Suboxone Nightmare

[MickPoems]

Hello everyone, I'm a brand new member to this site and I'm hoping this is the right place to post this.

A little backstory, I used to be addicted to morphine (I used to crush it and snort it every day) and went to rehab to get off that last year. Unfortunately, they made me get off my Klonopin as well, which was helping me SO much with my anxiety.

Now I'm in a major dilemma. Right now I'm prescribed Suboxone (8 mg a day - film under tongue) and have been for about year and a half. I hate this drug. I despise it. The high sucks and it only lasts for like an hour at the most and after that I'm left feeling super tired and crabby the whole day. I thought this side effect would go away when I first started taking it but no, it's been a year and I'm still always exhausted and nodding off all the damn time. It also feels like it's worsening my anxiety, my depression, and my mental health in general.

My dream would be to stop taking it and switch to benzos or opiates instead. I used to be prescribed Klonopin for my anxiety which worked wonders for my anxiety.

Now, I would just go out and try to find some benzos maybe in my area but my anxiety is so bad that I never leave my room, I can barely talk to people right now without panicking. I've tried talking to other psychiatrists but none of them will prescribe benzos since I'm taking suboxone.

So it seems the only option to solve this problem is to just get off suboxone. But yeah I'd rather shoot myself than go through the withdrawal of this shitty drug again. I've already tried so many times already and I just can't bring myself to get past the absolutely horrible withdrawal of it.

So the reason I'm posting this is because I wanted to see if there's anyone out there that has also dealt with suboxone and maybe can give me some advice on how to get off this drug. I'm wondering if there are perhaps any other kinds of drugs or tactics that might help with my situation? So far whenever I've asked my suboxone provider for help and advice on how to get off it, he just prescribes me Clonodine which does absolutely NOTHING for my withdrawal. I've thought about asking him to prescribe me benzos, specifically for the withdrawal, but I don't know if that's a smart thing to ask him or not.

Any advice would be awesome! At this point in my life I'm so tired of everything and have become severely depressed. Since my anxiety has gotten worse, I've lost all my friends, I feel like I've lost the ability to socialize and have no point in living anymore. At this point, I don't care about the bad side effects or the cons about benzos or opiates, my life was so much better when I was regularly taking them; I actually had a life and I miss it so much.

 

[Smichelle95]

Your doctor has never mentioned a taper to get off the subs? Usually you go down like 10% of your original dose and keep going down until you just stop. Or you can stop taking the subs and wait about 3 days and start the opiates again.

 

[sekio]

The high sucks and it only lasts for like an hour at the most

Suboxone is not supposed to get you high, it's only meant to prevent you from going into full blown withdrawals.

My dream would be to stop taking it and switch to benzos or opiates instead.

Presumably the whole reason you got on subs is because regular use of full agonist opioids was not sustainable. You could probably look into methadone instead. (Where I live there are also people receiving extended release morphine or even IR hydromorphone, but I don't think it's a common therapy.)

I'm wondering if there are perhaps any other kinds of drugs or tactics that might help with my situation?

Maybe other GABA-based sedatives like phenibut or baclofen? Or gabapentin/pregabalin?
Generally speaking benzos are not prescribed alongside opioids because there is too much risk of an overdose situation, and also because they are not meant as permanent solutions to anxiety - only as a temporary band-aid.

 

[MickPoems]

Suboxone is not supposed to get you high, it's only meant to prevent you from going into full blown withdrawals.


Presumably the whole reason you got on subs is because regular use of full agonist opioids was not sustainable. You could probably look into methadone instead. (Where I live there are also people receiving extended release morphine or even IR hydromorphone, but I don't think it's a common therapy.)


Maybe other GABA-based sedatives like phenibut or baclofen? Or gabapentin/pregabalin?
Generally speaking benzos are not prescribed alongside opioids because there is too much risk of an overdose situation, and also because they are not meant as permanent solutions to anxiety - only as a temporary band-aid.

Right, I know the reason for taking it isn't to get me high but i do feel a slight buzz in the morning whenever I take it, not sure if that's normal or not but it usually lasts for an hour or two. I guess, I mentioned this because I kind of liked it at first but now I really hate it.

I actually tried asking my suboxone provider if he would prescribe me baclofen to help with tapering at one point and he said he wouldn't prescribe it because he deemed it unnecessary for that. I guess I could try to ask him about gabapentin or phenibut. Do you think I could be prescribed that from a regular psychiatrist? And who would I talk to switch to something like methadone?

 

[Keif' Richards]

Hey Mick! I think I have a basic understanding of what you're going through. I understand that it's a really difficult thing to go through, but it's not impossible and we can definitely help you in any way we possibly can.

As far as the Buprenorphine is concerned, I think you should get acquainted with the idea of microdosing. MD can mean different things to different people based upon the application of the protocol. In your case, we are going to use it to make your taper as painless as possible through small dosage drops.

It can be difficult to estimate, but the idea is that you will take smaller and smaller dosages by taking away minuscule crumbs from each days dosage.

As far as dealing with the inevitable withdrawal syndrome, however severe, I would recommend Gabapentinoids like Gabapentin (Neurontin) or Pregabalin (Lyrica) they are very effective for symptoms like Akathisia/RLS, anxiety and insomnia to name a few.

Let us know how this sounds or if you have any questions.

 

[Pickledlemons]

Have you tried splitting your sub dose? I take mine 3 times a day because otherwise I feel like it wears off by the end of the day which seems to be similar to the problem you are having. Why not try 2-3mg doses 3 times a day? Maybe with the lower dose you will get less side effects.

or maybe methadone or kratom would be a better maintenance drug for you?