My Best Friends Opiate Addiction, Help.

[Blessed81]

I really want to thank you for reading this long post..  I am really worried about my friend, he has experienced with opiates for over ten years, and he currently has a high tolerance and can take 150 mg per day with ease.  Not only does it drag him down phsically but just as bad financially and morally.  Nobody knows about this long addiction other then a couple close friends, his family thinks he is the leader of the family and would devestate them all to know of his embarrasing situation.  

The longest he has ever went is a month in the last 5 years without taking any.  He wants to quit, he knows ithas to be harming his health he just doesnt know how bad, he has never went to injecting anything like that, would never let it get to that point because lots of his friends crossed that bridge and never came back.  For many many years it was a very low dose and fridays only, as somewhat of a reward for the hard work week.  Then it just kept going up and more frequent.  He has been right about where he is at for the last few years, so excited for his new career in sales and is really kicking butt with it.  He has lost several close people to him over the years but the worst one most recently.  

His father was a drunk and addict that lead to his death at an early age of 42,  Family is full of alcohalics on both sides, he has been very incolved with self help the last couple years.  He is so happy a out self help and his love for his job, but knows that to become all tlat he can.  He is familiar with meditation but hasnt done it for nearly 3 months.  He seems to have everything that peoplel would want in life.  Successeful, no worries of money, all the cool cars could ever want, very very nice body and well built.  Materialistic things he knows can never create fulfilling hapiness.  From the outside it appears he has everything, yet on the inside he feels so empty and sad.  

Esp now that he lost his best friend animal of 14 years.  Ive read people say to look at the past and find the issue and fix it, but that always confuses him, how do you go about finding the past issue and how do you fix it?  He has done experiments for like two days on and two days off.  And he feels soooo much better on the days he has off.  On so many different levels, yet he somehow keeps going back for more and is very frustrated by this.  He has such major potential in life, he is a great person, but he cannot kick this horrible habit.  Luckily he does not have very bad withdrawl symptoms.  The past few months he has limited to using about 35-40% of the time.  Possible to get back to enjoying once per week or does it have to be cold turkey and never again.  Any advice would be so greatly appreciated.  God bless. 

 

 

[xXxXx]

I would recommend seeing a physician and getting a prescription for a substitute, e.g. Buprenorphine. It still has an opioid effect (it's a partial agonist at the opioid receptors) but it is not that potent, also when consuming opioids the buprenorphine will block the more potent illegal stuff (simplified), thus the rewarding effect will not be as high as it was when consumed without the substitute.

When done correctly this can be a workaround for the cold turkey, lowering the dose over time and therefore adjusting the physiology of his body again to normal standards.

[Blessed81]

Thank for the reply, i should have mentioned he has access to those and they def help when he has his off days.  

[Blessed81]

Can a moderator move this topic to the correct location, my apologies.  

[xXxXx]

So all he has to do is to start substitution and bite the bullet? ^^

[Blessed81]

I wish it was that easy, unfortunately that hasnt worked :-/.