methadone, suboxone, anabuse, benzodiazepines, buprenorphine, disulfiram and im sure many other drugs are available to the recovering addict to help deal with things like withdrawal, cravings and other symptoms. my question is this? why are so many people on some of these drugs long term? i know of many heroin addicts that have been on methadone for way longer than they used dope. what the fuck?!?
ok... withdrawal from some drugs sucks but you can get off them if you want. what did people do to recover before these 'wonder drugs'? some just knuckled under and did it in the rooms and some went to hospitals. the thing is, these medications should be only short term solutions. im all for making detox easier, i guess, but how is an addict detoxing from anything if they are still on an addictive substance? another thing about detox/withdrawal... shouldnt we feel some discomfort and pain? i think so because if it were easy we would just forget that there was any problem in the first place. make things easier on an addict and they seek the easy way.
i guess methadone is my pet peeve. ive tried heroin, didnt like it and didnt get addicted but i see the damage heroin does. i also see the damage caused by methadone. very, very few people can actually die from heroin withdrawal but the numbers go way up for methadone. also, with heroin you are going to be sick for several days and uncomfortable for a week or so. if you kick methadone youre going to be sick for maybe six months and uncomfortable even longer. the solution is worse than the problem. some people even get high on methadone. its supposed to be a replacement for dope but many addicts use it on top of their daily fix. is it a solution or just an attempt to control the heroin addict? methadone isnt going to work unless there is a desire to get the fuck off it. i know a lot of addicts that arent getting their methadone decreased like its supposed to be done and theyre trapped in a new addiction.
anabuse is another drugs thats just plain bad. its supposed to be a deterant to drinking and im sure it works sometimes. shit, i drank on anabuse and im sure a lot of other alcoholics did too. like with methadone, it aint gonna work unless the desire to stop is there and if that desire is there then you dont need it in the first place. penalties like violent illness dont deter us. we find ways around this shit and some stop0 taking this med altogether. why the fuck get on it in the first place?
benzos are wonderful detox meds, for alcoholics especially, but they can make withdrawal more comfortable for just about any addict. they are a solid replacement for booze as they closely mimic alcohol. for serious alcoholics this is important for the first three to seven days of abstinence because alcohol withdrawal can kill you. many late stage alcoholics die when they try to kick cold turkey. its just how alcohol works. in the old days doctors recognized this and treated it. unfortunately they treated it with the best they had back then, a mixture of alcohol and formaldehyde. this was another case where the solution was as dangerous as the problem. modern medicine has given us medications effective for alcoholism treatment but like with every other drug, they are a short term fix. ok, im not talking about people prescribed these meds for anxiety and other mental/chemical issues, im only addressing addiction here. benzos are highly addicting and as dangerous as booze to detox from. they also have a longer withdrawal then alcoholo. with booze you suffer for a while depending on the severity of the addiction but most alcoholics are out of the danger zone at three to five days after the last drink. with benzos the acute withdrawal can last as long as 8 weeks.
soboxone and other opoid treatments are good but like methadone, its a short term treatment. why do doctors insist addicts be on detoxifying meds for long periods of time? heroin is kickble, ask jimmy k and all the oldtimers in NA. they kicked without all these wonder drugs and you know what? there was a much higher success rate of recovery back then then there is now with all the wonder drugs.
there is one more method of treatment i want to address. rapid detox. this is a surgical procedure where the addict is anesthetized and surgically detoxed while under. i wonder what the long term success rate of this method is? again, im all for making detox easier but i really think that not feeling the discomfort and pain is doing the addict a huge disservice. if there is no pain there is no gain. thats my two cents on this but id like to hear from anyone that went thru rapid detox.
my drug of choice is primarily alcohol. in the past 15 years ive detoxed from it seven times. every time i detoxed it was done with medical supervision and in an inpatient setting. im a very low bottom drunk with a very serious alcohol addiction. each time i went to detox i was put on at least one medication, usualy multiple meds. one or more was a benzodiazepine; valium, librium or something related. i was on these meds for three to six days. as soon as my vitals; blood pressure, temperature and heartrate were stabilized these drugs were taken away. i was dosed accordingly; heavily the first day and lower doses each progressive day. when the drugs were removed from my treatment my withdrawal was really felt. i felt it even on the meds but they took the edge off. the only reason i was placed on the meds was because i was in danger of dying. i still felt the pain and discomfort and it still helps me in my recovery today.
why are doctors so keen to make detox easy? i understand why we addicts want this. withdrawal is probably the single biggest reason most of us leave treatment. the thing is this: do we want to have to be on replacement drugs the rest of our lives? it was the addiction that was killing most of us, not the withdrawal. most addicts will not die from withdrawal yet more and more are medicated and the success rates in recovery continues to go down. we make addicts relient on doctors and clinics instead of dealers. the doctors has becomae the new dealer and a lot of us will do almost anything for our "fix".
define your recovery any way you like but think about this... are you still putting something into your body to change the way you feel? again, im not talking about those that need to be on certin meds to function in daily life. im talking about addicts seeking recovery. no addict needs to be on anything do be in recovery. some of us fool ourselves into thinking this. we tell ourselves that if we didnt have suboxone or methadone or valium then we would just be using heroin or drinking again. what the fucks the difference? its a replacement at best and a new addiction at worst. ANY MEDICATION USED TO TREAT ADDICTION SHOULD BE SHORT TERM FOR TREATING LIFE THREATENING SYMPTOMS ONLY not just because the addict might use again or feel uncomfortable with detox or isnt sleeping well. we are turning control over to the government, clinics and doctors instead of god as we should. again, im going to repeat myself... the founders did it without replecement drugs and their successes were way higher than they are now. think about that.
none of the above named drugs has anywhere near the success of a solid recovery program. they can be used in conjunction with a program but you will find that as you work your program that maybe its not a good idea to stay on these drugs. i personally know thousands of people that have gotten of any form of drug in all stages of addiction without the help of any medications except for the very short term and there are many that never had any medical help to kick at all. they didnt need the medical help and theyre fine and productive today. many of them have long term recovery. how did they do this? they just did. they suffered the withdrawal and got over it. YOU WILL EVENTUALLY GET OVER WITHDRAWAL IF YOU STAY THE FUCK OFF THE DRUGS LONG ENOUGH. you may not like the way you feel but that feeling might just be what saves your life one day.
once real recovery is sought then we find that we were just fooling ourselves. we didnt need anything to help kick except for maybe in the very beginning to not die. if youre on any of these medications just know that this blog is my opinion but its also the opinion of many others. dont fool yourself with ideals of what methadone, suboxone and other drugs are. they are drugs and they do nothing but keep withdrawal minimal. thats it.
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