I’ve made it longer before off of these demon pills but I also have severe mental health issues such as ptsd and am told the post acute withdrawal symptoms can last several years. I’ve had suicide attempts and don’t think I can make it that long juggling everything plus mental withdrawal any tips are greatly appreciated or advice at all
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Huge congrats on making it to almost a week lady. That’s no mean feat. In fact it’s big. As to your question for advice, I have only one real tip and this is it.
Get help wherever you can! Both professional and peer support. Wherever you can find it go and get it. Sounds to me you need professional help with your mental health problems. I did and I still do.
But we all need support from our peers too. There’s plenty support right here but you also may need more, in peer support groups like NA, SMART, or one of the many other possibilities in existence these day. We can’t do it alone. I sure couldn’t. Trying to solve my problems alone is what got me into this mess in the first place.
Now I work my recovery which is hard work but it is giving me a better happier life instead of sinking ever deeper in the addict’s way of living which isn’t really living at all. If there’s one thing that made me suicidal it’s substance abuse. My suicidal ideations disappeared after I quit using and started working on my recovery.
I can’t promise 100% the same will happen to you but it sure is worth the try right? And I can promise life is better without active addiction in our lives. That I can promise 100%. Wishing you all success. Hugs.
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Hi Kat, glad you’re here and hugs on your week!
If the cravings are too damn difficult to deal with there are addiction treatments such as monthly injections of both Vivitrol and Buprenorphine that have helped many in early recovery.
But, meds are only one part of a person’s recovery as we still need to work on us and changing many thought patterns and adding coping skills, sober support and lots. I work AA, and it makes sense to me.
Everyone is different, we find what works and work it. If we don’t keep trying this disease owns our life.
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1 week is simply too short a time to draw any huge conclusion like “will it ever get better”
It helped me to reserve judgment for 30, 60, 90 days, id say to myself "idk what my life will look like but i deserve time sober to look at it with a clear head and reevaluate.
And things were bad, but i had more insight. Why are things the way they are, what can i do differently?
Now i am reserving judgment for a year, I want to see what I am at a year sober and doing my best to show up for myself and others. One day at a time. 
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I get it!!! Gnarly addict here and I felt and thought the same as you for the first month or so, the thing that has helped me the most is by staying clean for 1 day at a time. I wake up each morning and say “I’m not going to use today!” Somehow I’ve managed to string together 9 months and things have gotten better and my depression has lessened, I’m not suicidal anymore and I can see all the good things in my life today. When I think about staying sober forever it stresses me the fuck out and makes me want to get high so just get through the morning, then get through the afternoon and then you’ll have your feet in the sheets and head on the pillow clean! Days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months……focus on the moment and what you need to do from day to day not the big picture. Hope this helped! Much love!!! Hang in there it gets better<3
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Thank you all so much. I don’t have cravings at all and have no desire to use. I just am so depressed and anxious and have the suicidal ideations. I am mentally miserable and wondering if that’s because of my mental health or the withdrawal but likely a combination of the co-occurring disorders of substance abuse and mental illness. I have been dealing with mental illness my entire life and have been abusing opiates for maybe 4 years on and off, not every day but definitely a lot. I just am nervous about the horror stories I’ve read about PAWS lasting for years mentally for recovering opiate addicts as far as their brain goes.I almost died off of fentanyl laced oxycodone about two weeks ago and that was when I basically flatlined my husband did cpr and put me in the shower no narcan but miraculously brought me back somehow but I accidentally overdosed. I was not trying to kill myself that time which really scared me
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Holy shit!!! Yeah you can’t be dying on us now…do you do any meetings? Zoom narcotics anonymous has helped me so much you don’t even have to show your face and you can just listen there’s lots of people who deal with exactly what you’re going through and are at all different stages of their recovery!
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How do I do that is there a website I can get a link to?
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Not every addict is the same. PAWS doesn’t affect everyone and those that it does, it doesn’t hit them all the same. Now it is nice to be forewarned just in case but you also have to be careful that you don’t “expect it” just because you read about it and therefore have it become a self fulfilling thing. We addicts are damn good at dwelling on things, expecting the worst and setting ourselves up for failure.
I’m glad you survived your OD. Seeing that it scared you so much perhaps you can come to see that maybe you aren’t really wanting to suicide. What you are wanting is to feel better and stop hurting. Recovery can help with that. It won’t be instantaneous. We didn’t get so f’d up physically, emotionally and mentally in a day so we won’t get better in a day either. But I can tell you that as long as you are serious about getting clean, as long as you are honest with any professional help and as long as you keep trying you will begin to see progress.
I’m so glad you posted here. I hope to see more from you. 
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Hey there first off congrats on being off opiates for a week! You have got through the worst of the physical withdrawals but I agree, the mental side of it is awful. However, it does get better!
I went off IV opiates in March 2017 cold turkey. Now, I had been on antidepressants for decades but they weren’t working well, at least not enough to get through the PAWS. I had no, like zero, energy. I felt like I was moving through quicksand. Was devastated at what I had done (become addicted at work). No drive to care for my kids or help my then husband. Long periods in bed.
Things got a little better over time but not much. You can see how it led to my stimulant addiction because I just wanted some damn energy. Eventually, about 2 years in I got an actual psychiatrist (vs family Dr) who changed my psych meds with great effect.
Anyway though I still go through relapses of stimulant addiction (1 year off meth pills!) and a few months ago needed a med increase, I am a different person today. Although I do rely on about 4 energy drinks a day as a stimulant, my mental health is great, I work the program of NA, can get things done, am back to work, and go to the gym 4x a week.
It just takes time.
Kat
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This is a great method I also use sometimes when having an off day. When I say it I release all the thoughts and plans all the thinking and planning that goes into using when you say these words you throw those thoughts out your head so you dont carry it around with you all day this works for me, the whole process and thoughts are dissolved whilst saying this making your mind free to plan your one day at a time.
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