From: pez@manhattan.com (gizmo) Subject: Re: Can tapering Heroin Work Date: 1996/06/11 newsgroups: alt.drugs.hard (obr) wrote: > If one is disciplined enough not to blow it, can one taper the dosage >of h down to the point of a mild withdrawal. Any one ever try to kick this >way WITHOUT ruining the tapering process? I find this group both >encouraging, yet often filled with hopelessness. There must be an easier >way out. The short answer is yes you can taper yourself down to being drug free and with less agony then you would go through cold-turkey. That's the short answer. The longer answer is that it is pretty damn hard to do. Plus it sounds like you already know this. Am I right? The problem can be solved thusly. First, make sure that heroin is the only drug that you are using. Second, before you start to taper, try to get yourself into as good a shape as possible. I'm sure you know what I mean. Third, put yourself in as good a frame of mind as possible. The first three steps should be possible within about three or four days. Now you can begin your detox. Carefully measure your dosages out, so that you can cut yourself down over a week or so. If you are a real heavy user, make it two weeks. As you get down to the lower dosages, start doing something physical. Really. Try to start jogging or doing some type of excercise. Take a lot of hot baths. That should do it. A better way to do it is to use Methadone and cut yourself down using methadone instead of heroin. This is much easier and works much better because although heroin and methadone are similar and act on almost the same brain receptor sites, there are some differences. Methadone is not as euphoric a drug, hence you don't want to abuse it as much. Also, since they are a bit different, during the time that you are satisfying your craving with methadone, you are withdrawing from heroin more or less painlessly. Plus, if you do this within a week or so, there is not really enough time for your body's cellular memory to learn the mechanism of addiction to Methadone. That's the key. That's why they use methadone for short term detox. The Giz ==================================================================== From: RachelSent Subject: Re: Can tapering Heroin Work Date: 1996/06/11 newsgroups: alt.drugs.hard (obr) wrote: > If one is disciplined enough not to blow it, can one taper the dosage >of h down to the point of a mild withdrawal. Any one ever try to kick this >way WITHOUT ruining the tapering process? I find this group both >encouraging, yet often filled with hopelessness. There must be an easier >way out. well, i assume if one was disciplined enough, one could do it, but, i have yet to see a junkie that could taper himself off. it is not a question of discipline. the nature of junk is to make you question why you would want to taper off. this question becomes stronger and stronger the sicker and sicker you get. there always seems to be a point where you will wonder why you are tapering off, when you would feel so much better being high or at least normal. there is no easier way out. that is not the nature of addiction. if it was, there would be no such thing as addiction. i tapered off of methadone. i believe the only reason i was capable of doing that was because i did not know i was being tapered. i requested they taper me in that fashion. it worked, but if i had not been ready to make the change, get the hell away from what i was into and move on with my life, it wouldn't have worked either.