The Heroin Addict's Detox Kit

UPDATE 2016/05/21: I quit a fentanyl/heroin habit using some of the medicines listed in this article, along with an a abundance of Methylphenidate (Ritalin) which really helped me get up and at 'em during the days. Aside from a few sweaty nights weaning off fentanyl and back on to regular heroin, the detox process itself has been a breeze. I've been lethargic and anxious, and the anxiety is just from the absurd dose of ritalin I've been taking. My kit included: Imodium, Kratom, Phenibut, Clonazepam, Seroquel, Clonidine, Ritalin, (I lucked out on the prescription meds, but similar alternatives can all be found online for cheap) Adrafinil, L-Theanine, Weed, and DXM. Things for post-acute withdrawal and weaning myself off the pharmaceutical shitstorm this withdrawal created were kava-kava, passion flower (makes a kickass anxiolytic tea, stronger than kava imo), more weed, more L-Theanine, more adrafinil.

It's a pretty big kit, but I'm writing this during the peak of day 2 of acute withdrawal and I can't feel anything bad. Restless legs starts to creep up on me sometimes but I'll just take a small dose of kratom and that'll be gone fast.



Quitting heroin is a bitch.

A real bitch.

www.substance.com

There's worse opiates to detox from - fentanyl, it's analogues, W-18 god forbid that ever becomes widely distributed, tramadol... whatever. you name it. Detoxing from any opiate is fucking hell, but if you play your cards right, it doesn't have to be.

Honestly, I feel bad for everyone who doesn't have a detox kit as varied as mine because it makes the process a WHOLE FUCKING SHIT LOAD EASIER. A friend of mine hitchhiked to the mainland as his escape from heroin - commendable, I've done the same thing. However, when checking in with him via text, I felt affluent about my meds - he was suffering and shaking and crying, I was laying in bed writing a novel.

It took me over two years to compile this entire list, and that was part of the reason people thought I was going off the deep end or denying my inevitable addiction - nope, I just didn't want to go through hell again. Let us compare - 

Method 1: Cold Turkey

SYMPTOMS: You will be plagued day and night with cold sweats, soaking through you shirts. You'll stink like sweat and shit because you'll have explosive diarrhea for three days straight. You'll be starving hungry but even the thought of food entering your stomach will make you throw up. If you wait too long to start using your detox kit, then you won't be able to keep anything done. Your legs will be twitching, shaking. Your skin crawls day and night so you can't even lie down comfortably to forget the rest of the symptoms wracking your body. Tears constantly stream out of your eyes, mucus from your nose. You. Want. To. Fucking. Die.

The dosage in this chart is absolute garbage but the timing's pretty spot-on

Method 2: Cold Turkey with a Detox Kit (and a slight wean)

First reduce your dosage a bit. Not too much, and not for too long otherwise you'll just end up back where you were. You probably won't be able to get everything listed below, but if you do:

SYMPTOMS: slight chills and sweats, and extreme lethargy.

So WHAT DO YOU NEED?

Most IMPORTANTLY

Kratom: Kratom's the leaf of a tree grown in southeast asia. Its main constituent, mitragynine, is actually a mild opiate - so, it's capable of killing all your withdrawal symptoms (given your tolerance isn't TOO high. If it is, use NMDA antagonists to reduce it until kratom can be felt.) Some say to be careful because you don't want to get addicted to kratom - I say fuck that, if you end up addicted to kratom then just jump off that because it'll be a hell of a lot easier than quitting heroin. Hell, if you have access to kratom, you can throw everything else on this list out and just taper off using kratom and nothing else.

A strong NMDA (n-methyl-d-aspartate) antagonist. Opiates stimulate NMDA receptors which create a flood of calcium and calcium-dependent processes which help inhibit the response of opioid receptors & messengers. Taking NMDA antagonists before you dose your opiates makes them a hell of a lot stronger (and can save you a lot of money, or kill you, depending on how responsible you are.) It will also prevent the onset of tolerance and withdrawal, though the mechanisms of why are unclear and evidence is primarily anecdotal (though I support NMDA antagonism as my #1 tool for detoxing. 

Modafinil (or one of its prodrugs). This can't go without saying. Without modafinil (well, I'd use armodafinil because its available legally online and converts directly into modafinil via your liver, whereas modafinil's a massively expensive prescription)  I'd never be able to get out of bed. It's  a stimulant, very unlike amphetamine - it doesn't amp you up, it simply gets rid of your lethargy and allows you to complete daily tasks without feeling uncomfortable.

Anti-cholinergics counteract the choline  rebound that occurs after abrupt cessation, causing a large number of histamine-related sickness symptoms (runny nose, watery eyes, sneezing, allergy-like symptoms)

CCK (cholecystokinin) antagonists of which I really don't know any besides Proglumide, which isn't easy to obtain.

Anti-adrenergics counteract the adrenaline rebound, which causes some super fucking unpleasant things like restless legs syndrome, crawling skin, etc.

Benzodiazepines like valium or xanax greatly take the edge of and ease some physical symptoms.

Weed, son. Weed. If it doesn't fix damn near everything, it'll at least make you capable of coping with it. I'm not a pot smoker - it makes me deathly anxious - but smoking pot during an opiate detox is one of the best ways to kill the nausea and make yourself comfortable.

www.zmescience.com

Anyway, those being the important ones, here's a list of the most prominent substances you should get before you detox.

NMDA ANTAGONISTS

Memantine/Agmantine

Strong NMDA antagonists. My favourite. Significantly (almost dangerously) reduced my tolerance to baseline after four days of using agmatine, after which dropping off cold turkey left me with minimal symptoms.

DXM 

Second favourite NMDA antagonist, stupidly strong. Easy to take too much and end up tripping balls though. It's the most easily available in OTC cough syrup, listed under medicinal ingredients as dextromethorphan hydrobromide. Make SURE your bottle contains NOTHING but DXM in its list of active medical ingredients, and consume 60ml of DXM (2-4 doses) 2-3 times a day for a week before quitting and during detox. This will reduce your tolerance and your withdrawal symptoms drastically. 

If the package says DM it usually contains DXM as its only medicinal ingredient

ANTI-ADRENERGICS:

Clonidine

Prescribed for withdrawals from a number of drugs. Helps with physical symptoms and helps a LOT with getting you to sleep.

OTHER CRAP THAT HELPS A LOT:

Proglumide and CCK modulators

Proglumide's an old gastric ulcer drug that has been shown to slow build up of opioid tolerance. may be a partial (non mu) receptor specific opioid ligand, and an extremely weak and strange analgesic that can only exert its mild analgesic effect when a person knows they are taking it --a property usually reserved for placebos, but when patients are told about it, it is slightly stronger than placebo! Weird. 

AMPA/KAINATE modulators

Ampa/kainate receptors are related to glutamate and n-methyl-d-aspartate neurotransmission, and a wide spectrum modulator easily available is l-theanine, (already mentioned above). 

A dual antagonist is tezampanel.

Calcium Channel Blockers

Pregabalin is known to selectively block calcium channels, and this contributes to its non-opioid painkilling properties. 

OTHER CRAP THAT HELPS A BIT

L-Lysine

Works better for potentiating benzodiazepiness but works for opiates as well as having a mild anxiolytic effect itself. In itself it is an extremely mild NMDA antagonist.

Gotu Kola/Kava Kava

Natural relaxants that can provide a nice buzz, calms adrenaline and lowers related symptoms, and can help you get some sleep.

Ashwaghanda

Mild NMDA antagonist. I use 1-2 grams twice daily or half hour before dosing. Available at health food stores or in the supplement section of some grocery tsores.