With support and sometimes with alternate medication.

I know what you mean! It's a depression that's so bad, you don't want to live anymore, very horrible feelings of loss and isolation.

I talked to my doctor about it and she put me on Pristiq which is one of the newer antidepressants. It worked great! Although I no longer take it, it helped me tremendously in the early going.

In my humble opinion, you should talk to your doctor. That kind of depression needs to be treated because many recovering addicts cannot handle it and many attempt suicide!

Keep us posted.

God Bless!

I do talk to the doctor. I take effexor which is older kind of SNRI to pristiq.

I need to keep my valium for when its needed/supposed to be used for re opiate withdrawal. How long do the mental side effects last?

OH Im definitely not in danger of suicide. I never get that bad. I know whats causing it. Its not that I even want to die, I just want to sleep through the withdrawals. But have to face them :-)

I did a lot of reading today on opiates and the brains dependancy and this being the cause for the neurogogical and phsyiological dependency.

the weeks physical withdrawal all makes sense and now why i feel normal when i take opiates.

im afraid the second phase could be quite hard as im dealing with hormonal disorders that cause the cells in our body not to operate at all levels physiologically. so its going to be harder than normal.

providing i dont have PAWS, im hoping the total withdrawal to laste 2 months or so.

how do i deal with that first stage anxiety, insomnia, psychosis (havnt had this happen yet but it may)? are there any drugs, supplements etc I can take that will help?

going onto phase 2, rebuilding my brain chemistry, any tips outside diet? im going to be depressed. but i can live with that because i know there is light at the end.

im very much hoping i dont have any spinal issues in the next couple months so i can get this dealt with and be back to less physical dependancy.

The physical withdrawals from opiates can last up to two weeks but the emotional withdrawals meaning the depression can linger on for quite some time.

Effexor did absolutely nothing for me, not even at the highest dose but when I was put on Pristiq, that's when the depression went away completely.

You build a dependancy because opiates cause a surge in dopamine in the neurotransmitters of the brain. The brain is not designed this way so it tries to balance itself out by dropping receptors causing you to increase your dose to get the same affect. This is called, building a tolerance.

It sounds like the effexor isn't working for you because Pristiq was the answer for me. You should ask your doctor to change it, in my humble opinion.

God Bless

interesting and i agree about dopamine. when i look at neurotransmitter descriptions dopamine is the one that sticks out at me, even when i wasnt taking opiates.

supposedly buproprion targets dopamine, but ltyrosine is a natural pre cursor to build more dopamine.

i get to day 7 and i feel so edgey and depressed, almost paranoid and see no joy in anything in life. thats usually when i relent and take a dose of opiates whether back is in pain or not. the problem is often my back is in chronic pain. i wish there were alternatives other than opiates.

Are you able to exercise? I usually walk or jog in the summer but now winter is here, I have joined a gym. My first day at the gym, a nice looking female trainer set me up with a program to strengthen alternate muscles to take the strain off my low back. The affects were almost immediate! Almost no back pain and the airobic part of conditioning generated endorphins in my brain that made me feel equally as good as opiates and with no depression!

You should try it! Several of my neighbors go there daily. One is in his 80's and been through 2 back surgeries and another is in his late 60's and just had 2 knee surgeries.

Look at what you are doing! You can't handle the depression so you take opiates! Why not tell the doctor, the effexor isn't working? If she can put you on something that will work, like Pristiq, for example, you will no longer feel the need to take narcotic pain killers! For some reason, you fail to put 2 and 2 together to get some positive results! I think the opiates are not making you think clearly....just sayin!

I tried L-Tyrosine and it may have helped a very tiny little bit but not much.

God Bless!

Sorry bob didnt see that last post before creating my latest one about pain thats worse without natural pain killers. Cheers

I've been 7 weeks clean from opiates but my mental health has gotten so unbearable again! I have constant panic, horrible depression, obsessive thoughts and I'm afraid to leave the house again. I went to a hospital but they said they couldn't help me and nothing is going to make me feel better I'm on Zoloft and klonipin but it isn't working. I heard this can go on forever and I'm so scared!!!

I took pain killers 13yrsn suboxone now for 3.. there are mental scars that hang around no matter what, but sum do go away