It's cool
@Xanniemcfanwie knowing people feel more in control and less afraid is what makes it worth it to do all of this. It makes my day to know you feel better, truly
It also feeds the uncontrollable, all-knowing ego machine that is Keif' Richards of Bluelight, so that is a plus.
Your description of past Benzodiazepine usage means that all of this Kindling and complicated stuff like that doesn't come into play. You don't have to worry about waiting to start. For reference's sake, this would apply to someone typically maintained on Benzodiazepines daily over the course of months. This would be like you taking 20mg Diazepam three times a day for 6 months to a year before you'd really start dealing with these issues.
You're free of former dependencies on the Benzodiazepines, so this doesn't apply to you at all.
For me, the worst feeling of Opioid withdrawal is the inner restlessness, described medically as akathisia and most-often personified in the form of Restless Legs Syndrome. Some people describe it as "ants crawling underneath their skin" and some describe as a complete physical manifestation of the emotion of anxiety. Everybody describes it differently, but I believe we are all experiencing the same thing through our respective lenses.
There are lots of other symptoms and things going on during Opioid withdrawal, but this feeling of inner restlessness is the North Star by which I calibrate my own maintenance of withdrawal symptoms. The ability to sleep at night for at least 4 hours is also a fairly critical factor. My best advice is to use these two metrics to determine what you need to succeed.
You're in a great position in not having to report for normal work, as this gives you flexibility. A lot of really great people with really great intentions don't make it and for a huge swathe of people, they break their attempts at sobriety and go back to their drug as they have responsibilities they can not reasonably maintain their protocol. That doesn't mean their wasn't a way for them to do it, they just bit off more than they could chew at once.
Your description of the
Diazepam 10mg is telling. Diazepam, as I said, has a lot of variance in different people. For me,
Diazepam 30mg feels like
Clonazepam 1mg at most.
If I were telling someone to try to withdraw from
Buprenorphine without any kind of medication aids, I would always, always recommend as slow as humanly possible. This is the most predictable and probably most ethically-advisable way of doing this. However, I am also the type of person that likes to make larger, strategically planned drops over shorter periods of time. There is just something in that method that has always worked for me.
Given that Buprenorphine is long-acting, I don't really think it's a great idea to jump straight from
Buprenorphine 3.6mg Sublingually to 2mg SL it might interfere with the philosophy of biting off more than you can chew. There is nothing crazy about trying though and it wouldn't surprise me if it worked for you. If you go this route, I would say, take your
Diazepam 10mg 3x per day to maintain over the course of 7-10 days. You will likely experience the peak of your symptoms at the ~72hr mark and start to see resolution after 5 with most symptoms completely resolved by day 10.
These are long-acting drugs we're describing, so a good way of looking at it is 90% resolution by day 10, but that the last 10% could take weeks. That is what
Post-Acute Withdrawal is, a lingering, but considerably more mild withdrawal. You'll be 98% resolved at 6 weeks and feel brand new by two months, but I'm obviously shooting from the hip with these specific timeframes. I do feel it's a good way of looking at the situation though.
If it were me personally and I was trying to do the most sensible thing possible, I would take your daily dosage of
Buprenorphine 3.6mg and hit in 25% increments. Again, if it were me, I would do 1mg over 7 days then wait 2-4 weeks for the next drop and repeat the process to a tee. This combines a direct approach while also not loading up your plate too much. A lot of people have failed at this simply for trying too hard.
You have the ability to try different methods though. Don't be afraid to test the waters a little bit and see what you can handle. We will be right here if you have any questions.
