I need help with Suboxone dosage (newbie here, don't know much about suboxone)

[BillyTeton]

I've been taking hydrocodone 10mg for 6 years now. I would take 3 every 3-4 hours. Just recently (recently as in last Monday), I decided to quit and start with suboxone. Its a new drug for me, its a strange drug. I would have preferred Methadone, but that gives me a high, and that is what Im scared of; having that high will make me want more methadone. Anyway, this is day 2 on suboxone, and it isnt helping like methadone helps me. I have anxiety, hot/cold, and restlessness. The suboxone will take it away for about 5 hours. Then everything comes back. I am on 8mg Suboxone and takes 2 in the morning. My question is this; would it be okay if I took another 16 mg? Or is that too much? I talked to my doctor about it, but she said that she will NOT give me an early refill (even though that wasnt what I was after). My appointment is next week. I plan on telling her, but what about now? Thanks in advance. Oh and by the way, Im 20 if that helps.

 

[wezface]

I would strongly advise against taking another 16mg. Honestly, if you've tried methadone and it's giving you a high, it's probably too much. Methadone maintenance is a tricky, finicky thing... it takes some finesse and trial and error to get you to the right dosage. It is definitely something to discuss with your doctor I tried to switch from methadone to suboxone early in my maintenance and found that it wasn't a viable option for me due to the amount I had to take. Generally, I think, suboxone is for people without very intense addictions as the ones we're talking about here with you and me and such.
If you feel like you absolutely must take more, try just taking one more tablet and see how that goes for you, and you may also want to call your doctor and see if you can get in early.

 

[T. Calderone]

Did your doctor prescribe you 16 mg a day or how much? Seems like a lot.

 

[wezface]

I stopped at 16mg/day because I felt like it was too much, though I could have kept increasing the dosage. It just doesn't seem like a smart thing to do without a doctor's approval.

 

[BillyTeton]

16mg a day. I thought it was a lot too, since I read that a heroin addict was only taking two 2mg pills a day.

 

[wezface]

"Heroin addict" is such a broad term. There's an enormous scale there, not just with the amount of use but the quality of dope, etc. I have known pill poppers/pain patients with higher tolerances than many of the heroin addicts I know. I was a heroin addict and on 130mg methadone/day, but I've known people who take anywhere from 30mg-200mg to start. There's really a stigma, but keep in mind it's like any other drug and has a huge range of use, even for an addict.
ETA and 200ish mg/day of hydrocodone is a huge habit, probably roughly equivalent to .5-1gram of average quality heroin.