As I mentioned in my last blog post, “If you have a great product, people will find it” and I think that is true in this case. After roughly 5,000 customers, I can say with confidence that Withdrawal-Ease does what it says. It helps significantly improve the acuity of withdrawal symptoms. I also think that the guide plays a crucial role in the efficacy of Withdrawal-Ease because there aren’t any surprises. After reading the Guide, you know what to expect and you know how to deal with certain situations whereas without it, everything becomes a surprise. It’s hard to overstate how just being prepared mentally and physically for your detox can help you make things a lot easier on yourself.

So we’re excited about the new formulation and I will update the ingredient list immediately but here’s a peek at some of the things that we added to the original formulation of both day and night. We think it will produce even better results than the original formulation. It’s important to point out here that the original ingredients remained intact with the exception of caffeine and St. John’s Wort. The caffeine was unnecessary and made some people a little edgy so we took that out. We took out the St. John’s Wort because there was some recent studies that linked high doses of St. John’s Wort and Anti-Depressants with a syndrome called Serotonin Syndrome. Although we did not have any issues or interactions, we decided that it was not worth it and St. John’s Wort does take a long long time to produce any positive psychological benefits so it is no longer part of the Day Time formulation.

Here’s a few of the new ingredients:

NAC -  N-acetylcysteine

Vitamin B12

Vitamin B6

Folate (B9)

Thiamine (B1)

Vitamin D2

We’ve also changed some of the dosing for various elements that have demonstrated greater efficacy at higher levels per the clinical data. There have also been some new articles about nutritional supplements and Opiate withdrawal that have surfaced since we first produced Withdrawal-Ease. So even though we are using some elements of “Eastern Medicine” what we are doing with Withdrawal-Ease is far from voodoo science. There’s really no other product out there that’s even close to W-E in terms of quality and evidence based technology. Plus, we see it work every day so the immediate evidence is quite convincing as well.

Thanks for reading

-George

Well as it turns out, it’s harder than one might think. It takes approximately 4-6 weeks to formulate and produce each batch. AND, Dr. Earthman has made some great improvements to the product which I’m very excited about; but it took some time to get the improved formulation just right. The laws of physics apply here and there’s only so much one can stuff inside a glycerin capsule!

Inventory was fine in January because we expected a bit of a surge due to the “Resolution Season” but needless to say, demand has ramped up significantly and I have to give credit where credit is due and that’s to my customers. Many of them have been posting about their good experiences on message boards etc. etc. because there’s been a lot of speculation out there about Withdrawal-Ease. “Does it work? ” “Is it Real?.” 99 times out of 100, when a negative post goes up about Withdrawal-Ease, the person has not tried it.

One also has to remember that message boards can be informative BUT they also have sort of a pack mentality when you have a few regulars on them who post thousands of times. There’s a lot of people who use message boards to talk talk talk and not DO. For those people, their problem with pills is always the fault of someone or something else. Therefore, those types of people find like-minded individuals who then create this bubble of denial and blame within a message board and it always becomes this toxic environment. People talk to each other in a manner that would never be acceptable in public and there’s never that protective sheath of civility that seems to prevent people from saying whatever they are feeling.

Having said that, I truly believe that if you have a great product then people will eventually find out the truth and find your product. We have a great product and it’s going to get even better with the improved formulation. If anyone ever asks “Does it work?” I tell them to look at the testimonials; I don’t put them up there for posterity sake, I put them up there because they give an accurate representation of what Withdrawal-Ease CAN do and what it CANNOT do. Withdrawal-Ease is just one tool to help with opiate addiction or dependency recovery. But it’s a catalyst because it addresses the first hurdle in recovery. It addresses the chief concern for most people who are thinking about quitting…the withdrawal. If I were to have just faked all of those testimonials, what would that really do for us? Other than committing fraud, it wouldn’t win me many happy customers. Our job is to manage expectations and I feel as though our claims and the testimonials do a good job of that. All testimonials are 100% accurate other than correcting a misspelling or some other syntax error. Names and addresses are of course altered or withheld. Of course privacy and protection and of the utmost importance to our customers.

Withdrawal-Ease works. It does what it says it does. If you look at the testimonials you’ll see a pattern of customer experiences that can give one a good idea of what to expect from Withdrawal-Ease. Will it totally take away your symptoms? In most cases no it won’t. Some people have said they hardly felt any symptoms at all and you’ll see some of those testimonials on the site. But you’ll also see testimonials from the majority of people that say that it helped to significantly relieve their symptoms compared to cold turkey. That’s what we say it does and that’s what it has proven to do after almost 5,o00 units sold. You are much better off using Withdrawal-Ease than nothing at all.

So I apologize for this inventory hiccup and I want to thank all of you in advance for your patience as we get our new formulation in. We think the new formulations for both Day Time and Night Time will have the chance to have even better outcomes than the original version and both formulas contain all of the ingredients in the original formula with the exception of caffeine which I don’t think was necessary in the first place and St. John’s Wort which has some very slight drug interaction risks. We took out the SJW because its benefit did not outweight the slight risk of interaction.

The improved product should be arriving any day and we will be up and running immediately when it gets here next week (the first week in March). We felt that it was only right for the time being to make the Withdrawal Survival Guide FREE for the time being in case people run out of their meds and need something to help them get through. I hope that this offer is useful for some people and I want to assure everyone that we’ve learned from this experience and won’t let it happen again. Thanks for being patient…but it will be worth the wait. In the meantime, you can take advantage of significant savings on the improved formulation if you Pre-Order now.

Thanks as always for visiting Withdrawal-Ease.

-George

Founder, CEO

In fact I get some emails that range from the simple “Does it work?” to the sublime “THE ROOF TOP IS LATE ON THE SALAD!”

However, without question the one subject that is far and away the most popular is the “How Should I taper?” email. And I probably could have saved myself and others countless hours of typing if I had gotten a clue and just written a little primer on some of the tricks of the trade that I’ve learned from other people, doctors and various other sources. I’ll attempt to distill all of this learning into functional tactics that will hopefully be helpful to many of you.

First a disclaimer: There are a lot of you out there who are on all sorts of different drugs, potions and cocktails of every size and strength. This is one reason why I do not give personal recommendations to individuals about clinical matters. All that I mean to accomplish in this post is to relay some lessons that I’ve learned about general concepts of tapering that work.  I will go through an exercise where I put together a “mock taper” schedule but that is by no means a schedule for everyone..or anyone for that matter. I am simply trying to illustrate how a taper program might play out. As always, if you have questions or concerns, ask your doctor. If possible always taper under the care of a licensed physician that knows your medications and your specific health issues. Again, these are just fundamental “guard rails” with which to taper by. Be safe and smart….

Ok, lets get started.

The Art of Tapering

The Goal:

The general goal of tapering your medications is to lower the amount of opiates or medication in your bloodstream and more specifically your brain so that you can lessen the impact of your withdrawal symptoms when you finally quit all together. Furthermore, immediately stopping some drugs can be potentially harmful. As a general rule, it’s never wise to completely stop any medication abruptly unless you are advised to do so by a physician. If you reduce the amount of narcotics in your system; your withdrawal will hopefully be less severe and possibly shorter. That’s the goal..the hope. If you plan to detox, most physicians (and the data that I’ve read) suggest that tapering is an effective way to lower the acuity of your withdrawal symptoms. Like anything, sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t.

Note to Withdrawal-Ease Customers: If you are using Withdrawal-Ease, we have seen the best outcomes when our customers begin to take the Day Time and Night Time formulations approximately a 3-5 days before you begin your detox. This will allow the various ingredients in the system to get into your bloodstream and begin to work. Although it is not essential to follow this strategy, this is where we have seen the best results. Many people have started their Withdrawal-Ease upon detox (”Detox” in this case meaning the complete cessation of opiates) or even when they are in withdrawal and they have seen benefits. However, if possible we recommend starting Withdrawal-Ease prior to your withdrawal.

The Strategy:

The strategy for a successful taper is one that depends largely on the “Half-Life” of the drug that you are taking and your own body’s reaction to reduced amounts of opiates/narcotics in your body. In general terms, the Half-Life is the amount of time it takes for the opiate/narcotic levels in your blood to reach 50% of their original blood concentration. The half-life of your drug can vary from a few hours in the case of a drug like Heroin to 5 days for a drug like Suboxone.

The half-life of a drug usually coincides with the onset of withdrawal. So if you are taking Heroin intravenously, one can reasonably presume that with a half life of say: 6 hours, that one will begin to feel withdrawal symptoms after 6 or 7 seven hours or thereabouts. For a person taking Suboxone, which has a very long half-life it can take up to a week to feel withdrawal symptoms. As I mentioned, this can all vary from person to person based on your physical make-up; but the half-life of a drug is a very good indication of how long it will take for withdrawals to start after stopping or significantly reducing the intake of your medication. Ok, so I’ve beaten that one to death. Back to the strategy.

In my judgment, a successful taper is like walking on a razor’s edge. You are literally trying to keep two opposing forces at bay. On one side, you are trying to reduce the amount of opiates (or narcotics) in your bloodstream and on the other side you are trying to keep withdrawal from setting in. I cannot tell you how many people email me and say, “I’ve been tapering and going down from this to that etc. etc. and I feel awful.” My response to that is “Why?” The goal of tapering is to eventually Reduce the symptoms of withdrawal. The reason why you are lowering your dose is to help you feel better, not worse. Clearly, these people in my mind are not tapering their dose correctly. Either they are waiting too long between doses or they have reduced their doses too much too soon. Some people may disagree with me (for reasons I know not) but if you are tapering and you are acutely symptomatic then you aren’t doing it correctly. Of course there may be some very slight symptoms but one shouldn’t be in full-blown, goose-flesh withdrawal while tapering. Why prolong the agony? You are going to go through some sort of withdrawal/detox regardless.

The strategy should be to lower your dose as much as you can yet still remain reasonably comfortable so that your eventual withdrawal is as painless as possible. This may take some trial and error but the secret is patience and also a willingness to adjust your taper schedule if necessary. If you are sticking to a schedule and you feel sick then you may need to shorten the time between doses or possibly raise your individual dose just a bit so that you do not cause withdrawal symptoms. It’s a delicate balance for sure.

No one knows this more than a person trying to detox off of Suboxone. The difficult part of Suboxone is that is has a very long half life and people’s opiate receptors are not able to shed Suboxone very easily. For those people on suboxone, it can take months and months to taper properly and some people even get down to 1/4mg or less and still find it very difficult to stop. There’s a psychological aspect to the PAWS (Post Acute Withdrawal) phenomenon for sure but everyone that I talk to on Suboxone or trying to taper off Suboxone has the same story: it takes a long time to get off of Sub. BUT it can be done. I address suboxone detox in the Suboxone Information section on the website

The “Mountaineering Memory Management Device”

So ultimately, tapering is a useful strategy to help reduce the discomfort of your detox/withdrawal but it has to be done correctly or it can make matters worse. A good analogy would be high-altitude mountaineering. All climbers have to acclimatize themselves to the altitude or they can get sick and possibly even die from pulmonary edema or other nasty things that happen suddenly and kill you. If you have ever read anything on climbing Everest or any tall mountains, you’ll recall that all climbers have base camps at several altitudes on the mountain. When they arrive at base camp #1, they may ascend up to Camp #2 and then come back down for a day or so. Then they gradually move up to each base camp going back and forth as needed so that their body and get used to the lack of oxygen at those higher altitudes. Tapering is essentially the same process. But mountain climbers don’t wait until they have a brain hemorrhage or pulmonary edema to go back down the mountain unless they have made a grave mistake and have acclimatized too fast. I think that this is a great example -albeit less grave- of what your strategy should be for tapering. Take it slowly and let your body get used to not being on as much medication; if you start to feel sick then maybe you need to slow down or maybe you’ve cut your dose by too much.

An Example of a Typical Taper With Withdrawal-Ease (Remember my disclaimer?):

Lets say that you are currently taking 10 Vicodin per day (2 at 4-6 hour intervals). You and your doctor have decided that it’s time for you to get off the pain meds. So you both put a schedule together and it goes something like this:

Week 1: Lower your dose to 8 per day but instead of skipping an entire dose just take 1 pill at two of your scheduled intervals. This should always be the strategy; you want to make sure in the beginning of your taper that your body/brain get  medication at the same times that they are accustomed to…just less of it.

8am: 2 pills

12: 1 pill

4: 2 pills

8: 1 pill:

Before Bed: 2 pills

Week 2: Lower Dose to 6 per day and keep a close eye on how you feel. Is your energy ok? Are you eating and sleeping well? Are you depressed? If you have any symptoms of withdrawal, you and your doc may consider raising your intake to 7 per day for the first half of the week. Remember, same intervals, reduce the dose.

Week 3: Lower your dose to 4-5 per day and cut out one interval. This will be a bit difficult but I have found that it easiest to take out one of the intervals in the middle of the day as opposed to the morning or night time doses. As always, inform your doctor if you are experiencing any acute symptoms.

8am: Take 2 pills

12am: Take 1 pill

4pm: Skip interval

8pm: Take 1 pill (If you are feeling ok at this point, you can try and quit this interval too)

Before Bed: 1 pill

Week 4: Cut Dose to 2-3 per day. This is the point where you take out another interval and begin to lengthen the time between doses.  As always, if you feel sick or start to go into withdrawal, you will want to consider taking a pill as needed to relieve the withdrawal symptoms. Remember, the goal is to not feel withdrawals…but it’s not to get “high” either! Those days are gone.

8am: Take 1 pill

2pm: Take 1 pill

Before bed: Take 1 pill

Week 5: 2 pills per day.

For our Withdrawal-Ease customers, we would typically recommend that you start taking Withdrawal-Ease at this point.

Take one of your pills in the evening and one at night until the end of the week preferably Thursday. Thursday before bed should be your last dose. This is the time that we all dread but has to happen. It’s DETOX TIME! With any luck, your tapering program went very well, you stuck to your schedule by and large and your withdrawal symptoms will hopefully be mild. However, this will be the first time that your body and your brain will truly be without opiates. The vast majority of people who have been on pain medications for an extended period of time (more than 6-8 weeks) will go through some sort of withdrawal or detox. You will feel like you have the flu and you may have many of the symptoms that we describe on our symptoms page. Thursday is a good day to quit if you are on a regular work week, your acute detox process can be dealt with mostly on the weekend…or at least the worst part of it.

Hopefully, at this point you have been able to taper successfully and your symptoms will be mild. If you have been on opiates for a long time, the detox may still be very uncomfortable but at least you have done everything that you could to ease the symptoms.  At this point you should also refer to our Withdrawal Survival Guide that will take you through the first 5 days of acute detox and give you tips on what to eat, what to wear and how to plan your first few days of withdrawal which are usually the worst.

I’ll be honest, a lot of people can’t make it through a taper process because it requires a lot of discipline. But it’s well worth the effort. You really need to concentrate on the end goal which is to get off of your medications and become symptom free, then you’ll be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel and start to feel better again.

For our Withdrawal-Ease customers, you should take the Withdrawal-Ease throughout the detox period as described above and then take it as long as you feel it is helping you. If you feel like it is no longer needed then it’s ok to stop. One order contains a month’s supply of the Day Time Formulation and 2 month’s supply of the Night Time formulation so that should be enough for the non-Suboxone customers out there. We’ve heard of a lot of people who take it until the supply is gone and then they’re done. Our Suboxone customers tend to take it longer due to the extended withdrawal periods that Suboxone causes.

Conclusion:

I hope that this has helped some of you put together a strategy for getting off of opiates. Remember this is just a framework and not a prescription. I’m not a doctor. But together with your clinician preferably, maybe you can follow this same framework and hopefully reduce the discomfort of withdrawal. It’s one of the main hurdles that is keeping you from living a drug-free life and also gaining back the true “you”. Don’t let the fear of withdrawal keep you from gaining your life back; there’s a way to go through detox on YOUR terms and that’s makes a critical difference in how it impacts you and those that love you. As always, I will say that with a good taper program and by using Withdrawal-Ease you I believe that you will be FAR better off than simply going cold turkey. So it’s time to take control back from the pills and do something about it. I think if you follow some of these processes, you’ll feel better and have a greater chance for success. That’s all that anyone can hope for. Tapering works, Withdrawal-Ease works and quitting is worth it.

Thanks,

-George

Originally Published in February 2009

I used to employ a little analogy whenever I would take my pills. For me, taking my pills was akin to taking a flight on an airplane. Did you ever use something like this when you took your pills? At the time, I didn’t know why I needed to use this “high-o-meter” and thought maybe it was for the same reason I compulsively counted my pills…to make sure that I knew exactly where I stood. I hated to lose even a second of this bliss because I knew it lasted only a few minutes. The analogy would go something like this:

“Boarding the flight and buckling in:”
10 minutes prior to pill taking – Actual ingestion:  After taking the pills, I would set my watch to keep track of exactly how long I had the pills in my system. This time-slot was everything from getting the bottle out to actually taking the pills.

“Taxiing on the runway:”
5 minutes - 25 minutes post swallow: The taxiing phase culminated in that little shiver of anticipation as I could start to feel the pills start to warm up my system and start to give me energy.

“Lift-off:”
25 minutes-50 minutes post swallow: Certainly the most exhilarating part of the flight where I would be full of energy, really really funny and very talkative. Smart too. Oh and I also had the patience of Job with the little ones (I have a 2 and a 5 year old) and would miraculously play any game they wanted with me…and I truly enjoyed it! I was always willing to help out and was an altogether extremely agreeable chap. I would often say to myself during this phase, “Now this is the man I want to be all the time!”

“Cruising Altitude:”
50 minutes-2 hours post pill pop: This would be the part of the flight that became more and more routine as my “flight-hours” increased. I would feel normal and comfortable with no real decipherable “buzz.” This was also the time when I was particularly stupid and reckless with my intake as I would go through all sorts of very compelling rationales as to why I should maybe take 3 more Norco’s to see if I could reverse the tape and go back to lift-off. It never happened although I attempted this more times than I care to remember.

“Descent:”
2 hours-6 hours post dose: Yeah this was fun. The descent always included a potent blend of depression and rage. I was annoyed at anything having to do with anything other than pills or my next dose. This made life a bit difficult as you can imagine. And since it became the overwhelming emotional majority of my life, it was very hard not to associate anything else with happiness…other than pills of course. Ah, the pills…happiness. And everything else?…not so much. Whoa, wait a minute, time to get happy again!

After taking my first step and getting clean it’s pretty clear why this analogy was so important to me. Now I understand why knowing exactly how many pills I had left was so critical. My life had come down to only about an hour or so of true happiness per day and it became crucial to me. The drug -of course-  was my plane. It makes sense that when you have so little time to be content that you’re going to protect that time and you’re going to make sure that nothing…nothing gets in the way of that.

All of this happens so slowly and so insidiously that when you get to this point, it seems like it’s the only life you have ever lived. Well I can tell you with extreme confidence that by quitting pills you can get a lot of happiness back. You’ll get rid of that “liftoff” yes, but you’ll also lose the “descent.” You’ll lose a life that’s so singular of purpose in exchange for one that is far more fulfilling, energetic and rewarding. I’ll take the analogy to its logical conclusion by saying that you’ll trade in that plane for a hovercraft and you’ll be glad that you did.

If This Blog Was Interesting To You, You might consider These Other Posts:

“Getting Un-Stuck”

“Life Without Pain Killers - A View From The Other Side”

“The Brain’s Reward Center”

“When You’re Ready To Quit” ]]> http://www.withdrawal-ease.com/ready-for-takeoff/feed/ http://www.withdrawal-ease.com/addict-or-addicted/ http://www.withdrawal-ease.com/addict-or-addicted/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:05:53 +0000 george http://withdrawal-ease.com/?p=417 Many of you aren’t addicts. You are physically dependent on prescription pain killers but you don’t take them for the “high”. You take them to “feel normal” and to help treat pain that was once there but now has been replaced by a mirage that feels like pain. And now you’re stuck. You may have read some of my blog posts and not been able to relate simply because you have not developed that type of “relationship” with the medication that many of us have. Your relationship (heh…heh) is purely physical and it can be a maddening situation to be in.

For those of you who are just physically dependent, taking your pain medication doesn’t mean much to you other than the fact that it helps with pain and it helps stave off any sickness you might have by going off of it. You read some of my blog posts about “taking flight” or “counting pills 5 times a day” and say to yourself, “what is this guy talking about?!”

Well, the fact is that many of you don’t take the pills for the “high” or for that euphoric feeling and now you’ve been on them so long, your body has become hooked, but not necessarily your mind. And now that you want to get off of them, your doctor has no answer for you and the thought of a rehab facility is so foreign and seems so drastic that you may feel like there’s nothing out there that can help you. Why doesn’t anybody understand that you just want to get off the damn pills?!

The distinction between being emotionally attached to a specific drug and physically attached to a pain killer is one that has to be made because there are physically dependent people who don’t need counseling, or rehab, or therapy or AA meetings or any of that stuff. You just need to get off of the medication and get on with your life. And you worry that if you try to tell someone about your physical dependence that they will immediately look at you and give you some sort of thin-lipped response like “sure Fred, of course you aren’t addicted…just need ‘em for the pain right?”

“The pain” can often be a lot worse when you’re on pain killers because your brain is sly, it knows how to get you to act and give it the pills it thinks it needs…Brain: “Fred needs some pain to take the pills eh? Well I’ll give him some pain alright. How’s about some throbbing lower back pain with a scorching side of sciatica?” Your brain will do anything it can to make sure you don’t send it into withdrawal and if it’s pain you need, it’s pain you get.

In my case, I had a lot of pain and then eventually became an addict for the “high.” However, I noticed that when I finally got off of the pills, my back pain became a lot better.  Although I initially used the pills for back pain and neck pain, I eventually became emotionally attached to the buzz and didn’t really think of the pain killers as something for physical pain. But you may be different and you may just need some help quitting the pills and that’s all you’ll ever need. For some of you, taking that “first step” is the only step you’ll ever need to take. So don’t feel ashamed to raise your hand and say, “yeah, I’m addicted but I’m not an addict.” In fact count yourself as one of the lucky ones and take your first step now because I can tell you from experience that it’s much easier to end a physical relationship than an emotional one.

-G

If This Blog Was Interesting To You, You might consider These Other Posts:

“Getting Un-Stuck”

“Life Without Pain Killers - A View From The Other Side”

“Ready For Takeoff!”

“The Brain’s Reward Center”

“When You’re Ready To Quit”

I came across a comment the other day that hit a nerve with me. In essence the reader basically said, “You people need to get a life! Get Up, Get Out, Get On With Your Life!”

I agree. When I talk to friends or family about Withdrawal-Ease the conversation often turns toward the relationship that I have with my customers. I’m new to the internet marketing “game” but it quickly became obvious that the “Holy Grail” of creating a successful site is establishing ongoing long-term relationships with your customers. No matter what book you read or internet marketing “guru” you listen to, the consensus is that one cannot have a successful site without establishing a “fan-base”. So there are all sorts of ways that marketers on the web scratch and claw to get you to come back, to subscribe, to sign up or to get their emails. I’ve only been able to get through one book on website management and it was the “Starting a Website For Dummies” book; which was quite good by the way. So it’s a bit ironic that since I’ve started this site there has always been one fundamental goal that has never wavered and I suppose may be my undoing which is, I NEVER want you to come back here. That’s why I don’t ask you to register (although I guess you can), I don’t send spam and I don’t try to get you to sign up for my blog.

If Withdrawal-Ease is to be truly successful, it’s imperative that we say our “Hi’s” and “Goodbye’s” right here. Of course I’m being a bit melodramatic; I will always welcome a referral or a visit back here from friends, customers and supporters but that’s really not the point of the site or the product. I want you to come and get what you need and then get on with your life. That’s maybe why I’ve never really understood all of these message boards that are dedicated to opiate addiction or opiate withdrawal etc. I suppose if those message boards provide some support for you as you go through this problem then have at it. But what I see on those message boards is a sort of pack mentality that I find counter productive. I see people who have posted on some of those “self-help” message boards thousands of times and they always seem to play the victim and “live” their addiction. Your addiction should not become part of your life, it needs to become a part of your past. Again, if the message boards are helpful to you then great but you can get sucked into them and lose your focus.

So, I’m glad that the poster the other day brought that point up because it’s extremely important that you realize how to say goodbye to your pills and how to say “so-long” to Withdrawal-Ease. So as you ponder your addiction or dependency and you’re wondering how and what you’re going to do about it, I want you to remember a few things:

The Withdrawal-Ease Memory Management Device: A Primer For Taking Your First Step and Getting On With Your Life (By- Me)

What To Remember Before You Decide To Quit:

1. Well first of all, lets be totally honest with ourselves and realize that you’re not really very happy with your situation right now. It may seem obvious but it’s important to try and remember your life before pills and your state of mind before it became so obsessed with the next dose.  Whether you are addicted or just physically dependent on opiates, I can guarantee you that right now is not a time in your life that you’ll look back on fondly. Ok, so…profoundly unhappy: Check.

2. I know I know, it feels like you’re giving up your best friend. The one thing you can count on when times get tough; your pills! Well best friends don’t stab you in the back and generally try to ruin your life do they? If you’ve got some problems now, just think about how many of those problems can be directly attributed to your pain medication. Now think about those problems that can be indirectly associated with your pain medications. And then go one step forward and think about the problems that you have that “might” be related to your pills…around 85% is my guess if you’re honest with yourself.

Now think of me playing the “straight guy” in an infomercial (sucks about Billy Mays…Billy this is for you man!).

Straight man: “So Billy, you’re telling me that with one step, I can tackle the source of almost 85% of my problems and things that are contributing to my current state of unhappiness right now?!”

Billy: “Not only that, I can guarantee you that you will be 100% satisfied by taking this first step. Where else can you do something that will have such a direct, profound impact on the quality of your life? You’d be crazy not to take your first step today!”

3. So you’re worrying about withdrawal. Well yeah, it sucks ok? Even with Withdrawal-Ease, it’s not going to be a picnic. But go back to point #1 here and think about how long you’ve been feeling this way. What’s a few days feeling lousy compared to the alternative? Are you going to go on and continue to let the days fly by just to avoid feeling sick?? Again, I know withdrawal is horrible and many people refuse to quit simply because they don’t want to go through withdrawal but if you prepare yourself and take the right measures for the actual withdrawal, you can significantly reduce the discomfort and within a matter of days start to feel better again. You’re not trapped and eventually all of the symptoms will go away! I’ve never had one customer come back to me after a full detox and say, “Wow I wish I was back on the pills!” That’s because they got through the withdrawal and saw how much better they felt. They took the plunge and remained patient and it was totally worth it. So…the withdrawals suck but the way you’re feeling now is infinitely worse.

4. You’re a slave right now. You’re totally powerless not from the drugs…you’re totally powerless from being able to control the quality of your life. You can take the control back instantly by deciding to quit right now, preparing yourself for withdrawal and actually doing something about all of this. The moment you decide “I’m going to do this on my terms and my way” you’ll start to feel better immediately. It’s because for the first time in a long time, you’ll have a say in your destiny.

5. Think about all of the people other than yourself that you will be doing this for. It’s not merely a symbolic gensture; you probably have people who love you that would be a lot happier if you weren’t on these pills right now. You not only have the opportunity to significantly improve your life but the lives of others that you care about. You may not know it but there are people that are anxiously waiting for the day that you take that control back and take the first step.

Ok, enough writing…buy the product; it’s worth it and you’re much better off with it than without it…read the Survival Guide that comes with the product; it’s just as important as the product itself…try not to come back.

-George

One of the scariest things about the prospect of quitting painkillers is what to do with all of that time. You know, all the time spent: being high, getting prescriptions filled, going to doctors appointments to get the prescriptions, waiting at the pharmacy to pick up the pills, counting the pills to make sure you have enough, counting again, thinking about more places to get the pills and finally…counting the pills once more to make sure.

Another thing that gave me pause was the whole deal about becoming an addict. Even towards the end of my addiction, I never really considered myself an “addict” per se; I definitely had a problem with pills and booze but I really wasn’t prepared to call myself an addict. I dreaded the thin-lipped whispers at parties, “Oh there’s George, yeah he had a pain killer addiction…uh-huh, yeah he’s sober now.” I didn’t like the fact that if I made the changes I knew I needed to make in my life that I would have to subscribe to all of that dogma that comes along with being an addict in recovery. I wanted to just move on. As I mention several times here, Withdrawal-Ease Opiate Withdrawal Natural Supplement System (do you think I could have come up with a longer name???)and this site are meant to help you take the first -and perhaps most difficult- step in getting your life back from pills.

For me, staying sober is a subjective and very personal process; there is no panacea. If AA helps you stay sober great, if going to a rehab helps you terrific, if chewing gum keeps you from taking a pill then chew gum…chew a lot of it. Whatever works for you is whatever works.

Looking back on my pill popping days and all of these concerns I had along with many others, I can say that I probably shouldn’t have worried so much. The physical and psychological benefits one gets after getting off of these drugs is 100% worth it. No more depression and fits of rage, no more counting pills, no more worrying about getting more or getting caught. Now that I’m clean I also know that I have the right to say that I’m not an addict…yeah I said it. I took too many pills and drank too much so I made a change…and now I’m moving on.

Was This Post of Interest To You? You Might Like These Other Posts:

“Ready For Takeoff!”

“The Brain’s Reward Center”

“When You’re Ready To Quit”

You can read his welcome HERE and we will begin his weekly blog Q&A next week.

Welcome back Brian!

-George

Why wait until you wake up naked on a plane headed to Peru -not knowing how you got there- to quit taking pain killers? I DID wait until I hit bottom and I can tell you that there was no moment of clarity or sudden rush of self-control that brought my pill taking career to a screaming halt. I won’t go into details but from my perspective, if you are in the situation that I was in, it’s not worth waiting for the bottom.

You’re just stuck. And you need to find some way to accept what you already know; you will quit taking opiates one way or another. In my opinion, getting un-stuck is really all about taking that famous first step. Sure, there’s a long journey after that to stay sober but don’t you want to start getting your happiness back on your terms? You’re just standing on train tracks right now and all you need to do is step off. Of course it’s not that easy and you still have to go through that withdrawal and that will never be a pleasant experience even with my product. But if you’re honest with yourself right now, what are you really giving up to get un-stuck?

Ah yes, well you’d be giving up: the fetal-position strength variety of depression, the sudden inexplicable waves of murderous rage, the OCD to determine exactly how many pills you have each hour of the day, the energy of a three-toed sloth (look it up ok) and the enthusiasm of Droopy. Yeah I forgot how much fun that was!

I’m trying to make these blogs shorter so I’ll wrap up.

1. Be honest with yourself about how unhappy you are with yourself right now and how much the pills are contributing to it. Remember, even though they give you a few minutes of bliss a day, they are also causing all of the misery the rest of the day.

2. Take the first step and get un-stuck. Why wait to hit bottom? Yes, the withdrawals suck but they are the prelude to being happy again.

3. Don’t do it alone. In my next blog I’m going to go into detail about “Comfortable Withdrawal Strategies.” I make a conscious effort to not mention the product in my blogs but my message is simple: don’t go cold turkey. There are ways to make the process a lot more comfortable.

And finally, here’s a little diddy from my boys U2 (uh…geek alert! I know, I know) that I was listening to the other day that gave me some obvious inspiration for this post. It’s a good song, and I encourage you to get it from iTunes and take a listen:

“Stuck In a Moment”

“I’m not afraid
Of anything in this world
There’s nothing you can throw at me
That I haven’t already heard

I’m just trying to find
A decent melody
A song that I can sing
In my own company

I never thought you were a fool
But darling look at you
You gotta stand up straight
Carry your own weight
These tears are going nowhere baby

You’ve got to get yourself together
You’ve got stuck in a moment
And now you can’t get out of it

Don’t say that later will be better
Now you’re stuck in a moment
And you can’t get out of it

I will not forsake
The colors that you bring
The nights you filled with fireworks
They left you with nothing

I am still enchanted
By the light you brought to me
I listen through your ears
Through your eyes I can see

And you are such a fool
To worry like you do
I know it’s tough
And you can never get enough
Of what you don’t really need now
My, oh my

You’ve got to get yourself together
You’ve got stuck in a moment
And you can’t get out of it

Oh love, look at you now
You’ve got yourself stuck in a moment
And you can’t get out of it

I was unconscious, half asleep
The water is warm ’til you discover how deep

I wasn’t jumping, for me it was a fall
It’s a long way down to nothing at all

You’ve got to get yourself together
You’ve got stuck in a moment
And you can’t get out of it

Don’t say that later will be better
Now you’re stuck in a moment
And you can’t get out of it

And if the night runs over
And if the day won’t last
And if our way should falter
Along the stony pass

And if the night runs over
And if the day won’t last
And if your way should falter
Along this stony pass

It’s just a moment
This time will pass”

U2, All That You Can’t Leave Behind

Was This Post of Interest To You? You Might Like These Other Posts:

“Life Without Pain Killers - A View From The Other Side”

“Ready For Takeoff!”

“The Brain’s Reward Center”

“When You’re Ready To Quit”

But getting to that place of calm pragmatism and resolve is quite a long journey indeed. When a friend or family member emails me, they’ve been through a lot; and it’s really uncanny how many of these stories that I hear are so similar to one another.  If I could somehow meld all of these emails and personal stories together they might sound something like this:

A fictional email to George from “Robert”: The Husband Who Wants His Wife Back From Vicodin:

Hi George. My name is Robert and I found your site after doing a lot of searching on the internet. My wife was in an accident about 2 years ago and her doctor put her on pain killers (Vicodin 7.5/500? Is this right??) for her back pain. They helped a lot with her pain but for a while now I’ve been concerned about how much she takes.

I’m ashamed to admit that lately I’ve been going through her purse and there are several prescriptions from several doctors for all kinds of pain killers (what is Soma?). I think she may have become addicted. I haven’t really brought it up until recently. Over the past few months, she’s been really moody and either just lying on the couch in a bad mood or acting all crazy and “over-happy”. Then the rest of the time she’s really depressed and just not very interested in doing anything and she seems sort of “distant”. Lately, I’ve been saying things like “Honey you sure are taking a lot of those pain pills, do you really need to take that much?” and she’ll say something like “Bob (she calls me Bob), I need them for my pain ok? They don’t work as well anymore so I need to take more for my back. I’m not doing anything wrong and the doctor wouldn’t have prescribed them for me if I was taking too many. Just get off my back ok?”

And then there are other weird things George. She’s always so concerned about how many pills she has and empties out her bottle to count them like 4 times a day for some reason. She always has to have her bottle with her and there have been times when we’ve left the house and she has forgotten her Vicodin and we actually had to turn around and go back and get them. It’s almost like those Vicodin are more important to her than anything else. Then there are other times when she gives me her bottle and tells me that I have to give her 4 pills 3 times a day for the following 6 days. Why can’t she do this herself?

Sorry for this long email George but there’s nobody that I’ve been able to talk to about this. Should I call her doctor or pharmacist and talk to them? I’ve just about had it with this and I’m worried that she’s going to take too many one day and hurt herself.

Finally the other day I basically said, “It’s either me or the vicodin, so you choose.” I feel really bad but I just can’t take the moodiness and depression anymore and I really think it’s the pills. I don’t want her to be in pain but I don’t think she’s taking them correctly, and with all of the different prescriptions from different doctors, it seems like she may be taking a lot more than what they prescribed. I even counted the pills the other day to see how much she takes and in ONE day she took 20 Vicodin (5/500’s ? I don’t know there was some number and then the name Watson on the other side…Vicodin right?). Isn’t that enough to kill a donkey???

I’m really sorry that this is so long…will your product help? what do I need to do? Am I overreacting? I’m just so frustrated and want it to end. I just want my wife back!!! - End of email

In this case, I would probably tell Robert that my product can help but not until his wife can come clean about her use. She’s probably feeling just as stuck as Robert is and probably even more frustrated about her addiction. And she knows she’s addicted alright. It’s all she ever thinks about. Believe me. But until she can get herself to say, “Yeah, I can’t control myself and the pills are stronger than I am right now. I need help. I’m ready to end this” she will never be able to get her (Or Robert’s) happiness back.

Having said all that, it is for this very type of situation that I started Withdrawal-Ease. The overall goal for this site is to give people the knowledge and a tool to help them take the first step a lot easier. When I quit, I didn’t have all of this information and I didn’t have this product, all I had was the option of going to a rehab or some sort of detox center for 30 days and 30 thousand dollars. Which was exactly 30 days and 30 thousand dollars more than I had at that time.  Now I strongly believe that Withdrawal-Ease provides a better, more affordable and easier way to take this first step to quit pain killers and get on the right path to getting you or someone you love re-engaged with life.

So if you’re out there Robert (Bob), you can tell your wife that you love her and will support her in any way that you can, but she’s got to be prepared to take that first step any way that she can. You can tell her that there are a LOT of people out there just like her and that there’s nothing to be ashamed of. You can provide her with the options that are available to her and tell her that the only false move is to not move at all. You can tell her that you know for a fact that she’ll be much happier when she’s off of the Vicodin.

What do you have to lose Bob? You’ve got to take that first step too…

-George

If This Blog Was Interesting To You, You might consider These Other Posts:

“Getting Un-Stuck”

“Life Without Pain Killers - A View From The Other Side”

“Ready For Takeoff!”

“The Brain’s Reward Center”

“When You’re Ready To Quit”