Ugh. So I've been off of Fentanyl for one week and didn't have a taper. It's been rough... for some reason my anxiety is through the roof right now, right when I wake up in the morning. And I was a bit constipated before but not anymore.... not at all! My stomach has been upset for a few days and that's also driving me crazy. I'm a recovering anorexic and it's hard when I lose weight because it can be a trigger to lose more weight. Well I just thought I'd post this... I'm sure people here have gone off meds without a taper... how long did it take for your body to feel normal again? It feels like things are getting a little better but it's been a slow process!

I did the same, a 100 patch to zip. it was about 9-10 days for most of the physical. the blahs and occasional cravings went of for a while though. it was soooooo worth it though - finally beat the darn things :)

Use a bunch of Iomodium to block you up when needed, aside from doing that it will also ease the withdrawel symptoms a little of it's from the same family as morphine (waste of time trying to get high on them though, lol...)

Wow, zeroman, I'm glad to hear that someone else has been through this as well. I don't want to be taking these patches for the rest of my life so I decided to stop taking them. I did tell my doc and he gave me something else for pain, but I heard that Fentanyl is one of the strongest meds out there so I'm glad to be off right now.

I'll definitely be picking up some Immodium today, thanks for the tip!

how are you doing lizzy?

you should definitely be "over the hump" at this point and starting to feel better. hope you are doing well :)

I think I'm over with the hardest part now! This morning was the first morning I didn't wake up feeling super anxious or having diahhrea (sp?). I'm so glad I'm practically done with this!! Of course, I'm still taking norco for pain so that's a whole different situation but at least I'm off of Fentanyl :)

thats great news!

once over the hump I found I got better quick. there were some "blahs" for about another week then I actually got a lot of my energy back.

fentanyl is a fast clearing drug, I think that helps get the WDs over sooner than stuff like methadone, which stays in your system for a long time and has a long WD.

physical withdrawl should last about 72 hours. I personally believe prescription narcs can last another day or two. Past that, the mind can play terrible tricks on you and "create" symptoms of a physical nature.

Vistaril is something I've used for people as it's non-addictive(to my knowledge) and can produce some mild/moderate sedation, a pleasent side effect to induce sleep. Sleep of course is a pattern disrupted by any substance abuse as your circadian rythems get out of whack. Opening up the debate for how long really is "physical" versus psychologic withdrawl.

We're told in various research etc... that physical withdrawl should be over at the 72hr mark, like it's a finish line or something. It's rather pointless to argue at this point b/c our hands are tied, until at least more specific research is completed. This is why you will see discharges at most inpatient facilities at the 72hr mark give or take, as this is when 3rd party payers will stop payments. Hospitals/facilities aren't in the business of going out of business so they do what they can etc...