I recently was prescribed Oxycontin SR 20mg for pain. I took 2 or 3 a day until the 20 pills were gone. The next evening I became very restless and twitchy. The withdraws strengthened through the night until they were unbearable. I went to the E.R to get a sleeping pill script, or more oxy, which I figured was unlikely. They ended up giving me 5mg diazepam (valium) and Clonidine. The diazepam was definitely helpful in relieving the anxiety, and helped me sleep. The Clonidine seemed to mildly help the anxiety, but mainly I noticed that 1 to 2 pills would relieve the sweats and chills for about 3 hours. I found this very helpful for the anxiety from withdrawal; at even such a low dose oxy withdrawal can be very painful. I found it much worse than any pain it relieved. But the sweats and chills can suck almost as much.
The side effects from the diazepam are pretty lame, groggy, weak muscles. But I didn’t notice anything negative about the Clonidine.
