I had a friend recently who had a bout of addiction with Opiates. We managed to successfully get him off of the painkillers, but it wasn't easy. He ended up going through horribly withdraws that made him sick and irritable. Many times a day he would vomit and go through what could only be described as flu like symptoms that made him so miserable. The sickness made him get so irritable to the point that he was cursing everyone out, including myself and his mother (the only two friends he really has). This was with the assistance of suboxone as well (a medication meant to help ease the withdraw symptoms and assist patients trying to get cleaned up).
As some of you may know, I used to be very heavy into drugs. To the point that I would do many different drugs multiple times a day. I have done everything from Pot to Heroin and I never got addicted to anything, though I should have. The same thing can be said of alcohol when I was in college, and cigarettes which I smoked from age 14-26. I was able to quit everything cold turkey without any side effects, so I can't empathize with any of his effects.
So I was wondering if any of the escapists have ever had a major addiction that caused withdraws when they quit, and how they felt during the withdraws. The aim of this is to help my friend stay off of the drugs, and to help comfort him as he continues to have some minor withdraw effects.
So please let me know what went on through your mind as you were going through withdraws, what you did to help ease those thoughts, and what you have done to stay off the drug you were addicted to.