Expert: Gareth Stubbs - 5/30/2009

Question
My sister(age 36) has been off of Methadone(2-40mg tabs 3xday) & Oxycontin(just knows she was taking alot!) for 2 months now. She was "using" for 4 years. She quit cold-turkey(no medical/clinical assistance due to lack of finances). I can sincerely say I feel she is not taking these drugs now because of how she behaves when she was "on" them, e.g.: slurred speech, falling asleep while speaking/smoking a cigarette while sitting up, jerking body movements, head lolling about. She has been sort of sleep-walking/blacking out-- best way to describe it. She'll say or do things randomly(blurt out a comment/ask question completely out of context of conversation) or she opened up the dishwasher & I asked what she was doing & said she was getting ice... at the time it made complete sense to her but later she would say she felt like she was sleep walking or sort of blacked out or like it was a dream. Our family is confused!! Can't find this sort of thing in any search engines on-line. I work in the medical field and the only thing I can think of is that perhaps this compares to a "dry drunk" if you will, such as what a recovering alcoholic may go through? What are your thoughts? I appreciate any input or suggestions for further research.
Thanks so much,
Trish

Answer
Hey Trish,

To be perfectly honest with you, I dont have the answer to your question but I have come across it in the past, and it is very similar to what you are saying about the "dry drunk."

Drugs do strange things to us, as you know and have seen, and when we stop, it can take some for the body to completely get rid of everything that is has stored.

The way I see it is like this, and this is purely my point of view and not that of any medical person or anything - when we use, the body keeps it everywhere, in our muscles, in the fatty deposits in the body, literally everywhere. After using, the body naturally clears itself of the stuff that is easy to get rid of but some of it is more deeply stored - every now and then, some of it gets dislodged and causes temporary "highs" or "blackouts" and these, again in my opinion, can cause relapse and addictive behaviours.

To help with this in my own experience, I always recommend as much excercise as is physically possible, be it walking or for some people, even doing housework. Keep hydrated as well, drinking loads of water, and this combined with the exercise helps a lot to get "over" these things because it makes our bodies use muscles we would not normally use which then dislodges stored stuff which is then diluted by the water, making it easier to handle.

Following a recovery program of some sort is also a good way to deal with this, because that could help deeper issues that may cause temporary blackouts and the like. I dont know if you have ever had the experience whereby you have done something that is just totally out of line like not being able to see the milk that is right inside the fridge door all along. We think about other things and totally "forget" the easy to do things - I used to do this a lot when I first got clean because my mind must have been elsewhere, and going to meetings and following a program of some sort helped me become more aware of things and sort things out in my head.

I hope this has given some adivce, and if you need any more information or someone to talk to, please do not hesitate to contact me here and I will be more than happy to help out if possible.

Take care

Gareth