What is PAWS (Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome)?

Oftentimes we focus most of our attention on the acute-withdrawal from opiates, but we fail to realize that there is a far milder form of withdrawal that can last up to 12 months after all the hardcore stuff is over. This “mild” withdrawal is called:  Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome or PAWS for short.

Some common PAWS symptoms are:

• Depression
• Impaired concentration
• Lack of initiative
• Stress sensitivity
• Increased sensitivity to pain
• Inability to think clearly
• Drug cravings
• and more…

In the past I had no idea what post-acute withdrawal syndrome was. I would just assume that everything was back to normal once the worst of it was over, but in looking back, I can vividly remember how out-of-touch I felt with life for the few months that followed. I say “out-of-touch” because that was the only way I could explain it at the time. I remember being very sensitive to stressful situations, I remember having a very hard time concentrating or thinking about a complex problem. But, what I remember most was the depression. It was just plain horrible, and had I known that it may have been a chemical issue (i.e. PAWS), then I probably would have had an easier time dealing with it.

It’s difficult to think that your life could be affected for so long after drug use has stopped, but the truth is that the mind-altering chemicals that we put into our bodies today, can have a very lasting effect on our brain’s once that use stops. There are a ton of ways that you can help yourself get through PAWS, like exercise, eating healthy, taking vitamins etc…, but I think the first step is to identify that PAWS is the real deal. I hope I’ve done that with this post.