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Bupe Suboxone/Buprenorphine Mega Thread and FAQ v17.0 + v18.0

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Suboxone - near the end

Hi all - I've been on the suboxone taper for about a year and a half. Last fall I started to taper down off 3mg. 7 months later and I'm currently at .25mg one time per day. I've been at this dose for 3 weeks...taking .25mg between 4-6pm.

For the last 3 weeks - I started experiencing mild withdrawal around 9am and it lasts til I take the dose...generally growing in intensity. Not that its unbearable by 5pm...but its more noticeable. Mostly I experience anxiety, watery eyes, general tiredness...I've been in regular oxy withdrawal before and its nothing like that. Just tired...stiff feeling...no energy...and the anxiety.

Its been 3 weeks - will this stop and my body balance at some point? I had some humps to overcome during the taper the last few months...but none lasted as long as 3 weeks.

Is there anything I can take to help? supplements? I have some xanax...but not a lot and I don't like taking that stuff ( I never liked it). I was saving the xanax for the first few days after I stop entirely.

Anyone been through this and have advice? After 3 weeks...i'm starting to lose hope a little that this lack of energy thing, tiredness and anxiety is just gonna keep up. Its really difficult because after I take my dose (even as small as .25mg is) it relieves all of that until the next morning.
 
Suboxone - near the end

Hi all - I've been on the suboxone taper for about a year and a half. Last fall I started to taper down off 3mg. 7 months later and I'm currently at .25mg one time per day. I've been at this dose for 3 weeks...taking .25mg between 4-6pm.

For the last 3 weeks - I started experiencing mild withdrawal around 9am and it lasts til I take the dose...generally growing in intensity. Not that its unbearable by 5pm...but its more noticeable. Mostly I experience anxiety, watery eyes, general tiredness...I've been in regular oxy withdrawal before and its nothing like that. Just tired...stiff feeling...no energy...and the anxiety.

Its been 3 weeks - will this stop and my body balance at some point? I had some humps to overcome during the taper the last few months...but none lasted as long as 3 weeks.

Is there anything I can take to help? supplements? I have some xanax...but not a lot and I don't like taking that stuff ( I never liked it). I was saving the xanax for the first few days after I stop entirely.

Anyone been through this and have advice? After 3 weeks...i'm starting to lose hope a little that this lack of energy thing, tiredness and anxiety is just gonna keep up. Its really difficult because after I take my dose (even as small as .25mg is) it relieves all of that until the next morning.
 
I'm confused. You're taking .25mg? How do you measure that intake? I've experienced W/D from oxycodone/morphine and it's mainly restlessness/restless legs, depression, taking burning shits and being bored. Overcome that with eating right, positive thinking and time consuming exercises. But I am currently on subs. I bought 16 mg and took 4mg Thursday, 2mg Friday, 2mg Saturday, 2mg yesterday and sold 4 mg to a friend and I have one 2mg strip left....I was just about to take it before you said you were scared to W/D from .25mg? Does that mean i'm about to be in for the same shit you are? lol
 
Question about plugging - I tried it and don't seem to be experiencing any effects at all. I'm prescribed 20 mg a day of the suboxone films and usually take 16 - so I wasn't expecting much. But I feel like I'm almost going into wd at this point. My last sublingual dose was around 3 pm yesterday. I tried plugging 16 mg this morning but did it totally wrong, I just stuck it up there. I never really felt anything from that dose, but I did fall asleep for a while. I then plugged 8 mg around an hour ago - correctly using a 5mL oral syringe - there was no leakage or issues. I know it's not too much sub making me feel this way, I've actually (stupidly) dosed up to 40 mg in a day before. But I'm really not even feeling relief from this last plugged dose, which if anything I feel could have been more than 8 mg due to the undissolved strips from earlier. Any thoughts? I'm not expecting a high, just what I get usually or a tidbit more. I usually sublingual my dose after alcoholic mouthwash - I'm just sick of the taste and not being able to eat/drink/talk/smoke for up to 1/2 hour. Does rectal absorption vary from person to person? Could this just not work for me?
 
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^was your colon empty? If you haven't shit recently then that can lower the absorption when plugging. I feel like plugging in general is something that you prefect to your own standards after a little trial and error.

On the buprenorphine and sleep topic, I never have any difficulty falling asleep after a nightly 2mg sublingual dose. It might even help getting to sleep although I wouldn't doubt that it's a little good ole placebo effect.
 
^ buprenorphine interrupts REM sleep. During bupe withdrawal - after the acute withdrawal began and the initial insomnia subsided - I would have crazy intense REM sleep induced dreams that seemed to go on many times longer than "average dreams" would.
 
Would you say that buprenorphine affects your perception of your REM sleep more than other drugs, for example, benzodiazepines? methamphetamine?
 
Hey sorry to burst your bubble. but a year and a half to go from 3 to .25 is honestly pissing me off right now. Not because of you, thats a very good accomplishment and it takes guts to have the willpower to practically eliminate opiates from your life. Good job. But the person under whose care you've been under has been cashing in on your misfortune. If you started at 3mg you could have been off this stuff within 2 weeks with a VERY VERY gentle taper... In fact so gentle that you 100% wouldnt have even had a chill. And now your probably gonna suffer suboxone withdrawls. because of the build up over time and that can be harsh. I was on suboxone for a while, and my dose was 32mg a day. and that wasnt cutting it. I learned a way to use the long half life of the drug to skip days and doses and while the half-life would go down my dose would decrease and this method is 100% foolproof.. ive relapsed many times in the past for weeks at a time and i would just taper myself off. For example. If i was into it heavy id start at 16mg on day one. wait 3 days till the Subs were wearing off take 8mg wait 2 days then go to 4mg. But the trick is .. once your starting to feel dependent .. take another 8 to trick your brain ( thats what i called it.. i dont think thats how it works scientifically) then id go to 4,2,2,2,4 and STOP. Thats how my body worked, i think doses and times between pills differ for everyone. But thats beating withdrawal right there. And i couldn't handle the shits. If i tried to stop and i felt my stomach rumble before this id 150% be in town scoring anything i could smash. If anyone thinks its too good to be true.. Try it out. Youll be good to go. Unless you get bad PAWS.. then youll need an Xbox or something. So honestly you should ask a doctor to help you out because its gonna get a lot worse. Unless im wrong and you needed the 3mg. But that dose is too insignificant to put off that long. My first time taking subs i started at 14mg at a detox and that was for coming off of hydromorphone and that was a rapid detox too.. except the doc didnt have it 100% figured out so the week without subs i Bailed got a script from my doctor and figured it out painlessly . itchyCub has the right idea.. hopefully he has a clean getaway. Thanks for hearing me out

And try to stay away from Xanax.. try to get some clonidine. in high doses, it puts you out just like a benzo.. and you wont have to worry about respiratory depression. Bupe and Benzos can be dangerous. Because Bupes half life is 35hrs and Xanax is 10 so if you double dose on the Bupe and your bodys repairing itself. Bad things can happen especially when your in withdrawal and you need relief. Good Luck
 
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You can try to start tapering even more by extending your hours between dosages by 1-4 hours each day until you're taking then 48 hours apart and that should decrease your end withdrawal significantly .
 
Hi - thanks for the reply! Let me clarify a bit. I started at 8mg...worked my way down to about 1mg within a few months. But the low dose was helping my pain ( I have pain issues as well as the dependency to oxy). So we worked to measure out a dose that worked well for the pain and I wasnt having any withdrawal issues. That was 3mg...so I stayed there for about a year - more as maintainance for pain. Then last August I decided I wanted to get off it entirely. So in september I started tapering very slowly down from 3mg. Its been about 7 months but I've had almost no to zero withdrawal the entire time. Outside of some energy issues...some mild withdrawal here and there...it's been fairly simple.

After writing this post yesterday...I still havent taken any suboxone. My last dose was .25mg on Sunday. So its been about 40 hours. I had mild withdrawal yesterday (same as everyday the last few weeks)...but then by late afternoon it actually didn't get worse and got a little better. So I just figured I'd wait until it got "bad" to take my next dose. As of right now - that time still hasn't come. Last night I had a little anxiety...some restless legs...I drank a cup of chamomile tea, took some valerian root...7 hours later I woke up this morning feeling about the same. Some mild withdrawal. I'm at work today - I'm not 100%. But its very bearable. I figure I'll wait til this afternoon - see how I feel - take .25mg if I need to and I would have skipped a day (like he wanted me to do...skip every 3rd day). If the withdrawal doesn't get much worse than this - I'll probably just stop and not take anymore. Its manageable.

I appreciate your feedback. I trust the doctor I have...everything he's said would happen did. He's helped me every step of the way. I know - I didn't mention the part before about being on it for a year just for pain control. that makes a big difference in this scenario.
 
Awesome it sounds like youre really close to being done with all of it. You can do it man, as time goes on life will get better.
 
Thanks man! Appreciate it. Life has been great - I've felt healed, from any long term opiate abuse, for a long time. Just gotta get over this last little hump of physical stuff.
 
That changes everything. Dont get me wrong, i wasnt trying to single you out. Some doctors are crooks and making a profit by keeping patients misinformed and dependant on something so hard to control is very common today. And nothing gives me more joy than trying to help anyone i can. I just wanted to post that information because if i knew it 3 years ago i wouldnt have gone through so much trouble finding a solution for my situation. Im also in the same boat as you. I have chronic pain and pain meds made everything bearable. I just wish there were more options for people in our scenario. I think i read somewhere that Suboxone in Europe actually has better pain killing properties. Here in North America they just pump everyone into maintenance programs at a high cost to prevent WD. I was wondering the .25mg is that like1/8 of a 2mg pill or are you on that patch thing? Im just glad i dont have to dissolve it in my mouth.. the taste gets unbearable. It used to cost me $700 for 120 8mgs pills. Try epsom salt bath.. that works good if you start sweating .. it eliminates toxins really well. it worked for me. Good thing you have a good doctor too.... youll be fine.. this time next week youll start feeling brand new again.
 
No worries! I get what you mean - the doctor I have now was not the first doctor I've been to for pain. But he is definitly my last...I'll go to him from now on. My pain - I started controlling it naturally. Its much better now than its been in years! In a weird irony - the pain meds I was taken was making the pain worse. Once I get clean and healed...I was able to control it naturally and I havent had a bad pain day in 6 months.

Yes .25mg is 1/8 of a pill. I've been taking that once a day for the last 3 weeks. Thanks for the epsom salt hint - I'll keep that in mind. Like I said - taking it hour by hour - still havent taken any sub since 430pm sunday. Still not in any bad withdrawal or even moderate. I'm just trying to not get ahead of myself.
 
Effect said:
On the buprenorphine and sleep topic, I never have any difficulty falling asleep after a nightly 2mg sublingual dose. It might even help getting to sleep although I wouldn't doubt that it's a little good ole placebo effect.
Click to expand...

Jumped off @ 1 mg or so and found out a good nights sleep is not to be taken for granted (on bupe')
Lucky for me, thats the worst of it.
 
tricomb said:
Would you say that buprenorphine affects your perception of your REM sleep more than other drugs, for example, benzodiazepines? methamphetamine?
Click to expand...

The last few years I was on bupe so I hadn't had a lot of "meth only" or "benzo only" experiences I can reference til recent

If I crash on meth I get good sleep but if I go on a run I try to keep it going as long as possible - so I haven't had a run in a long time.

If I take benzos I like to take them during the day - normally I would use Xanax. I haven't had it in a long time.

All in all I have been sticking to weed and alcohol. I don't have any today and won't for a while

I have 105 days off suboxone today. And all I have is weed and salvia (which I quite enjoy)
 
ok so this is my first post although ive been reading bluelight for years, and have learned a lot from you guys. anyways i thought id chime in since the biggest problem that most regular bupe maintenance users have found that after induction the euphoria stops. Recently i tried i new method of ROA for my subs. What i do is i dissolve them in a small glass bottle, the kind that i get when i buy my e-cig juice, it comes with a dropper to suck the liquid up and squirt it into whatever. So what i do is put a few of my 8mg strips in this small glass bottle, maybe add a 1/4 or so of a xanie bar (or not if you choose). Now i add maybe a half a shot of some grey goose or whatever clear liquor you prefer. Grain alcohol or isopropyl would probably work best but might be kinda harsh at least for me. After some shaking and stirring your solution should be liquidus, and you should have a concentrated solution of bupe + whatever you added. With this solution you can use the droppper under the toungue, or to insufflate lightly, or plug. Anyways it works wonders for me when a strip under the tongue just wont cut it.

and if using alcohol is not feasible for some, water will work almost as well. but it seems for some reason that the alcohol works best
 
cg9256 said:
anyways i thought id chime in since the biggest problem that most regular bupe maintenance users have found that after induction the euphoria stops.
Click to expand...

Why the hell would someone want euphoria with regular bupe' maintenance ?
 
well i know that being on bupe maintenance, i miss the euphoric feeling. yA Know, the kind you get during induction. sometimes it just not enough for me to feel "normal". so i take my strips at work to make the day go by and sometimes after work i just want a little xtra. i miss the feeling of oxys and such and ive found that this way is something i can do instead of just feeling plain old boring normal
 
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