Should I start Suboxone?

[sylvia21]

I see my therapist and my psych doc's on Tuesday and I've been doing a ton of research on Vicodin addiction. The #1 thing that kept coming up was this medicine called suboxone..I've never heard of it besides on here and that people have become addicted to it, and have abused it. Is it something that would benefit me seeing as this is my 2nd relapse? I will try ANYTHING at this point, I am desperate. What should I do?

[Ballgame]

What she said.
There is no magic cure for this.

[Jaybay]

There isn't a hard and fast answer.  Never is when it comes to addiction, is there?  The decision to try Suboxone therapy is something you need to talk to your doctors about.  It's not a magic pill that will cure your addiction or spare you withdrawal.  

The active ingredient in Suboxone is buprenorphine, which is a highly potent synthetic opiate.   Unlike typical opiate drugs of abuse, bupe is a partial opiate agonist, which simply means that the drug doesn't fully fit to the opiate receptors in your brain.  There's enough of a fit for it to stop cravings and keep you from getting dope sick.  Like any other narcotic, bupe will get you high, can be abused, and cause withdrawal symptoms if suddently discontinued.  The brand name of buprenorphine alone is Subutex.  

Suboxone contains an additional ingredient called naloxone which is meant to deter crushing and injecting forms of abuse.  There is so much misinformation about Suboxone - not only online but from doctors - that I'm glad you're doing your own research.  Some people take Suboxone without understanding that they are still physically dependent on a narcotic and that they WILL have withdrawal eventually.  A lot of doctors also tell their patients that they won't experience withdrawal when they quit.  Wrong!

I get really concerned when people who abuse pain meds like vicodin turn to Suboxone.  It's like trying to put out a fire with gasoline from a purely withdrawal symptom perspective.  IF you use it short-term as a tool to stabilize your life and actually work a recovery program, thats another story.  Talk to your doctors about it and see what they think.  What you want to avoid is being even more overmedicated with Suboxone than you are with the vicodin.  Thinking that you're "cured" may lead you to believe that you can skip the mental work.  Do not be fooled.  All those cravings and triggers will be right there if you quit Suboxone without learning some new coping skills.

What happened to trigger your relapses?  Was it the physical withdrawal or the mental symptoms and cravings that did it, or both?  Are you working any kind of recovery program and making those difficult life changes like staying away from people and situations that you instant associate with using?  You CAN do this, and you deserve to have a great life free of the chains of active addiction.  Now is the time to look back at why your first two attempts failed and plan a different approach.  Suboxone may or may not be the right way for you depending on how out-of-control your life is with the vicodin.