How long does it take to get off suboxone?

[edie12]

I have been treatment resitant depression for 15years, suboxone has been my miracle life saver, as well as my mother who uses it ( wisely) after even her ECT never worked. i have been on 24 medications, only suboxone has saved my life. ( in never use opiates except once when i was desperate i dabbled for a few weeks)
the only problem is that it seems to lose effect on me ( not my mother- perhaps cause she alternates between 2-4 mg a day) whereas i never go past 4 mg a day. i find that for me only, it poops out after about 4 months, and i have been taking drug holidays which i am miserable as i only have a lousy anti-depressant to help me out.
the withdrawals are rough- today is day 5 no suboxone. is this long enough holiday so that i can go back on it again and have the same 2mg a day work? i used to take 1 and a half weeks off but it is too hard.
please can you advise me how to detox rapidly and keep my tolerance down.
also please save any stupid lectures about how depressives should  not take suboxone- you have NO IDEA how hellish my life was two years ago for so many years until suboxone saved me. the holidays are damn worth it!
i can now work, and feel like a normal person, no anti- depressant, mood stabilizer etc has ever worked long so please keep your own judgements to yourself- unless you have a clue of how dehabilitating depression is- i used to cut my wrists, attempt suicide again and again - suboxone has made me normal - and my mom is great too.
ie. please just answer my question and save your judgements. i have been on suboxone 2 years and it is my lifesaver, i am sick of the criticism and yeah i have heard it all.

[Luludog]

I use to have a extremely bad drug probably with opiates Like Oxycotton, Fentanyl and Heroin. I was on all of thaitts for 2 an a half years and I finally decided I didn't want to live like that anymore. I found out about Suboxone from my family doctor so I was like hey its time to give this a try. Suboxone is suppose to be a short term detox but if you let your self take it for a long time it's going to be harder to get off of it. I was taken Suboxone for three months and I slowly took my self off. It will take a long time to get your body back to being normal but it really helps if you try to be active. I notice by me going to the gym and exercising and the more I sweat the better I felt. I can tell you this it felt awesome to not have to take the Suboxone to be able to function and ect.. It will take a while to get your body fully back to normal but it's a start and I can tell you from experience you can get high from taking Suboxone... I wish the best for everyone. ..

[forgottensick]

  Suboxone has a very long half life and take longer than other drugs to leave your system. The only other drug with such a long half life is methadone. I have suffered from deep depression my whole life. It has been so bad at times that I didn`t even get out of bed for months at a time except to use the toilet, and even that was a job. I`ve tasted the end of a gun barrels a few times as well. I know depression well. We have lived together for 53 years now. I have neen on everything too and have been a walking zombie. The past 7 years I`ve been on Paxil and methadone. Life for me has been livable. 3 months ago my doctor dropped me because he got in trouble for writting opiate drug scripts. Last week I found another doctor to give me the meds I need to survive life again. I can`t even tell you how bad these past 2 1/2 months have been. I`ve never heard of getting suboxone for depression, but from what I have learned about it, I never want to know. I am now trying to taper off the methadone. I take it for severe cronic pain as I`m disabled too. So all I can really tell you about suboxone is that it has a very long half life and take a lot of time,like a couple months,to clear out of your system.

[sugarsugar696]

This is my first time on Suboxone how long will it take me to get off of it ?

[guru6875]

I am currently going through my second detox off of suboxone and am psycologicaly worried this time so I began looking at these sites.  Truthfully I wish I never had, the first time I came off I weened it down to where I was only taking shavings and never noticed any withdrawals.  This time seems different, I have been on it for three years and started weening myself about six months ago.  I started out on 3 8mg a day, and slowly weeened down over the last six months to .25 mg which is where I am today.  The problem is that I am starting to get withdrawals, diarrhea, chills, and head aches.  They are NO where near as bad as when I tried to stop taking opiates (Oxy's, Percs, etc) on my own at first, but They still suck.  I guess I have to keep the bigger picture in mind,  got myself into this and I am the only one who can get myself out.  I have wasted years of my life on drugs and lost everything I have.  So if I have to suffer for a few days than so be it.  Also, if me coming on here and typing this helps me or anyone else get through it than it was worth it!

[Hensley258]

Oh I agree 100%. I'm talking about maybe 5% of patients that absolutly have no options left.

No way for the masses. I agree with this drug there are risks involved, but When the other option is simply death I think it's a viable solution.

[mr.lucky66]

Sub does give a slight high and is very addictive. Acually it's almost as addictive as methadone. Maybe for suicidal pts. but not for the masses with depression

[Hensley258]

Actually I think edie is talking about suboxone, which is Opiate based, but that is absolutly impossible to get "high on."

It has somekind of added ingrediant that prevents the drug from giving a high.

As for getting hooked like a Lab Monkey, well maybe your right, but I have had to take AD medication to control my severe depression for a full 16 years now, with no break except med changes.

That would actually make me a Lab Monkey on antidepressants. I fail to see the difference.

[mr.lucky66]

Yes opiates are the best antidepressant I ever had and I tried them all, SSRI'S etc.. The only problem is you get hooked like a lab monkey, I did. I guess if the depression is like or death it's worth it but not for me at this point. I used methadone for years but there's no future in it.

[Hensley258]

Actually Suboxone is buprenorphine and naloxone.

There is a Ton of newer scientific evidence that supports that fact that this opiate is almost the perfect antidepressant. I say that because it is VERY effective, BUT I also say "almost perfect," simply because science can't get the Opiate side effect out of this medication. After all it is an opiate, but not like the kind of opiate you take to get high.
People like me with Refractory type Uni-polar Depression, (haven't tried it yet) That take Buprenorphine often get significant improvement of their severe depression, when other drugs like MOA and Tri-cyclics just don't offer full relief of their severe symptoms.

In fact there are several Major Drug companies that are currently trying to develop a "new Type" of opiate based antidepressant medication without the bad Opiate mechinism in it.

If and when this is successful you will see a revolutionary leap in Severe depression treatment. Because of it's universal effectivness at treating depression, and because of it very high positive response rate we can all finnaly get relief in a safer and more tolerable medication that actually works.

Edie12, I don't blame you at all for taking Buprenorphine. As I have sufferered this damn cronic disease for so long with only partial relief and failing meds, I may also join you in taking buprenorphine.

It's hard even for clinical depression sufferers to understand the level and intensity at which true Refractory Depression kills you. I mean it's so bad that you can't even get up off the floor, (Not even kidding) at my worst I am almost catatonic. I mean litterally not able to even function. It's a Hell in which I have no words to describe it. It goes far beyond just clinical depression that requires and SSRI.

That's why Edie takes the Opiate based drug. It really works even for this kind of massive depression.

I just had to explain that because I didn't want everyone on the Forum to think edie was some distructive drug user of Opiates.  

[mr.lucky66]

I didn't know sub was used for depression and I'm saddened to hear it. Sure it works, it's dope, really. That's the problen when people  say drugs like sub saves their lives like in the addcition section where they use it a lot. It may seem like it saves your like, but at what price? With patience and good medicial supervision you can get off of it. all the best

[Kova]

i think no one wants to answer because we are all thinking the same thing suboxone for depression?  and you said you don't want to hear it.  i have major depressive disorder as well and i have been through 4 meds before finding wellbutrin which helps me.  the problem with the suboxone is that you will build up a tolerance to it and need more and more for the same effect and when you do want to kick it, if it is anything like other opiates, you will go through hell.  no desire to try to find an antidepressant that works for you?  takes a lot of patience and trial and error but maybe you just haven't found the right one.

i know how bad depresseion can be.  sending you love and hope for whatever you decide to do.

Kova