Withdrawal-Ease Opiate Withdrawal Natural Supplement System®

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

Top Ten Reasons To Quit Pain Killers In-Depth - Reason #1

george — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 15:37:29 +0000

I want to talk a little bit more about the Top 10 Reasons To Quit Pain Killers because they really are the main tenets of the site. I don’t go into much detail about each one on the main page because it’s a list…lists are supposed to be short. So here’s the first in a series if you will…

Reason #1: The Highs Are Getting Lower and The Lows Are Getting Longer

Back in the day (slang for “when I was taking pills”), I could look at a bottle of Norco 10/325’s and guess within 4-5 pills how many were in the bottle at any given time. Yeah, yeah, I know I counted them obssessively probably 5 times a day but still it was uncanny how I was so accurate. You probably are too.

Cue inner monologue: “Eh, probably 55 left with 12 days until earliest possible refill (usually 2-3 days prior to last month’s refill), not including the refill day…ok so that’s ummm…ummm, I need a calculator. Ok so, 55 divided by 12 is 4.58 per day…let’s just round up to 5 per day; it sounds better. 5 per day. I’m currently taking 9 per day so at the current rate I have (calculator) 6 more days of pills. If I’m good that means I need to do 2 in the am and 3 in the pm. Not gonna happen. I could do 3 in the am and 4 in the pm…(calculator)…roughly 8 days worth…crap….(do calculator thing 3 more times hoping that it gives me a different number). I need to count the pills again (4th time within the hour). Still the same number…double crap! Ok well, I’m not going to run out today, and not going to run out tomorrow, so I’m not going to worry about it…4 pills (gulp).”

Many of you know EXACTLY what I’m talking about in the little passage above. It goes on, and the endless excuses for why you need to take the full dose ensue and you never taper. Ever. Then you deal with the withdrawals and go back and forth about how soon in advance you can call your pharmacist and come up with some story about being out of town and needing to get the refill sooner. You feel so sick. But you never learn. And oh, by the way, the “highs” are getting a bit shorter, a lot less “shimmery” and that leads to frustration and anger.

You bump up your dose but there’s that fine line where if you take too much you just get the “rage” and if you take too little you don’t feel anything at all. To the person reading this, don’t think you’re different or particularly strange when you do all of this ritualistic pill counting and pathological rationalization for why you shouldn’t stop…and why you shouldn’t change your dose etc. It’s all part of the game. And it doesn’t get better unfortunately (I want a new drug…la…la - Huey Lewis anyone…anyone?).

I’ll cut to the chase and tell you where this story all ends for most people. Spending more and more money for more pills with no “high” and the looming specture of a mammoth withdrawal along with a steady diet of rage and depression. That’s what you get when you get to the end. I wonder how many of you are at the end…take that first step.

Links to other “Top Ten Reasons To Quit Pain Killers In-Depth” Posts:

Reason #2: “Your Work Is Suffering”

Reason #3: “You Can’t Remember All of the Good Stuff”

Reason #4: “Your Children Know and They’re Concerned”

Getting “Un-Stuck”

george — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 01:38:18 +0000

Before quitting pain killers, I can’t tell you how many times I would say to my self “You know, something’s gotta give.” I suppose that’s just another way of praying for “bottom” to arrive so that it would forcibly pluck me from the ongoing cycle of my obsession with these pills. Many “academics” of addiction will say that a person has to hit that bottom in order to quit. I’m not so sure. Why wait to hit bottom?

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”

The Brain’s “Reward Center”

george — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:18:13 +0000

I’ve been told that my brain has a “Reward Center.” I’ve also been told that my brain’s reward center was a little off-kilter when I was taking pain killers on a regular basis. The opiates turned my brain into a little spoiled brat.
Although it’s a very simplistic description of a highly complex chemical process, this makes sense to me. Opiates have a tremendous influence of the pleasure centers of our brains and make them hyperactive in a sense. As you get deeper into pain killer addiction, you start to lose interest in things that you used to enjoy and place less importance on things that were once very important to you. As your brain is being fed more and more painkillers, it is pushing the reward threshold higher and higher so that the only thing that seems pleasurable is that first 1 hour or so after you take your dose…the bliss. Nothing else matters after a while.
If you think I’m being a bit hysterical let’s try a little test. Let’s say you’re driving home from work or maybe visiting friends or family and your next dose will be waiting for you when you get there. You’re concentrating on getting wherever you’re going but in the back of your mind there’s a tingling feeling of anticipation for that heaping-helping of pills. Now what if you took those pills away? What if there were no Vicodin or Lortab etc. waiting for you when you got there? Getting home or seeing your friends doesn’t seem like much fun at all does it? In fact, it’s almost an annoyance. That’s because you’re driving to your pills now and that’s all. It’s the somewhat shocking and terrifying reality of pill addiction or any addiction I suppose. The bliss is the only thing that drives you anymore and when you recognize that fact, it’s terribly sad and humiliating.
Well the good news is that your brain’s reward center can be rebooted. If you can find the strength to take that first step and rid yourself of those pills, your reward center will get a good kick in the pants and all of the things that were important to you at one point will be even more rewarding than ever.
After you take the first step, you’re not going to miss the bliss. You’ll also realize just how depressed and guilt-ridden you really were as a result of your short-circuited priorities. But it’s not easy admitting that you had lost your way and it takes courage to begin the process of getting happier again.
I really encourage you to think about this and be honest with yourself about your real priorities right now. I hope you can find the resolve to give your reward center a reality check so that you can get back to enjoying life.
And if you feel ashamed well just look at me! I’m writing about my addiction on a blog for everybody to see! For all I know, my Mom’s going to read this…how embarrassing is that?!

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 “Art” Of Opiate Tapering

george — Sat, 22 May 2010 18:24:26 +0000

Of course I get a lot of emails. I get emails from a multitude of folks from every state, every profession and demographic.

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 the amount of occupied opiate receptors in 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

Ready For Takeoff!

george — Wed, 19 May 2010 09:51:15 +0000

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”

How To Say “Goodbye” To Your Pills

george — Sun, 16 May 2010 15:24:06 +0000

As I’m sorting through all the “Free Viagra!” spam comments that I get on my blog, I’m always looking for some inspiration for my next blog from visitors or customers. I get a lot of good feedback from people like yourself. I’m thankful for that because in a vacuum, I’d get boring really quickly.

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

Top Ten Reasons To Quit Pain Killers In-Depth: Reason #5

george — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:19:36 +0000

Reason #5: Your Friends Miss You!

This is a bit of a double-entendre. i.e. I’m saying several different things with the same sentence. Since your life has revolved around the pills, everything takes a backseat…waaay in the back. Back behind the pain doctor, the pharmacists, the prescriptions, the refill dates, the counting of the pills, the re-counting of the pills…counting the pills once again, your dealer, your ritualistic dosing schedule, the obsessing about the next dose and so on. Basic survival (Eating, sleeping) comes grudgingly next (OK, I’ll have just ONE hot pocket ok???!), then comes the family, the job (need money for pills, doctor visits and co-pays) and finally the friends.

Wow, that doesn’t leave much room for the friends does it? And here’s the thing, I’m not talking about just physically being with friends, we can all do that relatively easily. I mean actually BEING there. The real you; the real friend that they decided was someone who was going to be important to them and vice versa. Even if you’re now hanging out with friends on a frequent basis, you’re not really engaged because you will make them go away if they disrupt anything having to do with the drugs. If you’re honest with yourself, the friends that you are with the most now are ones that provide the least path of resistance to the drugs. Maybe they take them too or maybe they are so out of touch with the real you that they don’t take notice that you are completely vapid, lame, boring…aloof.

What a shame…

There’s even point when the friends that don’t get in the way of your pills become a real pain in the ass. And the funny thing is (not really funny as in hah hah funny but more like weird funny) that you are totally aware of this from beginning to end! You are achingly conscious of the fact that you are slowly becoming a person with no friends. Without friends there is no fun…

So, you know what’s going on and you know that you are losing friends or at least you are alienating them from your life. yet you do nothing about it. It’s a paradox because you are so guilty about being “lame” and you are so nervous about trying to patch things up that you hide in your little bubble even more! That builds on itself and can even lead to taking more and more pills. “Eh, wow, How long has it been since I’ve called John?! He’s called a couple times but the calls have now tailed off. I think he’s probably given up. I think he probably knows how screwed up everything is (Narrator: He doesn’t…that’s one of the problems) and so now he’s moved on (Narrator: He hasn’t “moved on” but how many times do you ring a door bell before deciding no one is home???!) and I don’t have the energy or the will to try and patch everything up! Anyways…I have 60 left, so that will get me to Thursday…”

You can’t take anything with you to the grave. All you’ll have are the friends and family that you leave behind. You need to take back the person that your friends decided to bless with the gift of kinship. You need to earn back their trust that you care enough about yourself that you’ll care enough to have them around. Your real friends will take you back willingly…all that they ask is that the person that they once knew is the friend they still have. Ironically, that won’t happen until you stop worrying about them and start worrying about getting yourself and your happiness back.

Wake up…take the first step and I promise they’ll take it with you.

-George

Links to other “Top Ten Reasons To Quit Pain Killers In-Depth” Posts:

Reason #1: “The Highs Are Getting Lower and the Lows Are Getting Longer”

Reason #2: “Your Work Is Suffering”

Reason #3: “You Can’t Remember All of the Good Stuff”

Reason#4: “Your Children Know And they’re Concerned”

Life Without Painkillers…The View From The Other Side

george — Tue, 11 May 2010 00:49:28 +0000

When you think about quitting pain killers a lot of scary things cross one’s mind.

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.

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