[fortitudine]

Hi Melody,
I was on a very low dose of morphine. Even so, getting off it was awful. In retrospect I did it way too fast. My doc gave me the 'prescribed' withdrawal regimen for the dosage I was on, but clearly it wasn't right for me. Each time I cut back I had nausea, fatigue and depression that lasted a few days. At first I didn't even rewalize what it was.

In the end I went from probably 5mg per day to 0. Even then I went through the typical narcotic withdrawal, although my doctor was atonished that such a low dose would have any addicting effects. I was in excruciating pain in every cubic inch of my body. I wanted to die. I couldn't eat or get out of bed. I whimpered for hours. When I realized what the problem was I called my doc, who said - go back on morphine and taper slower. My pharmacist said that I was probably more than halfway through the worst and to just hang in there. So I did hang in there as I hated the side effects of morphine. The hell only lasted about 36 hours. However - I had "morphine withdrawal" days for months afterwards - depression, nausea, apathy, fatigue. Some days I just didn't want to get out of bed. I was amazed at how lingering the effects were. At first they happened weekly, then gradually tapered off to nothing after maybe 6 months. Once I realized what they were, and that I wasn't going nuts, I just toughed it out.

Every drug affects every patient differently, so it's hard to know what will work, but my only suggestion is to go really slowly and be patient - you will be drug-free and feel normal eventually. Good luck.