Clonidine for opiate withdrawals

Re: Clonidine for heroin wd?

Bro' Clonedine is an old drug, used to modulate blood pressure'
It can help with withdrawal, in that it stops the heart pounding, it works as a beta blocker'

Of how much do you use H wise'

Blue Lilly extract, Apomiphine, will do you much better'

It works by binding to the benzodiazapine receptors, working somewhat like Clorapromazine'
It helps with leg kicks and restless sindrome, also gives a little stymulation for of when you are lagge and mashed through withdrawal'
I know of your pain bro, been there many times'
If ther is anything I can do to help, do not hesitate to contact me'
If you are serious about beating this problem, it would be worth you while IMHO to look into Iboga/Ibogaine treatment'
It worked for me and many others'

Be well'

Stay well,

Stay strong'

Make plan and stick to it brother, there is light at the end of the tunnel, you just have to embrace change is all'

blessed be'

Motumba'

 

Re: Clonidine for heroin wd?

Be careful with Clonedine' it lowers blood pressue as I have stated, which means it can leave you feeling extreemly weak and deppressed'
Drink plenty of good water 8 pints a day to flush your organs, excorsise, eat well, lots of fruit and nuts, turn yourself into the mon key oyu whee born brother'

 

Re: Clonidine for heroin wd?

so clonodine doesn't really ease withdrawals symptoms, just lowers blood pressure? I went to his doc today cause I am in withdrawal but got a bunch of clonazepam. that stuff helps out quite a bit with the symptoms of withdrawal like restlessness, restless legs, and over anxiety. might be something to look into. and swim perfers clonazepam over others like alprazolam and stuff because of the long life as well as the muscle relaxing properties of clonazepam.

 

Re: Clonidine for heroin wd?

I have never heard of Clonodine, but a brief look on Wikipedia and it seems it works in a similar way to Lofexidine which i was given for heroin detox both as an outpatient then an inpatient (residential 2 week detox), i only lasted 3 days for the inpatient detox so at that time i was still tapering off the methadone and didn't get Lofexidine at that time.

When i did get Lofexidine as an outpatient, it was the worst drug for detox i have ever had, it is really nasty and only barely takes the edge off the withdrawals. That said i did get diazepam as well (although a cruelly and ridiculously low dose), so i imagine with Clonidine you WILL need some diazepam (at least 40mg) or alprazolam (at least 4mg). That said, Lofexidine does work and it does ease withdrawal symptoms, and i can only assume clonodine will work in the same way because it is a similar kind of drug that has similar actions and pharmacology to Lofexidine (from the brief look i had at it).

The thing with Lofexidine (and probably Clonidine) is that for a lot of people it will basically knock you out and make you drowsy but it will have ZERO narcotic effect whatsoever. Never the less, with Clonidine, some diazepam and a sleeping tablet (i got zopiclone) then it probably could get you through the withdrawal symptoms.

That said, even if you do get through the detox and become clean, that is the easy part over, the hard part is just beginning. Unless YOU are 100% determined to get off heroin and stay off it for good then it will NOT work, believe me, after you detox you will end up using again and you will be back to square one. You will know in yourself if you are ready to put drugs behind you and get on with your life, no one can do it for you, so unless you are 100% determined and you know you will not use again, then detox is the way to go.

If however you are not ready, and again you will know yourself, then going for some sort of maintenance is the best way to go. For maintenance you really have two options, Methadone or Buprenorphine (Suboxone and/or Subutex). You could actually use either of these for a detox as well by the way, but Buprenorphine is probably better than methadone for that. Buprenorphine is probably the best thing to go with first off for maintenance as well, but Methadone works well also. Personally if Buprenorphine was available when i was put on methadone (after two failed detox attempts) then i probably wouldn't have went with the Methadone.

Even so, the best thing to do would to at least try a detox first off because it might well work even if you know in yourself you're not ready, never the less it is worth a try. And if it doesn't work then you haven't lost anything and you can always go for maintenance with either Buprenorphine or Methadone.

Last thing i would say, is if you go for detox with the clonodine then you WILL definitely need some sort of benzodiazepine like diazepam (Valium) or you will have no chance and the withdrawals will be terrible.


Negative Rep - "40mg of valium for someone with an unknown habit size and tolerance is dangerous at best."

What NONSENSE! At least have the balls to reply to my post and debate it with me instead of making unfounded bullshit negative rep, you coward!

​

 

Re: Clonidine for heroin wd?

Clonidine is commonly prescribed for heroin withdrawal and less commonly also for Restless Legs Syndrome which is one of worst aspects of heroin withdrawal in my gurls opinion. She has used clonidine for heroin withdrawal (combined with a few days of methadone) and has also used it for Restless Legs Syndrome alone, which it gave some relief for. It will help with heroin withdrawal but it most likely will not be enough by itself.

 

Re: Clonidine for heroin wd?

Just one point here bro' if you go either of these roots you should only us these substances to kick off'

You will be addicted for a very ver very long time if you got the maintainance root because of these bastard drugs half life'

I would look to plants to help and not chemicals because the body is full of them already'
Just my five on all this after freaking too long being fucked inthe ass by doctors and scripts' hospitals and psychs'

In the end, you must graps the change, taking easy roots just polongs the agony for years and years to come'

blessed be'

Excuse my rant'

Motumba'

 

Re: Clonidine for heroin wd?

If someone has detoxed then well done, but as i said the hard part is just starting, staying off the smack from day to day. The whole heroin addiction isn't just about taking heroin or some opiate, it's the whole life, the daily hunt for a bag, even the daily trips to the high street to steal some razor blades (number 1 stolen item in the UK) or whiskey and vodka (always an easy sell).

My friend did this a few times, but it was never something he did every day, his problems began when his overdraft and credit cards were maxed, then the check book went and then it was off to get treatment. Detox failed, twice, as i mentioned, so its been methadone for a couple of years now probably more, with a self detox in between.

Three months isn't a long time, so now one is detoxed i strongly suggest one gets on with their life without heroin. What i would give to go back 8 years (and be 18 again) and give heroin a miss altogether. Three months is definitely long enough to get physically addicted, no question about that, but one probably hasn't started selling stuff from their own house, stealing from the local shops and supermarkets, or worse. The real problems begin when the habit becomes unaffordable and you have to do things just to get a bag every day, my friend could NEVER go back to that, EVER.

Detox and Clonidine probably was the best choice, i actually missed the three months part in the original post or i wouldn't even have suggested methadone maintenance.

 

Re: Clonidine for heroin wd?

Power to you bro' now you can get on with feeding your life to bear fruits you can eat, instead of a physical habit'
Awesome to hear' It warms my heart'
Drink the water, eat the food, run like a Warrior, the rest is all bullshit brother'
Feel the love' of being free'

Be well'

Bliss'

Motumba'

 

Re: Clonidine for heroin withdrawals?

I was addicted for 3 years on opiates started doing m-eslon beads with dalaudid then graduated to heroin. When I ran out of money and racked up criminal charges (fraud,theft,..) In court I was ordered to enter a methadone treatment and it worked for me ever since. I am on 130mg per day going down 5mg per month. I live in Ottawa, Canada so the way they do it there is methadone hcl 5mg in 1ml of orange kool-aid. Peace out!

 

clonidine? anyone used for opiate withdrawal?

I am coming off buprenorphine (suboxone) after being on almost 2 years and is tired of it. his doctor prescribed the usual clonazepam and also, clonidine. can anyone tell swim about it from experience as used for opiate withdrawal, or anything else for that matter? thanks.

 

Re: clonidine? anyone used for opiate withdrawal?

I am nearing the end of withdrawl from a heroin dependence and was also prescribed clonidine. He found it reduced some of the agitation of withdrawl. He was taking hydroxyzine 25mg, and clonidine .1mg every 6 hours. The first 20 or so hours of withdrawl were terrible but the combination of the medications did allow him to sleep for a significant amount of this time. If You has the option of taking this I would recommend it.

 

Re: clonidine? anyone used for opiate withdrawal?

yes I think the clonidine is helping more than just the 4mg of clonazepam 2x a day. I am noticabely drowsy. also how has hydroxyzine helped? any more info (hopefully from experience) will be of much help. thanks.

 

Re: clonidine? anyone used for opiate withdrawal?

Yes the hydroxyzine has been helpful as well. It is an antihistamine with sedative, hypnotic, and anxiolytic effects. It made sleep far easier for swim. This was a godsend for swim during the worst parts of withdrawl.

Unfortunately I do not have many suggestions. However as he nears the end of his detox I has one suggestion based on his experience during withdrawl.
I found that interrupting his withdrawl about 20 hours did not simply delay the worst part of withdrawl. Rather when his last balloon of heroin ran out and he went into withdrawl again it was far less severe. It was nowhere near the intensity it had been when he had decided to buy a balloon. He does not know what that day would have been like had he not used heroin. However he suspects his would have been wracked with pain the remainder of that that and into the night. He suspects that the initial withdrawl was enough to catalyze the the change in receptor density and sensitivity that occurs during withdraw.
The same may not hold true for swiy, however it might be worth a try.

Note:
For those curious, swims choice to interrupt his withdrawl was not due entirely to his physical discomfort. A few days prior he had told his girlfriend that he would come visit her. He had not planned on quiting heroin so abruptly and could not have visited her in the state he was in.

 

Re: clonidine? anyone used for opiate withdrawal?

Swim used clonodine (a 7 day catapres patch) and it worked wonders for swim while he was in withdrawal from bupe. The pain's still there, but WAY better than going cold turkey.

 

Re: clonidine? anyone used for opiate withdrawal?

It may or may not be true that...

I totally agree with infekt. Clonidine is a wonder drug. I once came of 200mg methadone, going 200mg,100mg,0, using clonodine and a benzo (librium) taper, but I was a benzo addict too at the time. It was far from easy, but it transformed the impossible into the indescribably difficult, which made ALL the difference. I lasted 23 months or so before falling off the wagon that time.

I'm currently reducing from 225mg methadone to 5mg today, and God willing have taken my last methadone 9 hours or so ago. I have been using clonodine the last 3 days, and have a supply to use as needed. I don't like the side-eddects, dry mouth, lethargy, but it really helps with the withdrawals, particularly the anxiety, heart racing symptemology, but also the kicking and muscle pains etc. I suggest you find a thread called "Going cold turkey from 150mg methadone, the easy way!" or something similar. It's the best medical advice I've seen so far, from a doctor with personal experience of addiction. If you want to follow what I've been doing I have a thread called "screaming in the night air. Help emotional and technical for methadone withdrawal". Some of it's a bit left-field, but there might be some useful medical stuff. JaWil, best of luck, my heart goes out to you. If you want any specific advice from me, leave a post on my thread

Love to all

Dr D.

 

Re: clonidine? anyone used for opiate withdrawal?

^^^^ I don't quite follow you with what youou're saying regarding those Methadone dosages. Does You mean he is quitting some other opioid and only has a limited amount of Methadone to help him get through the withdrawal, or does You mean he has been on Methadone maintenance treatment and is reducing his 225mg maintenance dose to 5mg in a day or so? And when You stopped taking Methadone in the past like You mentioned, did he stop from a 200mg maintenance dose, and just by using 200mg, and then 100mg once, and then stopped completely? If so, why doesn't You taper his doses even a little bit? It would have made it much less painfull and horrible as such an abrupt taper. Sorry if I got it wrong, but if you could explain it a bit more clearly, I hopefully would understand it. I'm also on Methadone treatment, using it to gradually tapering down to 10-20mg before switching over to Buprenorphine for the final bit of tapering before quitting completely. So any personal experience with Methadone treatment are always usefull to me. Thanks.

 

Re: clonidine? anyone used for opiate withdrawal?

caveat lector etc. I might be lying when I say...

Dear Psychonaut (did you by the way get the name from the book Lieber Null and Psychonaut? It's a word I've seen several times since I first came across it in the name of the book), in answer to your questions...

Both times I was on regular maintenance methadone. The first time I refer to I was on 200+ml/day (maxed out at 700ml i.v. one day), but was pretty stable on 200ml/day (mixed i.v. and oral), this was 1150ml(700 oral 450 i.v.) script each week topped up mostly by amps I bought. Anyone else got scars from the old 50mg/ml amps? I did it so quickly because I was in rehab and that was what I was given. I went in after lunch after taking 200ml was given 100ml the first full day (50am 50pm), and then nothing. To say it was a little rough would be a laughable understatement. I give one example of the experience in my "screaming" thread. More might follow! But the clonodine kept me from bolting much to my own surprise. I was hardly impressed, as you can imagine, with the 200,100,0 decrements!

This time I'm cutting down from 225ml or so a day, in fact probably a bit more. But when I started my reduction I did 225/day for 2 days and didn't suffer noticably. For what it's worth my script is for 115, and the rest I'd buy. All of it was oral this time. I'm not vastly endowed with veins! Again all my experiences this time round are on my "screaming" thread. But in summary I've cut down roughly 5ml/day, slightly quicker in the first week, but from 145ml it's been precisely 5ml/day. I'm doing this not because I have no methadone supply, but because I want to.

I've read on here so often of people cutting down the M and then hitting the B. I've never really understood this as I've never seen conclusive evidence that B is easier to quit than M. I suppose it ought to be because of its partial antagonist properties at the mu receptors, but isn't that slightly contradicted by it having a significantly higher average half-life than M, 2-3 days for B c.f. 1 for M. I always thought M was supposed to be a bitch-slapping whore-maker of a drug principally because of its long half-life, or at least that along with it's high lipid-solubility, which I think is the cause (or one of the causes) of the long half-life.

Anyway it's definitely the fashion to switch to Bupe for the end, but I'd recomend clonodine for both the short-withdrawal you must do to make the switch, and for the end of the bupe taper.

B.T.W. how much M are you on at the moment? I'm in my 12th hour since my 5mg send off this a.m. So wish me luck!!

D bows and disappears.

P.S.: Abbreviations used. M=methadone, B=buprenorphine (subutex, suboxone) and c.f. technically means confer but really means "compared with" or "compare"; it's a standard English usage, maybe a little esoteric these days.