Surviving a heroin detox at home and making sure you don’t repeat the performance

People say opioid detox is like having a bad flu. Well, if you’ve been there, you know it’s the understatement of the century! Opioid detox is a painful and miserable experience. Even in medically assisted inpatient facilities, there will still be some discomfort.

If you want or have to detox at home, there are ways to make it more tolerable.

Days or even months before starting your detox, it helps to start a mental detox. This is the real key to staying sober, or even returning to “normal person” status. By “normal person” I mean going back to being the person you were before opioid addiction.

Experts will tell you that this is impossible, once addicted always addicted, that you have a disease. Well, it just isn’t true. All those things that the ‘experts’ tell us are theories. The methods used by the medical community, based on these theories, have not worked for 60 years.

You can train yourself to stop craving your preferred drug. It all starts in the mind, with your thoughts.

I had some “Addict, heal yourself” moments while I was still a heroin addict, right before I was finally sober. I want to share with you the deepest:

1. No person, program, or meeting could do anything for me to help me achieve my goal of being who I was before I took heroin. In fact, they did everything they could to dissuade me from believing that I could be cured.

2. If I think it is possible, I can make it happen.

3. I have control over all aspects of my life. I am not now, nor have I ever been powerless.

It was a very important day for me when I stopped seeking help from outside sources. That was the day I regained my power. I decided that if they were all not wrong, I would make them wrong. When I stopped looking outside of myself for help, I finally decided to help myself.

Although it seemed sudden to me when I realized this, in hindsight it was not. I had been reading personal development books for quite some time. I read a lot about the power of the mind. It caught my attention, reading about people who bend metal with the power of their mind and undergo surgery without anesthesia using only metal skills, how could these amazing things be possible, and yet we are taught to believe that a time an addict is always an addict? It simply cannot be possible that I can change everything in my life except this area of ​​enormous importance.

And so, I have been happily chemically independent for some time. I think the secret to my success is that I got off to a good start. Before putting the needle in, I got to work on myself. I wrote goals, visualized, watched and changed my thoughts and meditated. After a while, he didn’t want any more drugs. Even when I went into withdrawal, I just didn’t want the drugs. I don’t fight one day at a time, I don’t attend meetings, I avoid people’s places and things, I don’t have to.

The detoxification itself will be more tolerable if you are working towards something that excites you.

Once you’ve achieved worthwhile goals and learned a little about the powers of the mind, your desire to stay sober and have a great life will increase. Once you feel that passion, you will know that you are ready to quit and move on. This is true for any drug.

If you are dependent on opiates, benzodiazepines, or alcohol, you are likely in some physical withdrawal. If you decide to detox at home, there are a number of things you will want to do to ensure the best possible comfort. Remember that detoxing from certain substances can, in rare cases, be fatal (this is the case with alcohol and benzos), so you’ll want to discuss your options with a doctor.

To ensure the best possible comfort, start planning your detox in advance. Focus on treating the symptoms you are going to feel.

1. Make sure to reschedule any commitments for at least a week.

2. If you have children, you may want to arrange for them to stay elsewhere or for you to stay elsewhere. At the very least, make sure someone else is taking care of them. Don’t underestimate the depression, irritability, and lack of energy that accompany detoxification..

3. Keep over-the-counter medications you may need on hand.

For. Anti nausea

B. Antidiarrhea

vs. Sleep aids

D. Benadryl (to stop endless tearing, sneezing, and runny nose)

me. Epsom salts for hot baths (can save your life, especially if you are prone to intolerable burning sensations on your skin like I am)

F. Motrin for pain

4. If you can, ask someone to give you frequent massages. This will take your mind off the discomfort and help with muscle and bone pain. Even a hand massage can work wonders.

5. You may feel hot and cold sweats or freeze even though you are sweating through the sheets. Having someone change your sheets is always helpful. He used to have so little energy that he could barely walk to the bathroom, never mind changing the sheets!

6. This is a bit controversial, but some legal herbs can be very helpful. Kava Kava, a powdered ceremonial herb, can be used to soften.

7. Once you have endured the worst (days 2-4) try to get up and walk as much as possible. You may feel dizzy at first, but it’s important to keep your body moving.

8. During the whole process stay hydrated. Back headaches accompany most detoxes and water should help relieve them.

There are some symptoms that people rarely mention, such as a burning sensation on the skin. I often felt like I had a very bad sunburn when I was going through withdrawal. You may experience strange sensations on your skin and scalp, eyes so dilated that any amount of light can be overwhelming, and any stimulus can be too much for some people. There was a time I had to walk into a Walmart during a detox and it was a stimulation overload. The fluorescent light blinded me and I felt dizzy, there were so many things! I never got past the front door.

Also, people can get extremely horny during withdrawal. Opioids can kill the sex drive and sexual sensation, but when the body sheds them, the sex organs overflow. Unfortunately, you are usually too uncomfortable to want to have sex with someone other than yourself.

For me, it was usually once I started to feel better, around 5-7 days that I relapsed. That is why I think it is important to work on yourself before quitting. The current paradigm of “let go then heal” just doesn’t work for most people.

If you haven’t had success with the traditional route, try my counter-intuitive method.