best way to stop taking suboxone?

I have been taking suboxone for over 2 years now...I am taking about .5 mg a day but i just started 2 days ago with .5 a day i have been taking 1 mg the last week or two..i really want to stop but i am so afraid of withdrawels..i have tried a few times before not recently but about a year ago i went 4 almost 5 days and they never got better so now icant ever go more than a day or 2 and i give up. I am so petrified of going through that again..but i feel like i jst traded one addiction for another i took pain medication for 2 years. if anyone has any advice i would love to hear it. I am so ready to stop i have even canceled my appointment with my doctor so i cant be tempted not to follow through with it. I have a about 5 days left to take .5 mg then i will have to. i have been testing the waters here and there and the withdrawels are worse than i ever remembered the burning in my chest my arms going insane my legs it is the most uncomfortable i have ever felt. Does anyone have any ideas it would be greatly appreciated.
thank you

[IBKleen]

Hi & Welcome to the community!

I am afraid to tell you that there is no way to escape the withdrawal. It is a good thing that you got down to a smaller amount and could have gotten down even further but you will still have to detox at this point.

If you work and there is a way to take some time off, that would be helpful. There are otc supplements that you can take to ease the withdrawal as well.

Since you cancelled your appointment you will have to commit to the process and stick to it. I have seen too many people get on Suboxone to get off of pills and then go back on pills to get off of Suboxone and the cycle goes on and on. You don't want to do that. Now is your chance to end this.

I won't say it is pleasant, as I am sure you know, but it is doable. If you have ever had the flu then you know what you are in for. You feel crappy for 5 or 6 days and then you will start to feel better.

Since you have 5 days left you can start planning now. If you go to the top of this page, on the right, you will see the health pages. In there you will find The Amino Acid Protocol. It contains the supplements I was talking about and so many members have said that it helped. As you go along others will tell you what worked for them to help them along.

It is quiet tonight and late so be patient while members come and go over the weekend. There is a lot of good advise here so stick around.

[gnarly_1]

HI I had to taper off methadone and went in and out of withdrawals along the way the last 25 ml were pritty ruff ....I did read about and then try something that helps though you can pick it up at walmart for 6 bucks....its a 3 in one vitamin calcium/magnesium/zinc start taking it right now it helps to build it up in your system it actually took a couple of days for it to work but I was in withdrawals for months and I noticed a big difference one I started taking it ...you take 4 with breakfast and 4 with dinner I think it will be worth you time to do this...as for the rest of it highlands restless legs stuff helps to that and lots of hot baths
you may need several a day if you  can do it...the most important thing is a good attitude
I have watched several here on the forum come off of sub and a good attitude goes a long way...dont let fear into the equation...it is always worst in our minds then it actually is ...remember its only temporary...and this is a battle one or lost in ones own mind...I wish I had more for you but there are a lot of members here with first hand experence coming off sub check back tomorrow im sure they will find your post good luck and God bless.....Gnarly  

[badshadow]

I detoxed off Subutex/Suboxone, and it is that last little bit that is the hardest.  Personally, I think that all Dr.s who put People on Suboxone should be shot, but that's just me.

I have learned alot about different type of Opiate and Opiate Substitutes mostly the hard way.  I went on Suboxone because I couldn't stay clean from Vicoden.  I stayed on it a year and told the Dr. I wanted to get off.  This Guy tell me that it is "so hard" to detox from Subuoxone I might as well stay on it the rest of my life.

I did it though, and I've been off it more than a year.

The worst part is the "Fear" we have in our own minds.  Try to put the Concept of Withdrwawals in another way for yourself. Think of a time or something in your life that you really wanted and you had to work hard for it.

That is like getting off Suboxone or anything.  Alot of it is in your mind.  You are going to feel discomfort, but you are dying.  You do not have Cancer or a Terminal Illness, just don't take it, find ways to get through the days and nights, and one day you will wake up and realize you are feeling better.

I know it is easier said than done, but this is a good place for support.

I wish you all the best.

[HenryS354]

Congrats on your decision to drop the suboxone!

You are in for one hell of a ride, but it is quite a liberating feeling.  The strength that you will see in yourself after this is all said and done is out of this world!  It is all very worth it, I assure you!

I am on my 33rd day off suboxone.  I like you was on it for two years.  I jumped off May 18th at 3mgs!  I had just gotten fed up with my doctor, and had this gut feeling it was time.  I flushed over 200 subs.

Sub wd is a long drawn out process, and three of the things that helped me most were 1)Positive attitude/outlook- knowing I was doing something to better my life  2) Humour- When the RLS hit, I just had to laugh.  How ridiculous it is that such a little pill can make my legs kick uncontrollably 3)Not fearing wd's WD's wont kill me, why fear them?  I looked at my sub wd as a rite of passage... the only way to get what I wanted was to face the wd's head on!

Sub wd's typically dont really peak for 5-7 days, by day 8 things looked better than the day before.  For me personally the majority of my symptoms were over at 14 days, 33 days later the sleep is gradually coming back. Its hard to say as sub wd's are very subjective and each person responds differently. Just dont let three good days get ruined by one bad day.  This is an up and down process!

Hylands Restfull legs helped take the edge off that jump outta your skin feeling, Calcium with CHELATED magnesium helped at night with sleep and RLS, protein shakes were great for overall well being, multi vitamins in the morning, Melatonin/Valerian at night to help sleep, and lots of HOT HOT baths with epsom salts.  The Epsom salts are essential as they will help with the muscle aches as well as give you additional magnesium as it is absorbed through the skin.

Psyche yourself up, make small goals- Get out of bed every morning, and make your bed, take a hot shower/bath, and get out of the house for short periods each day!

I remember on day 8, I forced myself to go out and walk around a japanese garden. It was super hot out and I wanted nothing to do with it, although I forced myself to proceed-getting dizzy and gagging the whole day.  It was well worth it.

Keep posting and dont lose sight of your final goal! You can do this!

Henry

[Tahna]

Thanks for the advice everyone..i am soo ready to do this well at least 95% of me is the other 5% is so scared...if i knew it would be over in 5 days then i would deal and be alot more excited to get this over with the fact that it takes so long is what scares me the most. i made the mistake of taking xanex to try to taper quicker and took them for about 2 months and i had to stop and go through moderate withdrawels from those i am the type of person who gets dependent quickly but i have always just taken enough percocet or suboxonre to get by i really never went beyond that it was just i took percocet for 2 years then suboxone i started on my own and just recently the last year or so started seeing a doctor but suboxone just feels like another addiciton and a more expensive one at that..i am 25 and so ready to live a normal life i cant keep a job i am up and down all the time life is such a struggle and it all comes down to my dependency..i am just ready to move on with my life. i keep telling myself that a week or two of painful withdrawel is worht more than another 4 years of your life being dependent on something..i just wish it didnt take so long with the xanex and even percocet i only withdrew for a week 5 to 6 days this is going to be so much harder...i am ready just have to stop freaking myself out. it is worth it  in the end. thank you all for your advice and would love to hear anything else that might help thank you again...

[Justin_R]

Woe, glad o found this place! Day 5 off Suboxone. I'm not gonna go on and on about how I got here other then a few basic things to put things into perspective: I took oxys, perc's and morphine hard for a year and a half starting as an injury and bringing me to 200 + mg per day. 5 or 6 months ago got on 12 mg of Suboxone; stayed on it for 3 months then tapered 2 mg every 2 weeks. I found the taper from 6-4 and 4-2 rough for a few days but smoked a bit of pot to calm me down. I also too citalipran and clonidine as well. I started experimenting when I got to 1 mg with skipping days or breaking it in half to see which way was easier on my body. I got down to .5 then started skipping days and didn't really notice it much, however, my body got used to not having it everyday. So far, aside from having zero energy I feel ok. I'm a little scared but I have Suboxone here so if in the worst case I taper down more to .25 every several days or less until noting. Not sure how it's gonna play out but up until that point from which my addiction took hold of it, I had been clean for almost 6 years in a recovery program...otherwise I wouldnt have smoked pot. It did help though.

Justin

[PrettyGirl25]

hi so glad I found this site. I'm on suboxone for 1 year now and from day One I've taken 2 then stopped for 2 days and same thing for a while. Then After 2 months I only got Down to a. 25 a day. and recently I've been taken 2 Idk what us wrong with me my brain keeps telling me I need it. What should I do? I'm prescribed 2 a day. But never took that many. Me and my husband Share my script every month he gets 30 and so do I. we cant afford for.both to go. I pay $70 a month for DOC and my scripts are paid in full by Medicaid each month so I'm very blessed with that. I KNOW! Can someone please help me????? y do I keep thinking I need more and more??? the rate I'm going I will run out b4 my.next visit which DID happened last month.

[lukeman001]

My wife is checking into a detox facility to drop the subs, she has hundreds of them and im trying to tell her to taper as much as possible before stopping commpletely but she thinks it doesnt make a difference,  some advice in this area would be great. Anyone know if tapering helps???

[TxGirl73]

Hi, I am the same way. I just keep telling myself( its true) that it doesnt matter how many i take,  taking 2 a day is doing the exact same thing as me taking 1my a day. There is only so much u can take/ absorb so i tell myself im wasting it.
The best thing to do in my oppion is to taper down and get off and prepare yourself 7 -8 days of some discomfort but take the calcium magnesium that i have been reading about plus the epson bathes. I have NO damn idea why these doctors prescribe this ****! I have never done drugs, ever in my life, i just had buldging dics in my back,  was given pain pills then suboxone and now i feel like an addict, yet havr never done illegal drugs. Im here today in this predicament due to doctors.  Shame shame. This is an epidemic. Know ur not alone, ur going to make it through getting off this crap and reclaim ur life. I am and the entire time im getting of this i am not going to be scared ... im going to be pissed cuz i want my life back!

[forgottensick]

I hated doctors now because of this issue. My doctor put me on methadone 7 years ago and never said how much trouble I would have getting it and how bad the withdrawls would be. Methadone and suboxone are about the same when it comes to the half life (time it stays in your system). Doctors don`t really care about the person anymore. They only care about the money they can make by getting people addicted to drugs. It`s like job security to them. I don`t believe suboxone is anything good. I believe it is something Big Pharma came up with to get people hooked into HAVING to spend more money and they own most doctors and the doctors will do whatever they are told. I think the sooner you can free yourself from that drug, the sooner you will feel alive again. You can do it.

[Jeffroegan]

Contrary to what most of the posts above have said; Suboxone has been a very useful tool to help me VERY SLOWLY regain some control in my life. I was spending $100 to $160 /day on oxy's for about 4 years. I really don't know how I held it together, but I was for sure losing it. Financially i surely lost it, although it is coming back after 2 years on suboxone. At first I was taking an 8mg tab daily for maybe 4 months. Then I broke it in half and had a 4mg tab daily for a while. Eventually my DR. started prescribing me the smaller 2 mg tabs (i would take one daily). After that I would break the 2 mg in half and dose the bigger half, if I felt sick by that night I would take a little more. Eventually I started breaking the 2mg halves into quarters and having about a 1/2 mg per day. I have been at the 1/2 mg/day rate for a few months now. About two weeks ago I started just taking a few very small crumbs that have broken off when I break the tabs.  
Three days ago after my routine of waking -toothbrushing then dosing suboxone I thought that the crumbs I was taking were so small that they couldn't possibly be doing too much for me anymore. So I decided not to dose. I went to work with a subox in my pocket (just in case) . Around 11oclock I started yawning uncontrollable and got weak and lethargic feeling. My clothes were feeling heavy on me and I was hot and clammy. These symptoms were so mild compared to simply withdrawing from oxycontin. I was able to finish the day of work and made my way home (without the need for the suboxone in my pocket). My Doc gave me xanax to help with the anxiety. I had two cocktails and a xanax and tried to sleep but my legs were twitching slightly. One more xanax and I calmed down and actually slept most of the first night.
The next day I woke up feeling slow, sluggish, achey (achy), mostly really hungover. I did not dose any soboxone nor did I really feel the need to. Although I was feeling sick physically I was happy just knowing that the previous day (for the first day in over 6 years) I accomplished a full day  without an opiate . Again the second night -xanax and a cocktail. I had no restless legs or sweats. I actually slept most of the night.
This is the start of my third day without any opiates. I do feel a little groggy but its more like a mild cold or flu than oxy detox. I have a good attitude because I feel that this monkey is finally off of my back.
Two or three years ago I was certain that those oxy's were going to kill me.
Today I feel okay, I have a positive outlook. Im getting married in August and am happy to be alive.
Suboxone helped me pull it together. Don't rush it. Slow and steady decline was the key for me.

[UcanIDID]

I just wanted to say that I went through the battle back and forth between Oxy and suboxone for YEARS!!!! My fiance, who I have my babies with and as long as it has been SHE IS MY BEST FRIEND AND WIFE! This is a duo situation and it basically started when I had multiple shoulder surgeries and a Doc started given me 5mg roxy and 20mg footballs telling me eat 3 5's every three hours and 2 20's at 9 and 9. Our son just came home from complications so we where happy! we had 11 days before my first surgery and then just shy of a month for him in and then me for just a week. I surprisingly recovered physically from the surgeries I had but after #2 moved. My wife was over welmed with taking care of our 2 year old daughter and our brand new son...here come bath help dress feed basically   she did everything but have to wipe! I was a zombie sweating and nodding off constantly. Do not get me wrong I beat a cocaine addiction standing on my head sleeping eating the whole time. No rehab or blog.
this was different they at one time litterally just stopped cold turkey on my script. I was a 40 hour a week collage student and had no choice but hit the street. this is physical! knees back sweating in 40 degrees with no coat status!  Crazy time! So Surgeries in 2007 it is now 2012 and I have been clean since Jan 20th 2012! I got to spending $300 twice most days! I lost my career and the savings was going not to save the house but to try and get back on top of income I needed to be high! So yeah lost everything including my best friend! When my inlaws came into my house to move my wife and kids out I got so deppressed I did nothing. They asked what stayed and I said "nothing!". Walking in my kids rooms where I would go kiss them and wisper good night in there sleep ears and tell them I loved them evry single night was empty! I crawled into an empty bed and that combo of pain was worst than the RLS and WD. I made it through but please do not lose everything to get there! I lost many friends to OD because they couldn't hang with the vicious cycle!
I since then have now started to feel almost 100% but still daily challenge to get moving. I am now working on my relationship with my wife and kids! Here is the catch is that she was doing suboxine for the last two year to try and quite and the DT's are worse then on the OC. Hands down...I do not know how to help her because she is 5'7" 115 pounds naturally and has no excess fat to burn. Between the WD and depression I lost 28lbs. She cant do that and she has stopped off crumbs 4 times and 3 weeks in still had trouble moving. We are at a point that I want her to stop because she is good for two week on sub can't get any and then fish flops and it hurt me to see it because I remember that from trying to do it together but not this last time?! I try to keep her positive and I rub her legs 3-4 times a day with lotion and through the night rubbing them dry! She is so scared to do this but I do not know how to convince her that being sober has been the best thing I have ever had and I feel like I just was released from prison and I can rebuild my life! She lets me know about everything I did to get high when she was trying to quite and that I don't care when I don't try and hunt but the problem is I do not talk to those people and dealers change phones go to jail so on! I am getting everything mentioned in the blog besides narcotics and yes I smoke pot but it only real help was a little sleep and eating! Please any advice helps and PLEASE IF YOU ARE GOING THROUGH IT LIKE THEY ALL SAY WD WON"T KILL YOU AND FROM ME THE DRUGS WILL!!!! 15 childhood friends dead and about that in and out of prison!!!! I died the day they took my family out of destruction. I had 3000sq ft home hot rods to an Esclade on rims and TV's 250k annual income and I am now homeless staying on my moms couch and with my wife and kids as much as possible. I lost it all...wife kids house all cars but the dump truck 95 f150 because it was paid for. and I couldn't sell it fast enough to get high! No Job and Homeless working to recover and help her see it is worth all of it! Just the kids is all I worry about...job hunting, cutting wood and working on peoples cars for survival. Rest of my time is focused on the three most important people and that is my WIFE AND KIDS...making sure I do not go there again. I even had a tooth pulled and no Hydros or event over the counter because the habit of taking something scares me too much! GOOD LUCK AND GOD BLESS! I AM HERE TO SHARE THIS WITH BECAUSE OF HIM! today is 4 months

[jetta1958]

wow iv been on for about 8or 9 years my teeth r bad  i c ant gain  a pound  and im 50ty life ***** o and i dont even have a docter i hate my life i want my old life back b4 the pills but like every one i am afraid of bing sick I NEED SOME HELP

[jetta1958]

wow iv been on for about 8or 9 years my teeth r bad  i c ant gain  a pound  and im 50ty life ***** o and i dont even have a docter i hate my life i want my old life back b4 the pills but like every one i am afraid of bing sick I NEED SOME HELP

[cissy2933]

i thought taking more would make me feel better. so i tried it a few times and i couldnt tell any difference at all. its just your head telling you , you need more but really you wont feel any difference, least i didnt. i've been taking them for about a yr now at small doses. i can make one strip last 4 days. guess thats not bad considering what i came off of before the subs. i was taking oc,perks,tabs,roxy and pretty much anything that was around. finally got tired of being sick and broke and then someone introduced me to subs. now i save way more money than before and take way less meds. tried to take extra sub to get that good feeling that i never get anymore lol . it doesnt work your just wasting if you take more. hope that helps.

[cissy2933]

I'M IN THE SAME BOAT YOU WERE IN. I WAS TAKING LOTS OF OPIATES. OC, PERK. ROXY PRETTY MUCH WHAT EVER I COULD FIND. NOW I'M ON SUBS. THEY HAVE HELPED ME TO STAY OFF THE OPIATES BUT NOW I HAVE TO COME OFF THE SUBS. I CAN MAKE ONE STRIP LAST ME 3 TO 4 DAYS AT BEST. I'VE BEEN ON THEM ABOUT A YEAR NOW. HOW DID U COME OFF THEM. CONGRATS ON A BETTER LIFE . I KNOW HOW BAD IT IS WHEN YOUR ON OPIATES BAD.

[Beard81]

I was an addict for 5 years and now have been taking subs for 2 years and are ready to stop. I am down to about 2mg a day and totally believe that weening down helps and although it might take longer it's definitely the way to go. Suboxone saved my life and got me off oc's right before all my user friends switched to heroin two of whom are dead now so I believe in what subs do and any withdrawal that happens when I finally stop for good I will deal with cuz it's better than being dead.

[ma123mna]

Hey guys...never really go on these relief n support sites...i am 27 and i was on oxys 80s roc30s n opaneas from 18 to 25...i grew up in the most wonderful family ne one could ask for..parents were n still r absolute Angeles..i grew up playing soccer for extremely competitive travel teams..traveled the world experienced life and truly embraced it for what it offered me...i have been raised with strong morals n values and the great thing is even at my rock bottom never los t sight of that but i unfortunatley feel sometimes like i have misplaced my soul my God givin right to be happy or to find happiness in things i used to...i understand how the chemicals in our heads help create that but im ashamed for allowing myself do feel like my life was missing something..a joke wasnt enough i had to be high or a night out wasnt fun without getting high...i just moved in with the love of my life...she was a victim of sexual abuse by her biological father for the first part of her life...the things she was put through so unwillingly n even after all that ****** up **** her disire for life n love is one of the most inspirational things to witness...i guess what im getting at is I have been clean for over a year but have been on suboxins for going on 2 I have rediscovered my reason for life I've been so selfish these past 10 years every problem I ever had was self inflicting it is time for me to wipe the tears and give in to lifes beauty its been at my finger tips this whole time i just never deserved it until now...God bless all of u in ur quest for enternal peace keep u all in my thoughts n prayers

[toothfairie]

hi and welcome!  you might want to start a new thread....just click the "post a question" tab at the top of the page so more people can see this.  This is an old thread you posted on and not many will see it....Good luck in your journey to get off the subs....this site is great for info and support!