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Exercise - A great aid for opiate withdrawal and much more!

Z Y G G Y

Z Y G G Y

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 10, 2009
Messages
2,173
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American Suburbia
I just wanted for people to make sure they remember how important exercise is for everyone but especially for drug users/abusers/addicts. Our endorphin deficient brains need physical stimulation.

For those who use opiates/opioids physical activity is absolutely necessary. Exercise is the main way one can build endorphins and chemicals similar to opiates. Being on opiates makes your brain deficient in endorphins because it just doesn't have to make them anymore. Exercise forces the body to make its own endorphins therefore you can take less of your drugs and the more of its own endorphins your brain makes the easier it is to w/d from opiates.

The best kind of exercise for endorphin building seems to be vigorous exercise.

"Some studies have shown that vigorous exercise executed by healthy individuals can effectively increase opioid peptides (aka endorphins, a naturally occurring opiate that in conjunction with other neurotransmitters is responsible for exercise induced euphoria and has been shown to be addictive), positively influence hormone production (i.e., increase testosterone and growth hormone), benefits that are not as fully realized with moderate exercise."
http://www.vip-home-care.com/buildendorphinsnaturally.html

Sex is also great for endorphin production. For many people its more difficult to achieve a climax when on opiates. Do it anyways, the whole process is beneficial for your brain.

Laughter also produces endorphins.

Exercise is great not only for w/d, but for depression, insomnia, lack of appetite, feelings of helplessness.
"Fitness is not only popular, but is good way of producing endorphins and fighting depression. The endorphins can block feelings of hopelessness and helplessness and can treat some symptoms of depression, such as insomnia and lack of appetite. In addition, those suffering from depression will feel better about themselves knowing that they are accomplishing something good for them and are taking an active role in their treatment."
http://www.depressionhelpfiles.com/articles/a21.htm

A long slow run will release a lot of endorphins ("runner's high") as will vigorous exercise. Anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour is a good amount.

So if you are taking opiates now make yourself exercise. Start out as much as you can and build towards a longer, vigorous exercise. It will be the best thing you can do for your body.

Even if all you can do now is a short walk, that's fine, it's a start and if you continue forcing yourself to exercise you will get into great shape.

So people, if you have any problem with yourself like depression, feeling helpless, anxious, tired, in pain, in w/d start by giving exercise a chance. The benefits will not be seen right away, but might take a few days or more to be seen so be patient and keep exercising!

Also, IF ANYONE HAS ANY OTHER IDEAS ON BUILDING ENDORPHINS, PLEASE INCLUDE IT HERE!
 
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Yeah i can agree with that ive been detoxing last week and the gym/sex has made the WD alot easier i mean alot. And im getting fit at same time which is great for my self esteem :)
 
yeah exercise always seems to make me feel better after using drugs the day before.
 
exercise and eating are my favorite highs, then oxy then coke then weed... actually coke b4 oxy but id rather have OCs cuz of the fucking dreadful comedown
 
Pretty much everyone will benefit in some way if they start exercising. Especially those thou that have been on opiates for an extended amount of time. Exercising will make quitting opiates easier and IMO anything that helps quit opiates is worth trying. Especially since its not addictive, it's all natural and only good things can come from it.
 
Ever wake up at 3am and need a hit? I haven't. I have woke up at 3am and driven in a blizzard because I had a very strong need to hit the gym. The gym is an addiction. I figure it takes about 1 month of going for about an hour, 4-5 days a week, and anyone would be hopelessly hooked.
 
I agree i got through the worst of a three month oxycodone withdrawal in 2 days with vigorous exerise. I weight trained and stprint walked both days 1 and 2 and by three the mental withdrawal was almost 100% gone but i was working out regularly also. Great tool better then any drug you could take trust me even if you dont feel like it just run outside and sprint as fast as you can then walk till you can sprint another etc this will have immediate opiate withdrawal help on the walk back home you will feel normal trust me. I'm on week 3 of methadone withdrawal now after 3 months of use with 20-40mg and i just hit up 90 pushups 60pull ups 90 crunches and 90 squats and as im typeing this i havent slept in 48 hours and i feel normal. I started useing short acting opiates after the first week cold turkey and just stopping them yesterday. I was dead tired but i knew it would help and it did i think it may even get me to sleep soon.
 
Started exercising at the start of this year and loving it so far, training up for a half marathon around September :)
 
Exercise is very helpful. Another great way to get endorphins flowing and ease withdrawal symptoms is acupuncture, sometimes it's hard to get motivated to exercise, with acupuncture you can just relax and enjoy it. My city has a few community acupuncture clinics that have an affordable sliding scale so I have been getting it often, and it helps so much.
 
Exercise is great but I urge caution as if you've been unhealthy too long you might find your muscles growing faster than your tendons and joints can handle and injure things like I have in the past
 
highonlife40 said:
Exercise is great but I urge caution as if you've been unhealthy too long you might find your muscles growing faster than your tendons and joints can handle and injure things like I have in the past
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That's a very good point, you need to start slow, the last thing you want is to end up with an injury and need pain pills; actually, some might want that =D but it's not a good thing when you are exercising because you are trying to quit.
 
You can consume protein peptides (Caesin and a few others)

They're precursors to your endogenous opioid system
 
i love how everyones always recommending exercise for opiate withdrawal.. i mean it sounds good on paper but anyone whos had to break a bad addiction to opiates knows that just getting up and moving yourself from your bed to the bathroom takes everything youve got. i know when i was detoxing, getting exercise was the farthest thing from my mind.. besides i think exercise is overrated for the initial withdrawal stages, i dont believe it really helps enough for it to be worth the effort.. i think its more important for helping your brain recover during the PAWs phase.
 
.Lucid. said:
i love how everyones always recommending exercise for opiate withdrawal.. i mean it sounds good on paper but anyone whos had to break a bad addiction to opiates knows that just getting up and moving yourself from your bed to the bathroom takes everything youve got. i know when i was detoxing, getting exercise was the farthest thing from my mind.. besides i think exercise is overrated for the initial withdrawal stages, i dont believe it really helps enough for it to be worth the effort.. i think its more important for helping your brain recover during the PAWs phase.
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Exactly.

Exercise is great during post-acute withdrawal. You know, after the withdrawal has passed, but you're feeling depressed, unmotivated, tired. But exercising during withdrawal? Give me a break.

During withdrawal, even taking out the trash will have catching your breath. I commend anyone who can push themselves to vigorous activities during withdrawal, but it's not going to do much. Like Lucid said, after withdrawal is when exercise will do wonders for you.

And I'd love to see someone going through acute withdrawal last more than 10 seconds before getting a nut. Not going to happen.
 
As a former bodybuilder I can attest to these stories. I am now barely getting back in the gym after a year absence (do to injury, not opiates) but exercise is not only addictive physically and mentally but you get emotionally attached to it as a means of release, change and as a symbol of doing something greater than yourself... its truly amazing.
 
One more thing.. and this applies not only to your withdrawal time, but any time... people have a tendency to do too much in one sitting. More is not better when it comes to training. Keep it simple... intense exercise for no more then 30-45 minutes per session.
 
Any kind of physical exercise is good at any stage of w/d. Whatever you can do. The reason I recommend it is so that people keep it in their minds. No one is making anyone do anything. I know that when I was detoxing from subs, I exercised even in the initial stages of w/d. It helped immensely for the RLS. I think its the best non-medicine thing for that. When you walk or do any kind of physical exercise then you don't have that weird feeling in your body or it lessens at least and its easier to sleep at night. I know that for me RLS was the worst part of w/d.

Again, the reason I recommended exercise for w/d is because it works. It helps your body build endorphins, tires you out so you can sleep at night and helps with RLS. No one is making anyone do anything. So if any one wants to ridicule my suggestion, just skip over it if you don't find it useful. Hopefully someone else will and it will help them kick the habit.

I know that sometimes I and some other people, when quitting a habit get an initial burst of motivation. It's hard to explain, but for some reason, you get so happy that you will be quitting this habit and your life will improve that you just get really motivated to do things. I know it happens to me sometimes even during w/d. This type of motivation helped me exercise during sub w/d and it helped me quit the damn thing. If you happen to get this type of motivation then definitely start exercising as soon as you can. It doesn't always happen and most of the time when quitting opiates I don't wan to move or do anything, but I make myself and it definitely helps a lot.
 
Z Y G G Y said:
No one is making anyone do anything.
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Z Y G G Y said:
So if any one wants to ridicule my suggestion, just skip over it if you don't find it useful.
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no one suggested that you were somehow forcing people to exercise during withdrawal and i really dont think anyone was ridiculing you at all. everyone understands what youre saying and no one is disputing the mental/physical health benefits of exercise, in any period of one's life..


sooooo i guess i dont know where that response came from.
 
I agree I've always realize this though. I mean theres not really anything else thats not a drug, better for wds, than exercise.

The problem is how hard it actually is to exercise when you're in wds. People say "once you start working out it gets easier". Thats absolutely not true, I felt like a mummy for every single minute of my workout today.

And although I felt better afterwards, the process of exercise itself causes stress. So its a bit of a trade off. "Should I go exercise and stress myself out a lot so I feel less stress later, or should I just deal with a moderate amount of stress all day?"

I always agree its still better to exercise, just to feel better for rest of the day, but it can often be very difficult to complete a real workout. I can't even count how many times in the last month I went to the gym, planning to workout for 90mins, then left in 20 feeling like utter shit about myself.

So do whatever your capable of.
 
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