Opiate Withdrawl — Cold Turkey?
Question by Greg: Opiate Withdrawl — Cold Turkey?
My brother (21) is now home for the semester after falling into some troubles with an opiate addiction that has been building steam now for 3 years. He’s been on Suboxone for a while — over a year — and is currently seeking outpatient treatment 4-5 days a week at a local facility. Highly critical of the programs used to treat this addiction, however, I’m putting this offer on the table: to stay with him in a hotel room for 4-5 days to withdrawal and to to put the physical dimension of this problem to rest.
Having never done these drugs, I’m sure it’s easier said than done. But contrary to the “you’ve never experienced withdrawal, so therefore you can’t comment” argument, I think a level-headed, rational perspective is needed: if I were to have this addiction, I’d kick it cold turkey. That’s just how I am.
My thinking is: where are the repercussions for a kid whose parents have enough money and resources to help always help him; or, dare I say, always bail him out? There aren’t great psychological repercussions, since modern psychiatry has removed the morality and conscience — including shame and guilt — from addiction (a real blind spot, in my opinion). Additionally, there aren’t many physical repercussions insofar as drugs like Suboxone are designed to ease you off the substance and to minimize the pain you would’ve otherwise experienced. And that’s not to say that being addicted to pain killers isn’t hell, but where in the modern treatment of addiction is the DETERRENT?
To me, the ultimate deterrent would be 3-5 days of absolute misery. Something borderline traumatic they’ll prevent him from wanting to ever touch those substances again. The hope is for my brother to return to school in the fall; but considering that these drugs are so rampant, I don’t think living in a bubble is practical. I’m sorry, I just can’t help but ask the question: where is the deterrent? When you have parents that will essentially bail you out no matter what, why fear lapsing into opiates again (besides the obvious: dying)?
I dunno, if this sounds ignorant then I apologize. But to me, the most sensible thing to do would be 3-5 days of insanity under guidance in a contained environment than years of substitute drugs and endless therapy (at least for the physical end). If someone REALLY wanted to quit, wouldn’t they want to just get it over with?
What is your opinion? Thank you.
Best answer:
Answer by R.H.
Coming from someone that was addicted to pain killers as well, but not from a “street drug” type way.. Suboxone is working WONDERS for me! Your brother has to really WANT to quit them though. I’ve only been on the Suboxone for a month and a half and I’m already tapering down. Alot of it has to do with will power. After ALL of the research I have done on it, I have never heard of someone being on Suboxone for over a year for pain killers. Heroin- yes, but pain killers- no.
Maybe your brother just has a crappy doctor that prescribed him too high of a dosage to begin with and didn’t start tapering him down until way after your brother thought he needed to be tapered down. Doctor-patient communication is VERY important with this medication. He shouldn’t need rehab to come off of the Suboxone thought. Seriously- he shouldn’t.
It’s not a narcotic, all it does it block the receptors in your brain from wanting narcotics. You said you would just quit cold turkey- trust me, you would think twice about it because its an unexplainable feeling, just like you’re going to go crazy. Sure the first day isn’t all that bad, but for up to months after wards it can still be hard to ignore that want for the narcotic.
You need to maybe get a different doctor for your brother to help him taper off of the Suboxone, or maybe he wasn’t telling you the whole truth about what he was addicted to?? Either way- something isn’t right here. Everyone that I have spoken to that has used Suboxone to get off of pain killers was successful. I wish you and especially your brother the best of luck though, but don’t forget- he has to WHOLE-HEARTEDLY want to get off whatever it was that he was on, before he can successfully, you can’t force him too.
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Opiate Addiction: Theodore Dalrymple – Romancing Opiates – May 2006 (2 of 6)
On May 30, 2006, Theodore Dalrymple marked the release of his book Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy with a speech at the Harvard Club in New York. The book was published by Encounter Books, and the event was hosted by the Manhattan Institute. To learn more about Theodore Dalrymple, visit www.skepticaldoctor.com, an unofficial website devoted to the man and his work.
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