Aa
Tried to get off Suboxone-Wow!
I am 70 days post detox from opiates, benzos and alcohol. Was put on Suboxone in a treatment center to treat the withdrawals. I was weaned down to 1/4 2 mg pill until my prescription ran out 4 days ago. The w/d I felt in the past 3 days was almost more than I could bare. Today I called my MD that has been monitering me here at home, who thought I was off of them a couple of weeks ago. So I had to confess that I had been taking a miniscule amount until Sun. Since then I have been in fullblown w/d. We decided that this probably was not the time to cut them off all together, restarted them today and so I feel like I am basically on day one again..I never in my wildest dreams knew this stuff was so addicting. The MD at the treatment center said there would be no withdrawal when I came off of them. How could medical people be so misinformed? I am angry, scared that I will go through yet another trip to hell getting off of the subs. Has anyone had a positive experience with this?
i had the same thing happen to me except i was addicted to oxycontin for 3 years then i had an MD put me on Methadone for "back pain" even though i told him i was addicted to oxycontin he pretty much coached me into the whole back pain thing, i was on methadone for 3 years when the MD treating me got busted for dating a patient n left me screwed no other doctor would give me meds because its illegal to prescribe methadone pills for opiate addiction, so i started seeing a doctor to help me with that and they put me on Suboxone i started with 4mg and now i take 32mg i have been on suboxone for almost 2 years and i am so ready to be done i just dont want to go to withdrawls and dont trust doctors to help me when everything ive ever been addicted to came from a doctor!!!! i would get off the suboxone now even though it will be painfail its worse later.
Thanks all. I am back on a low dose of subs at least until I see the MD in a month. I have no real reason to get off of it except after this incident, I am scared to death to be "hooked" on such a powerful drug after so much work in treatment and recovery since I have been out..Guess I just need to change my mindset about sobriety at this point. I am taking it as prescribed and that is the best I can do for now. I will keep you all updated when I do make the leap.
Quitting sub is hard. My original sub doc also told me that there were little to no withdrawal and it would not be a problem if I wanted to stay on it long term. Well - that was a huge mistake. The problem is that the docs have never taken it and most have never been addicted to opiates, so they don't know. Start a slow taper and drop off at the lowest possible level - slivers - and it will be so much easier. Best of luck
My sub doc told me the same thing about no w/d I've been on them 8 months, started @ 24 mgs! I'm now @ 12 mgs & a new more senseable sub doc but he also says no w/d or only "mild" w/d so about a month ago I thought I'm ready 2 quit sub so I did for 4 days! It was def NOT mild w/d but I was taking a huge amount per day & still even @ 12 mgs per day its a hefty dose. I want to get off but guess I will have to do it slow. It ***** to b hooked on another med when all I want is to b clean! I wish u the best of luck, u can do this & so can I it might b a battle but I'm ready, gonna start tapering next week. Keep us posted & best wishes!
Jessica
Jessica
Welcome to the forum,
Suboxone is tough. I was on it for nearly 4 years and had a heck of a time getting off, In the end, I needed to go through a detox for the suboxone and that was no cake walk either. I have been clean now since June 2009 and if I had it to do over again, I would have never taken the suboxone to begin with. However, I will admit that suboxone still does have it's place and it helps lots of people, including me. If it weren't for suboxone, I probably would have relapsed fairly quickly and the spiral would have started all over again. Hang in there, stopping at the low dose of 0.5mg like you did is the way to go, but you still want to taper as long as you can. Good thing you have a doctor that is willing to work with you. Plan on a couple of weeks to get through the entire thing, but if you can start skipping days between doses, once you finally stop for good it will be much easier. All the best.
Suboxone is tough. I was on it for nearly 4 years and had a heck of a time getting off, In the end, I needed to go through a detox for the suboxone and that was no cake walk either. I have been clean now since June 2009 and if I had it to do over again, I would have never taken the suboxone to begin with. However, I will admit that suboxone still does have it's place and it helps lots of people, including me. If it weren't for suboxone, I probably would have relapsed fairly quickly and the spiral would have started all over again. Hang in there, stopping at the low dose of 0.5mg like you did is the way to go, but you still want to taper as long as you can. Good thing you have a doctor that is willing to work with you. Plan on a couple of weeks to get through the entire thing, but if you can start skipping days between doses, once you finally stop for good it will be much easier. All the best.
I recently posted some of my experience with suboxone and my current relapse onto pills and now my w/d's from opiates AGAIN.
I am obviously not a success story either. Can I ask why your stopping them? If your doing well, no bad side effects maybe you can just continue a bit longer. However, if you are forced to quit for whatever reason please know that you can do it. It is a nightmare, but you can do it. If I can anyone can. I had two failed attempts prior to quitting so don't feel defeated because you didn't make it this time. Lyrica was amazing, I've heard neurotin is also very good at helping to ease some of the physical side effects and the lyrica just makes me feel better all the way around, I don't believe I could have every gotten off the subs without the Lyrica. It will take some time, about two weeks before you start to feel maybe %80 better. It got better everyday for me after about day 11 or 14, somewhere in there it really started to ease up, some of the effects are long term, I'm sure you've heard of PAWS, very very real, don't let it scare you off from trying to quit if you have to quit because it scared me really bad hearing everyone talk about long term effects.
Hang in there, your not alone. suboxonetalkzone.com is a great place to read experiences.
I am obviously not a success story either. Can I ask why your stopping them? If your doing well, no bad side effects maybe you can just continue a bit longer. However, if you are forced to quit for whatever reason please know that you can do it. It is a nightmare, but you can do it. If I can anyone can. I had two failed attempts prior to quitting so don't feel defeated because you didn't make it this time. Lyrica was amazing, I've heard neurotin is also very good at helping to ease some of the physical side effects and the lyrica just makes me feel better all the way around, I don't believe I could have every gotten off the subs without the Lyrica. It will take some time, about two weeks before you start to feel maybe %80 better. It got better everyday for me after about day 11 or 14, somewhere in there it really started to ease up, some of the effects are long term, I'm sure you've heard of PAWS, very very real, don't let it scare you off from trying to quit if you have to quit because it scared me really bad hearing everyone talk about long term effects.
Hang in there, your not alone. suboxonetalkzone.com is a great place to read experiences.
I've seen all of two positive Sub experiences on this forum in the past couple of months. That's a pretty poor success/ failure ratio in my opinion. Your doctor is so incredibly misinformed I'm stunned. Does he not believe what he's seeing in front of his eyes? You are experiencing Suboxone withdrawal. Hello! Sorry about the rant - couldn't help myself.
So what does your MD propose now? Has he got a detailed plan for you as far as how long you stay on the Sub this time, and has he given you a taper schedule? Did he propose any kind of comfort meds like clonidine for the next time you quit? If you don't have any kind of supportive therapy going, now is the time to start whether it's private or with NA or AA. Sub detox seems to be the worst as far as the emotional beatings it deals out. You really don't want to go through that alone.
Don't look at this as a failure or think that you're starting all over again. My husband is now on his 3rd try of Sub detox since late summer. Looks like he finally made it through but he's still pretty shaky. Of course, he tried to substitute alcohol to deal with the withdrawal which only made it all that much worse. His first attempt ended just like yours. The second lasted almost a week. The good news is that you haven't been on it as long and you're quitting at a lower dose. A lot of people try to jump at 2 mg and where Sub is concerned, that's a pretty tall order. Take a deep breath, write down your plan and do it - just don't do it alone.
So what does your MD propose now? Has he got a detailed plan for you as far as how long you stay on the Sub this time, and has he given you a taper schedule? Did he propose any kind of comfort meds like clonidine for the next time you quit? If you don't have any kind of supportive therapy going, now is the time to start whether it's private or with NA or AA. Sub detox seems to be the worst as far as the emotional beatings it deals out. You really don't want to go through that alone.
Don't look at this as a failure or think that you're starting all over again. My husband is now on his 3rd try of Sub detox since late summer. Looks like he finally made it through but he's still pretty shaky. Of course, he tried to substitute alcohol to deal with the withdrawal which only made it all that much worse. His first attempt ended just like yours. The second lasted almost a week. The good news is that you haven't been on it as long and you're quitting at a lower dose. A lot of people try to jump at 2 mg and where Sub is concerned, that's a pretty tall order. Take a deep breath, write down your plan and do it - just don't do it alone.
Everyone is different, but the rule of thumb is that Suboxone has a half-life of 36 hours meaning you shouldn't feel any withdrawals until about 24-36 hours after your last dose. But like I said, everyone is different.
My daughter is currently taking Suboxone, doing a rapid detox. She's down to 4mgs a day. Sometimes she skips days because of the half-life keeps the cravings and withdrawals at bay for long periods of time.
I would talk to the MD about going even LOWER. Then, going every other day, then every three days, etc. My daughter's doctor has her on an individualized plan (again, everyone is different) and she's planning on going down to .25 mgs a day (easy to do if you get the film) and then start the every other day dosing, etc.
I'm not saying this is the best approach for you, but it something to consider.
As far as a positive experience, I read on here about a month ago about a young woman who quit the Subs at 2mgs and had no withdrawals at all. But again, everyone is different...
And please don't get frustrated... Don't look at it as starting over, just look at it as an adjustment to your treatment. There is no one size fits all plan to get off of opiates, it's a trial and error kind of thing. This is my daughters second attempt at getting off opiates and so far she's doing really good.
Best of luck to you... I hope you and your doctor can come up with a workable solution to your recovery.
My daughter is currently taking Suboxone, doing a rapid detox. She's down to 4mgs a day. Sometimes she skips days because of the half-life keeps the cravings and withdrawals at bay for long periods of time.
I would talk to the MD about going even LOWER. Then, going every other day, then every three days, etc. My daughter's doctor has her on an individualized plan (again, everyone is different) and she's planning on going down to .25 mgs a day (easy to do if you get the film) and then start the every other day dosing, etc.
I'm not saying this is the best approach for you, but it something to consider.
As far as a positive experience, I read on here about a month ago about a young woman who quit the Subs at 2mgs and had no withdrawals at all. But again, everyone is different...
And please don't get frustrated... Don't look at it as starting over, just look at it as an adjustment to your treatment. There is no one size fits all plan to get off of opiates, it's a trial and error kind of thing. This is my daughters second attempt at getting off opiates and so far she's doing really good.
Best of luck to you... I hope you and your doctor can come up with a workable solution to your recovery.
Yes-since I was in treatment..
Thanks for the welcome-glad to connect with folks like me..
Thanks for the welcome-glad to connect with folks like me..
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