 4 7.5's a day. So 30 mils.

I do know from the weekend without it was VERY physical.
I had terrible sweats, vomiting, diarrhea, crawling skin, headache, ringing ears.

It was MUCH nastier than I thought it would be... that's why I'm not looking forward to doing it again.

I am ready to quit at anytime psychologically, but am still in excruciating pain at times with my knee, and the lortabs take just enough of the edge off to get around.
Soon as that pain subsudes, bye bye pills.

I am not comparing hydrocodone to heroin, but it is MUCH tougher of an addiction than most think. That is one of the biggest complaints of it today.
Google hydrocodone addiction and it can suprise you.

Not sure if links are allowed here, but this is a clip from a recent article...

========================

Some want hydrocodone more strictly regulated
Restrictions would mean more visits, work for doctors

BY BRAD BARNES

--*--

Call hydrocodone what you will. Vicodin, Lorcet or Lortab are its most common names, but there are many others.

Pharmacist Patrick Fitzgerald has another word for the painkiller:

"It's pandemic," he said. "It's the No. 1 dispensed drug in the country, by far. I've gone from filling one to two a day to filling one to four an hour."

Just how habit-forming is it?

"It's not uncommon for people to have every tooth in their head pulled, just to get more. I know several who've done that," Fitzgerald said. "It's extremely addictive. It's just like cocaine."

Invented 87 years ago by combining opiates codeine and thebaine, hydrocodone's medical use is inhibiting pain in capsule and tablet form and suppressing coughs as a liquid. But the drug can be a slippery slope for people who associate its pain-killing strength with a means of escaping the pressures of everyday life.

Addicts pop the pills or sometimes chew them -- typically four to 10 pills a day, says Columbus' Dr. Jefferson Jones, an addiction specialist. They can also be crushed and snorted like cocaine or dissolved in water and injected like heroin.

Couple its addictive potency with the fact that it's easier to get than morphine, Dilaudid, OxyContin and even Ritalin -- those are classified as stringently regulated Schedule II drugs, while hydrocodone, as typically combined with acetaminophen, is an easier-to-get Schedule III -- and you get the boom in popularity that hydrocodone's seen in recent years.

It's the most abused prescription drug in the United States. It's even the drug of choice for addicted gatekeepers.

"Eighty-three percent of physicians and pharmacists who are addicted are on hydrocodone," said Dinglewood pharmacist Terry Hurley.

Too abused

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration for years has toyed with reclassifying hydrocodone as a Schedule II narcotic, yet to date there's been no movement to formally make the change.

Jones would support a reclassification.

"You could only write a prescription every 30 days, it could never be refilled, and it couldn't be called in," he said. "So that seems like it solves a lot of problems to me."

Fitzgerald, too, thinks it's a must, even though he'd do less business because of the change.

For doctors, a change would mean seeing patients more frequently and writing more prescriptions. They can make Schedule III narcotics refillable, but they have to write a new prescription for every month of Schedule II drugs.

"I can't say I would support that," said Dr. Clark Gillett, a family practice doctor. "Those prescriptions every month, they'd have to be individually written and signed. That puts an overly large burden on physicians."

Jones says the drug is too abused, though.

"You know, hydrocodone would be a great drug if you didn't build a tolerance to it," Jones said. "Once you start to build a tolerance to it, then you've got to have more and more and more and more. Then you've got to take medicine in the morning, when you wake up, just to feel halfway normal."

 

Ohh. Just wanted to add, that you are right Relayer...
Just DO it.. or in this case DON'T do it..

I know I am strong enough to stop for the 3-4 days it will take to kick the 'urge', but I also know it will plain ole SUCK... so was looking for advice on killing the pain of killing the painkillers.



nnJ

 

Trust me, I moved up from the light pills to full
morphine and heroin addiction, and I know what
they are like. Im not downplaying your problem
so much, Im just trying to show you that it isnt
going to be that bad. Addiction sucks, no doubt
about it. But, 5 months, at 30mg's per day, and
what is it like take 1 pill every 4 hours as needed?
That shouldnt really cause physical withdrawl,
to the extent of sweats and vomitting. Bowel
movement problems occur with opiates period.
No offence, I think your psyche may be making
you sick. But who knows

 

Btw nearly.normal, Im not trying to offend, I just
never heard of someone getting sick from that
little of daily habit. I mean I guess its possible,
it just doesnt seem likely. Either way, I wish you
good luck and yea, just do it :tongue:

 

Yea suppose to be 1 every 4.
I take 2 then 2 each day.

Vomited once, sweats for about the first day and a half. BAD skin crawl etc etc(During the weekend off)

I've got a really addicitve personality and have gone around the ring with heavy alcohol and blow usage in my 'youth' so I def. have the psyche to try and sucker me into believing.

 

its not that bad man its really all in yur mind i used to take oxy ,hydro,vics,codeine and the mother of them all..morphine..the thing about quitting is to keep your mind occupied on something else.there's a lot more beter drugs out there than opiates good luck.

 

Well, I suggest investing in some great quality marijuana in case you have trouble on your own as it can somewhat heal most of the physical withdrawal symptoms and chill you the fuck out.

Also, I'd say talk to your doctor about this. It seems you have a legitimate and licit problem as you were not choosing to do this recreationally. It is not uncommon to become addicted this way.

Other than that, I'd say just put your mind to gettin off these little devils. When I turned fourteen I got pretty heavy on percocetts, taking 40-70 mg a day for around 8 months. I scared myself because of what I was becoming and flushed them all down the toilette so I wouldn't be able to get them even if I wanted them. Went through the same physical symptoms as you for a week and from then on it was psychological.
Now when I have a craving I have a little bit of red wine or smoke some ganja and that seems to help.

 

Are you sure you're not overreacting here? After 11 spine surgeries I was taking a total of 840 mg of Oxycontin a day - 10 1/2 80s..one weekend I was out and the withdrawls I experienced were beyond words, but similar to what you're describing. I don't know...I just have a hard time believing it was so bad. You're only been on Hydrocodone for 5 months at 30 mgs a day? But, if you don't think you'll be able to bare it, go to detox. Xanax isn't going to do you shit. You need to be in a hospital where they can give you the medicine you need in order to help cope through it. It's about a 4 day stay. I went a few months ago when my Doctor got scared, obviously, because of my tolerance...and, I did surprisingly well. If you go, go to a hospital, if you're not in the right environment they won't do much but stand around and watch. You're doing the right thing though, if you're not in pain...the sooner you quit, the better. If you can, you could always taper yourself down. Sometimes it's just easier to go in Detox and get it over with though. I went in on Sept. 12 and I'm now down to 4 80 mg. Oxys a day, so that's an improvement. I'm still in pain, but I have found these are working even better than they did on my previous doses...and, I know, they were unbelievably high.
Good luck, though!

 

Haha. I wouldn't exactly call Morphine "the mother of them all"...