Getting "High" from Suboxone

Question

Hi,

I posted earlier about someone dear to me getting Suboxone for the first time today from a doctor.  That person is my husband, and I am very proud of him for making this step in his recovery.... my question to all of you is..... the doc put my hubby on 2mg of Suboxone to take one every 4 hours for the first 24 hours, not to exceed the 4.... about 1 1/2 hours after taking his first dose, (just now took his second), he said he really felt "high" like the high he got from the lortab and/or percs that he used to take until yesterday...  I thought you didn't get that "high" feeling from Suboxone??  Is this something that he will go away in time as he continues to take this, or will it continue to make him feel high??

Thanks!!

onthefence · Answer

i cannot beleive they are giving ppl buprenorphine , for hydrocodone or oxycodone addiction, it is so much stronger, it does have the 32 mg. ceiling effect but holy krap the W/D from that compared to oxy or hydro, is way harder and longer in duration , especially with the long half life.

formeraddict · Answer

I take 8/2 mg strips twice a day. I have never felt "high" from it even when I first started. Compared to heroin it is nothing, coming from a former addict.

lild713 · Answer

I never took a whole strip, also I cut really tiny piece I felt high at first, also he won't "feel high" anymore after couple day's just normal. I was like wtheck but I never thought it felt me taking any opiates. I just felt good and energized and sober really. I had a plan taking suboxone for a week or two the most and just stop.

Clong45 · Answer

I'm very familar with Suboxone and what it does to me anyways.
Tapering for 6 months is a long time.

What is your exact dose in mgs a day?  How long you been at that dose?

Hope I can help you!

cowgirl2012 · Answer

I noticed this comment is from '08, but hope you are still available. I am currently down to the exact amount you were when you were tapering off sub.. Just a sliver of a 8mg. I recently went 4 days without any sub. the 5th day was horrible and took a sliver. OMG, it lifted me so much. Skipped a day, and today took another sliver. How much longer will this take to get completely off without feeling so bad and light headed???? I feel tired, depressed, fuzzy headed, just abnormal. I have been tapering off for a long time now (8 months). I never took a high dose because I was scared to. I talked to my family physician and she started me on a antidepressant that might help. thanks.....

dragonflydust26 · Answer

when i took my first dose of 4mg i was messed up for a day. now im on 16mg a day and can tell when its time for next film. its kept me clean for 7months. i get that talkative and energy in the AM after my first strip then im good after two hrs or so. im functional and dont constantly want H or pills. IDK why alot of ppl are against this. mostly those who never had a  needle up their arm or dr shopping. so dont jump the gun till youve walked in a true addicts shoes

Cliffrw209 · Answer

I've been taking suboxone for 3 months now. I take 8mgs 1 time a day. I only got "high" off suboxone for about the first 2 days I started taking it. From what I understand after its in your system for a week or so It doesn't get you high anymore because of the naloxone (the opiate blocker). You would have to wait about 2 to 3 days without taking suboxone until the buprenorphine (the opiate) will have a effect.

jdevincenzi · Answer

I was on suboxone for 3 years. I was taking 32mg for the better part of it and then went down to 24mg right before i went to rehab. I never once got high from taking suboxone. But i never took it any other way except for sublingually. So in my experience if you take it how your suppose to your not going to get high from it if your an opiate addict. Honestly i think its a great medication for opiate abuse, although most doctors and clinics dont prescribe it correctly in my opinion. Suboxone is not meant to be a long term program to get sober. But the doctors tell you your gonna have to be on it for life or for a long time. Thats bull ****. Just like any other doctor their trying to make money. So i ended up going to rehab after 3 years of suboxone use (i was also smoking meth and crack and shooting cocaine the last year). So ya also to everyone out there that thinks you can just take suboxone and be fine, no, you can use other drugs on top of it. Anyways, i detoxed from subs. It took almost 3 weeks, it was the most aweful detox' ive ever been through and ive detoxed from heroin plenty of times. My detox was so bad i ended up going on a "maintenance program" of subutex. Took like 12mg and tapered off over i think 2 months. Basically dropped it 2mg's every week. That made the detox a little better, actually it was fine for the first month, once i got down to like 4mg's it was no fun. So ive been sober for almost a year now, and ive been off subs for almost 6 months. If i were to recommed anything it would be to not take subs or methadone or anything. Just suck it up and go through the detox. Being on subs or methadone just puts you right back in the same spot, having to use something to not get sick.

IBKleen · Answer

Hi,

Something is not right. Suboxone comes in 8 mgs pills. The ceiling on it is 32 mgs. So there is no way you are taking 80 mgs or 120 mgs. It wouldn't work first off and you might just die from that.

Did you do research when you decided to go the program? Do you know that it's an opiate? Do you know that it is a program, not just a pill? On it for the rest of your life??? That would scare the heart out of me. 

You are way off base with the numbers and the time, etc. Talk to us.

And oh yeah, you should NOT be getting high from it. Think about it, what would be the point?

halstead124 · Answer

WOW I CANT BELIEVE I WENT TO MY SUBOXONE DOCTOR AND THE FIRST VISIT HE HAD ME AT 80MG THEN WENT BACK THE NEXT WEEKTHEN HE ADDAED ANOTHER 40MG SO I THINK WHEN HE WAS FINISHED I WAS ON 120MG A DAY AND TOLD ME I WOULD HAVE TO BE ON THEM THE REST OF MY LIFE AND ALSO WOULD HAVE MONTHLY MEETINGS THAT YOU HAD TO ATTEND THAT WAS ANOTHER 100.00 THEN SAYS THAT YOU WONT GET OFF ON SUBBOXONI AND THAT YOU WOULD NOT GET A BUZZ OR GET OFF LET ME TELL YA I WAS WACKED FOR LIKE A 8 hours straight but it does work great

Ladytruth · Answer

I will tell you this, I got very high off the sub for the first few weeks, and sadly this made me want to increase the dose as I saw the high was less and less. All I did to myself was get me to 24 mg. when I was supposed to be at 8, and it turned me into a mess! I had no energy, I was irritable, I felt poisoned.  It was too much and I started to hate taking them.  I got myself back down to 8 mg. within a couple of weeks, but not with out pain and suffering. Suboxone can be a miracle drug yes, but I will warn that it can also be pure hell.  I am now weaning off and it has been a nightmare, worse then any opiate I ever touched!  My friend had to use Percoset to help wean! It's a scary drug to tamper with, so never go higher on your dose if you do not need to, stay as low as you can. Believe me in the long run you will be glad you did.  I can't wait to be off this stuff, it's only been 4 months for me and I have had it!  Don't try to get high off it, if you do and then it stops working, ou will find yourself training your brain to still need the high and guess what? You have lost your battle with addiction... the point is to get clean and to live sober NOT to get high, I did my experimenting, it wasn't worth it, and being and feeling straight truly is better, i am so much happier now! And I finally have energy again.

HenryS354 · Answer

I was also a little buzzed when first starting subs... that first dose in the morning would give me a decent warm buzz, kind of like when my old junk would first start to kick in.

This does go away with time.

Unfortunatelly, I was one of those unfortunate few that self medicated to get that feeling back, and it did work... for awhile anyway.  A lot of people say you cant get high from sub, but for me personally, I could.

HS

Riley219 · Answer

suboxone messed me up when i first started taking it. now i can take 24mg of it and it does not do a thing. puts me a lil better mood at times. IDK about suboxone sometimes. it does one thing one day, and they do a different thing the next day. its not consistent

IBKleen · Answer

akred,

I didn't want you to think no one was answering you. this is a old post and will be easily lost. It would be best if you would start your own post by going to the top of the page and hitting the green "Post A Question" button.

In the meantime, I would not be too concerned. If he is taking the Suboxone for a heroin addiction, then they probably have him on the maximum dose of 32 mgs. He will be sleepy. Hopefully they will work with him and lower his dose to where he can function.

I am happy to hear he is getting the help he needs. Best of luck to you!

akrec2 · Answer

my son started suboxone yesterday.  12 mg a day  he seems a big high like when on the heroine.  I knowit isn't heroine because he is actually in a court ordered facitlity and only gets to come home for meetings or 4 hr visits. So today he is home and really looks like he did when on heroine. Will this go away as he continues to take he sub?  his dosage is controlled, given to him by the medical unit at the facility, so he can't be taking more than prescribed.  it is just a bad flashback, didn't think it would hit him like this.

TysonRed · Answer

When I was on suboxone I never got the full body high like I did with oxycontin/norco/percocet, but I for sure did get somewhat of a high, mostly just a boost of energy feeling. For me when I went on suboxone I was coming off methadone and the feeling suboxone gave me was very comparable to the methadone in lower doses. The weird thing was I started at 8mgs and felt fine, later on when I got down to 2mgs and less I actually felt more of a buzz than I did at the higher dose. In the end suboxone (buprenorphine) is an opiate so there is going to be some mood altering properties to it. Now Ive heard from many different people about what they experienced while on sub, some say they never felt high at all, while others recognized the "buzz" that it can produce. In the end I became just as addicted to suboxone as any other opiate in my life, I couldnt get out of bed in the morning before my dose would kick in. It did return some sense of normalcy to my life but it wasnt without its drawbacks. Just to be clear the high that I got from sub was an energy high, not the sleepy, nodding in an out kind of high that I got from abusing methadone and oxycontin. It felt like when I was on low doses of methadone where I was fully functionable and you could never tell that I was on pills. Now it sounds like he just started the treament so after he is more stabilized on a dose, if the symptoms are a problem I would tell him to be completely honest with his sub doctor. Ive spoken with doctors that believe because its only a partial agonist that you shouldnt get high or even that there are no withdrawals, which both are completely false. The key piece advice I can give from my experience is to really try and start on the lowest dose possible, once your stabilized immediately start your taper and get down to the absolute lowest dose before you quit. Just for example when I quit I was taking just a tiny piece, around (.25mgs), literally just a miniscule sliver. Lastly and probably the most debatable topic surrounding sub is the length of time one should stay on. I tend to think that sub treatment should be as short as possible, there are exceptions that actual sub maintenance for prolonged periods are justifiable, but if the person is "really" trying to get clean, being dependent upon another opiate is only a temporary fix. One more thing to add and I dont mean to sound negative or anything, but going through suboxone w/d's compared to percocet or norco (any short acting opiate), in my opinion is a tougher cookie to crack. That is why I believe starting on a low dose, start tapering and getting off as soon as possible is usually the best course of action. At the same time we are all so different that there is no sure fire way of sub treament, atleast not to my knowledge. To end on a good note Ive been clean off sub since Oct.08, has one minor slip up about 5months in, but besides that things have been great. So suboxone did work for me, although I think with the same determination I would be clean today whether I had went the sub route or just continued my taper. I wish you and your family the best of luck, if theres anything I can help with feel free to ask, take care.

mtgoat911 · Answer

ok, so at a low dose i got the warm fuzzies, at a high dose i was so messed up i could not take care of my kids,or work, so i do not believe the information that ga guy stated, but thats ok, we usually disagree, i am more concerned with the amount of information you and your husband have about sub., i hope you do some more research, i have a couple of sites i can giude you to if you like, i am not about forcing my views on people, just expanding knowledge, i was on sub and methadone so long, it would be a sin not to share my experience and ideas being on these drugs and getting off them, the key word being "off"

GA Guy · Answer

For reasons I won't go into here, Sub has a ceiling effect that kicks in at dosages above 2mg. Up to that amount, Sub acts just like every other opiate. It acts differently above that dose. As your husband gets more Sub into his system, it will give him less and less of a "high" It affected me the same way for the first couple of days.

jess8487 · Answer

I got high the first 5 days but after that i felt the effects less and less..I am on 8mg twice a day..I believe it will go away for your husband, just tell him to give it a few weeks and he will feel normal..The only side affect i have now is occasional extreme tiredness..This is a good treatment and Good Luck to you both!!

lisa6013 · Answer

He took at least 10-15, and when he had percs, it was the same amount.... so I would guestimate that he took 12-20!  lol  Did you always get high off of the Suboxone for the duration of time that you took it??