Our Sponsors are an important foundation of our online community. Please visit their websites.
Our Associate Sponsors provide valuable support to our community and help build 'The Wall'.
Our partners help move the Wired In agenda forward.
Join our community, create your own profile page, and communicate about what matters to you.
This drug helped me kick my heroin habit!
I did my turkey for the umpteenth time this year on 22nd June and stayed clean for exactly one month (the longest I’ve ever managed to stay clean without relapsing). One month after giving up I relapsed for about 10 days; smoking and injecting on and off, not every day and not enough to make me go through cold turkey again but enough to make me feel pretty rough when I stopped.
After a brush with the law I was fast tracked to the Drug Intervention Program.
When I met the nurse I’d been clean for about three weeks, which was long enough to give two clean urine tests and get them to recommend a Naltrexone script which is what I wanted. But by my second assessment with the DIP doctor I’d been clean (relapse) for only about 5-6 days.
I started the Naltrexone program, and at first – because of my recent lapse – it was like being slapped in the face. Because it’s an opiate blocker, the change from being drained and spaced out to being totally sober and alert in the space of a day was massive!
It probably depends on how long you’ve been clean before you start taking it but I had smoked up to a week before going on the programme so the effects were worse. I recommend being clean for two plus weeks before taking it if possible.
The point is that despite the nurse, my case worker and two doctors telling me it wouldn’t stop the cravings, but act more as a deterrent (knowing you will go into instant cold turkey if you take any opiates) it DID stop the cravings totally – and the cravings were intense!
Although I am still in recovery, I haven’t had one thought or urge to score since starting the program over three months ago.
Everyone is different but from my experience, if you’re reasonably clean (maybe two weeks), committed to giving up and are mentally prepared for the extreme shunt back to reality, I would totally recommend you find a doctor who will prescribe Naltrexone.
Its unfortunate I had to get arrested in possession in order to get fast tracked to DIP in order to get the immediate treatment I needed. Before that my doctor referred me to the Community Addictions Unit (CAU) but the waiting list is 12+ months in Cardiff. Way too long!
Many people will overdose while waiting this long. So find a doctor who is trained in substance misuse and sympathetic to addicts needs and take it from there.
When I told my doctor about my addiction and asked for help, you would have thought I had said “I’m going to kill your entire family” by the look on his face and he more or less ushered me out the door pretty quickly, with a meagre promise of a referral to the CAU.
It may not work for everyone and the body shock of being totally straight again is hard, but it gets a lot easier within a week or so and it’s working for me.
Please contact me if you have any questions. There’s also a load on the net about Naltrexone.
Matt
Thanks for this Matt – really interesting.
Good to hear it worked for you. Does anyone out there have similar experiences? Either positive like Matt, or less successful?
I was prescribed naltrexone when i left de-tox, my doctor was more than willing to re-prescribe, as you’ll know Matt you need to have liver functions tests before taking naltrexone so that’s why you can’t just get it but i’m sure that any half decent doctor will sort out the test. I found naltrexone very helpful in the early days of recovery although i don’t take them now, i to felt very cleansed by them and because i couldn’t use opiates it spoiled the hole equation of poly drug use so i wouldn’t have a pipe because i couldn’t use heroin, so it was a brilliant early safeguard for me, i found i just stopped taking them when it was naturally right for me, keep strong and do what’s right for you Matt, keep making good choices.
Thanks Tony…….. i did have a liver function test at my GP and all was well. this is why it took a week or 3 to get on the program. i had to have the LFT. a initial assessment, a nurse appointment and then 2 doctors appointments (at DIP, not my GP). I’m 3+ months into the program and feel strong enough to stop now but i’m going to see the full 6 month course through as i have nothing to lose and everything to gain. good point about it also spoiling polydrug use (pipes) there’s nothing worse than the prang after a few pipes. glad you’re doing well, good for you!
Matt. S.
I’ve always found naltrexone to be a safety net to assist individuals during those tricky (to say the least) initial stages of recovery. Knowing that you ‘cant use’ means that you will have to plan your use (3days till naltrexone out of your system?) and planning to use a far, far away from a spontaneous relapse and therefore should be analysed and perhaps dealt with.
Naltrexone for me is one of the components to remaining clean and my advice is grab anything that will work and assist you in those early stages.
Great to see you sharing this Matt. It’s good for you guys who are on / have been on Naltrexone to share your experiences and views. We can use this then to help others make informed decisions. Keep blogging! See you at group. Sar
