DickMcWickland
Greenlighter
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2015
- Messages
- 39
Hey everyone,
Longtime reader, first time poster here. First off, let me say how much this site has helped to empower me with incredible amounts of knowledge regarding opiate addiction and everything that comes with it. With or without Suboxone or Subutex, I'm now able to almost painlessly get through opiate withdrawals of any severity using a mix of easily available prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines. Still, I thought I'd share my experience as a high dose heroin user with switching to suboxone/bupe regarding what works and what doesn't in the hopes that it can help save any fellow addicts the trial and error of consistent relapse as a result of varying levels of discomfort after making the switch.
My history is two years of on and off abuse, about 8 months of daily IV use of 1 gram/bundle/10 bags high quality east coast powder (ECP). A few months ago, I got an rx for suboxone and it simply didn't take. I would always wait around 18 hours and be in sufficient withdrawal to take my sub, however I would get very little relief, regardless of dose. And speaking of dose, it is true that doctors way overprescribe the stuff and that, even with a habit like mine, 6mg is no less effective than 16 or 32 -- I felt the same regardless. Let me clarify that the physical symptoms of my withdrawal have always been 90% relieved by that first dose of Suboxone, it's just that it does nothing to touch the mental anguish and extreme anhedonia that comes with withdrawal and I still feel incredibly weak and achy. Plus the sub gives me some unpleasant side effects, including terrible hot flashes. This has always frustrated me to no end, as seemingly near every other bupe user gets instant relief and claims to feel like they did pre-addiction almost immediately.
Anyway, as an addict who seeks immediate gratification to treat various underlying issues and insecurities, this lack of total relief has always lead me back to dope within a couple days. This last induction attempt was different and here's where I get to the point of the thread. I did 2mg of bupe at the undeniable onset of my heroin withdrawals and continued to dose another 2mg each hour until my physical withdrawal symptoms had mostly subsided, totaling 6mg to hold me for the most part. Of course, I still felt achy, depressed, and incredibly lethargic for the next day and a half, even after redosing with another 4mg every 8-12 hours (which is probably overkill anyway -- this stuff is strong and can stabilize someone with a more moderate habit at 1mg or 2mg tops). This is where I had the seemingly counterproductive idea of doing a nice big shot of dope on top of the subs to help saturate whatever receptors were clearly unsatiated, causing me to feel like shit. My plan was to do a .5g shot 8 hours after my last 4mg sub dose, knowing it would be partially blocked but hoping it would feel nice anyway. I'd say the dope's effects were 75% reduced, but I immediately felt great -- the mental fog of depression, anhedonia and lethargy was gone. I woke up the next morning, 12 hours later, still feeling very good. 18 hours in, when I'd normally be back in heroin withdrawal, the sub was still holding me, and much better than prior to taking the heroin -- no trouble climbing stairs or doing anything that needed to be done. At this point, I redosed 4mg bupe, and proceeded feeling good well into the third day. My plan is a short taper from this point forward, dropping my dose by 25% each day until I ultimately jump off at a crumb of bupe nearly two weeks later. We'll see how that goes, and I may update here, but the point, for now, is that doing dope on top of my initial induction to bupe made the transition smoother and far less miserable, reducing the urge to fully relapse as I've done in the past and reducing the major aches, depression, and near unbearable cravings. If you've found that, as a similarly high dose heroin user, you're having trouble making the switch, give this method a try. Remember, this isn't an excuse to relapse -- you're just using a big dose once several hours after the induction dose to stabilize yourself and continuing with your initial sub therapy plan 12-24 hours later, be it with the intention of a comfortable detox or long-term maintenance.
Anyone else had success with this method? What does everyone think? Any and all feedback is obviously appreciated. Hopefully I did everything right in composing this post. Thanks for reading!
Longtime reader, first time poster here. First off, let me say how much this site has helped to empower me with incredible amounts of knowledge regarding opiate addiction and everything that comes with it. With or without Suboxone or Subutex, I'm now able to almost painlessly get through opiate withdrawals of any severity using a mix of easily available prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines. Still, I thought I'd share my experience as a high dose heroin user with switching to suboxone/bupe regarding what works and what doesn't in the hopes that it can help save any fellow addicts the trial and error of consistent relapse as a result of varying levels of discomfort after making the switch.
My history is two years of on and off abuse, about 8 months of daily IV use of 1 gram/bundle/10 bags high quality east coast powder (ECP). A few months ago, I got an rx for suboxone and it simply didn't take. I would always wait around 18 hours and be in sufficient withdrawal to take my sub, however I would get very little relief, regardless of dose. And speaking of dose, it is true that doctors way overprescribe the stuff and that, even with a habit like mine, 6mg is no less effective than 16 or 32 -- I felt the same regardless. Let me clarify that the physical symptoms of my withdrawal have always been 90% relieved by that first dose of Suboxone, it's just that it does nothing to touch the mental anguish and extreme anhedonia that comes with withdrawal and I still feel incredibly weak and achy. Plus the sub gives me some unpleasant side effects, including terrible hot flashes. This has always frustrated me to no end, as seemingly near every other bupe user gets instant relief and claims to feel like they did pre-addiction almost immediately.
Anyway, as an addict who seeks immediate gratification to treat various underlying issues and insecurities, this lack of total relief has always lead me back to dope within a couple days. This last induction attempt was different and here's where I get to the point of the thread. I did 2mg of bupe at the undeniable onset of my heroin withdrawals and continued to dose another 2mg each hour until my physical withdrawal symptoms had mostly subsided, totaling 6mg to hold me for the most part. Of course, I still felt achy, depressed, and incredibly lethargic for the next day and a half, even after redosing with another 4mg every 8-12 hours (which is probably overkill anyway -- this stuff is strong and can stabilize someone with a more moderate habit at 1mg or 2mg tops). This is where I had the seemingly counterproductive idea of doing a nice big shot of dope on top of the subs to help saturate whatever receptors were clearly unsatiated, causing me to feel like shit. My plan was to do a .5g shot 8 hours after my last 4mg sub dose, knowing it would be partially blocked but hoping it would feel nice anyway. I'd say the dope's effects were 75% reduced, but I immediately felt great -- the mental fog of depression, anhedonia and lethargy was gone. I woke up the next morning, 12 hours later, still feeling very good. 18 hours in, when I'd normally be back in heroin withdrawal, the sub was still holding me, and much better than prior to taking the heroin -- no trouble climbing stairs or doing anything that needed to be done. At this point, I redosed 4mg bupe, and proceeded feeling good well into the third day. My plan is a short taper from this point forward, dropping my dose by 25% each day until I ultimately jump off at a crumb of bupe nearly two weeks later. We'll see how that goes, and I may update here, but the point, for now, is that doing dope on top of my initial induction to bupe made the transition smoother and far less miserable, reducing the urge to fully relapse as I've done in the past and reducing the major aches, depression, and near unbearable cravings. If you've found that, as a similarly high dose heroin user, you're having trouble making the switch, give this method a try. Remember, this isn't an excuse to relapse -- you're just using a big dose once several hours after the induction dose to stabilize yourself and continuing with your initial sub therapy plan 12-24 hours later, be it with the intention of a comfortable detox or long-term maintenance.
Anyone else had success with this method? What does everyone think? Any and all feedback is obviously appreciated. Hopefully I did everything right in composing this post. Thanks for reading!