The Coleman Institute Blog

I recently met with a patient who, after about 40 years of very regular drinking, made the decision to quit drinking. Her decision to stop drinking alcohol was not easy.

She associated drinking wine with many aspects of her life: sharing a bottle of wine with her husband over dinner, sitting around by the pool sipping wine, curling up in the evening with a good book and a glass of chardonnay, drinking a glass of wine when she’s had a frustrating day at work.

Brenda is a 54-year-old woman who told me, “I am so sick and tired of being dependent on pain medication, I could scream.” She tried several times to stop taking her medication. She would get so far before the withdrawal became intolerable. One of her biggest problems is that she kept experiencing low energy levels after stopping. She needed answers to “when and how does my energy come back after opiate withdrawal?”

When I started working at the Coleman Institute for Addiction Medicine many years ago, I was blown away by the parents who were shell-shocked to learn that their children—their high achieving, athletic, award-winning, popular, beloved children—were addicted to heroin.

I wrote about Ken in an earlier blog titled "Restoring Energy After Opioid Withdrawal." At that time, Ken was 5 weeks out from completing an Accelerated Opiate Detox off high doses of opioids, including hydromorphone and fentanyl. His energy was beginning to return, but it was still a struggle.

Typical scenario at the Coleman Institute:

A patient and their support person arrive at the office to begin an accelerated opioid detox from heroin, fentanyl, Dilaudid^®, Percocet^®, Vicodin^®, etc. Many patients also seek our help to come off long-acting MAT (Medication-Assisted Treatment) methadone or buprenorphine products.