Excerpted from WHAT WOULD YOU DO ALONE IN A CAGE WITH NOTHING BUT COCAINE: A Philosophy of Addiction © 2026 by Hanna Pickard. For Richards, drugs are connected to his creativity and his intensity, to living in a way that squeezes the most out of life. Opioid withdrawal is not life-threatening. Many psychiatric medications, such as antidepressants, have a physical withdrawal syndrome. Sudden abstinence or dose reduction will cause people to go into withdrawal, which typically lasts between one and three weeks and has symptoms that are similar to opioid withdrawal.