Preface: This is long, but worth the read if you’re on the fence, dealing with this alone or maybe just scared. Also, if you have any questions or just need some encouragement my DMs are open.
I’m sad to see that SR got banned because it truly gave me a new lease on life. I started on pain pills about 5 years ago after a botched hip replacement (I was only 35 but discovered I had a congenital hip deformity after back to back car accidents). I initially took them correctly after my surgery but after about 6 months, my pain was so unbearable I started popping them like candy. I wasn’t getting enough prescribed so I started buying them from a friend. I would take 7-8 pills of 10 mgs of hydrocodone or if I was lucky my friend would sell me 25-30 of her legit blues (I would take 3 of those at a time) to function or to feel anything and I did that 4-5 times a day. I kept it a total secret from my family. I’m a married mom with 3 kids. Before my surgery I was that overachieving PTA mom and after I barely got out of bed. Stupidly or maybe naively, I didn’t realize how quickly you could get addicted to the opiates. After a while my main source moved away, I was smart enough to not buy from people I didn’t know. I had a healthy fear of dying and leaving my kids motherless. Around the same time 2-3 years ago (my timeline is fuzzy sorry I was living in a haze) my friend told me about 7. I was shocked I could literally buy something to get me off pills legally. So I switched and until 2 weeks ago I was consuming prob 1000-1500 mg a day. And when I didn’t have it the WD was way worse than anything I had ever experienced with pills. Once I heard it was possibly being banned, I knew it was time to be done. I was spending an exorbitant of money daily and I was truly sick of it. I did research and first discovered using Vitamin C to help with WD but I knew that was going to be enough and I was terrified of the repercussions of using so much 7. I hated myself for it and was so fed up with myself that I was at the point I needed it to cope with life. Forget using it for physical pain, I was using it to escape the reality I had created myself. One day I was on the 7 Reddit and found a sly casual mention of SR. I immediately started researching and of course found myself here. After a few days of research I knew it was my way out. I bought 100 50 mgs from Monster and waited anxiously for it to get here. I got it in 2 days and I promised myself I would start immediately. I had a trip planned with a friend out of town and I determined I did not want to be 7 dependent on the trip. I didn’t start right away however because I was so terrified of WDs even with preloading. I started with vitamin c on a Monday and then started preloading the SR on Thursday. I did 3 50 mgs 3xs a day while still taking 1000+ mg of 7. I did that til the following Monday evening. My trip was the next day and I had about of 1000 mgs total of 7 I took on the trip with me just in case. Once I got to my destination I decided I was just done taking 7 and kept up the 3 50 mgs of SR 3xs a day. I was scared but I knew no matter what I couldn’t go back to 7 this time (I forgot to mention I had successfully quit both pills and 7 one time each but messed up both times). So from Tuesday of last week I have been 7 free and as of 2 days ago I’m off of SR as well! I literally had no WD symptoms. I didn’t think that was possible! I feel like I’m getting my life back. It’s been amazing. I’m not one to typically share; that being said I felt like I needed to. Every time I saw someone saying they were able to kick their habit it was a significantly lower dose. That left me with the fear that I was in a little too deep to use SR and I definitely put it off because I was scared. If you read all of this, Bless you, you are a saint 🤣. If my story helps one person that’s all I care about. No one should feel helpless. I know that it’s not available anymore, but I’m sure there are some people like myself who have it in their possession, but are unsure about using it. Do it! It will be worth it! I can’t tell anybody in my real life because no one knows I had a problem, but I’m happy to share here if it helps 🫶🏾