I'm writing this because I want people to understand what fentanyl withdrawal actually entails. I've withdrawn from heroin before. This was categorically worse.
Day 1-2: Restless legs that made me want to tear my skin off. Diarrhea every 30 minutes. Sweating through sheets within an hour of changing them. Bones aching like they were being crushed. Sleep was impossible — not difficult, physically impossible.
Day 3-4: The peak. I was in an inpatient facility by now. Vomiting bile because I couldn't keep anything down. My blood pressure was dangerously high. They gave me clonidine, gabapentin, and ondansetron. It barely touched it. I hallucinated from sleep deprivation.
Day 5-7: Slowly, agonizingly, the acute symptoms began to recede. I could keep water down. The restless legs became merely unbearable instead of maddening. I slept for 45 minutes on night six and cried with relief.
But here's what nobody warned me about: PAWS — post-acute withdrawal syndrome. For months afterward, depression, anhedonia, insomnia, and cravings. The acute withdrawal is a week. The real recovery takes a year or more.
If you're using fentanyl and thinking about stopping: do not attempt to detox alone. Medical supervision can manage dangerous blood pressure spikes and dehydration. This is not something to tough out.