[ceadamso]

I have been off/on them for almost 2 yrs. I stopped for a short period and went back on, I feel that I sort of need them myself, but when I was off I did not gain, i did plenty of exercises and kept my weight off but I feel the CRAVINGS so bad for food off of them and I dont on them.
What gets me is this, I ready a few ppl say they were on them for like 7 or 8 years .... what doctor would prescribe it for that long?

[mistyc]

i am not sure who would do it that long i have been on it on and off since last november!! good luck

[pigpen065]

I can see how easily a person could get addicted to phen...self image is so important and once you are happy with your appearance, you never want to go back to where you were because you know all the bad feelings that go with it. I am grateful that my dr is so adamant about keeping me off for at least 30 days at a time after being on it for 42 days. This allows your body to rest and for me to learn all the healthy habits I need to keep up on so that I don't start that short slide back down. Any dr that allows a person to remain on it that long should not be practicing in my opinion, tho. Hopefully times have changed and they all have realized that it is important to regulate.

[shoegal]

I too had an addicition, took the pills from the age of 20 up til 30 - on and off. I first lost half a stone quickly taking me down to 9 stone which was great, maybe even a few pounds lighter, I felt amazing. But as soon as I came off them all I wanted to do was sleep, I literally couldnt do anything and needed to eat - gaining weight again. So I went back on them and started good again on them, the 'up' feeling etc. At the time I realised if I was going to keep my job I needed to be awake every day so decided to carry on taking the pills, the good thing was I also lost weight again back to under 9 stone and looked great. I would stop taking them, start again and managed to maintain my weight but started to need the pills to keep awake and those inbetween periods of no pills would be the bad days, the days I couldnt do stuff as would be zonked out.

So I decided to stay on them as life seemed easier and was so worried about gaining weight, but as my body got used to them - I had gained a bit of weight, it crept up and at one point was taking two a day just to feel normal and had still gained a stone!

The pills soon werent working anymore for weightloss, the idea being they kill your appetite, sure I was hardly hungry but maybe out of habit I was now eating whatever I liked and taking the pills kept me 'up' and meant I didnt gain too much while I did what I wanted.

I would have problems sleeping, pains in the arms from time to time but couldnt stop taking them. Discovering the Atkins diet in December 2005 actually weaned me off the pills. I was so so desperate as the weight had crept up to 11 stone and ANYTHING was better than being fat, even my pill addiction had to come second to feeling so shit all the time. I even managed to give up coffee. Unbeliebable. It was understanding that things you put in your mouth have an almost chemical effect on your body and eating protein keeps you fuller for longer and wont make u fat but eating bad carbs actually makes u crave them more, understanding food addicition made me determined to give up my pill addicition and with Dr Atkins behind me, a big massive book of advice I felt I could do it. It helped going on the Phentermine forums and see people talking about their addicitons too and saying they were going to try Atkins too. You have to start creating a chemical effect in your body which wont work if drugs or alcolhol are in there too. Anyway, I read the book and did the diet and lost a stone and felt amazing. It didnt stay off and within a year had come back with another half a stone for company. 2006 and 2007 was spent miserable at eleven and a a half stone eating low carb in general to try and get back but Id lost the fanatical enthusiam for it and started to get resentful of my own diet (I now realsie this is what they call the rebellious child state) but then decided to go to weight watchers instead. Having a carb addiction this was no good for me. Counting points was fine but this diet allowed a little bit of pasta and I couldn’t just have a little – no way, it had to be the biggest bowl. I soon realized my addiction to pills was the just the start. I had wanted a quick fix without ever fixing what was wrong inside. It was a good year and a half later of denying and battling and I discovered the diet that changed my life. That was in February of this year and today as I type, healthy, happy, drug free and 8 stone 10, I will tell you about it. I don’t work for them but want to spread the word. If you are overweight, then Lighter Life is the place to go, you replace real food with meal replacement drinks and bars and learn, really learn how to eat properly. For an ex pill addict who gained a lot of weight this new diet was heaven sent. They teach you to understand our compulsions. If you aren’t overweight but still addicited to those pills, talk to your doctor see if they will help best thing to do is lower dosage til you are off it completely. Try and choose a time you can sleep a lot and make sure you only have small bits of low fat food around, meal replacements like slimfast would be good or lean protein and salad, after being on those drugs your body will cry out for bad carbs, ignore it! Drink water, sleep, feed gently don’t binge. Life may seem less buzzy to start with but it actually will feel so much better soon. That alive feeling the pills give you, the I can do anything feeling WILL return in a MORE genuine way within a few months. I found myself having HUGE energy within 3 months of finally quitting and I had quit coffee too. U can do it, it will feel like SUCH an achievement. Mine had to be a secret, no one knows about my addicition but if you can get someone to help you all the better. Your head will feel fuzzy to start but that clears up quickly. My recommended plan for kicking the pills would be a week off work like this:

Monday 8am - your body is used to taking the pill around the time and you might already be ‘up’ in preparation, at the height of my addiction Id pop a pill and go back to bed, the pills have little affect but I needed them, so bad, so glad its over! Anyway try and get up at this time, drink a large glass of water and take a vitamin. The act of taking a pill may act like a placebo so you also wont feel like you are ‘missing’ something, if you are desperate to stop taking something then you don’t have to do this but the added bonus being you are putting vital nutrients back into your body this week so vit pill good idea.

9am – Eat an apple and drink a cup of miso soup, then you may be feeling very sleepy at this time so go back to bed. An odd sleep, total exhaustion and weary achy out of world wooly feeling may decend now or at any time today or next few days, everyone is different. Because you are zonked out you don’t think about food until you are desperate for it that’s why people so often gain so quick when they quit the pills. Beat this at its own game but eating before, the apple and soup are ideal.

1pm I used to sleep right though til lunch wake up and eat a massive bowl of pasta and go back to bed, no wonder a stone could arrive in a few weeks! If you have a friend with you helping you, ask them to make you a massive salad instead, lettuce, tuna, chicken, light dressing LOTS of veggies. That’s it. Your heart might be thumping and feeling sick or dizzy so keep drinking water !!!! aim for about 3 litres a day if poss.

4pm – you have prob slept again until this time, drink more water on waking up and eat a small peanut butter sandwich, brown bread and an apple. If you are hungry again just drink miso soup in a cup.

8pm onwards – you may find you are awake all night and feel fine again that first night, keep drinking soup, water, sleeping whenever needed but DO NOT eat pasta or any bad carbs (ONE sandwich on first day detox is ok) and believe you can do it!

[susanpesek]

Wow, Shoegal, what a heartfelt letter. Thank you for sharing all that information~
Proud for you that you were able to find the right pathways~

[soccermomof2]

Wow I think shoegal narrated my story with her post. That really encouraged me. Thank you shoegal. I am really scared and feel like I have no one to talk to about my addiction to phentermine. I started taking it after I had my 2nd baby, 5 years ago. I was on and off for a while, now I have been taking the pills for over 2 years straight. My doctor just keeps filling my RX! At first I thought it was wonderful because the pounds were shedding like crazy & I knew I could keep losing because he would continue to refill my RX. Now, I've gotten to the point where I have gained weight, I eat like regular but I HAVE to pop the pill everyday just to even remotely function. If i don't take a pill in the morning, I feel all cloudy in my head, I can't concentrate, and I want to do nothing but eat and sleep. I feel like I have no where to turn - I seriously do not know what to do!! I am 28 years old, have two beautiful babies & I am so scared that I am taking some serious health risks by continuing to take these pills. I get dizzy sometimes, my left arm & fingers occasionally go numb. But, I just cannot stop taking them - I've tried! My husband doesn't even know that I still take them. I feel horrible for keeping this secret from him, but I don't want anyone to know that I am seriously addicted to these stupid little white pills! Any help would be greatly appreciated. I just don't know what to do or where to go from here........

[pigpen065]

I know how difficult addiction can be...but please go see an addiction counselor!! I know how easy it is to just leave everything the way it is, but you have wonderful children to work this out for. Your dr should not have done what he has, that is for sure, and he is to blame for your problem. But you really do need to see a counselor about going about this the right way.

Don't trust the opinions of someone who is not qualified to deal with this...go see a professional that will keep a close eye on your progress.

I'm so glad that you are brave enough to share this with us, so that maybe someone else won't get to the same position...thank you.

[nikkimacawgirl]

i guess i have been really lucky. when i did this in 2007 it quit working in about 6 months so i got off it, my body became immune to it. i was happy i lost 24 pounds but not happy i couldnt get under 200lbs. i didnt have any withdraws at all. i just simply gave up. then after numerous attempts to loose weight on my own, and hearing my friend was doing phen with the cookie diet i decided to try again. over 2 years i did put on 48lbs. now thats my fault for eating fast food all the time. im hypoglycemic so my metabolism is shot to begain with which makes that that much harder for me to loose. but over the 2 years i didnt crave phen at all. i do see the dependency on it though, especially when nothing else works. but is it really that bad, when you take a break from it and try it again when your eating the right stuff this time? i will probably go on and off phen forever or at least until i get off 80 more pounds. to me its not a matter of addiction, but a matter of wow something finally helps, maybe iff i can get rid of the rest of this weight i wont become diabetic and they hypo will go away. even if i do become addicted, which i highly doubt. (exp. with a few diffferent drugs and never got addicted, even broke the chocolate addictioN!) i would rather be phen addicted with it working then diabetic which alot of my family is. good luck to you!!