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Buprenorphine withdrawls
Hi, I have posted on here a couple of time over the past few days. I started taking heroin when I was 14/15 which tool me to a very bad place, prison/ living on the street by my late teens. I tried many different ways to get off heroin rehab/straight cold turkey detox etc but eventually got put on a buprenorphine Maintainance program by my doctor and local drug team so that I could sort my life out first. This worked for me to get off the heroin. I managed to move to a new city and put my self through university. I graduated this year and I am planning to get married to my fiancée next year.
But, I am still taking the buprenorphine. I have never really had a problem with taking it and have stuck to my prescription. I have now been taking subutex for 9 years and I'm ready to stop. I have tried before but it was impulsive and I just stopped at quite a high dose, I only lasted 6 days mainly due to the lack of sleep getting to me.
Now though I have cut myself down to 0.2 twice a day and im planning to stop altogether on Thursday this week.
The inky time I have been totally clean since I was 15 is for 4 months when I went to rehab. The wd's from heroin were bad enough but I am really worried about how long I am going to be ill from buprenorphine as I have been told withdrawals could last for up to 6 weeks. The seems like a lifetime sitting here now as I am already feeling it from cutting my dose down.
I have posted on here before about whether I should take my doctors advice and use codeine through my detox to ease the pain. I saw the doc today and we have decided against it. Instead I am going to use 10mg tamazapam to help me sleep. Although I'm not sure what difference this will make.
I'm basically asking for any advice people could give me, especially to do with bupe withdrawals, what might help with wd and sleep and when will wd's start to get better.
Thanks
But, I am still taking the buprenorphine. I have never really had a problem with taking it and have stuck to my prescription. I have now been taking subutex for 9 years and I'm ready to stop. I have tried before but it was impulsive and I just stopped at quite a high dose, I only lasted 6 days mainly due to the lack of sleep getting to me.
Now though I have cut myself down to 0.2 twice a day and im planning to stop altogether on Thursday this week.
The inky time I have been totally clean since I was 15 is for 4 months when I went to rehab. The wd's from heroin were bad enough but I am really worried about how long I am going to be ill from buprenorphine as I have been told withdrawals could last for up to 6 weeks. The seems like a lifetime sitting here now as I am already feeling it from cutting my dose down.
I have posted on here before about whether I should take my doctors advice and use codeine through my detox to ease the pain. I saw the doc today and we have decided against it. Instead I am going to use 10mg tamazapam to help me sleep. Although I'm not sure what difference this will make.
I'm basically asking for any advice people could give me, especially to do with bupe withdrawals, what might help with wd and sleep and when will wd's start to get better.
Thanks
Hey Girl,
You're Awesome! Congrats on the Degree and starting a new life.
I too, like you was a double habit Heroin and Methadone addict at a young age and went to the Fed for awhile. Kicked in jail. No fun.......
I am 31 days now off of Sub (relapsed after 30 yrs. clean) after over 1.5 years and cannot tell you how good it feels to be free! I tried twice before to get off myself and failed miserably (literally and figureatively). This time I'm done. I slowly went from 16mg. daily to 3mg. then 0. The Doc gave me Clonodine, Muscle Relaxers and Sleeping Rx's all of which you'll likely need.
Bupe w/d is very different for everyone. I started feeling somewhat Human after around 26 days, and I'm pretty much relatively "Normal" now. Keep your Doc informed as to what is going on with you so that if you need anything else to enable you to get off you can get it and be successful.
For me the physical part was not as bad as full opiates, but it was a real mindbender. Unfortunately there is no magic way to get off without w/d. Distraction is a great tool to keep your mind off of what you're doing. Read, watch a movie, anything that you like to do to distract yourself. It was LOUD angry music for me. I wish you luck. The folks on this board will cheer you on and support you as they did me. Give a shout with any questions or issues.
You're Awesome! Congrats on the Degree and starting a new life.
I too, like you was a double habit Heroin and Methadone addict at a young age and went to the Fed for awhile. Kicked in jail. No fun.......
I am 31 days now off of Sub (relapsed after 30 yrs. clean) after over 1.5 years and cannot tell you how good it feels to be free! I tried twice before to get off myself and failed miserably (literally and figureatively). This time I'm done. I slowly went from 16mg. daily to 3mg. then 0. The Doc gave me Clonodine, Muscle Relaxers and Sleeping Rx's all of which you'll likely need.
Bupe w/d is very different for everyone. I started feeling somewhat Human after around 26 days, and I'm pretty much relatively "Normal" now. Keep your Doc informed as to what is going on with you so that if you need anything else to enable you to get off you can get it and be successful.
For me the physical part was not as bad as full opiates, but it was a real mindbender. Unfortunately there is no magic way to get off without w/d. Distraction is a great tool to keep your mind off of what you're doing. Read, watch a movie, anything that you like to do to distract yourself. It was LOUD angry music for me. I wish you luck. The folks on this board will cheer you on and support you as they did me. Give a shout with any questions or issues.
congrats on wanting to be clean and starting your w/d.you shouldn't keep making new threads. just post from the same one every time. if you really want to be clean you shouldn't use anything (narcotic) during w/d. you need to cleanse yourself. you didn't get addicted in 2 weeks and you can't get clean in 2 weeks.you need to get support go to na,aa. you need to rid your body of all the poison. scroll all the way down this page and check out the health pages.
god bless
debbie
god bless
debbie
OBTW, I agree with above, don't use any Narcotics to get off. Doc offered them to me and I refused. Glad I did now.
Hi thanks for the advice. I posted again btw because my previous posts were on someone elses thread.
Hi wolfmedicine. Btw I'm a guy (rich) my girlfriends name is Jess. We use the user name on movie sites so I used it here, I can see why you thought I was a girl! Lol. Anyway, what are sleeping rx's? I'm from the UK and I haven't heard of them before. I googled them and I'm sure I should be able to get them some how, are they any good?
Hi wolfmedicine. Btw I'm a guy (rich) my girlfriends name is Jess. We use the user name on movie sites so I used it here, I can see why you thought I was a girl! Lol. Anyway, what are sleeping rx's? I'm from the UK and I haven't heard of them before. I googled them and I'm sure I should be able to get them some how, are they any good?
Good job on making this positive step forward in your life.
Actually ... Wolf thought you were a girl because that is what you have selected. When we hover our mouse over your name it says "Female". I would imagine you can go into your profile and change it.
Actually ... Wolf thought you were a girl because that is what you have selected. When we hover our mouse over your name it says "Female". I would imagine you can go into your profile and change it.
ROFL! That's my husband all right! Wolf: I thought I showed you how to change your profile? :-D
I'm sorry Jaybay I must not have said that clearly. I was telling Richjess that Wolf thought Richjess was a girl because Richjess has female selected.
It looks like Wolf's is correct to me.
It looks like Wolf's is correct to me.
Oh haha. It's probs cuz I'm using my mobile, I hadn't noticed. Thanks for letting me know.
Hey Rich,
Sorry about that......didn't mean to imply that you were Gay or anything.......Ha!
OK, you will likely need Rx (prescriptions) for tamazepam for sleep which you have. If it doesn't work tell your Doc and he/she (haha) can give you something different like Trazadone (worked for me but weird *** dreams..), Lunesta, Ambien CR (watch out for side effects of Ambien) or something similar. Also Clonodine which reduces blood pressure and wd effects (we tend to focus on symptoms and blood pressure goes up the more we focus). Last but not least, a muscle relaxer to reduce restless legs arms. Flexoril, Soma etc. A word about all of the above...Take As Prescibed, do not self medicate. I decided that I was still in pain and sleepless and doubled my Clonodine dose with alcohol. BP was around 90/50.......very dangerous.....How many mg. of Bupe are you going to drop from and how long have you been on that dose?
You're still Awesome for getting your degree and starting a life in the right direction even if you're not a chick. Where are you in the UK? Our Best Man (#1) was from London.
As always the board is here to support you, answer dumb questions and share knowledge. It does help to have many others in your corner. Give a shout. If you want to communicate with anyone privately, use the send meesage or note tools. See Ya.
Sorry about that......didn't mean to imply that you were Gay or anything.......Ha!
OK, you will likely need Rx (prescriptions) for tamazepam for sleep which you have. If it doesn't work tell your Doc and he/she (haha) can give you something different like Trazadone (worked for me but weird *** dreams..), Lunesta, Ambien CR (watch out for side effects of Ambien) or something similar. Also Clonodine which reduces blood pressure and wd effects (we tend to focus on symptoms and blood pressure goes up the more we focus). Last but not least, a muscle relaxer to reduce restless legs arms. Flexoril, Soma etc. A word about all of the above...Take As Prescibed, do not self medicate. I decided that I was still in pain and sleepless and doubled my Clonodine dose with alcohol. BP was around 90/50.......very dangerous.....How many mg. of Bupe are you going to drop from and how long have you been on that dose?
You're still Awesome for getting your degree and starting a life in the right direction even if you're not a chick. Where are you in the UK? Our Best Man (#1) was from London.
As always the board is here to support you, answer dumb questions and share knowledge. It does help to have many others in your corner. Give a shout. If you want to communicate with anyone privately, use the send meesage or note tools. See Ya.
That's ok bout the chick thing. Lol. I worked out what you meant by rx after. Hadn't heard of the expression before. I will ask the doc about clonodine etc thanks. I was on 0.3 mg twice a day for about 3 months now I have dropped to 0.2 twice a day and have been on that for a few days. I will probably stop at this dose on Thursday I think if all goes well.
I really appreciate the support by the way as before I found this forum I hadn't spoken to anyone in my position and kinda felt a bit alone with it. So thanks.
Oh I'm living in cardiff at the moment but I have lived all over the place, London, Birmingham, cardiff and Bristol mainly though.
I really appreciate the support by the way as before I found this forum I hadn't spoken to anyone in my position and kinda felt a bit alone with it. So thanks.
Oh I'm living in cardiff at the moment but I have lived all over the place, London, Birmingham, cardiff and Bristol mainly though.
Hey Rich,
Are you sure it's 0.3 and 0.2mg? If so, and you're OK now, that is a super low dose and I'm hopeful that this won't be rough for you as I'm jumped off @ 3mg. and felt like Hell.
No worries on the support. That why everyone is here. Keep us posted (pun intended).
Are you sure it's 0.3 and 0.2mg? If so, and you're OK now, that is a super low dose and I'm hopeful that this won't be rough for you as I'm jumped off @ 3mg. and felt like Hell.
No worries on the support. That why everyone is here. Keep us posted (pun intended).
I started on about 10 - 12 mg and have tried before at about the same as you 3 or 4 mg but couldn't get past about a week. So nice one for what you've done, gives me hope! Yeah I'm on 0.2 twice a day now and hoping to drop to 0.1 before Thursday and then stop. Hopefully this time won't be as bad. Just worried that cuz of how long I've been taking them it might not make a difference.
Rich,
If you've got it down that low, and you're OK now you should be good to go regardless of duration. It's not like wd only starts when you stop, it comes as you ramp down also. Get some comfort meds from your Doc as we discussed and git er' done as us Rednecks say!
If you've got it down that low, and you're OK now you should be good to go regardless of duration. It's not like wd only starts when you stop, it comes as you ramp down also. Get some comfort meds from your Doc as we discussed and git er' done as us Rednecks say!
Thats the thing, I am feeling pretty rough now. One thing I was gonna ask was when your wd's peaked at their worst. I can't remember the last time. Was just wandering so I knew when they would be at their worst.
Hey Rich,
Sorry to hear you're feeling rough. Unfortunately, there is no way out of this without some wd. Did you get the wd meds that we discussed? If not see your Doc!
I hate to say when my wd peaked because it's very different for everyone and I jumped off at a much higher dose than you. So, your experience will likely not mirror mine (I hope not). For whatever it's worth it was around twenty days to peak. I went to the Doc and got refills on my meds and stronger ones. It was downhill from there and I am 100% good to go now on day 33. Hang in There.
Sorry to hear you're feeling rough. Unfortunately, there is no way out of this without some wd. Did you get the wd meds that we discussed? If not see your Doc!
I hate to say when my wd peaked because it's very different for everyone and I jumped off at a much higher dose than you. So, your experience will likely not mirror mine (I hope not). For whatever it's worth it was around twenty days to peak. I went to the Doc and got refills on my meds and stronger ones. It was downhill from there and I am 100% good to go now on day 33. Hang in There.
I asked the doc about the clonodine and he wouldn't give it me. Said he'd never heard of it being used in that way. It's similar to lofexodine I think isn't it, I did try it to get of heroin years ago when I was 18 but it didn't help then. He said he'd look into it though so I'll maybe go back and ask if I feel too bad. I was just reading though peoples past posts and read yours wolf, can't believe you drank though the worst of it. I think that would have killed me! So glad to hear feelin better now tho.
Well anyway I had my last sub this morning so here we go, I'll keep you posted. Pun
Well anyway I had my last sub this morning so here we go, I'll keep you posted. Pun
As the observer of Wolf's detox, I can say that the alcohol made it far worse than it would have been otherwise. Don't even think about following in his footsteps. And don't do what he did overdosing on the clonidine if your doctor agrees to it. More is not better!
I will defo take that advice jaybay. Thanks.
Anyway thought I might post here when I can as it might help people in the future.
Today is day 2. So far so good and compared with other ct's ive done, not as bad as I expected. Yet!
I used an iPhone sleep app last night which helped me relax but in the end decided on the benzos to knock me out. Apparently my legs and feet were going mad all night but I managed to stay in bed for 6 hours.
The main thing is, my head in in a better place than I thought at this stage, touch wood. So so far I'm feeling quite positive, which has been the biggest battle in the past.
Unfortunately my girl has had a bad cold and I think I have caught it from here which isn't helping.
My skin is crawling and my legs are killing but hanging in there.
Anyway thought I might post here when I can as it might help people in the future.
Today is day 2. So far so good and compared with other ct's ive done, not as bad as I expected. Yet!
I used an iPhone sleep app last night which helped me relax but in the end decided on the benzos to knock me out. Apparently my legs and feet were going mad all night but I managed to stay in bed for 6 hours.
The main thing is, my head in in a better place than I thought at this stage, touch wood. So so far I'm feeling quite positive, which has been the biggest battle in the past.
Unfortunately my girl has had a bad cold and I think I have caught it from here which isn't helping.
My skin is crawling and my legs are killing but hanging in there.
Hey Rich,
Just keep on pushin through!
You are in for a long haul, but dont lose sight of your final goal.
I kicked sub at 3mgs 180 days ago. Definitely not fun at all.
My wd's peaked at day 3 of CT, and hung there for another week. The first 10 days was miserable. On the 11th day I was called to work an International Long Haul flight (Im a flight attendant) and ended up being overseas for the following 18 days. I was terrified of having to complete this detox alone and away from home... however in hindsight, keeping myself busy with work definitely worked to my advantage.
After two weeks, the restless legs started to subside, and only bothered me at certain times and for very short periods.
The absolute worst part was the insomnia! I think I slept a total of 6 hours the first 10 days. I think it took a good 3 weeks before I was sleeping a good 4-6 hours a night. Doesnt sound like much, but it was well welcomed.
All in all it was about 28 days before I started to really feel like myself again, and at 42 days I felt "normal" or about as normal as an opiate addict can feel. :-P
It seems never ending, but it certainly does end, and is well well worth it! Hang in there, keep posting!
Henry
Just keep on pushin through!
You are in for a long haul, but dont lose sight of your final goal.
I kicked sub at 3mgs 180 days ago. Definitely not fun at all.
My wd's peaked at day 3 of CT, and hung there for another week. The first 10 days was miserable. On the 11th day I was called to work an International Long Haul flight (Im a flight attendant) and ended up being overseas for the following 18 days. I was terrified of having to complete this detox alone and away from home... however in hindsight, keeping myself busy with work definitely worked to my advantage.
After two weeks, the restless legs started to subside, and only bothered me at certain times and for very short periods.
The absolute worst part was the insomnia! I think I slept a total of 6 hours the first 10 days. I think it took a good 3 weeks before I was sleeping a good 4-6 hours a night. Doesnt sound like much, but it was well welcomed.
All in all it was about 28 days before I started to really feel like myself again, and at 42 days I felt "normal" or about as normal as an opiate addict can feel. :-P
It seems never ending, but it certainly does end, and is well well worth it! Hang in there, keep posting!
Henry
Thanks henry. Yeah I'm planning on hanging in there I know it's gonna be hard but hopefully I'm prepared for the worst. Im completely sick of it all now. I have been addicted to some sort of opiate for more than half my life and I want it back now.
Congrats with your 180 days, I wish I was there now! Can't believe what you did at 11 days, it gives me hope.
Keep up the good work, you guys are doin a great job at helping others like me. Hopefully once I'm better I'll be able to do the same.
Congrats with your 180 days, I wish I was there now! Can't believe what you did at 11 days, it gives me hope.
Keep up the good work, you guys are doin a great job at helping others like me. Hopefully once I'm better I'll be able to do the same.
Withdrawls in waves anyone?
Was just wandering, anyone have any idea why my withdrawals are going in waves? I spend a few hours in bits and then it seems to ease off for a bit. When it's bad it's the restless feeling and massive anxiety.
Just asking because I'm trying to work out if it is something that is making me better or not. I've gone cold turkey and done many Withdrawls before but they are usually more or less constant.
I took some tamazapam last night but I don't think it's that now. The only other things I'm taking are minerals and vitamins three times a day.
Was just wandering, anyone have any idea why my withdrawals are going in waves? I spend a few hours in bits and then it seems to ease off for a bit. When it's bad it's the restless feeling and massive anxiety.
Just asking because I'm trying to work out if it is something that is making me better or not. I've gone cold turkey and done many Withdrawls before but they are usually more or less constant.
I took some tamazapam last night but I don't think it's that now. The only other things I'm taking are minerals and vitamins three times a day.
Hey Rich,
The waves could be because of your anxiety which you know is normal. The more you focus on your issues, the worse it seems to get. Distract yourself with something you like to get your mind off it, watch a movie, listen to music, anything. Hang in there. You have lot's of people in your corner.
The waves could be because of your anxiety which you know is normal. The more you focus on your issues, the worse it seems to get. Distract yourself with something you like to get your mind off it, watch a movie, listen to music, anything. Hang in there. You have lot's of people in your corner.
Reading the posts have been so helpful. My daughter is now 14 days CT off Suboxone, and I believe she is finally getting through this. She still has the restless leg and insomnia. She has said she hasn't slept for 5-6 days, and her doctor really doubted it was that long. Could she have gone without sleep that long? She also mentioned yesterday, that she doesn't hear someone in her mind screaming any longer. Her body jerks have finally slowed down. This stuff must be a nightmare.
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