First Time Heroin Detox - Scared?

So, I'm 18 years old and been shooting dope daily for about 6 months now, usually about 10-13 bags per day at this point. It's just way too emotionally and financially stressful, so I've had enough. The only time I'll be able to take time off from work and school to recover is over Christmas break, when I'll be at my parents' house. I know I'll be visibly ill, so do you think I should just be straight up and tell them the truth or could I pass it off as a bad flu?

Also, I've been able to get 6 strips of suboxone. Will this be enough to get me through withdrawals, or should I try to get more? I'm also in possession of some trazodone. Could this be useful at all, and if so, how? Other than OTC meds, I think this is all I can get right now.

This is my first time trying to get clean, and I want it to be the last. I'm pretty nervous about it, though. Considering the length and frequency of my habit, how bad do you think it will be? Any other advice?

The longest I've gone is one day on subs, and even then the insomnia was pretty killer.

Thanks!

6 suboxone strips should be plenty. The key is to wait until you are really in withdrawals, and not just feeling uncomfortable. If you can wait 36 hours before dosing that would be ideal. You will likely be safe to dose anywhere after the 18 hour mark without risking precipitated withdrawals but the suboxone isn't as effective when you take it that soon. The sicker you are the better it can make you feel, so if you are only feeling a little bad it can't help much.

The best way to wait to dose is to leave the suboxone at home and go somewhere for the day so that you aren't just sitting there waiting to dose. If you are just waiting to dose you brain will play tricks on you making you think that you are sicker than you really are.

The next step is to take a small dose, and give it a good hour before taking more. I recommend starting with 2mg, but you will likely need 6mg to feel better, but take 2mg every hour or so until you are stable. After two days at the dose you found to work, lower it by 1mg every 2-3 days, and once you get down to 2mg you should lower it by 0.5mg every couple of days. When you get to 1mg then decrease by 0.25mg in the same manner you were decreasing the other times.

You can slow things down or speed them up so that it works out that you are done with the detox 1 week before returning to school. If you take the suboxone up until you go back to school then you will still be withdrawing there.

The detox outline I gave you is just a general guideline. My best advice is to wait as long as possible before taking the initial dose, and to try to get away with dosing as little as possible. 6 strips should be plenty since the very most that you should take is 8mg, but I think that 6mg should hold you if you wait long enough to dose.

As for other OTC meds and withdrawal assistance you should check out this thread. I am going to move this thread to the proper forum. If you have any replies that you would like to remain anonymous then make another thread here and post the URL to this thread in it so that the mod knows where to move/merge it.

Anonymous posting --> Other Drugs.

you should be able to get out from under that without too much trouble. assuming your strips are 8 mg then you have more than enough. really, you shouldn't need any more than 2x 8 mg strips to do a good, proper detox taper. to use them to best effect, first off, wait till you are feeling pretty dope sick before starting off with them. if you are shooting H, i suggest waiting at least 16 hours after your last shot of dope prior to your first dose of suboxone. ymmv with this. i always got away with around 16 hours (my H roa was insufflation, though), some people say to wait at least 24 hours, others say you can get away with it in 12 hours. listen to your body. the sub will make you feel best and you reduce the risk of precipidated WDs the longer you wait. second, start off small with the sub, take maybe 0.5 mg sublingually, wait an hour, dose another 0.5 mg, wait another hour, if you're feeling OK, not as if precips are coming on but that the sub is helping, maybe take another 1 mg, and so forth, repeating this until you feel "well". not high. just "well".

congratulations, you've inducted yourself on subs.

at this point, put the sub down, it lasts a very long time, you won't need any more until tomorrow. now, basically over the course of the next six or seven days, wait till you start to feel kind of sick again (should be around ~24 hours after your last dose) and then take half the suboxone you did the day before. so, if you started at 4 mg, you would probably want to taper something like: 4,2,1,1,0.5,0.5,0.25... if you started at 2, you could do a taper something like 2,1,1,0.5,0.5,0.25,0.25. basically, you want to run the taper just a bit longer than the acute WDs from H (around 4-5 days) then stop before you start to get dependent on the sub. this should get you thru the acute H WDs without feeling TOO crappy. certainly you should be able to function around family and work colleagues. a little lubrication (e.g. benzos, pot) always helps but you can get through OK without them. again, just listen to your body, you can adjust the taper a bit but try to stick to the general spirit of it in terms of length and dosage reduction steps. but sub is strong and has a long half-life. MOST people don't need to take 8+ milligrams or anywhere near it... you will only be making things harder on yourself if you take more sub than you really need.

if you follow this recipe, you should be able to kick without feeling too much in the way of acute WDs at all, from my experience, over the course of a week. you don't want to make a habit of this, though, the first time you do it it can be fairly easy, but each subsequent time gets more difficult; sub is not a miracle cure!! my girlfriend cycled like crazy between subs and dope and now it is miserable for her to switch over to subs from a full agonist opioid. also, you should expect to feel a little under-the-weather for a good month or so even after the acute WD week has passed; you should generally be able to function but you will feel demotivated, achy and tired. this is just your body returning to equilibrium after a long period of continuous administration of opiates.

good luck!

Best wishes mate! I send you love and hope. Keep your eyes looking forward.