husband on suboxone

[ajm6608]

when me and my husband met i had no idea he was addicted to opiates. i fell pregnant with my first born as a teen. we got married when she was almost one. after we got married is when i found the pills. my husband seemed sneaky. i have very strong intuitions about lying. maybe its motherly instincts. who knows. well my whole world turned upside down. deep down i knew something wasnt right but i didnt or couldnt ever imagine it being a pill addiction. his family has a line of addicts. both sides. who helped him behind my back. anyways i offered to help him get off. he agreed. went thru a week of detoxing. and then he seemed fine...about 5 months later he had a seizure. he claimed he wasnt on anything during that period. i thought he would die in my arms. its put me to the point where ive got severe anxiety problems. 3 months later i was visiting his grandparents with him and he snuck off back in a bedroom with his mother. red flags went off. i begged him to be honest with me because i just knew something wasnt right. he finally admitted he never quit. that he went over half a year lying again. we never had money. i was selling my own items to pay for my childs necessities. i was a stay at home mom at the time. i was a mess. i then gave him the ultimatum. drugs or our kids. i was now 7 months pregnant. he said he didnt want to lose us. he has then gotten himself into rehab. he was put on suboxone and is currently weaning off to finish after about 6 months. my question is how can i be certain that hes off. and that he hasnt relapsed again. what are some signs. it has me paranoid constantly. i know his rehab test his urine the first few months. but i just cant shake this feeling that he will go back to his old ways. his brother is in rehab too now. but as far as other people in his family go. still use heavily. how can i trust him around them..... please someone give me advice

[sharee244]

Hi all
This is my first time posting on an addiction forum but I feel some of the information I have may help others. I have been addicted to nurofen plus (ibuprofen & codeine) for about 5 years. At my worst I was taking about 30 a day, it started innocently enough with genuine pain & I didn't want to take strong prescription pain killers. What a fool was I, n+ ended up running my life. However, just recently I became very unwell with an acute appendicitis & went into hospital for surgey. I took a small stash with me for fear of going through withdrawls. But I managed to go 3 days without and felt pretty good it was the restless legs that bothered me after that. To make a Lin story short, through experimenting I have discovered a great detox method that has worked for me with almost no WD symptoms. First I take slow k a prescription for potassium (6-8 per day), you need to get your potassium levels checked with a simple blood test as ibuprofen causes you to lose potassium through your urine & low potassium or hypokalemia as its called makes you feel very tired, weak & short of breath. Also I took a magnesium/calcium/vitamin D all in one supplement, two pills twice a day. Once you build it up in your system it'll help with the restlessness. I also took an iron supplement once a day & sometimes twice a day as my blood tests showed a low haemaglobin or lack of iron. I also went to my dr who had no idea of my addiction & told him that the low iron & potassium was causing me to suffer severe restless legs (which is true) I said I would not leave unless he could help me because the RLS drove me crazy. He prescribed me Endep (amitriptaline, treats headache, depression and RLS), do I began on 10 mg and ended up on 40 mg & took it before bed only. It was my saviour as I did not suffer RLS one bit once I started taking it. Please bare I'm mind while I was taking all these pills I also did the taper method, I cut it from 30 to 10 right away and then we t one less pull every four days until I was free. I found it quite easy as I believe the ended also improved my mood & def made me feel more motivated. I kept busy during the day and slept really really well at night, not one bit of insomnia which usually goes hand in hand with withdrawl. Occasionally I would have what I call break through withdrawls and I would take 2 pills only & it seemed to help but I went back to my regular taper the following day. I never had any cravings for the drug while I was detoxing I just kept thinking about how great it would be when I was finally free & not having to drive all over the country to buy n+ & all the money I'd save and how much healthier I would be. Today I am free and happy so happy. I'm sure this method will not work for everyone but it worked for me and may help some others too. Feel free to ask questions.

[kmar38]

Hello, I am a man that was also on pain pills for years.  Then I got tired of being a slave to the pills so sought help and was put on Suboxone.  I was on this for about 5 years.  I thought I was doing good since I was not on Pain Pills anymore.  But actually it is just a cross-addiction.  I think its a big racket for doctors to make money.  And the withdrawals are even worse.  Make sure he tapers down over the 6 months or he will be living in pure hell.  I finally had enough, when I got kicked out of 2 suboxone programs for missing appointments.  Not to mention the 300 cash up front  for each doctors. Anyway i made a steep jump off, very little tapering.  And the first week was hell on earth literally.  But now I am 47 days free off Suboxone and I and others have noticed such a positive impact on  my life.  I will never go back now that I have my clarity and emotions back.  Opiates basically just make you numb all over in regards to everything.  Suboxone itself also gives you a hungering for sweets.  So whatever you weigh before suboxone, you can add about 15-25% to your weight.  So I would say, two bigs things to look for, is weight loss as I lost around 27 pounds.  The other is Insomnia.  Suboxone makes a lot of people tired and sleepy a lot.  I would even nod off in morning while drinking coffee.  so it is just the opposite when you get off.  The first week I was off, I got like 6-8 hours of sleep the entire week. I will never forget that week and have used it has fuel to stay off.  So in short, I would say, weight loss and insomnia is how you will be able to tell he is truly off.   hope this helps you.  My best wishes to your family.

[Julia M Aharonov, DO]

I am so very sorry that you got yourself into this situation. You must understand that your husband's problem is both psychological and physical. The physical part of his addiction seems to stem from a genetic predisposition that runs in his family. In no way does it take the responsibility from his shoulders, but it certainly makes it very difficult for him to stay clean.
We deal often with patients like him in our clinic and that is why we insist on initiating a long term Naltrexone therapy after our detox treatment.  Otherwise, most are almost guaranteed to relapse.  Unlike Suboxone, which is just another opiate (and a very difficult to get off of at that), naltrexone is an opioid receptor blocker, completely non addictive. It dramatically reduces cravings and has been shown in study after study to prevent relapse. The trick is to stay on it as long as possible. Please take a minute and read my blog about Naltrexone by clicking on my name in blue and then "blogs". You can also find the information on my clinics website www.mdsdrugdetox.com.
Your husband must be committed to being clean, otherwise nothing will help him. In that case my advice would be to get out of the relationship, but only if you see that he is not staying clean or willing to stay on naltrexone. Good luck to you and my best wishes.

[Ljam62]

I am with you on the not trusting and always paranoid. It's extreme maintenance to live each day with an addict.  Sometimes even when I suspect he's using I ignore the signs cause it just means another episode of screaming & yelling and crying. It's too exhausting. I know he'll never be the man I hoped for but it's so hard to let go.  I wish I could believe he could actually heal. But from all I read it sure doesn't sound promising that anyone has real success in beating the demon!  Maybe this really is hell

[ywf27]

You have to decide how much you love this man and what your willing to lose yourself...how much your willing to give to his addiction should it continue. Don't get me wrong the world is not so black and white but an addict does not become clean unless they want to. It takes work and effort. I can see that you have a good eye for catching on and so continue to do the things your doing, monitor the money situation, interactions with family members, look for sickness and how often it occurs. This situation is frustrating and devastating all at the same time. But for the most part people who try to help become the most hurt. We are powerless to someone else's addiction. We can only help ourselves. I really wish you and your family all the best.