Successful Detox with Suboxone

[coastalgirl]

I wanted to tell my recent story detoxing from opiates (fentanyl patch and oxycodone) using suboxone.  I was responding to someone's post and thought I would start my own thread - maybe offer some insight to others considering this path.  I see a lot of questions about suboxone here, so maybe this will help someone.

I did an inpatient medical detox at a residential treatment facility over an 8 day-period about a month ago, using suboxone.  It worked very well.  The only drawback to suboxone is that you must be in full w/d - they made me wait 24-hr (why you should really do it under medical supervision, if possible, so you can be comfortable and maintain your sanity).

They provided me with clonodine (great for the heebie jeebies), serequel (for anxiety) and trazadone (for sleep).  Fortunately all of those make you drowsy, so I was able to sleep most of it off (something I did not enjoy at home during a few half-baked attempts).

Once 24-hr elapsed, I received the first dose (pills) of suboxone.  I wasn't exactly kicking my heels, just a hell of a lot better than I was 30 min before (a wreck). I used it PRN over first 48 hr to set dose, then tapered down slowly and relatively unnoticabely over next 6 days.  I felt pretty tired but much better than I thought I would. Achey and slugglish like I had a cold, but able to eat regular meals, joke around, shower and put makeup on (not an option during w/d).  I even actively participated in group sobathons and vigorously blamed my mother whenever possible.  That was worth the $500 co-pay alone.

I left feeling in decent spirits (very surprised) since they tweaked my anti-depressants.  I started Wellbutrin, but the Topomax has really eliminated any cravings.  It seemed to be a staple for the addicts at my facility (cravings and anti-depressant).  Haven't seen it (Topomax) mentioned here but it's pretty innocuous, inexpensive and in the many doc's I have met (psychiatrist, psychologist and psychopharmachologist) estimation, a must for recovery.  

Once home, I wasn't on soboxone any longer but I think the biggest lift was having the opiates out of my system. They had become such a depressant that I was the lowest I had ever been in my life one week prior.  They were literally making me crazy.  Not uncommon from what I hear.  Yet another reason to despise them.

Now, I struggle most with energy.  I have be kind to myself.  It's been five weeks and I am dead at the end of the day (but not as much at the beginning which is an improvement).  I guess that's when I want to use most, not for the high or euphoria, just to be able to have some steam for myself after I put my daughter to bed.  But, it gets better every day.

Most importantly, I have my life back again and I have hope!  My body is healthy. I don't have to be in pain/turmoil and live in shame.  I am at peace again and I did it by myself for myself and my family reaps the benefits of a healthy wife/mother.

I hope this helps someone.  It helped me to write about it.  Good luck.

[GoingToMakeIt]

Energy is one of the last things to come back. Are you set up with after care? You now have to stay clean. An interesting read is in greatGreebo 's journals here is her link
http://www.medhelp.org/user_profiles/show/333612

Look up PAWS.
Welcome to this forum, too. Good job on getting clean and thanks for sharing your success story. That was $500.00 well spent.

[IBKleen]

Welcome!

Wonderful post. I also went the Suboxone route for a 16 day detox.

Now that you are clean, did they set you up with aftercare to STAY clean?

[road2recovery]

WOW!!  Great post..and i agree 500 dollars well spent...I have heard about the clonodine, and the serequel, anti -depressents etc...But not the topomax...

What was you the amount you were on when you went in???
i agree with the after care too....
keep up the good work......again congrats on your new clean life
r2r

[coastalgirl]

I have great aftercare, thank you!  Weekly visits with a therapist I like, who knows me well.  Family who loves me and cares for me.  All of my doctors know my story and are working toward my recovery.  Didn't someone say it takes a village?

R2R  - Topamax is intended as an antiseizure and migraine medication.  As w/many other meds it has alternate uses, some of which are working for me.  I started at 25 mg twice/day and now take 50 mg twice/day with 300 mg Wellbutrin.  I was taking 150 mg Zoloft when I went in which was totally innefective.  No apparent side effects.  

Have a good night.  

[broknbck]

Congrats! I'm very glad for you. As far as energy, just cannot stress how important diet is. You can get instant results from food as you did drugs. If i juice in the morning, i can really feel it. Try to put as much fresh, whole, unprocessed , uncooked foods in your body as you can stand.Also alot of protein.

If you want your car to run good you put good gas in it. Not gas mixed with sugar or something else right? Our bodies can regenerate and repair themselves if we just feed it right. Good Nite.

[flmagi]

Good post, and congrats on getting clean. Is this Topomax something they gave you After the suboxone?
Also really liked the blaming your mother for everything... I think I could do that too!  lol lol
Thanks for your story. Keep up the good work.
Magi

[Jennifer375]

quote," I even actively participated in group sobathons and vigorously blamed my mother whenever possible.  That was worth the $500 co-pay alone."

Thankyou so much for sharing your experince CoastalGirl,, your sense of humor and message of hope are a beautiful thing to see around here.

*Bows in deep respect for your courage and willingness to offer hope to others suffering but seeking to overcome the addiction*

[NoMorePills500]

I havn't read this entire thread, as I'm about to lay down and try and get some sleep, but I figured that I'd add in my own experience with Suboxone. I was addicted to K4's (Dilaudid, Hydromorphone) for about 2 years. Toward the middle-end, I would shoot up about 10-30 pills per day (40-120mg). At first I thought I could control it but it quickly became obvious that it, in fact, controlled me. I couldn't imagine quitting because even being without a pill for more than a few hours would result in withdrawal. By the end, I had lost everything. My job. My family. My friends. My girlfriend. This only made things worse because I became severely depressed. Eventually, I heard about Suboxone and made a trip to a specialized doctor. I failed (of course) on my drug test which he expected. I was prescribed 90 Suboxone 8mg's a month and I gradually told him to ween me off at 60, 30, 15, and finally none. I feel that I have to say for anyone that questions their effectiveness. If you are in my situation. GO GET IT. They are a god-send. They made me feel like a normal person and now, being off of the Suboxone for about a month, I feel like I'm finally ready to be a functioning member of society again. I am on good terms with my family, me and my girlfriend are back together and I have a better job. Still, I had to have all 4 of my wisdom teeeth removed a couple of weeks ago, and being that I have such a high tolerance for opiates, I was prescribed 5 seperate scripts of Percocet within a 2-week period. I am currently withdrawing (slightly) from those but I will never let myself become that person again. Suboxone saved my life. I can deal with the physical symtoms but the mental effects that opiates had on my brain were unbearable. Suboxone took all of my depression away. If you were like me and have lost everything or just want to quit and know you can't do it on your own, GET SUBOXONE. It's amazing.

[wannabefree330]

I have never taken sub but it is nice to have a story from someone who has had success with it.  I think the key is it was very controlled, and tapered for you.  Congratulations on getting a great start to having your life back.

[emanforda]

I am a long time opiate addict.  I have been trying to get clean sense 2005.  it's been nothing but rehab, programs and sober living houses for the past three years.  The longest i have been clean is about six or seven months.  this last time i managed to stay clean for three months.  I put myself in a long term program in idaho, which is far from home.  The only reason I made it three months is because I had no money,  no where to go, and no way to get there.  I had no choice but to endure the panic, the raw anxiety,   the extreme discomfort that it is to be clean.  Normally i would drink hard alcohol if for whatever reason i didn't have oxy, which is how i spent the two weeks after i got out of rehab before going to the program in idaho and i don't even like booze.  That three months was aganizing, i felt like a mental patient.  Everyone called me doom because i would go through periods of hopless debilitating depression.  If i wasn't utterly depressed, i was super irritable, aggitated and afraid like someone who has post traumatic stress disorder.  It was  like this for the whole three months, moods would fluxuate with intensity.  Most of the time my cravings for oxycontin were intense.  I wanted desperatley to feel normal.  It would get worse, and get better, and get worse, which wore down my patients.    At the worst times,  i would burry my head in my hands, wishing that i could flip a swich to turn off my concsiousness.  I didn't really understand that this was all opiate related because weeks had gone by with no sign of improvement.  Spring break was coming up, i was to go home for two weeks and come back.  I knew i had given up because i was just as uncomfortable after three months clean as i was day two.
I relapsed at home, and it was good to feel like my old self again.  Self ehestiem, energy, motivation, contentment, ambition, and all the other wonderfull things we all take for granted were back.  I fell in love with oxycontin once again.  I wanted to go back to the program and reintroduce mysellf again as me instead of the doom character they knew so well.  I never went back, and i was back up to five, six 80's a day.  My relapse lasted a short month until it stopped working, my tolerence was sky high, and i was broke, desperate and spiritually rottin, and desperate for help once again.  I went to see a detox doctor who put me on seboxone which i had been on before many times but had been taken off of it to quickly.  That made sense to me.  Seboxone is a brand of bupinorphene. Basically it's an opiate blocker, so when you take it, your receptors are occupied so your brain isn't screaming for opiates.  It significantlly reduces cravings and withdrawl symptoms.
The good news is that it acts like a cast for the brain which was recently discovered.  So your brain can return to normal and in the mean time you don't have to suffer as much.  A lot if people think that it just delays the recovery process and that your just continuing your addiction but it turns out that thats not true with seboxone.  It is with methadone.  Anyway i hope to stay clean for good this time and my heart goes out to the rest of you.            

[NoMorePills500]

Yeah, Methadone is a terrible drug. They are all money-hungry bastards looking to keep people addicted. Suboxone, on the other hand, gives little to no effect other than making you feel better. A big step for me definately was realizing that my depression, anxiety, and feeling of utter disgust for my life were mainly brought on by the withdrawals. And what I didn't know is that these feeling last far longer than the physical ones. I couldn't stand it. Anyway, I'm off to work. Good luck to you all.

[Coolio Hernendez]

That is great !!!! Keep with it......You give me hope...