Suboxone Withdrawal

[neur0tix]

Hi, my names Tim. just wanted to get some feedback if anyone has something to say about this topic......

i used heroin for about 5 months... went to the doc to get suboxone to stop... used suboxone for about 2 weeks. started taking recommended 16mg/day, then started doing 8mg a day then eventually every other day and finally 9 days ago I took like 40mg at once stupidly to get a final high, or attempt to.

i felt fine up until 2 days ago... i dont know how but i didnt have withdrawal til then... now i am EXTREMELY tired... like cant walk or do work for long periods of time... i get goosebumps as random as anything... hot/cold flashes, sweats... its not that bad i mean no where nearly as bad as a heroin withdrawal would of been... but i cant sleep at all i got about 5 hours of not so good sleep in past 3 days..... my legs have way to much energy and cant sit still... and i dont know i just wana know if anyone can help me.

i dont plan on going back to heroin, i actually enjoy the pain the subo0xone is bringing me. its just another reminder not to ******* do opiates. but i wanna know how long this will stick around for, because i work long hours in a restraunt and its really hard to keep up. ive had to take off early past 2 days because i was to tired to go on.

[flyfishutahtrout_1]

I have now been on Suboxone for 11 1/2 year. I tried to taper off after the first 3-6 months and ended up relapsing. I have had 7 close friends overdose and die from heroin and about 10 more people that I know pretty well that have also overdosed and died. I have cone to terms that I have a disease called "addiction."  I read a great article that totally made sense to me about a year ago. It was about other diseases that you have to take medication for. Take diabetes for example. If you have diabetes you are not going to stop taking your medicine for it because it will make you much worse and most likely even kill you. This is no different than having a bad addiction to opioids. I have taken suboxone for 11 1/2 years and for the first year and s half I tried to get off of it and relapsed several times. Once I decided to try to stay on some suboxone and not taper off I have not even had a thought of using for just over 10 years now. So you can look at this is a couple ways. You can be a person which is not me and go off of something and never go back, or you can take medication for your diseases and have a fighting chance to stay alive. I just now want to go fisht either the government or the maker of this medication to make it affordable to people so they can have an experience like mine. I have been fortunate enough to stay clean, get good health insurance that would pay a good amount so I could afford my suboxone because if I didn't there would be no way I could afford $800 per month to stay on this medication. If anyone happens to know anyone I could talk to about my personal story and life on suboxone and possibly find the right people to talk  to to make it affordable so we don't have so many deaths and people who want to get on this that cannot afford it. Please feel free to email me at ***@****.

[neur0tix]

just when i thought i was gonna get past the physical part of the withdraw the mental part creeps up on me. :'(

[neur0tix]

did not work :< :< uhg......... couldnt get myself to goto work a few night ago and ended up sliping or "relapsing" i guess u could say.... ended up doing a half a suboxone and one bag of heroin.................... now a few days later i cant sleep for **** anymroe... day 3 no sleep whatsoever.... UHG

[neur0tix]

Just a quick update.. didnt mean to double post... but 2 days ago or so I read about the thomas recipe... so i hopped on over to GNC and bought some melatonin, L-tyramine, and 1000mcg b12 capsules... today at work i actually noticed myself having a decent amount of energy... totally different then what was going on the past 2 days. my bosses whom are good friends of mine and know the full story of my drug problem and how i went on treatment and now i am going thru withdrawal off the damn medicine they put me on to stop using (suboxone) and they told me they noticed a considerable improvement today... which is awesome.

4mg xanax for $10 isnt the best price, since i dont have healthcare it might of even cost me more to go thru a doctor, but there is not really a price on making it thru this withdraw..!

im really sleepy at the moment, hard to keep my eyes open... im praying, PRAYING, i passout like a baby.

zzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZ

[neur0tix]

i got ahold of some 1mg xanax hopeully will help

[neur0tix]

what should i tell doctor when i ask for anxiety meds and sleeping pills... sleeping is the main problem i think ive gotten like 3 hours total in past 4 nights....... ridiculous!

[TysonRed]

Well the reason the w/d's didnt hit for a couple of days was because sub has a half life of like 37.5hrs, so the symptoms can take up to 3-4days to start depending on how fast/slow your body metabolizes the buprenorphine. Just for info purposes suboxone has a ceiling of 32mgs, so you taking 40mgs wasnt going to do anything beneficial for you. I was on sub for 18weeks, close to the amount of time you were on and the worst of the physical problems were prettty much gone by day 10 or so. There were still some lingering problems with slight fatigue, sleeping, anxiety/depression, but nothing like the first week, days 2-6 were the worst for me. The one difference was that I tapered down to a tiny little crumb before I quit, it was probably about .25mgs, just a little sliver, so that could have made some difference. Now I was lucky and didnt have to work, that would've been tough, is there anyway you can take a couple days off, or are you strapped for cash like most of us. If you can then by all means I would do so, but if not like worried said as tired as you are the fact that your physically active does help during opiate w/d's, its just most people cant bring themselves to do anything when their sick. The ironic thing about your post was that my sub doctor also wanted me to stay on for atleast 12-18months and Im sure he would have had no problem me staying on it for life,but thank god I found this place and learned some very beneficial information that encouraged me to think about different options. I think there are some people out there that need long term sub maintenance, those you would otherwise go right back to their DOC, but in my opinion the majority of people who choose sub should look into short term use, otherwise your just choosing a new addiction. If your truely ready to move on without opiates then why would you want to be on sub for a long time, it makes no sense. Im glad to hear that you chose to get off the sub, hopefully within the next week or so things should start getting easier. Just keep in mind that this temporary discomfort is easily worth the end result, as you said its good to remember the w/d period to help motivate yourself in the future to never put yourself in that situation again. One last thing that I cant stress enough is to seek some sort of aftercare, its absolutely essential to staying clean for the rest of your life. Anyways hang in there, stay strong and determined and you can do this. Dont ever think you can casually use again, us addicts dont have the self control for any type of recreational use, so stay away from opiates and those people who still use, you dont need that type of temptation. Let us know how things go for you in the coming days, drink lots of water(gatorade), you can take some b-vitamins or some amino acids like l-tyrosine to help with energy, immodium is very important, clonidine helps with the sweats/chills and some sort of sleeping aid. I used a rx strength sleeping med for 2weeks when I quit then switched over to melatonin. Your doctor should have no problem prescribing you some clonidine, its not addictive, if your doctor is unhappy because your quitting before he/she wanted then find another doctor that is willing to help. For some people it doesnt make a big difference but for me clonidine helped so much with the constant chills/goosebumps along with just an overall calming affect. Best of luck to you, hang in there your doing great, keep fighting, take care.

[worried878]

2 weeks of sub is not gonna bypass the fatigue that many feel after opiate cessation...2 weeks bypassed the bulk of the wd...but now u r feeling the aftermath...it is hard to define it...Is it physical or mental?  to me this is the mental component..depression, fatgue. loss of motivation..u only used 5 mths?  it should pass soon..i used for 4 yrs and it took a couple of mths for it to pass for me...moving is a great nrg booster..exercie even tho u do not want to...have u taken a look at the thomas recipe?  tyrosine helped me alot as i am a nrse and the loss of nrg did not go along with my job at all....u r in a prime spot to relapse so please be sure u r doing some type of aftercare right now...u gotta hold on tight///my dr rx-d me provigil and it helped me alot during those first mths so i didnt lose my job....i know it is controversial but i was at a point where it was either get up and move or relapse....tyrosine helped me tons..provigil can be another drug replacement for some so it is controversial....exercise helped the most...keep us updated and read thru the health pages when u can

[neur0tix]

The reason I stopped cold turkey suboxone is because they wanted me on it for a year, which i thought to be quite ridiculous.