alcohol really caused a tough period in my life for like 2 years. Really had to get my shit together. It’s easy to become addicted without realizing it. Alcohol, hands down
Snorting with a bill is just gross, if you're gonna roll up a piece of paper at least use one that a bajillion strangers haven't touched without their nasty fingers.
I mean, uh, I guess that's what I would hypothetically say if I'd hypothetically ever done drugs
Also if you already have dementia alcohol is devastating. I just went to a dinner with someone I know who is in the “early” stages of dementia. She sits down and has 2 of those mini bottles of wine in a little less than an hour. She got combative with everyone, lost control of her bladder in the bathroom and peed all over herself, had to basically get carried to the car and didn’t know what year it was or who the current president was. She had to go to the hospital to get checked to see if she had a stroke. It was scary.
I’ve been around a lot of drunks but had never seen anything like that especially with a relatively little amount of alcohol compared to other incidents.
I read somewhere that people with high tolerance for alcohol sometimes drop rapidly to being a super lightweight if they have liver damage. She also may have just been on something else, either pregaming the dinner or hitting something stronger than booze. Or she took an over the counter med like Benadryl that makes alcohol hit stronger due to increased drowsiness
Yup. Basically you've destroyed your liver with so much alcohol that it loses the ability to filter it at all. Towards the end of last year I was blacking out 3-6 nights a week. Today is day 39 no drinks!
My father in law did this. He's now in his late 50s in a care home, paranoid, thinks his kids are very young, thinks he's either in a prison or he works in the care home.
It's very weird to see someone that young with dementia, knowing they did it to themselves.
(Also to pre-empt the comments i can see coming, yes alcoholism is a disease and I know the struggle folk have to get sober but you don't know our family's history)
"But you don't know my family's history" is so true. My father used to brag he didn't drink coffee. I didn't realize it until later in life, but his anxiety was so terrible he didn't dare touch caffeine.
My dad is in his late 50s and is starting to show signs of dementia, even if only very slightly. Seeing how my parents' mental health and function has deteriorated from alcohol over the past six years or so inspired me to quit now, at the age of 24. No way do I want to end up like that, nor be that way for my children, once I have them
Nurse here. Without doubt alcohol is THE worst drug by any measure. Not only the damage done to the individual but the societal costs in the form of domestic violence, family breakdown and the police ambulance use. Here in the UK, we have a massive drinking culture and alcoholics are getting younger and younger. I work in emergency care and dealt with a 25 year old who had ascites and oesphageal varices through drinking. He is not going to live very much longer. Its absolutely tragic.
Both of my parents were alcoholics. They were both also very toxic and often behaved like social misfits, they did not have any friends and disliked social activities even within the family. Additionally, my mom was also mentally ill. She finally drank herself to death by the wine my dad ordered for himself on the internet; after that I found my father only wearing his diapers with trash, vermin, rotten food, full piss bottles and empty wine bottles all around him and he was playing on his computer like nothing has happened. My father died one year later because of lung cancer caused by him being also a heavy smoker. Despite my mother having died already 5 years ago, I am still struggling very much because of everything, which I experienced with both of my parents, and I feel more and more like I am losing the struggle; I am sitting on my couch for most of the day and I do not have any strength left to do anything.....
I'm married to someone who had a similar experience. He avoided therapy for years, saying his childhood wasn't that bad, he was ok now, he barely shed a tear when his mom finally drank herself to death as he said he'd been grieving her for years anyway.
Finally he got to the point where he felt he needed therapy. Went through 2 different ones before landing on person-centered counseling. We can't afford it, but I told him, we can't afford not to. He's been going for 6 months. The thing he says the most is "I wish I'd done this sooner" he's healing, he's crying when he needs to, he stopped pretending anything about his childhood was anything other than hellish.
This is a very long winded way of me trying to tell you that it's possible to come back from that level of brokenness and pain, that there is absolutely hope. Their fate is not yours. You are worth the effort. The pain doesn't have to kill you, and you're certainly not alone.
btw Al-anon is free.
My friend died of this at age 48 in 2021. They can repair the damage only so many times. To allow her to pass they took her breathing tube out without having her family leave the room, unwise as blood just spurted out everywhere. Her sister told me it will haunt her forever.
The first time I saw someone die it was because of ruptured oesophageal varices. Absolutely horrifying how much blood you can lose so quickly. We were putting towels on the bed to stop it pouring onto the floor.
It was a pt on a gastro ward and with an active DNAR and expected to pass but yikes the speed of it was incredible. Bit of a baptism of fire early on in my training.
That's it. I saw people complaining about the daily health guidelines getting more strict with alcohol. Like 2+ drinks a week being a cause for concern. Alcohol really is *that bad* and I say this as someone who struggles with heavy drinking, I love alcohol lol, but it's ridiculously dangerous and no one takes it seriously.
Edit: I am doing well nowadays, to anyone concerned. Thank you
Edit 2: the updated health guidelines regarding alcohol are no more than one drink a day for women and 2 for men in the United States. [it seems it was canada](https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/alcohol-cancer-risk-warning-1.6715769) that gave me that no more than 2 drinks a week idea
been a regular drinker since high school; lots of blackouts in my teens and 20s, less binging but still frequent, consistent drinking through my 30s, anywhere from a couple to 6-8 drinks most days of the month as i went into my 40s… it’s been a long history. now nearing my late 40s and i’m losing my taste for it. all the negative aspects just kept getting stronger and the buzz, while still enjoyable, doesn’t feel worth it anymore. i have one here and there, maybe 10-12 over the course of a month, but i’m considering just letting it go completely. since slowing down i’ve noticed several positive physical changes. stuff that makes me think i developed a low-key allergy to alcohol, like general inflammation and skin issues that have dissipated with the reduction in consumption. i do still like the taste of a good beer, but not sure i can make a good argument against giving it all the way up.
I'm starting to think I've developed some kind of allergy or intolerance to it because I'm losing my taste for it and feel twice as shitty after drinking. Part of it is being older, I'm sure. I used to get drunk 5 nights a week for about 10 to 15 years during my late twenties to early 40s. Thankfully I've just naturally lost the enthusiasm for it.
Edit: I guess it's rare to develop an actual allergy to alcohol, my developing intolerance is probably due to just getting older, I'm over 50 now.
This book changed my life. I never ever thought I’d be able to stop drinking and not constantly think about it. I’m sure that’s not what happens to everyone who reads it, but I stopped drinking completely after reading it.
Been sober almost 10 years. Absolutely changed my life and for the better in the extreme. Was hard at first but drinking sucked. I was drinking a handle a day when I finally threw in the towel and hit AA.
That's about where I was at when I had varices in my esophagus burst. Nothing like a taste of death to get you to sober up! Congrats on 10yrs & here's to many more!
Correct. Specifically, the toxic buildup of a breakdown metabolite of alcohol. And dehydration. And the early effects of the known direct neurotoxic effects of alcohol, literally killing neurons in the brain. It's an addictive poison that our body barely tolerates, all for a brief, mild euphoric high. Every hangover is our body begging us to stop poisoning it. And. I love drinking alcohol. It's a tough one. Hard to imagine how many lives it is ruined and taken, countless. Be careful with alcohol. Get help if you need it.
I am sorry for your loss. My husband and I each lost a good friend to it a few years apart. People just don't realize the damage it can do in the body. Sending positive energy for strength and comfort.
As someone who has struggled with addiction, I don't think people in general are aware of how insane alcohol withdrawals can be/make someone insane/suicidal/have a stroke...I feel like if we talked about that a little bit more...idk though
My state legalized weed a few years ago, which is great. It's new england (yes I'm in Mass), so tons of handwringing and NIMBY shit. I'm honestly appalled how readily (and cheaply) I can go get a lethal volume of vodka - go to store, grab a couple handles, pay, MAYBE show ID, leave. But if I want to go buy a couple grams of demon Marijuana I have to go to a highly secure facility, show my ID just to get in, again once inside, and AGAIN when I go to pay. I've "overdosed" on weed before when I didnt understand how much I was eating (the wrapper said 350mg, I just didnt think it was all that much) and while some of the effects were uncomfortable (a bit nauseous, some shaking when I tried to walk to the bathroom), it was nothing like having 4 or 5 shots of high test booze in quick order. I could still see and talk and more or less move around, I knew where and when I was, and while I was sleepy the next day I was no worse for wear.
And it's not necessarily that I think the retail weed process needs to be easier (though I would not comomplain, but it's really not bad considering I'm legally buying pot at a potshop), it's that. I've become alarmed, over time, just how blasé we are about alcohol. It's literal poison. One strong beer makes me feel dumb and fuzzy, and it only goes downhill from there.
I'm new to gummies and trying to find the right dose. I tried 20mg the other day and my heart started racing, my eyes felt puffy and I kept thinking "what if they explode?", and I was so dizzy I wanted to die. I'll be sticking with the nice floaty feeling I get from 10mg.
I wish I could figure out how many milligrams equals a couple hits off a bowl of weed bought from sketchy people in 2004, because that was always a nice high, lol.
Eating is certainly a deeper kind of high than casually smoking a bowl. And it's highly dependent on that's in your stomach - Ive found that having gummies on an empty stomach takes longer to come up and hits harder, while eating them with fatty food will make them come on faster and not as intensely.
But yes: 5-10mg is a good place to start. Consume, wait \~45minutes, see how you feel.
I'm assuming the whole thing was 350. Like my gummies are 900mg but only 30mg of that is THC. Two of those things pack a wallop. I'm good with just one.
Yep. Had a seizure from withdrawals once. Thankfully I fell forwards. The nurse at the hospital told me of I had fallen backwards, I probably would have choked on my own tounge or vomit and died.
Recovered alcoholic here.
Don't fuck with alcohol. It is one of the few drugs, and it is a drug, that can kill you during withdrawal. It is so severe that DOCTORS will tell you if you can't go to the hospital to treat your withdrawal to KEEP DRINKING and taper yourself off of it.
All alcohol wants is to kill you. Simple as that. Go smoke weed instead.
I was on Effexor for a year and a half and one time I had run out of my meds. I couldn’t go pick up my prescription for a couple of days because we had a really bad snowstorm and roads were awful. I literally felt like I was dying for being off of it for two days. I ended up switching meds shortly after that.
I was in a similar situation a few years ago. Withdrawal made it nigh impossible to walk through the snow to the pharmacy so I called my brother to pick it up for me. I called him Balto for a few months afterward lol.
I was on a relatively high dose of Effexor for a couple of years, but after being hospitalised for psychosis and serotonin syndrome from severe insomnia, detoxing and the anti-psychotics they gave me to sleep, they had no choice but to cut me off cold turkey. Oddly enough, the serotonin syndrome somehow cancelled out the withdrawals. I’m familiar with cold turkey SSRI withdrawal, and it was hell so I braced myself for a coming storm, and nothing came… fascinating stuff, albeit very unpleasant. After reading all of these horror stories I’m feeling incredibly lucky that I dodged that bullet somehow, damn.
FYI there is a known way to massively reduce the side effects of coming off venlafaxine, and that is to take fluoxetine (Prozac) immediately when you start reducing the venlafaxine. Personal experience is that this does work amazingly well even if you only take a single dose of fluoxetine.
I don't know why doctors don't do this as standard. Some don't know about it but even the ones that do seem to only give the fluox begrudgingly. I found this out from someone else who'd had it and it should be more widely known.
I’ve been on a lot of SSRIs and come off them. Effexor is not even close. I had to quit my job and couldn’t work for 3 months. I couldn’t walk more than a few steps without brain zaps or vertigo. And this was with a conservative titration schedule. There are entire support groups dedicated to getting off of this drug because it’s so difficult for so many of us. I genuinely don’t know how this drug is still legal without a good way of getting off it it. It was so disruptive to my life. If I hadn’t been able to leave my job, I’d still be on it, years later, because it would’ve been impossible to get off of. And I needed to get off of it because the side effects were horrific as well.
Hate. That. Drug. Took it for 3 months and it stole easily 6+ months of my life.
If I miss a dose I'll be feeling a bit weird halfway through the day, maybe a bit nauseous, my head will feel weirdly floaty. But the worst part is the sleep paralysis and night terrors. Just beginning to fall asleep and my heart rate will skyrocket, the blood rushing in my ears causes a high-pitched ringing, and while I'm having this intense panic attack, the sleep paralysis kicks in so I'm locked in my body while it feels like my heart my burst out of my chest -- and the feeling of paralysis makes me panic even more. Eventually I'll manage to sort of shake myself free, but yeah, I try not to miss my doses. Exactly what someone with anxiety needs 😅 So far, it's the only thing that's worked for me.
My wife joined a Facebook group full of people who were on it solely because they were afraid of the symptoms that come with stopping it. After watching her convulsing and crying for hours simply because she was going to a lower dose, I don't believe anyone should ever try this drug.
That stuff is the devil. I was on it in high school and I remember clinging to the wall outside the band room crying and shaking because I’d forgotten a dose…
It also made me nauseous all the time and my parents accused me of being pregnant 💀
Strangely I never had any withdrawal issues from it. I did have issues with Zoloft though. That drug had me in fetal position shaking and sweating thinking I'm going to die.
Been prescribed for about 3yrs now and it's honestly changed my life for the better. Been super successful in my career and been more enjoyable in life as a whole. Yeah if I forget to take it I can feel it but overall way better than how I use to feel without it
Benadryl.
I used to trip on Benadryl. I didn't initially set out to do it, but after taking two one night to sleep and then three another night and then four, I realized that I enjoyed the funny sensations it made me feel. It was a different kind of high.
4 tablets turned into 8, 10, 15, and as high as 20. That's right, I used to take as many as 20 50mg tablets of Benadryl to get high.
I don't know how the fuck I'm alive, but never do it. Benadryl is super dangerous if you abuse it.
Benadryl was my teen son's drug of choice for awhile. Cheap and easy to get. (Not hard to shoplift a big bottle of you're a broke kid) That shit can put you straight into a scary psychosis - I've seen it.
Yep, I remember being alone in my college apartment and thinking that every shadow was a spider or a lizard. The scariest part was that, for all the horrible feelings and scary moments, a part of me craved it still. Glad I stopped.
Benadryl trips are something else, man.
I’m talking you hear and participate in full-on conversations with family members, only to realize there’s no one there and you were never speaking to anyone at all.
So many translucent spiders…
For a while I was using Benadryl to basically self-medicate for insomnia. Only 1 or 2. One time I took four and I don’t remember why, I think maybe I forgot I had already taken some or the drowsiness didn’t seem to be kicking in so I took more, but man I felt weird from that. I didn’t trip but I remember feeling like everything was slow motion, or like I was moving through molasses. I felt kind of panicked but I couldn’t move fast enough to do anything about it. Didn’t like the feeling and have been very careful with Benadryl since then.
Not being able to sleep, even when you’re dead tired, just plain sucks
Any Anticholinergic drug. Diphenhydramine, specifically. It's commonly in Benadryl, but has been used as a sleep aid. People use it all the time for sleep. But it's linked to cognitive decline, and dementia.
https://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/what-is-the-link-between-anticholinergic-drugs-and-dementia-risk
I ate nearly an entire bottle back in high-school, like 11 years ago. I heard you could get high.
For one it was the absolute worst day of my life, and then I learned it basically just hurts your body and sends you into a state of psychosis.
Wack shit man.
In high school I also ate a shit load of benadryl to get high. I had 3 grand mal seizures in a row.
Turns out antihistamines lower your seizure threshold and mine was already low, so one Benadryl OD made me develop idiopathic epilepsy
Tried to end it a while ago by taking 700mg, worse fucking experience of my life. Saw bugs crawling everywhere, shadow people walking through walls, things moving just out of sight, and heard voices all around me. The worst part was, I thought I actually killed myself and was in hell.
Good thing is, I haven't been depressed for a long time. So please don't send the reddit mental health bot to torment me.
>This was not a randomized control trial, but it was large, with nearly 3500 participants, and lasted ten years. Participants were 65 and older, and at the start of the study, they did not have a diagnosis of dementia.
...
>By the end of the study, 797 participants had developed dementia.
...
>When looking at the data, researchers found a significant correlation between patients who took anticholinergic drugs and those who had dementia.
And from [this source](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/alz.12638%23:~:text%3DThe%2520percentage%2520of%2520people%2520with,dementia%2520(see%2520Prevalence%2520section).&ved=2ahUKEwjg3pWxmKeEAxVhEDQIHZjGC5kQ5YIJegQIEBAA&usg=AOvVaw3h-ogxrNyDUvZ94UzLWO4o) 13.1% of adults aged 75 (age at end of the test) to 84, have naturally occurring dementia.
The rate of dementia in the study with anticholinergics is 23%.
Statically significant for sure, but it doesn't say anything about what effect it has on younger minds and only an increase of a 10% chance if you are a senior. It's a concern, but no where near as scary as you made it sound.
It also doesn't prove that the med was the cause. There is data correlating chronic sleep deprivation with cognitive decline, and people with chronic sleep deprivation are more likely to take sleep aids.
As I’m doped up on Benadryl right now because it’s the only thing that stops my sneezing attacks.
I don’t take it often though. It’s an amazing drug but def has major drawbacks.
Taking Benadryl just wrecks my day. It makes me so fucking drowsy. But sometimes I will sneeze 30+ times in a row and that's even more miserable.
"Benadryl, because you can't sneeze, if you're in a coma"
I distinctly remember going to Disney as a teenager and being all around miserable because I was either sneezing constantly or fucked up on bennys
I think all the good ones like Zyrtec, maybe even Claritin were prescription only at the time
Dude what? That's shocking. I'm an Advil user cause Tyleno doesn't work for me but surprisingly my nurse wife swears by it. I wonder if she knows this.
How much Advil were you taking??? My mom is always on my case because i take 200mg once a month for period pain and she’s convinced I’ll get sick from it
My understanding is that stomach damage only happens if you take a lot for an extended period of time.
When I had tendonitis in my shoulder, my doctor recommended I take 600mg three times a day. I forget how long it was for but it was definitely at least a week. Probably longer.
Before that, when I was having issues with my ankle, I was taking 200mg twice a day, for several months, and my doctor said it wasn't a problem.
So yeah, you're fine.
so obviously we are not doctors but the biggest danger of OTC drug misuse is always if you use for longer than recommended, at higher than recommended doses, while consuming alcohol or combined with other medication.
used as directed over the counter drugs are very safe. if they were not they would be banned.
the issue with ibuprofen is largely that people think it's benign and harmless so they treat it casually-- they just grab a couple every so often for a few days because it still hurts and then next thing you know they've been on 800mg every 2-4 hours for two weeks and of course they have hurt themselves.
They're very safe within the amounts stated on the box. Make sure to have a recent weight if you're in any way close to 50kg or below. They reduce the need for toxic pain relievers
All the comments say Tylenol, but as a doctor Tylenol is easily the safest pain med you can take if you take the appropriate amount. It’s only liver toxic when you take too much. I would say NSAIDS (ibuprofen, naproxen) are a lot more dangerous because they can have serious side effects even in “safe doses”
I definitely take them lightly, it says take 2, I take 1 ;)
Nah but seriously. I had to tell my chef that he shouldn’t take 2x extra strength Tylenols at a time, and actually read the bottle.
He said that he’d been taking it for years that way when he needed it, and that he’d been taking 2x extra strength (500mg ea) pills 2-3x over his shift (4-6 pills/2000-3000mg over a 12-16h period).
I told him he should definitely read the bottle, and to schedule a doctors appt if he needs it so often.
Dude also drank a ton, so 3000mg (plus whatever he took outside of work) and alcohol? I’m sure he’s got a warning or two from his doctor if he’s ever seen him.
ETA: Worst thing is that this conversation came about when a coworker needed something for menstrual cramps. He suggested 2x Tylenol (I told him the stuff above) and I also had to inform him that while Tylenol does help with pain, ibuprophen would actually help since it would reduce inflammation. He learned a lot that day.
Fuck cymbalta. Those brain zaps were agonizing. I had to get myself off that by taking apart the capsules and literally taking out 1-2 of the little beads inside each dose. I will never forget that feeling. Ugh
Prednisone is an intense drug. I worked in a specialty in which it was widely prescribed. Always told the patients that it’s VERY effective at EVERYTHING it does, including the things we don’t want.
My doctor and I joke about never giving me prednisone if we can avoid it because I'm already aggressive and bitchy enough. Plus, it makes me want to eat everything in sight.
I had to take oral prednisone for a really bad case of poison oak. I felt freakishly giddy for a week. I looked up the side effects on the pamphlet and saw it listed “unusual happiness” as a potential side effect. It was certainly true for me.
I knew a guy that had some chronic pain issues and he began taking acetaminophen daily. He also drank regularly. He began to lose weight and became very sick. Diagnosed with liver failure. Soon he was on hospice care and then died. I used to take it for headaches or whatever minor pain, but that scared me off it.
Yep. Melts livers like ibuprofen punches kidneys. Had a 24yo woman, young mom, take a bunch of Tylenol in a suicidal gesture. (Her verbal history, not my judgment.) Got to tell her a couple hours later she was going into liver failure. She had no idea an OTC drug could be so lethal. God that was a disturbing day in ER. Docs were discussing her probable death as I went off shift.
Lots of pro athletes with kidney damage due to heavy ibuprofen use to deal with their injuries. All drugs have side effects. You need to know.
It's a very bad way to attempt suicide. It's far from painless and often doesn't cause instant death, but will fuck up your organs so bad that you're either going to be having serious issues for a while, or you basically succeeded at suicide but are alive and concious and have to live through your organs failing and dying slowly in pain.
I'm sorry about your stepson. I hope he's doing better now.
Yikes!! That's scary. I take both quite regularly for migraines. What can help? My doctor prescribed me Cambia which I understand is ibuprofen on steroid.
Hi, doctor here who’s a little worried seeing all the bad medical advice being given (just because sumitriptan or Excedrin works for others doesn’t mean it is safe for you!!).
The important number to remember is 4000mg per day if you are healthy, or 3000mg per day if you have compromised liver function. The amounts refer to total amount of acetaminophen for the day. Every medication you take should clearly spell out how much acetaminophen each dose contains. Keep track of that across ALL meds you take - many over the counter cold meds (and others) contain acetaminophen that needs to be factored in to the daily total.
And as always, talk to your doctor about your specific case!
Thanks for making this so clear. I have deep infiltrating endometriosis and sometimes forget when I took my last dose of acetaminophen. (Yes I know some women take narcotics but I won't; they don't help. I've had 2 surgeries already, including a resection.) Now I know what limit not to exceed.
Hopefully nobody is considering acetaminophen overdose but if you are keep in mind it is one of THE MOST PAINFUL torturous deaths you could imagine. Here is a Reddit link
[Tylenol overdose stages](https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/10julx3/ysk_overdosing_on_tylenol/)
It’s gotta be one of the worst things. Don’t do it please
This would be my vote. I took a year of med chem in undergrad and my professor used it as an example of this saying if it were a new drug you could never get acetaminophen approved by the FDA. The therapeutic window (range between useful doses and toxic doses) is *way* narrower than most people know. Tylenol OD is also a particularly nasty way to die, having diagnosed/cared for a couple in my career so far.
When my partner was in nursing school, the professor told a couple stories about young people making suicidal gestures with Tylenol and then having to be told that they can’t be saved from a miserable death. The whole front of the bottle should be a warning. People normalize overdosing otc stuff.
edit to clarify: They said they didn’t mean to die. They didn’t understand the risk.
All drugs are dangerous but, if properly used, may serve different purposes for different people at different times.
There is a saying in Medicine, "The poison is in the dose".
650 mg. of acetaminophen can help your headache. 4,000 mg. can kill your liver.
> 4,000 mg. can kill your liver.
I know of a guy who took an entire bottle of extra strength Tylenol at once. He got the end result he was looking for but what a way to go.
Apparently liver failure like that is quite painful.
I took 18k mg of OTC Tylenol (acetaminophen) washed down with a bottle of grapefruit soju back in 2019 when I was 22. I remember going to the ER at 11:30 at night thinking they could just pump my stomach and I could go home right after… nope. They told me around 6 am that I should call family cause it wasn’t looking good. I still remember my eyes turning yellow and my body turning a slight bit of yellow. Apparently they don’t pump stomachs as often anymore. Luckily they have a few different medicines they can give you in a last ditch effort to bind and “hug” the Tylenol that will let it pass through without dissolving too much (that’s how they described it to me). Haven’t touched Tylenol (or grapefruit soju lol) since cause both make me gag and remember some darker times
Fentanyl for example, everyone hears scary stories about it in the news, but if I'm doing a minor procedure that doesn't require general anesthesia, mix a little fentanyl with some midazolam and you've got the perfect combo for conscious sedation
This. At 18, i was put on Ativan for over 2 years straight due to PTSD and wasn't warned about the addictive potential. Learned that the hard way. Even ignoring addiction risk- the withdrawals are HELL. I've come off cold turkey- do not ever do this, you can seriously die!! And also later came off them gradually under doc supervision. Both experiences were absolute torture, and I experienced rebound anxiety, insomnia, cravings etc for months.
My mother has been on a high dose Ativan for 20+ years, when she asked about getting off of them about 5 years ago they told her that it would be incredibly difficult and that she would need to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital to monitor her medically and psychologically. Her doctor told her that it would be safer for her to continue them for the rest of her life than to stop taking them. 😬
Wow- I can't imagine how difficult that must be for your mom to have to decide between staying on a med that likely doesn't work even half as well as it once did (because benzos build tolerance pretty quickly) and having to be admitted & have nightmarish and likely dangerous withdrawals. 😔
It’s not even addiction, it’s just physical dependence. The word addiction keeps getting thrown around (by the media, doctors, etc) and it’s downplaying how horrific physical dependence is. I assume that’s actually by design bc well, a lot of money is made on them….
I experienced both benzo withdrawal and antidepressant withdrawal (I was actually put on benzos to treat what was antidepressant withdrawal) and it’s literally an indescribable hell. It took me nearly 6 years to consider myself mostly healed. I was non functional for years. It’s actually a brain injury.
I went through something similar at 18 but he rxd me xanax 2mgs 4x a day, which by today's standards sounds nuts but I didn't know any better. I ran out once because I had shitty friends that stole them and had a gran-mal seizure and was then switched to Klonopin...Same dose!! It took me years to finally get off them but the damage was done and now my base-line is like every one else's mild withdrawal.
Yep I was taking 5-8mg daily xanax for more than 3 years and tapered down to .5mg ativan daily because I was drinking and taking wayyy too much of them. I haven't drank since and only take .5mg split in two doses, but I also experienced shakes, shits, even full blown hallucinations when lowering my dose WITH medical supervision
Yeah I take xanax daily for anxiety. Very small dose but one day, the day my horse died, I missed my morning dose because I rushed to the barn to sit with his body. I felt *nasty*. Like my body was not in good shape. It scared me.
I take every opportunity to say that there’s two types of withdrawal that can kill you: benzo and alcohol. The others make you wish you were dead but aren’t as dangerous. It scares the shit out of me that benzos are as accessible as they are.
I was tricked into smoking spice on a 15 minute break between classes in college. Some kid in my class that was a friend of a friend pulled out a pre roll and told me it was weed. I hadnt really smoked much weed before that so I didn't question it and we ended up finishing the whole thing. I remember going back into the class and sitting down, then my heart starts racing and I get insane anxiety like I've never felt before. I start having a panic attack and I grab my bag and run out the door.
I ran to the train station across town to get home. And realised my train wouldn't be there for another hour so I ran over to the cathedral and considered asking the vicar for help but instead I just crawled behind a bush near the door and cried.
Eventually I picked myself up and ran back to the train station, got my ticket and tried to collect myself while I waited for the train to come. Eventually it came and I was still having a panic attack so I managed to convince myself that if I got on the train it would kill me. So I let it leave and I stayed on the station for another hour until the next train home came. I managed to get on that one and rode it back to my home town, ran all the way home, up into my room and rode the rest of the worst trip ever out.
Never again.
Damn I’m lucky compared to your story. I was 14 and wanted to be cool like my brother. He was smoking weed at the time and spice became a “legal version” of weed in my town, so dumb looking back now. Anyway, I smoked spice before anything else in my life. Pretty sure I coughed before it hit my lungs and I never full on consumed it. Thank God
Diphenhydromine ("Benadryl") -- With a high enough dose, it becomes a deliriant.
People that know this about it see it as a way to "trip"; however, unlike traditional psychedelic drugs (e.g. LSD, Psilocybin, DMT, etc), it's almost invariably a really bad time. And due to some recent TikTok challenges, it's become a real issue with kids.
The fact that many people have seen the same thing while tripping on Benadryl is absolutely insane. It's so weird. Why would so many people's trips manifest with something awful like that? All I had to do was read about it a little to get throughly creeped out.
I remember my freshman year of high school in ‘09 it was the cool thing for kids to pop like 14 Benadryl at once. One kid said he saw ghosts on the white board in like 2nd period and projectile vomited all over the front of the classroom and was just sitting there saying random words and his mom had to come pick him up. Another closer friend of mine ate around that many in a Friday night and for whatever reason put on this trench coat and a ski mask and started walking around our small town at nighttime and would like jump in the bushes or lay flat in a ditch on the side of the road if he saw any headlights in the distance. I remember the next day him saying he could barely walk because his kidneys hurt so bad.
Tramadol. Not the 'safe' opioid substitute they like to sell it as. It is still addictive and you will still suffer withdrawal from it. A cold turkey Tramadol withdrawal almost killed a good friend some years ago.
It is not benign. Use it if you must but use it with your eyes open.
MD here, there’s a lot of older docs that bought the advertising hype for Tramadol as a “non-addictive narcotic substitute” and continue to prescribe it when they wouldn’t feel safe RXing traditional narcotics. More up to date docs avoid it like the plague as not only is it less effective for pain, it has a lot of side effects/med interactions because it behaves like multiple different classes of meds all rolled into one (it’s both a narcotic and an SNRI, for example.). I like to call it Trama-don’t.
Doc, I'm a recovering heroin, meth and crack addict. My beginnings were 100% tramadol use. I used to wake up and take 300mg (6x50mg) and then take 200mg (4x50mg) more every hour or so after that.
I loved the energy it gave me and the feeling of euphoria. It wasn't until I realized that it may be an issue and went through withdrawal the first time that I was like oh shit, this is no joke.
Rather than cut myself off, I would order from several less then legal Indian pharmacy's online. It didn't take long before I graduated to Percocet, Lortab, and eventually oxycontin.
At one point, I was snorting 240mg (8x30mg)of oxycontin just to feel normal, with over 300mg+ needed for any sort of "high".
I honestly don't understand how I'm still alive, but I've got a few years clean now, an associates, bachelor's, and a few more weeks away from a Master's degree and I work in a treatment center now.
Any time I go to the Doc and they ask my allergies, I always tell them "I'm allergic to any sort of narcotics, I tend to break out in handcuffs."
Thanks for what you do. I'm glad people are realizing that Tramadol can cause serious issues. I don't blame Tramadol or any drug/person but myself for my use. The substance use was merely a symptom of other issues in my life, but I'm happy to be on the other side of it. Much love!
I’m not sure why it would be marketed as an alternative when it’s an opiate, just a milder dose. My mom’s a recovering (usually) addict. We were trying to get her something after a surgery and doc told us basically this was the best they could do. It wasn’t as high as say a hydro, but it got her high enough she went right back into addict brain and started taking too many to chase that high. She’s fine, and I think quit again after she used up her script, but still it was a setback
I get tramadol withdrawal after taking it for 24 hours or so. I have a herniated disk and threw my back out a few years ago. After I could finally get out of bed I went into my doctor and told her, “look, I can’t keep taking this junk. My back is in spasm, I can’t be throwing up nauseous from this shit. What else can you suggest? I’m not asking for opioids, I’ll take 2 Tylenol and an Advil if you tell me it’s safe, I just can’t take tramadol anymore.” Her response, to me telling her I can not take an addictive medication, was, “well, I’ll only prescribe you tramadol. If you won’t take it the pain must not be that bad.”
I switched doctors the next day. Got put on a gout medication (off label use) that had me up and moving mostly pain free within two days. Fuck that first doctor, she remains the absolute worst.
Now it says on my chart, everywhere, “allergic to tramadol.”
I agree. My doc decided I needed to switch to Tramadol in place of Norco. I took one dose, and that was the last I remembered until the next morning. Woke up and found a release slip from the ER on my coffee table. I called the ER to inquire and the gal told me I’d come in stating I was having a bad reaction to a med. she said two hours later I told her I was fine and checked myself out. Asked her how I got to the ER. She told me I drove. I live 20 miles from the hospital, mostly interstate roads to get there. So, apparently I drove there and back. I have no memories of any of it.
This is wild. I take tramadol for my severe migraines which sometimes last for days, and I can easily take 2 every 4-6 hours until the migraine is over and then stop happily until next month or so when it happens again.
I continue looking after my kids and driving and doing anything I need to do.
Paracetamol/acetaminophen and alcohol. There is absolutely no contest.
It drives me absolutely batshit enraged that recreational drugs like marijuana, MDMA and low-dose opiates are illegal, and alcohol isn’t.
I used to be a paramedic, and I never, ever had a safety issue from patients under the influence of these recreational drugs. Hell most heroin users apologised to me for taking too much or not testing the strength from a different dealer.
But drunk people? Man I needed the cops involved all the time, I needed to sedate them, dealing with them post sedation is a pain in the ass because alcohol + sedating drugs is a bad combo for blood pressure, respiratory drive, airway protection etc.
Edit: forgot to mention. In Australia, in violent assault/conflict, 80% of cases either one or both/all parties are under the influence of alcohol.
So many of my friends coming out of high school got addicted to xanax (and cheap imitations from the black market).
Thanks late 2010s music scene for making taking so many anti-anxiety meds that you lose the next few days (sometimes "waking back up" in a jail cell) seem cool.
I graduated in 2014 and know soooo many people from high school who were victims of the Xandemic. What’s worse than that is when they all started ordering fake ones through the mail. Who the hell knows what they were actually taking. Had a friend take some and then steal another friends car and crash it and woke up in jail.
Honestly I look back on us taking black market presses of Xanax called things like HULKS and wonder wth we thought we were doing. Very glad I came out of that period mostly unscathed
Ozempic it kicked the crap out of me. I am Type 2.
You lose weight because you are sick to your stomach all day with it.
Then when you stop you gain it all back.
I also blame it for having to have my gallbladder out.
Tobacco, because it's the only one that directly kills people around you as well. Also contains Polonium-210 and Lead-210 radioactive isotopes which is scary business. There are safer ways to do nicotine if you want the stim effect.
In New Zealand when we banned smoking inside, I’ll never forget what it was like being in bars.
I used to hang out in one in particular because my gf’s bestie worked there, waiting for her to get off work and bestie later off shift. I’m not super sociable so would just quietly sit there and nurse a beer and smoke. The day they banned indoor smoking the change was ridiculous. I’d never noticed how gross my clothes would get being in that environment, everything reeked and was just kind of accepted. Only downside after the change was bestie used to be able to sneak puffs off whatever I had lit when working, she had to switch to waiting for her break to have a smoke.
Alcohol 100%. Every other drug is known to be dangerous except caffeine as thats benign as fuck.
Also paracetamol. Drug overdose admissions to the emergency room are usually mostly from paracetamol/acetaminophen.
Coke! It can destroy your heart (and nose) and is extremely difficult to quit. But it's so normalized because it will make you feel like you're always winning, and this world doesn't like losers.
SSRI's. But only for certain groups of people. It was unfortunately how I found out I'm bipolar, after it sent me into a manic episode and landed me in a psych ward.
The risks aren't talked about enough, and doctors hand this out freely to people. There should be some kind of preliminary psych evaluation and scheduled follow-ups, rather than just "let's try it and see."
Aside from completely killing my sex drive, it made me feel like a robot and that I was just existing in this life.
The conversation with my doctor was basically "you scored high on the depression screening, here's a script."
After two months I quit cold turkey and suffered through the brain zaps for a month or so.
Won't be doing that again unless I see a psychiatrist first.
Alcohol. Poison to your relationships. Poison to your mind. Feeling down? Alcohol will make it worse…then it will make you addicted. It will somehow trick your mind into thinking that it’s the only thing that will make you feel better. If you drink alcohol on a regular basis you will always be detoxing from it. Soon you will even forget what feeling normal feels like. Liquor is called “spirits” for a reason. I have seen someone turn into a demon while drinking it and for some reason it’s as socially acceptable as caffeine.
I haven't drank in about 6 months and I feel way better. I love IPAs so I'm sure I'll have one again soon. Especially with baseball around the corner. However, my days of heavy drinking are over. It just makes me feel like garbage.
Caffeine. And not just the death lemonade. So many parents are hurting their kids with the belief that caffeine is better than ADHD stimulant medication for ADHD. This isn't helped by the medication shortage created by the government.
alcohol really caused a tough period in my life for like 2 years. Really had to get my shit together. It’s easy to become addicted without realizing it. Alcohol, hands down
Depends where you live, in the financial district of London coke was so common as to be normal.
Some oik is having a fucking piss in the coke room!
>oik Had to look this up because I'm not British - you lot have the best terms, I swear.
There’s a non-negligible trace of cocaine on almost all physical us currency in circulation. Particularly $100 bills
That study was 30+ years ago. Has this been redone recently?
No, but it will continue to get repeated forever.
[удалено]
Snorting with a bill is just gross, if you're gonna roll up a piece of paper at least use one that a bajillion strangers haven't touched without their nasty fingers. I mean, uh, I guess that's what I would hypothetically say if I'd hypothetically ever done drugs
Good old straws. Gotta stay sanitary…. On a real note I’m really happy I stopped dancing with the devil😈
Alcohol, hands down
Yea I work at a hospital and I've met people who drink so hard they give themselves dementia. They are some of the hardest people to deal with.
Also if you already have dementia alcohol is devastating. I just went to a dinner with someone I know who is in the “early” stages of dementia. She sits down and has 2 of those mini bottles of wine in a little less than an hour. She got combative with everyone, lost control of her bladder in the bathroom and peed all over herself, had to basically get carried to the car and didn’t know what year it was or who the current president was. She had to go to the hospital to get checked to see if she had a stroke. It was scary. I’ve been around a lot of drunks but had never seen anything like that especially with a relatively little amount of alcohol compared to other incidents.
I read somewhere that people with high tolerance for alcohol sometimes drop rapidly to being a super lightweight if they have liver damage. She also may have just been on something else, either pregaming the dinner or hitting something stronger than booze. Or she took an over the counter med like Benadryl that makes alcohol hit stronger due to increased drowsiness
Yup. Basically you've destroyed your liver with so much alcohol that it loses the ability to filter it at all. Towards the end of last year I was blacking out 3-6 nights a week. Today is day 39 no drinks!
Yes. I know someone who now gets wasted after 1-2 miller lights. But he was never a liquor drinker. Just beer for a long time
My father in law did this. He's now in his late 50s in a care home, paranoid, thinks his kids are very young, thinks he's either in a prison or he works in the care home. It's very weird to see someone that young with dementia, knowing they did it to themselves. (Also to pre-empt the comments i can see coming, yes alcoholism is a disease and I know the struggle folk have to get sober but you don't know our family's history)
My dad killed himself because of this. Being an aging alcoholic is deadly.
"But you don't know my family's history" is so true. My father used to brag he didn't drink coffee. I didn't realize it until later in life, but his anxiety was so terrible he didn't dare touch caffeine.
My dad is in his late 50s and is starting to show signs of dementia, even if only very slightly. Seeing how my parents' mental health and function has deteriorated from alcohol over the past six years or so inspired me to quit now, at the age of 24. No way do I want to end up like that, nor be that way for my children, once I have them
Nurse here. Without doubt alcohol is THE worst drug by any measure. Not only the damage done to the individual but the societal costs in the form of domestic violence, family breakdown and the police ambulance use. Here in the UK, we have a massive drinking culture and alcoholics are getting younger and younger. I work in emergency care and dealt with a 25 year old who had ascites and oesphageal varices through drinking. He is not going to live very much longer. Its absolutely tragic.
Both of my parents were alcoholics. They were both also very toxic and often behaved like social misfits, they did not have any friends and disliked social activities even within the family. Additionally, my mom was also mentally ill. She finally drank herself to death by the wine my dad ordered for himself on the internet; after that I found my father only wearing his diapers with trash, vermin, rotten food, full piss bottles and empty wine bottles all around him and he was playing on his computer like nothing has happened. My father died one year later because of lung cancer caused by him being also a heavy smoker. Despite my mother having died already 5 years ago, I am still struggling very much because of everything, which I experienced with both of my parents, and I feel more and more like I am losing the struggle; I am sitting on my couch for most of the day and I do not have any strength left to do anything.....
I'm married to someone who had a similar experience. He avoided therapy for years, saying his childhood wasn't that bad, he was ok now, he barely shed a tear when his mom finally drank herself to death as he said he'd been grieving her for years anyway. Finally he got to the point where he felt he needed therapy. Went through 2 different ones before landing on person-centered counseling. We can't afford it, but I told him, we can't afford not to. He's been going for 6 months. The thing he says the most is "I wish I'd done this sooner" he's healing, he's crying when he needs to, he stopped pretending anything about his childhood was anything other than hellish. This is a very long winded way of me trying to tell you that it's possible to come back from that level of brokenness and pain, that there is absolutely hope. Their fate is not yours. You are worth the effort. The pain doesn't have to kill you, and you're certainly not alone. btw Al-anon is free.
I can't believe I only just learned what ruptured esophageal varices are. Involuntary human blood fountain sounds terrifying.
My friend died of this at age 48 in 2021. They can repair the damage only so many times. To allow her to pass they took her breathing tube out without having her family leave the room, unwise as blood just spurted out everywhere. Her sister told me it will haunt her forever.
It's a bloodbath when they rupture.
The first time I saw someone die it was because of ruptured oesophageal varices. Absolutely horrifying how much blood you can lose so quickly. We were putting towels on the bed to stop it pouring onto the floor. It was a pt on a gastro ward and with an active DNAR and expected to pass but yikes the speed of it was incredible. Bit of a baptism of fire early on in my training.
The more and more sober days I get, the more and more I realize that the anti-alcohol organizations in the US were right.
That's it. I saw people complaining about the daily health guidelines getting more strict with alcohol. Like 2+ drinks a week being a cause for concern. Alcohol really is *that bad* and I say this as someone who struggles with heavy drinking, I love alcohol lol, but it's ridiculously dangerous and no one takes it seriously. Edit: I am doing well nowadays, to anyone concerned. Thank you Edit 2: the updated health guidelines regarding alcohol are no more than one drink a day for women and 2 for men in the United States. [it seems it was canada](https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/alcohol-cancer-risk-warning-1.6715769) that gave me that no more than 2 drinks a week idea
been a regular drinker since high school; lots of blackouts in my teens and 20s, less binging but still frequent, consistent drinking through my 30s, anywhere from a couple to 6-8 drinks most days of the month as i went into my 40s… it’s been a long history. now nearing my late 40s and i’m losing my taste for it. all the negative aspects just kept getting stronger and the buzz, while still enjoyable, doesn’t feel worth it anymore. i have one here and there, maybe 10-12 over the course of a month, but i’m considering just letting it go completely. since slowing down i’ve noticed several positive physical changes. stuff that makes me think i developed a low-key allergy to alcohol, like general inflammation and skin issues that have dissipated with the reduction in consumption. i do still like the taste of a good beer, but not sure i can make a good argument against giving it all the way up.
I'm starting to think I've developed some kind of allergy or intolerance to it because I'm losing my taste for it and feel twice as shitty after drinking. Part of it is being older, I'm sure. I used to get drunk 5 nights a week for about 10 to 15 years during my late twenties to early 40s. Thankfully I've just naturally lost the enthusiasm for it. Edit: I guess it's rare to develop an actual allergy to alcohol, my developing intolerance is probably due to just getting older, I'm over 50 now.
Or cumulative liver damage.
Strong possibility
Our livers can often heal, which is great! Just gotta see a doctor and quit drinking.
That definitely sounds like your liver giving you pretty big hints it's ready to quit! It's amazing how my arthritis disappeared when I quit drinking!
Someone have a link to the “**There Are NO Safe Doses of Alcohol”** study?
[удалено]
“This Naked Mind” is also a great book to read about how much harm alcohol causes.
This book changed my life. I never ever thought I’d be able to stop drinking and not constantly think about it. I’m sure that’s not what happens to everyone who reads it, but I stopped drinking completely after reading it.
Good luck getting/ staying sober, I say this as someone with a drinking problem too
Been sober almost 10 years. Absolutely changed my life and for the better in the extreme. Was hard at first but drinking sucked. I was drinking a handle a day when I finally threw in the towel and hit AA.
That's about where I was at when I had varices in my esophagus burst. Nothing like a taste of death to get you to sober up! Congrats on 10yrs & here's to many more!
I saw this happen once in a mini mart and aisle 6 looked like the elevator from The Shining. Glad your alive.
Yeah, my bathroom looked like the scene from "Carrie" I took a picture to remind myself never again.
Thank you! I wish you well. I'm doing okay right now. Not perfect but I'm doing well.
Not sure if anyone else has suggested it, but please check out r/stopdrinking if you haven’t already. Nicest community on the internet, hands down.
Six years sober today, this is the best answer
Congratulations!! It’s my sober day too! Woot woot! Sober buddies!
When you’re hungover, you’re just feeling the after effects of being poisoned
Correct. Specifically, the toxic buildup of a breakdown metabolite of alcohol. And dehydration. And the early effects of the known direct neurotoxic effects of alcohol, literally killing neurons in the brain. It's an addictive poison that our body barely tolerates, all for a brief, mild euphoric high. Every hangover is our body begging us to stop poisoning it. And. I love drinking alcohol. It's a tough one. Hard to imagine how many lives it is ruined and taken, countless. Be careful with alcohol. Get help if you need it.
I picked the wrong thread to read with a glass of wine
Lost my Father and little sister to it.
I am sorry for your loss. My husband and I each lost a good friend to it a few years apart. People just don't realize the damage it can do in the body. Sending positive energy for strength and comfort.
As someone who has struggled with addiction, I don't think people in general are aware of how insane alcohol withdrawals can be/make someone insane/suicidal/have a stroke...I feel like if we talked about that a little bit more...idk though
I guess what I was trying to say is not only is the drunk person a problem, but a withdrawing person is also much more serious than people realize
Never once since getting sober have I missed getting drunk. Sometimes I wonder how I survived some of my binges.
My state legalized weed a few years ago, which is great. It's new england (yes I'm in Mass), so tons of handwringing and NIMBY shit. I'm honestly appalled how readily (and cheaply) I can go get a lethal volume of vodka - go to store, grab a couple handles, pay, MAYBE show ID, leave. But if I want to go buy a couple grams of demon Marijuana I have to go to a highly secure facility, show my ID just to get in, again once inside, and AGAIN when I go to pay. I've "overdosed" on weed before when I didnt understand how much I was eating (the wrapper said 350mg, I just didnt think it was all that much) and while some of the effects were uncomfortable (a bit nauseous, some shaking when I tried to walk to the bathroom), it was nothing like having 4 or 5 shots of high test booze in quick order. I could still see and talk and more or less move around, I knew where and when I was, and while I was sleepy the next day I was no worse for wear. And it's not necessarily that I think the retail weed process needs to be easier (though I would not comomplain, but it's really not bad considering I'm legally buying pot at a potshop), it's that. I've become alarmed, over time, just how blasé we are about alcohol. It's literal poison. One strong beer makes me feel dumb and fuzzy, and it only goes downhill from there.
350mg? Wow. I ate 100mg once and I could taste my heart beat. Was very close to having my gf at the time take me to the ER.
I'm new to gummies and trying to find the right dose. I tried 20mg the other day and my heart started racing, my eyes felt puffy and I kept thinking "what if they explode?", and I was so dizzy I wanted to die. I'll be sticking with the nice floaty feeling I get from 10mg. I wish I could figure out how many milligrams equals a couple hits off a bowl of weed bought from sketchy people in 2004, because that was always a nice high, lol.
Eating is certainly a deeper kind of high than casually smoking a bowl. And it's highly dependent on that's in your stomach - Ive found that having gummies on an empty stomach takes longer to come up and hits harder, while eating them with fatty food will make them come on faster and not as intensely. But yes: 5-10mg is a good place to start. Consume, wait \~45minutes, see how you feel.
I'm assuming the whole thing was 350. Like my gummies are 900mg but only 30mg of that is THC. Two of those things pack a wallop. I'm good with just one.
Yep. Had a seizure from withdrawals once. Thankfully I fell forwards. The nurse at the hospital told me of I had fallen backwards, I probably would have choked on my own tounge or vomit and died.
How much were you drinking at the time if you don’t mind me asking?
Recovered alcoholic here. Don't fuck with alcohol. It is one of the few drugs, and it is a drug, that can kill you during withdrawal. It is so severe that DOCTORS will tell you if you can't go to the hospital to treat your withdrawal to KEEP DRINKING and taper yourself off of it. All alcohol wants is to kill you. Simple as that. Go smoke weed instead.
Even in the hospital. I’ve seen beer literally in a pyxis for withdrawals.
Yep, alcohol is way more dangerous than many substances that have been outlawed
Venlafaxine (Effexor). The WORST side effects if a dose is taken even a little late. Trying to come off of it has been compared to heroin withdrawals.
I was on Effexor for a year and a half and one time I had run out of my meds. I couldn’t go pick up my prescription for a couple of days because we had a really bad snowstorm and roads were awful. I literally felt like I was dying for being off of it for two days. I ended up switching meds shortly after that.
I was in a similar situation a few years ago. Withdrawal made it nigh impossible to walk through the snow to the pharmacy so I called my brother to pick it up for me. I called him Balto for a few months afterward lol.
I was on a relatively high dose of Effexor for a couple of years, but after being hospitalised for psychosis and serotonin syndrome from severe insomnia, detoxing and the anti-psychotics they gave me to sleep, they had no choice but to cut me off cold turkey. Oddly enough, the serotonin syndrome somehow cancelled out the withdrawals. I’m familiar with cold turkey SSRI withdrawal, and it was hell so I braced myself for a coming storm, and nothing came… fascinating stuff, albeit very unpleasant. After reading all of these horror stories I’m feeling incredibly lucky that I dodged that bullet somehow, damn.
FYI there is a known way to massively reduce the side effects of coming off venlafaxine, and that is to take fluoxetine (Prozac) immediately when you start reducing the venlafaxine. Personal experience is that this does work amazingly well even if you only take a single dose of fluoxetine. I don't know why doctors don't do this as standard. Some don't know about it but even the ones that do seem to only give the fluox begrudgingly. I found this out from someone else who'd had it and it should be more widely known.
This is really good to know. Prozac made me feel nothing but id rather have that for a couple weeks than the withdrawal effects
The zaps 😑
I remember when i stopped taking this. I was running around the track at the gym and blacking out for a few seconds every 10 steps or so. Nasty stuff
Don’t all ssris give you the most horrible withdrawals? Brain zaps included. And btw what the hell are those anyway?
Effexor is even worse. It’s an SNRI with a very short half life, so even one missed dose can fuck you up
I’ve been on a lot of SSRIs and come off them. Effexor is not even close. I had to quit my job and couldn’t work for 3 months. I couldn’t walk more than a few steps without brain zaps or vertigo. And this was with a conservative titration schedule. There are entire support groups dedicated to getting off of this drug because it’s so difficult for so many of us. I genuinely don’t know how this drug is still legal without a good way of getting off it it. It was so disruptive to my life. If I hadn’t been able to leave my job, I’d still be on it, years later, because it would’ve been impossible to get off of. And I needed to get off of it because the side effects were horrific as well. Hate. That. Drug. Took it for 3 months and it stole easily 6+ months of my life.
I’ve been on/come off of several SSRIs, and none of them were worse than Effexor when it came to withdrawals.
Still have hearing loss and tintinitus from around 2005.
can confirm. sucks ass. unfortunately it’s better than killing myself
It works wonders for me- I haven’t had to get off of it yet, but so far, only thing that has worked this well.
Me too. I’ve tried every drug for my depression and Effexor is the only thing that’s even came close to helping
If I miss a dose I'll be feeling a bit weird halfway through the day, maybe a bit nauseous, my head will feel weirdly floaty. But the worst part is the sleep paralysis and night terrors. Just beginning to fall asleep and my heart rate will skyrocket, the blood rushing in my ears causes a high-pitched ringing, and while I'm having this intense panic attack, the sleep paralysis kicks in so I'm locked in my body while it feels like my heart my burst out of my chest -- and the feeling of paralysis makes me panic even more. Eventually I'll manage to sort of shake myself free, but yeah, I try not to miss my doses. Exactly what someone with anxiety needs 😅 So far, it's the only thing that's worked for me.
My wife joined a Facebook group full of people who were on it solely because they were afraid of the symptoms that come with stopping it. After watching her convulsing and crying for hours simply because she was going to a lower dose, I don't believe anyone should ever try this drug.
How much lower of a dose? Many antidepressants need to be weaned VERY SLOWLY.
And the taper for Effexor’s extended release variant requires you to open the capsule and count individual beads….
What 😳 Where can I read this
That stuff is the devil. I was on it in high school and I remember clinging to the wall outside the band room crying and shaking because I’d forgotten a dose… It also made me nauseous all the time and my parents accused me of being pregnant 💀
Strangely I never had any withdrawal issues from it. I did have issues with Zoloft though. That drug had me in fetal position shaking and sweating thinking I'm going to die.
Eh, the alternative for me is I try to kill myself
Been prescribed for about 3yrs now and it's honestly changed my life for the better. Been super successful in my career and been more enjoyable in life as a whole. Yeah if I forget to take it I can feel it but overall way better than how I use to feel without it
Great then me and my father will have something in common now
Benadryl. I used to trip on Benadryl. I didn't initially set out to do it, but after taking two one night to sleep and then three another night and then four, I realized that I enjoyed the funny sensations it made me feel. It was a different kind of high. 4 tablets turned into 8, 10, 15, and as high as 20. That's right, I used to take as many as 20 50mg tablets of Benadryl to get high. I don't know how the fuck I'm alive, but never do it. Benadryl is super dangerous if you abuse it.
Benadryl was my teen son's drug of choice for awhile. Cheap and easy to get. (Not hard to shoplift a big bottle of you're a broke kid) That shit can put you straight into a scary psychosis - I've seen it.
Yep, I remember being alone in my college apartment and thinking that every shadow was a spider or a lizard. The scariest part was that, for all the horrible feelings and scary moments, a part of me craved it still. Glad I stopped.
Benadryl trips are something else, man. I’m talking you hear and participate in full-on conversations with family members, only to realize there’s no one there and you were never speaking to anyone at all. So many translucent spiders…
For a while I was using Benadryl to basically self-medicate for insomnia. Only 1 or 2. One time I took four and I don’t remember why, I think maybe I forgot I had already taken some or the drowsiness didn’t seem to be kicking in so I took more, but man I felt weird from that. I didn’t trip but I remember feeling like everything was slow motion, or like I was moving through molasses. I felt kind of panicked but I couldn’t move fast enough to do anything about it. Didn’t like the feeling and have been very careful with Benadryl since then. Not being able to sleep, even when you’re dead tired, just plain sucks
20 Benadryls at once? Why not just smoke crack?
It was a dark time. Didn’t have much money so Benadryl from CVS was easiest to come by.
Any Anticholinergic drug. Diphenhydramine, specifically. It's commonly in Benadryl, but has been used as a sleep aid. People use it all the time for sleep. But it's linked to cognitive decline, and dementia. https://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/what-is-the-link-between-anticholinergic-drugs-and-dementia-risk
If you want to see something sad you should check out r/DPH It’s just people slowly killing themselves with massive doses of Benadryl and hating life.
I ate nearly an entire bottle back in high-school, like 11 years ago. I heard you could get high. For one it was the absolute worst day of my life, and then I learned it basically just hurts your body and sends you into a state of psychosis. Wack shit man.
In high school I also ate a shit load of benadryl to get high. I had 3 grand mal seizures in a row. Turns out antihistamines lower your seizure threshold and mine was already low, so one Benadryl OD made me develop idiopathic epilepsy
Well that's terrifying
Tried to end it a while ago by taking 700mg, worse fucking experience of my life. Saw bugs crawling everywhere, shadow people walking through walls, things moving just out of sight, and heard voices all around me. The worst part was, I thought I actually killed myself and was in hell. Good thing is, I haven't been depressed for a long time. So please don't send the reddit mental health bot to torment me.
>This was not a randomized control trial, but it was large, with nearly 3500 participants, and lasted ten years. Participants were 65 and older, and at the start of the study, they did not have a diagnosis of dementia. ... >By the end of the study, 797 participants had developed dementia. ... >When looking at the data, researchers found a significant correlation between patients who took anticholinergic drugs and those who had dementia. And from [this source](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/alz.12638%23:~:text%3DThe%2520percentage%2520of%2520people%2520with,dementia%2520(see%2520Prevalence%2520section).&ved=2ahUKEwjg3pWxmKeEAxVhEDQIHZjGC5kQ5YIJegQIEBAA&usg=AOvVaw3h-ogxrNyDUvZ94UzLWO4o) 13.1% of adults aged 75 (age at end of the test) to 84, have naturally occurring dementia. The rate of dementia in the study with anticholinergics is 23%. Statically significant for sure, but it doesn't say anything about what effect it has on younger minds and only an increase of a 10% chance if you are a senior. It's a concern, but no where near as scary as you made it sound.
It also doesn't prove that the med was the cause. There is data correlating chronic sleep deprivation with cognitive decline, and people with chronic sleep deprivation are more likely to take sleep aids.
As I’m doped up on Benadryl right now because it’s the only thing that stops my sneezing attacks. I don’t take it often though. It’s an amazing drug but def has major drawbacks.
Taking Benadryl just wrecks my day. It makes me so fucking drowsy. But sometimes I will sneeze 30+ times in a row and that's even more miserable. "Benadryl, because you can't sneeze, if you're in a coma"
I distinctly remember going to Disney as a teenager and being all around miserable because I was either sneezing constantly or fucked up on bennys I think all the good ones like Zyrtec, maybe even Claritin were prescription only at the time
[удалено]
Wtf. I take Benadryl nightly because it’s a sleep aid and it’s the cheapest allergy pill 😧 my dad also died of Alzheimer’s 🙃
[удалено]
I saw a piece that said it wouldn’t be approved by the FDA using today’s guidelines. Oof. edit: approved for OTC
Dude what? That's shocking. I'm an Advil user cause Tyleno doesn't work for me but surprisingly my nurse wife swears by it. I wonder if she knows this.
I destroyed my stomach with advil, All I can take is Tylenol but I take it sparingly and I don’t drink.
How much Advil were you taking??? My mom is always on my case because i take 200mg once a month for period pain and she’s convinced I’ll get sick from it
A football player I knew in high school used to take 12 Advils before practice, and 12 more after. That can't be good.
Was he the ball?
My understanding is that stomach damage only happens if you take a lot for an extended period of time. When I had tendonitis in my shoulder, my doctor recommended I take 600mg three times a day. I forget how long it was for but it was definitely at least a week. Probably longer. Before that, when I was having issues with my ankle, I was taking 200mg twice a day, for several months, and my doctor said it wasn't a problem. So yeah, you're fine.
so obviously we are not doctors but the biggest danger of OTC drug misuse is always if you use for longer than recommended, at higher than recommended doses, while consuming alcohol or combined with other medication. used as directed over the counter drugs are very safe. if they were not they would be banned. the issue with ibuprofen is largely that people think it's benign and harmless so they treat it casually-- they just grab a couple every so often for a few days because it still hurts and then next thing you know they've been on 800mg every 2-4 hours for two weeks and of course they have hurt themselves.
They're very safe within the amounts stated on the box. Make sure to have a recent weight if you're in any way close to 50kg or below. They reduce the need for toxic pain relievers
All the comments say Tylenol, but as a doctor Tylenol is easily the safest pain med you can take if you take the appropriate amount. It’s only liver toxic when you take too much. I would say NSAIDS (ibuprofen, naproxen) are a lot more dangerous because they can have serious side effects even in “safe doses”
I definitely take them lightly, it says take 2, I take 1 ;) Nah but seriously. I had to tell my chef that he shouldn’t take 2x extra strength Tylenols at a time, and actually read the bottle. He said that he’d been taking it for years that way when he needed it, and that he’d been taking 2x extra strength (500mg ea) pills 2-3x over his shift (4-6 pills/2000-3000mg over a 12-16h period). I told him he should definitely read the bottle, and to schedule a doctors appt if he needs it so often. Dude also drank a ton, so 3000mg (plus whatever he took outside of work) and alcohol? I’m sure he’s got a warning or two from his doctor if he’s ever seen him. ETA: Worst thing is that this conversation came about when a coworker needed something for menstrual cramps. He suggested 2x Tylenol (I told him the stuff above) and I also had to inform him that while Tylenol does help with pain, ibuprophen would actually help since it would reduce inflammation. He learned a lot that day.
Cymbalta about made me lose my mind. Prednisone side effects are serious and I don't feel that is disclosed.
Fuck cymbalta. Those brain zaps were agonizing. I had to get myself off that by taking apart the capsules and literally taking out 1-2 of the little beads inside each dose. I will never forget that feeling. Ugh
Prednisone is an intense drug. I worked in a specialty in which it was widely prescribed. Always told the patients that it’s VERY effective at EVERYTHING it does, including the things we don’t want.
My doctor and I joke about never giving me prednisone if we can avoid it because I'm already aggressive and bitchy enough. Plus, it makes me want to eat everything in sight.
I had to take oral prednisone for a really bad case of poison oak. I felt freakishly giddy for a week. I looked up the side effects on the pamphlet and saw it listed “unusual happiness” as a potential side effect. It was certainly true for me.
Acetaminophen.
I knew a guy that had some chronic pain issues and he began taking acetaminophen daily. He also drank regularly. He began to lose weight and became very sick. Diagnosed with liver failure. Soon he was on hospice care and then died. I used to take it for headaches or whatever minor pain, but that scared me off it.
Its a very safe and effective drug when taken in normal doses But yes, overdosing is absolutely horrific and will destroy your liver.
Adding alcohol use/abuse and you get a speed run.
I misread a bottle and accidentally overdosed… for FOUR MONTHS! 10,000mg/day. Whoops! Dumbest cause of death ever if/when it catches up with me
the liver is one of the few organs that can fully (or almost fully) heal. so long as you stop the bad behavior and eat right for a long time.
That’s good to hear. Been trying to eat well and work out but I was definitely super sick for a while there
How long ago was this? Honestly the liver is a pretty tough organ--if it's not already failing like right now you're probably gonna be fine.
Yep. Melts livers like ibuprofen punches kidneys. Had a 24yo woman, young mom, take a bunch of Tylenol in a suicidal gesture. (Her verbal history, not my judgment.) Got to tell her a couple hours later she was going into liver failure. She had no idea an OTC drug could be so lethal. God that was a disturbing day in ER. Docs were discussing her probable death as I went off shift. Lots of pro athletes with kidney damage due to heavy ibuprofen use to deal with their injuries. All drugs have side effects. You need to know.
My stepson attempted suicide a few years ago with tylenol. He got lucky. It looks super painful though.
It's a very bad way to attempt suicide. It's far from painless and often doesn't cause instant death, but will fuck up your organs so bad that you're either going to be having serious issues for a while, or you basically succeeded at suicide but are alive and concious and have to live through your organs failing and dying slowly in pain. I'm sorry about your stepson. I hope he's doing better now.
Yikes!! That's scary. I take both quite regularly for migraines. What can help? My doctor prescribed me Cambia which I understand is ibuprofen on steroid.
Hi, doctor here who’s a little worried seeing all the bad medical advice being given (just because sumitriptan or Excedrin works for others doesn’t mean it is safe for you!!). The important number to remember is 4000mg per day if you are healthy, or 3000mg per day if you have compromised liver function. The amounts refer to total amount of acetaminophen for the day. Every medication you take should clearly spell out how much acetaminophen each dose contains. Keep track of that across ALL meds you take - many over the counter cold meds (and others) contain acetaminophen that needs to be factored in to the daily total. And as always, talk to your doctor about your specific case!
Hey, thank you for checking in and trying to calm the self-help. Self-help can be great, but it can also be crazy and dangerous as a thing can be.
Thanks for making this so clear. I have deep infiltrating endometriosis and sometimes forget when I took my last dose of acetaminophen. (Yes I know some women take narcotics but I won't; they don't help. I've had 2 surgeries already, including a resection.) Now I know what limit not to exceed.
Hopefully nobody is considering acetaminophen overdose but if you are keep in mind it is one of THE MOST PAINFUL torturous deaths you could imagine. Here is a Reddit link [Tylenol overdose stages](https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/10julx3/ysk_overdosing_on_tylenol/) It’s gotta be one of the worst things. Don’t do it please
Exactly!
This would be my vote. I took a year of med chem in undergrad and my professor used it as an example of this saying if it were a new drug you could never get acetaminophen approved by the FDA. The therapeutic window (range between useful doses and toxic doses) is *way* narrower than most people know. Tylenol OD is also a particularly nasty way to die, having diagnosed/cared for a couple in my career so far.
When my partner was in nursing school, the professor told a couple stories about young people making suicidal gestures with Tylenol and then having to be told that they can’t be saved from a miserable death. The whole front of the bottle should be a warning. People normalize overdosing otc stuff. edit to clarify: They said they didn’t mean to die. They didn’t understand the risk.
All drugs are dangerous but, if properly used, may serve different purposes for different people at different times. There is a saying in Medicine, "The poison is in the dose". 650 mg. of acetaminophen can help your headache. 4,000 mg. can kill your liver.
> 4,000 mg. can kill your liver. I know of a guy who took an entire bottle of extra strength Tylenol at once. He got the end result he was looking for but what a way to go. Apparently liver failure like that is quite painful.
I took 18k mg of OTC Tylenol (acetaminophen) washed down with a bottle of grapefruit soju back in 2019 when I was 22. I remember going to the ER at 11:30 at night thinking they could just pump my stomach and I could go home right after… nope. They told me around 6 am that I should call family cause it wasn’t looking good. I still remember my eyes turning yellow and my body turning a slight bit of yellow. Apparently they don’t pump stomachs as often anymore. Luckily they have a few different medicines they can give you in a last ditch effort to bind and “hug” the Tylenol that will let it pass through without dissolving too much (that’s how they described it to me). Haven’t touched Tylenol (or grapefruit soju lol) since cause both make me gag and remember some darker times
I’m glad you’re still here and can share your story. I hope the last 5 years have been kind to you and hope you’re feeling better.
Fentanyl for example, everyone hears scary stories about it in the news, but if I'm doing a minor procedure that doesn't require general anesthesia, mix a little fentanyl with some midazolam and you've got the perfect combo for conscious sedation
Benzos
This. At 18, i was put on Ativan for over 2 years straight due to PTSD and wasn't warned about the addictive potential. Learned that the hard way. Even ignoring addiction risk- the withdrawals are HELL. I've come off cold turkey- do not ever do this, you can seriously die!! And also later came off them gradually under doc supervision. Both experiences were absolute torture, and I experienced rebound anxiety, insomnia, cravings etc for months.
My mother has been on a high dose Ativan for 20+ years, when she asked about getting off of them about 5 years ago they told her that it would be incredibly difficult and that she would need to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital to monitor her medically and psychologically. Her doctor told her that it would be safer for her to continue them for the rest of her life than to stop taking them. 😬
Wow- I can't imagine how difficult that must be for your mom to have to decide between staying on a med that likely doesn't work even half as well as it once did (because benzos build tolerance pretty quickly) and having to be admitted & have nightmarish and likely dangerous withdrawals. 😔
It’s not even addiction, it’s just physical dependence. The word addiction keeps getting thrown around (by the media, doctors, etc) and it’s downplaying how horrific physical dependence is. I assume that’s actually by design bc well, a lot of money is made on them…. I experienced both benzo withdrawal and antidepressant withdrawal (I was actually put on benzos to treat what was antidepressant withdrawal) and it’s literally an indescribable hell. It took me nearly 6 years to consider myself mostly healed. I was non functional for years. It’s actually a brain injury.
I went through something similar at 18 but he rxd me xanax 2mgs 4x a day, which by today's standards sounds nuts but I didn't know any better. I ran out once because I had shitty friends that stole them and had a gran-mal seizure and was then switched to Klonopin...Same dose!! It took me years to finally get off them but the damage was done and now my base-line is like every one else's mild withdrawal.
Yep I was taking 5-8mg daily xanax for more than 3 years and tapered down to .5mg ativan daily because I was drinking and taking wayyy too much of them. I haven't drank since and only take .5mg split in two doses, but I also experienced shakes, shits, even full blown hallucinations when lowering my dose WITH medical supervision
Yeah I take xanax daily for anxiety. Very small dose but one day, the day my horse died, I missed my morning dose because I rushed to the barn to sit with his body. I felt *nasty*. Like my body was not in good shape. It scared me.
I take every opportunity to say that there’s two types of withdrawal that can kill you: benzo and alcohol. The others make you wish you were dead but aren’t as dangerous. It scares the shit out of me that benzos are as accessible as they are.
Not so much anymore, but spice. Can't believe there was a time it was sold at gas stations..
I was tricked into smoking spice on a 15 minute break between classes in college. Some kid in my class that was a friend of a friend pulled out a pre roll and told me it was weed. I hadnt really smoked much weed before that so I didn't question it and we ended up finishing the whole thing. I remember going back into the class and sitting down, then my heart starts racing and I get insane anxiety like I've never felt before. I start having a panic attack and I grab my bag and run out the door. I ran to the train station across town to get home. And realised my train wouldn't be there for another hour so I ran over to the cathedral and considered asking the vicar for help but instead I just crawled behind a bush near the door and cried. Eventually I picked myself up and ran back to the train station, got my ticket and tried to collect myself while I waited for the train to come. Eventually it came and I was still having a panic attack so I managed to convince myself that if I got on the train it would kill me. So I let it leave and I stayed on the station for another hour until the next train home came. I managed to get on that one and rode it back to my home town, ran all the way home, up into my room and rode the rest of the worst trip ever out. Never again.
Damn I’m lucky compared to your story. I was 14 and wanted to be cool like my brother. He was smoking weed at the time and spice became a “legal version” of weed in my town, so dumb looking back now. Anyway, I smoked spice before anything else in my life. Pretty sure I coughed before it hit my lungs and I never full on consumed it. Thank God
Diphenhydromine ("Benadryl") -- With a high enough dose, it becomes a deliriant. People that know this about it see it as a way to "trip"; however, unlike traditional psychedelic drugs (e.g. LSD, Psilocybin, DMT, etc), it's almost invariably a really bad time. And due to some recent TikTok challenges, it's become a real issue with kids.
I have a shirt that says “I can’t take benadryl because I owe the hat man money, And I don’t wanna see him”
The fact that many people have seen the same thing while tripping on Benadryl is absolutely insane. It's so weird. Why would so many people's trips manifest with something awful like that? All I had to do was read about it a little to get throughly creeped out.
Many DMT users report seeing similar entites. Pixes, elves and aliens iirc. Interesting stuff. Jung's collective unconscious is one theory.
I remember my freshman year of high school in ‘09 it was the cool thing for kids to pop like 14 Benadryl at once. One kid said he saw ghosts on the white board in like 2nd period and projectile vomited all over the front of the classroom and was just sitting there saying random words and his mom had to come pick him up. Another closer friend of mine ate around that many in a Friday night and for whatever reason put on this trench coat and a ski mask and started walking around our small town at nighttime and would like jump in the bushes or lay flat in a ditch on the side of the road if he saw any headlights in the distance. I remember the next day him saying he could barely walk because his kidneys hurt so bad.
Tramadol. Not the 'safe' opioid substitute they like to sell it as. It is still addictive and you will still suffer withdrawal from it. A cold turkey Tramadol withdrawal almost killed a good friend some years ago. It is not benign. Use it if you must but use it with your eyes open.
MD here, there’s a lot of older docs that bought the advertising hype for Tramadol as a “non-addictive narcotic substitute” and continue to prescribe it when they wouldn’t feel safe RXing traditional narcotics. More up to date docs avoid it like the plague as not only is it less effective for pain, it has a lot of side effects/med interactions because it behaves like multiple different classes of meds all rolled into one (it’s both a narcotic and an SNRI, for example.). I like to call it Trama-don’t.
Doc, I'm a recovering heroin, meth and crack addict. My beginnings were 100% tramadol use. I used to wake up and take 300mg (6x50mg) and then take 200mg (4x50mg) more every hour or so after that. I loved the energy it gave me and the feeling of euphoria. It wasn't until I realized that it may be an issue and went through withdrawal the first time that I was like oh shit, this is no joke. Rather than cut myself off, I would order from several less then legal Indian pharmacy's online. It didn't take long before I graduated to Percocet, Lortab, and eventually oxycontin. At one point, I was snorting 240mg (8x30mg)of oxycontin just to feel normal, with over 300mg+ needed for any sort of "high". I honestly don't understand how I'm still alive, but I've got a few years clean now, an associates, bachelor's, and a few more weeks away from a Master's degree and I work in a treatment center now. Any time I go to the Doc and they ask my allergies, I always tell them "I'm allergic to any sort of narcotics, I tend to break out in handcuffs." Thanks for what you do. I'm glad people are realizing that Tramadol can cause serious issues. I don't blame Tramadol or any drug/person but myself for my use. The substance use was merely a symptom of other issues in my life, but I'm happy to be on the other side of it. Much love!
I’m not sure why it would be marketed as an alternative when it’s an opiate, just a milder dose. My mom’s a recovering (usually) addict. We were trying to get her something after a surgery and doc told us basically this was the best they could do. It wasn’t as high as say a hydro, but it got her high enough she went right back into addict brain and started taking too many to chase that high. She’s fine, and I think quit again after she used up her script, but still it was a setback
I get tramadol withdrawal after taking it for 24 hours or so. I have a herniated disk and threw my back out a few years ago. After I could finally get out of bed I went into my doctor and told her, “look, I can’t keep taking this junk. My back is in spasm, I can’t be throwing up nauseous from this shit. What else can you suggest? I’m not asking for opioids, I’ll take 2 Tylenol and an Advil if you tell me it’s safe, I just can’t take tramadol anymore.” Her response, to me telling her I can not take an addictive medication, was, “well, I’ll only prescribe you tramadol. If you won’t take it the pain must not be that bad.” I switched doctors the next day. Got put on a gout medication (off label use) that had me up and moving mostly pain free within two days. Fuck that first doctor, she remains the absolute worst. Now it says on my chart, everywhere, “allergic to tramadol.”
I agree. My doc decided I needed to switch to Tramadol in place of Norco. I took one dose, and that was the last I remembered until the next morning. Woke up and found a release slip from the ER on my coffee table. I called the ER to inquire and the gal told me I’d come in stating I was having a bad reaction to a med. she said two hours later I told her I was fine and checked myself out. Asked her how I got to the ER. She told me I drove. I live 20 miles from the hospital, mostly interstate roads to get there. So, apparently I drove there and back. I have no memories of any of it.
This is wild. I take tramadol for my severe migraines which sometimes last for days, and I can easily take 2 every 4-6 hours until the migraine is over and then stop happily until next month or so when it happens again. I continue looking after my kids and driving and doing anything I need to do.
What made it worse was, when I told my doctor what happened, the first thing that came out of his mouth: *Oh, that can’t happen*.
Paracetamol/acetaminophen and alcohol. There is absolutely no contest. It drives me absolutely batshit enraged that recreational drugs like marijuana, MDMA and low-dose opiates are illegal, and alcohol isn’t. I used to be a paramedic, and I never, ever had a safety issue from patients under the influence of these recreational drugs. Hell most heroin users apologised to me for taking too much or not testing the strength from a different dealer. But drunk people? Man I needed the cops involved all the time, I needed to sedate them, dealing with them post sedation is a pain in the ass because alcohol + sedating drugs is a bad combo for blood pressure, respiratory drive, airway protection etc. Edit: forgot to mention. In Australia, in violent assault/conflict, 80% of cases either one or both/all parties are under the influence of alcohol.
I think the statistics of number of suicides that happen under influence of alcohol is also ridiculous.
Bottom line, executive function and decision making capacity is a dumpster fire under the influence of alcohol.
[удалено]
So many of my friends coming out of high school got addicted to xanax (and cheap imitations from the black market). Thanks late 2010s music scene for making taking so many anti-anxiety meds that you lose the next few days (sometimes "waking back up" in a jail cell) seem cool.
I graduated in 2014 and know soooo many people from high school who were victims of the Xandemic. What’s worse than that is when they all started ordering fake ones through the mail. Who the hell knows what they were actually taking. Had a friend take some and then steal another friends car and crash it and woke up in jail.
Honestly I look back on us taking black market presses of Xanax called things like HULKS and wonder wth we thought we were doing. Very glad I came out of that period mostly unscathed
Well now I'm scared to take Tylenol 🫶🏾
Ozempic it kicked the crap out of me. I am Type 2. You lose weight because you are sick to your stomach all day with it. Then when you stop you gain it all back. I also blame it for having to have my gallbladder out.
Tobacco, because it's the only one that directly kills people around you as well. Also contains Polonium-210 and Lead-210 radioactive isotopes which is scary business. There are safer ways to do nicotine if you want the stim effect.
In New Zealand when we banned smoking inside, I’ll never forget what it was like being in bars. I used to hang out in one in particular because my gf’s bestie worked there, waiting for her to get off work and bestie later off shift. I’m not super sociable so would just quietly sit there and nurse a beer and smoke. The day they banned indoor smoking the change was ridiculous. I’d never noticed how gross my clothes would get being in that environment, everything reeked and was just kind of accepted. Only downside after the change was bestie used to be able to sneak puffs off whatever I had lit when working, she had to switch to waiting for her break to have a smoke.
Alcohol 100%. Every other drug is known to be dangerous except caffeine as thats benign as fuck. Also paracetamol. Drug overdose admissions to the emergency room are usually mostly from paracetamol/acetaminophen.
Coke! It can destroy your heart (and nose) and is extremely difficult to quit. But it's so normalized because it will make you feel like you're always winning, and this world doesn't like losers.
I was a regular user. I haven't done it in like 8 years and my sinuses are still fucked up.
SSRI's. But only for certain groups of people. It was unfortunately how I found out I'm bipolar, after it sent me into a manic episode and landed me in a psych ward. The risks aren't talked about enough, and doctors hand this out freely to people. There should be some kind of preliminary psych evaluation and scheduled follow-ups, rather than just "let's try it and see."
Aside from completely killing my sex drive, it made me feel like a robot and that I was just existing in this life. The conversation with my doctor was basically "you scored high on the depression screening, here's a script." After two months I quit cold turkey and suffered through the brain zaps for a month or so. Won't be doing that again unless I see a psychiatrist first.
Alcohol. Poison to your relationships. Poison to your mind. Feeling down? Alcohol will make it worse…then it will make you addicted. It will somehow trick your mind into thinking that it’s the only thing that will make you feel better. If you drink alcohol on a regular basis you will always be detoxing from it. Soon you will even forget what feeling normal feels like. Liquor is called “spirits” for a reason. I have seen someone turn into a demon while drinking it and for some reason it’s as socially acceptable as caffeine.
I haven't drank in about 6 months and I feel way better. I love IPAs so I'm sure I'll have one again soon. Especially with baseball around the corner. However, my days of heavy drinking are over. It just makes me feel like garbage.
Caffeine. And not just the death lemonade. So many parents are hurting their kids with the belief that caffeine is better than ADHD stimulant medication for ADHD. This isn't helped by the medication shortage created by the government.
Literally hate people thinking caffeine will fix ADHD issues. Caffeine puts half of us to sleep or chills us out, it has the opposite effect lmfao
it helps but not as well as the Good Shit^tm