Hi Y’all,
I’m new here, and honestly so glad I stumbled across this site! I’ve searched thru a lot of posts and didn’t see what I’m looking for, so I’m hoping someone is able to offer me some insight/advice. I’ve always been super ashamed to get help, but I really like the whole anonymity of this setting and feel I can keep it
!!
History:
I’m 32/female/nurse who is currently a stay at home mom. I’ve struggled with pretty significant back pain since I was ejected from a rolling Jeep at 18 years old and then gained a ton of weight and having 3 kids made it worse over time. I was prescribed 120 Norco 10/325 a month at 24 after my first daughter was born, and have taken them ever since. I stopped during my second pregnancy and was fine. From 24 to 30 years old I only took 3 norcs a day, and maybe 5-6 on heavy period days. I had weight loss surgery in 3/2019 and knew transfer addiction was a real possibility, but didn’t think much of it. Then December came and I went thru a really rough separation with my husband and got super depressed. When that Norco would peak I’d feel happy, so I started taking 1 every hour. Fast forward thru losing my grandma, best friend moving across the country, stupid pandemic/isolation/distance learning, lay-off and needless to say my addiction got way worse. I’ve been regularly taking 20-30+ Norco/perks/roxys a day for the last 2+ years.
(Please be gentle for this next part as it causes me the most shame and I still feel like the most awful, disgusting, worthless person ever for what I’m about to share.) I used all thru my last pregnancy which I said I’d never do, and by some miracle my younger daughter has been perfectly fine since birth. This has caused pretty severe depression (both daily use/impact, but hugely due to my use during pregnancy)! I used to always silently judge women who gave birth to dope sick babies at work. I couldn’t never understand how someone could do that to their baby knowing how it would effect them once they were born… and then I got pregnant as an addict…
I have been chasing a high that I’ve been lucky to get maybe once every few weeks since (antidepressants and pain meds don’t mix!), and my pain is constantly out of control (20/10) even when I take the damn pills (thanks opioid induced hyperalgesia!). I’ve finally had enough and stopped making excuses to quit. My friend/dealer has Suboxone strips and had been pushing me for months to quit because she’s been worried about me, so I finally took her up on the strips. I’m tired of always being anxious about when I’m gonna get more pills, how little I have left, worrying about where I’ll get money from, owing thousands of dollars, being super behind on my bills, etc. But mainly I’m tired of always being so angry and snapping at my kids because I’m so anxious about all that bullshit. 
They don’t deserve that, and I’m not that POS person normally! Not to mention all the Tylenol has wrecked my liver and my labs are all out of whack. My friend/dealer told me it’d be a quick 5 days on strips to avoid withdrawals from the pills and then I’d be fine. I did a lot of research on dosing before taking them, but stupidly not on what tapering off/withdrawal is like from the strips… 
Questions/Concerns:
My biggest concern is that I am a stay at home mom to a wild 8 month old who fights her sleep and is going thru some sleep regression so we aren’t going to bed til 5-6am after a few hrs of crying. And during the day she requires a ton of attention, on top of taking care of my 5 and 8 year olds as well. So I’m super nervous about being sick and in a ton of pain and basically useless. My mom can take my older kids, but she’s in a lot of pain herself and needs several surgeries, so she can’t help with the baby. So whatever I do I have to do while caring for a wild child. Lol.
When I started the strips (8mg strip initially) I was told to start with half. I had read online about upping the dose by 2mg every hr until optimal results achieved. So on Tuesday I waited until I was sick AF (normally takes 30 mins after waking up, but took about 3 hrs that day) to take the strip because I was terrified of precipitated withdrawals and then I took 1/2 (4mg). I waited an hour and I still had mild symptoms of withdrawals (nose like a faucet, skin crawling, stomach cramps, restless joints/pain), so I took another 1/4 (2mg). About an hour later I cried y’all! For the first time in 14+ years I felt ZERO pain! I wasn’t sick, no back/neck/hip/foot pain, nothing! I did feel the very slightest hint of euphoria for a little bit, but not long. Then 8-10 hrs later I took another 2mg because my nose was running quite a bit, and I was fine. Since then I’ve taken 6mg when I get up and then another 2mg in the evening and I’ve been able to be super active with my kids, cooking, cleaning, etc. I’ve considered just taking them long term since I feel so good on them (physically, not high), but I’m not trying to replace one addiction for another.
So allllll of that to ask— Does anyone have any experience in using Suboxone short term to get thru detoxing from pills? (Bonus points if they also had a 200-300+ mg/day habit like I did.) I’m looking for advice on how best to use them, duration, dosing down to prevent withdrawals from the strips, anything helpful!
Thanks in advance, and I apologize for this being so damn long! It’s just great to have a place I finally feel comfortable sharing in!
I’m new here, and honestly so glad I stumbled across this site! I’ve searched thru a lot of posts and didn’t see what I’m looking for, so I’m hoping someone is able to offer me some insight/advice. I’ve always been super ashamed to get help, but I really like the whole anonymity of this setting and feel I can keep it
!!History:
I’m 32/female/nurse who is currently a stay at home mom. I’ve struggled with pretty significant back pain since I was ejected from a rolling Jeep at 18 years old and then gained a ton of weight and having 3 kids made it worse over time. I was prescribed 120 Norco 10/325 a month at 24 after my first daughter was born, and have taken them ever since. I stopped during my second pregnancy and was fine. From 24 to 30 years old I only took 3 norcs a day, and maybe 5-6 on heavy period days. I had weight loss surgery in 3/2019 and knew transfer addiction was a real possibility, but didn’t think much of it. Then December came and I went thru a really rough separation with my husband and got super depressed. When that Norco would peak I’d feel happy, so I started taking 1 every hour. Fast forward thru losing my grandma, best friend moving across the country, stupid pandemic/isolation/distance learning, lay-off and needless to say my addiction got way worse. I’ve been regularly taking 20-30+ Norco/perks/roxys a day for the last 2+ years.
(Please be gentle for this next part as it causes me the most shame and I still feel like the most awful, disgusting, worthless person ever for what I’m about to share.) I used all thru my last pregnancy which I said I’d never do, and by some miracle my younger daughter has been perfectly fine since birth. This has caused pretty severe depression (both daily use/impact, but hugely due to my use during pregnancy)! I used to always silently judge women who gave birth to dope sick babies at work. I couldn’t never understand how someone could do that to their baby knowing how it would effect them once they were born… and then I got pregnant as an addict…
I have been chasing a high that I’ve been lucky to get maybe once every few weeks since (antidepressants and pain meds don’t mix!), and my pain is constantly out of control (20/10) even when I take the damn pills (thanks opioid induced hyperalgesia!). I’ve finally had enough and stopped making excuses to quit. My friend/dealer has Suboxone strips and had been pushing me for months to quit because she’s been worried about me, so I finally took her up on the strips. I’m tired of always being anxious about when I’m gonna get more pills, how little I have left, worrying about where I’ll get money from, owing thousands of dollars, being super behind on my bills, etc. But mainly I’m tired of always being so angry and snapping at my kids because I’m so anxious about all that bullshit. They don’t deserve that, and I’m not that POS person normally! Not to mention all the Tylenol has wrecked my liver and my labs are all out of whack. My friend/dealer told me it’d be a quick 5 days on strips to avoid withdrawals from the pills and then I’d be fine. I did a lot of research on dosing before taking them, but stupidly not on what tapering off/withdrawal is like from the strips… Questions/Concerns:My biggest concern is that I am a stay at home mom to a wild 8 month old who fights her sleep and is going thru some sleep regression so we aren’t going to bed til 5-6am after a few hrs of crying. And during the day she requires a ton of attention, on top of taking care of my 5 and 8 year olds as well. So I’m super nervous about being sick and in a ton of pain and basically useless. My mom can take my older kids, but she’s in a lot of pain herself and needs several surgeries, so she can’t help with the baby. So whatever I do I have to do while caring for a wild child. Lol.
When I started the strips (8mg strip initially) I was told to start with half. I had read online about upping the dose by 2mg every hr until optimal results achieved. So on Tuesday I waited until I was sick AF (normally takes 30 mins after waking up, but took about 3 hrs that day) to take the strip because I was terrified of precipitated withdrawals and then I took 1/2 (4mg). I waited an hour and I still had mild symptoms of withdrawals (nose like a faucet, skin crawling, stomach cramps, restless joints/pain), so I took another 1/4 (2mg). About an hour later I cried y’all! For the first time in 14+ years I felt ZERO pain! I wasn’t sick, no back/neck/hip/foot pain, nothing! I did feel the very slightest hint of euphoria for a little bit, but not long. Then 8-10 hrs later I took another 2mg because my nose was running quite a bit, and I was fine. Since then I’ve taken 6mg when I get up and then another 2mg in the evening and I’ve been able to be super active with my kids, cooking, cleaning, etc. I’ve considered just taking them long term since I feel so good on them (physically, not high), but I’m not trying to replace one addiction for another.
So allllll of that to ask— Does anyone have any experience in using Suboxone short term to get thru detoxing from pills? (Bonus points if they also had a 200-300+ mg/day habit like I did.) I’m looking for advice on how best to use them, duration, dosing down to prevent withdrawals from the strips, anything helpful!
Thanks in advance, and I apologize for this being so damn long! It’s just great to have a place I finally feel comfortable sharing in!
Last edited:
☺
I am beyond happy they exist because I know otherwise I wouldn’t be 4 days clean right now. I am just trying to be super careful not to just replace the pills with the strips long term. I just can’t wait to be off everything and back to the best mom possible!