Posted by Chuckie on April 7, 2004, at 14:06:23
So this guy got himself a problem with poppy tea. He wasn't sure if to characterize it as a 'problem' until the other day. What happened was he was tapering, and he got a crummy batch of poppies, and so between the lower dosage and the poor quality, he woke up with some serious withdrawal symptoms. So that's a problem, for sure.
He doesn't want to go inpatient, mostly b/c he's never done this before and he's scared. He WOULD like outpatient help, but can't find it and/or doesn't know the routine. I.e. must someone test positive, and then go into detox, and THEN maybe he can have some maintenence meds?
In any case, the plan is he's gonna call in to work, say he had an accident or surgery or something, and give hmself a week off to be sick. Hopefully he doesn't lose his job, but that's secondary.
He's not so scared of the physical symptoms, which by all accounts are like the flu. If that's the case, he will be happy laying on the couch being sick and watching Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie. He likes that.
What DOES frighten him are the psychological symptoms, (confusion, agitation, depression, anxiety), all of which he already has in excess. His wife has her own life to deal with, and doesn't take well to craziness. She's absolutely NOT the nurturing sort, she thinks it's like 'mommying' or something. But he's hoping to lean on her at least a bit, for nutrition and encouragement. and most of all to determine if he needs to go to the hospital, because he probably won't know.
Besides all that, he has two main issues:
1) Depression was why he got on the tea in the first place, coincidently because of discussions here at Dr. Bob's. He's one of those folks whose depression is completely cured by taking opiates. He couldn't talk his doc into prescribing them, and so had to try non-prescribed medication. It worked great for a while, but when he naturally developed tolerance, the higher dosages made him feel crummy, which wasn't the point at all. The point was to feel normal. All of which is a roundabout way of saying detox doesn't solve the problem.
2) When he had his w/d symptoms, (and after he figured out what was happening to him), he fixed it with a small dosage, just enough to bring the symptoms under control and make him functional. He's wondering if he should do that while detoxing, for safety and a bit of symptom relief, or if the whole point of detox is to get it out of his system.
Any advice appreciated.
Thanks,
Chuckie
poster:Chuckie
thread:333744
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20040130/msgs/333744.html