 There's a major myth out there that opioid and opioid withdrawals are not lethal and that is not true at all. So in this video we're going to be talking about the dangers of quitting opioids cold turkey. What is up everybody this is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution and if you're new to my channel what I typically do is take a look at the youtube community or pop culture or just the world in general and try to see what lessons we can learn from them. But something I'm very passionate about is treating mental health as well as addiction recovery. So if you're into that stuff make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. So yeah today we're going to be talking about the truth about opioid withdrawal and how dangerous it can be to quit cold turkey. So who am I if you're new here you're like who the hell is this guy talking about opioid withdrawal. I'm a recovering alcoholic and drug addict my primary drug of choice was prescription opioids. On June 23rd of this year I'll have seven years clean no alcohol no drugs. I relapsed multiple times before I finally got clean and I've been through withdrawal multiple times. Aside from that I've worked with literally thousands of drug addicts and alcoholics through my experience in 12 step programs as well as my personal experience working at an inpatient drug and alcohol treatment center. All right but anyways first let's talk about why why on earth would anybody quit cold turkey when there are so and when there is so much access to medical resources like we live in 2019. We have never had the medical technology in history to help people coming off of opioids. So why on earth would anybody try to do this cold turkey. Well speaking from my own experience I get it. I get why people would want to do this cold turkey and there's a variety of reasons. One of them is just to help you get into the mindset of somebody trying to quit cold turkey this substance has had such a kung fu grip on your life and you have been a slave to this substance. It is like a war in your own mind it is like a battlefield and you want to beat this thing you want to defeat this thing you want to show this substance that you have more power than it does. So one of the one of the things that people will do is they will try to quit cold turkey to prove to themselves that they are in control and they are no longer a slave to this substance. All right so at the end of the day because I'm going to talk about another reason why people quit cold turkey is is this a lot of this has to do with our pride and our ego. All right we have something to prove we want to show who we are and we are not a victim of this substance any longer. All right but going off of that into pride and ego sometimes we want to quit cold turkey because we want to wear that stuff like a badge of honor right we want to be able to tell the world like I see this all the time I see this like you're probably going to see this in the comment section like I'll make you a bet I guarantee in the comment section there's going to be people in here trying to act like a badass because they quit cold turkey right like you want to show the whole world oh I did a cold turkey you could do a cold turkey all right and like here's the thing like I want to get this through to you I want to make this very clear like us drug addicts and alcoholics like we don't have a convention once a year where we hand out awards and like there's no like prize for like the most badass drug addict who quit cold turkey and went through withdrawals on their own like there is no award so like quit trying to impress people okay like it just blows my mind but that again that's part of our ego and we want to be able to like flaunt it to other people like listen we get it we understand you're super cool but you'll still be just as cool if you get help for your addiction and recovering from withdrawal all right so now leading into this like I'm actually somebody who quit cold turkey and did a cold turkey detox and it wasn't by choice I talked about this in some other videos about suboxone this was something that happened to me because I lied I lied to the doctors about how much I was using how bad my withdrawal symptoms were because I was trying to be cool and not only was I trying to be cool but I didn't want them knowing how bad my addiction was and that's a whole other story about how I was I didn't even want to get clean and sober I was trying to make them think that my addiction wasn't that bad so I can go back and relapse later that's a whole another video for a whole another time but anyways this is extremely dangerous and the only reason that I'm alive today was because of the medical attention I was getting so again it is a myth that opioid withdrawal cannot kill you okay and here's a thing like while the actual symptoms of opioid withdrawal cannot kill you the other damage you have done to your body can kill you okay and let me explain why that is long-term substance abuse takes its toll on your body okay things going on inside of you that you cannot see when I got clean almost seven years ago I had congestive heart failure okay my heart was the size of my lung it was huge I had a 10 chance of living less than 25 percent of my heart was working okay it was not pumping properly and I was only 26 years old when this happened now symptoms of opioid withdrawal okay follow me on this little journey here okay symptoms of opioid withdrawal can increase your blood pressure and heart rate okay so when you take increased blood pressure and heart rate and you combine that with heart issues because of the damage you've done to your heart because of your long-term substance abuse this combination can kill you okay so while I did deal with opiate withdrawals like all of those symptoms like the flu like symptoms like the aches the pains the puking and the stuff coming out of the other end the the cold sweats the shakes I dealt with all of that luckily because the doctors were treating my congestive heart failure like I'm not even like bsing you I was 26 years old and when they released me from the cardiac critical care unit I must have been on at somewhere between like eight to ten heart medications okay like I was taking heart medications like I was some like geriatric like old dude that is how much damage drugs and alcohol did to my heart so the only reason the only reason that I'm sitting here alive today was because I had medical assistance to treat my heart okay but there are many other people who when they quit cold turkey they're not getting any type of medical assistance and people can die from this there have actually been more and more news stories about how prisons are starting to prisons and even just like like jails they're starting to have to treat people's opioid withdrawal in prison because a lot of times what happens is somebody gets picked up off a drug a drug charge they get put into a cell and then they have to quit cold turkey but there have been stories of people dying in jail because of opioid withdrawal because they were not getting treated for it okay so if you are somebody out there or you know somebody out there who is thinking about quitting cold turkey do not do it there are so many resources and I'm going to speak about the United States specifically that's where I'm located that's where a large portion of my audience is so I cannot speak for other parts of the world I know I have an international audience so please please do some research in your area and see how you can get help or leave comments down below and let other people know how they can get help in your area like somebody left to comment the other day that in Australia Suboxone is free and Suboxone is a medication that helps trick the brain into thinking that you're still using opioids and then you gradually taper off but here in the United States there are plenty of options the first one is if you have health insurance find a treatment center okay like I highly highly highly recommend doing an inpatient treatment center like the one I was working at we had an inpatient treatment center that was also qualified to do detox because we had doctors and nurses on staff so we can do medication I highly recommend that and the reason why is because detox is the only first step on this recovery journey you typically need like therapy and other resources to avoid relapsing in the future so that is my first suggestion if you have insurance or you have the money for it get inpatient along with detox now there are also separate detox facilities that do both inpatient and outpatient okay so an outpatient detox center is basically you go to the doctor maybe one to three times a week and they're monitoring your symptoms but you still go back and forth from home to the doctor so they can check up on you and they will prescribe you the medications to help you get off of opioids stuff like Suboxone and then there's medications like Naltrexone and Vivitrol that help with the cravings but things like Suboxone or I believe Subutex and you can correct me if I'm wrong down in the comments one of these can also help with the cravings as well so you can do outpatient detox or what I did way back in the day I did an inpatient detox okay so the difference between inpatient detox and treatment is inpatient detox I was only there for I believe four days basically I was in there I was in a facility where I was sleeping and they were helping me get medically stable so I can then leave and then they prescribed me medications for when I left there all right if you do not have insurance I'm going to link a website down below called SAMHSA this is a government funded website that shows you different um detox facilities or treatment centers in your area that are government funded so even if you do not have health insurance or if you have like Medicare it will you can like set up the filters and everything and it will show you which ones you can get into now one of the issues and one of the reasons why you need to get out there and vote and pay attention to what the hell is going on in this country is there aren't that many government funded facilities and sometimes the wait can be insanely long like here in Las Vegas not only have we shut down a bunch of government funded detox centers but the ones that are still open sometimes the waiting list can be weeks okay so look into that check it out see what is available um there are some doctors who have private practices who do kind of like outpatient detox so research that as well um but the last thing the last resort is go to an emergency room if you're trying to get off of drugs okay go to an emergency room because like for example I didn't have health insurance but I went to an emergency room okay and they have to take you in they pretty much have to take you in and they will get you medically stable all right and that is better and that is safer than trying to quit this thing cold turkey okay so as somebody in recovery and as somebody who has witnessed a lot of death I felt like it is important to discuss this because there are many videos out there on youtube of people quitting cold turkey and my documenting their withdrawal and everything and I don't want you to think that that is a safe option because it definitely isn't all right so down in the comment or in the description below and in the pinned comment I will provide some resources so you can look and again if you are from different parts of the world and you know of resources in your area like make sure to leave it down in the comments below so everybody can kind of take a look at it benefit from it and get educated on what can help them overcome their addiction to opioids or opioids all right but anyways that's all I got for this video if you like this video please give it a thumbs up if you're new make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because I make a ton of videos and a huge huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on patreon you're all amazing and if you'd like to support what I'm doing here and get your name up on the credits and get involved in our monthly q and a where you have direct access to me ask me whatever you want click or tap on that patreon icon right there all right thanks again so so much for watching I'll see you next time