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Recovery Over 3 months on Suboxone - no major WD symptoms

Day 9. Took another 2mg around 8am. Also had .25 clonazepam. I know .25 is a low dose but I need to take a break from it as I've taken it a few days in a row now. Feeling fine as with the past few days. I have noticed that I've been drinking a bit more than usual. I'm definitely not physically dependent b/c I took 3 days off last week and felt perfectly fine. I remember this happening last time around I was using subs to detox. Has anyone else experienced drinking more on subs? Or in detox in general?

Stay safe everyone.
 
Day 10. Dosed another 2mg of sub around 8am which makes it 4 consecutive days at 2mg. No clonazepam today, I don't feel that I need it, I just take it b/c it's there. Another good day overall. Got 6-7 hours of sleep, worked, appetite increased, but I can't seem to fall asleep early enough to get the full 8-9 hours but that's very minor. I find myself more productive and social, just generally in a good mood. I think tomorrow I will start taking 1mg, do that for 4-7 days then go to .5mg, start skipping days and finally jump off. In the past this taper has worked great and I have kratom if I do experience any discomfort.
 
Day 11.


Dosed 2mg. No clonazepam or any other meds for that matter (aside from vitamins). Still drinking a decent amount at night but feeling fine. Appetite, libido, mood, energy, pretty much everything has been good. Been having brief thoughts of using but they aren't very strong and pass quickly. Tomorrow I will be going down to 1mg of suboxone for hopefully no more than a week. The plan is for 4-5 days at 1mg then .5 for a week then jump.
 
Day 12.

First day on 1mg suboxone. Felt a bit tired but I only got about 5 hours sleep and drank quite a bit. Other than that I felt fine. Was having some anxiety with personal stuff so later in the day (around 530pm) I dosed .5 lorazepam. Helped with anxiety and, even thought I went to bed later than I wanted, I got solid sleep. Might dry dosing some kratom today if I start feeling tired.
 
Day 13.

Second day 1mg suboxone. Took .5mg clonazepam around 530pm had a few drinks later that night but didn't really eat much so I fell asleep on the couch. Felt fine on 1mg maybe slightly more tired but there could be other contributing factors for that. Not really much to update other than I want to stop drinking during the week and only on the weekends. That's my goal for now, one thing at a time.
 
Hey nice job. We’re on a similar schedule, today’s my second day of 1mg. Tried for 1mg three days ago but didn’t hold. Yesterday was ok tho.

hang in there :)
 
Nice 1mg is a great accomplishment. Mind me asking how long and what doses of bupe you've been on?
 
Day 14.

Had a lot of stuff to do today and used that as an excuse to do 2mg which gave me some much needed energy. Oh well not the end of the world but back to 1mg for the next few days then .5 then finally hop off. Hopefully only 2 more weeks until I'm completely done.
 
Nice 1mg is a great accomplishment. Mind me asking how long and what doses of bupe you've been on?
Today marks day 8 for me.. so far it’s ok. Kicks up my anxiety but to be expected. Was able to induct at 1.5. I did have to take a lil bit last night, another .125. will probably chill on this dose all week as I have some stressful stuff coming up later this week and don’t wanna ruin it. But yeah day 8 is feeling pretty ok. Cheers and glad to hear it’s working out for ya too :)
 
Day 14.

Had a lot of stuff to do today and used that as an excuse to do 2mg which gave me some much needed energy. Oh well not the end of the world but back to 1mg for the next few days then .5 then finally hop off. Hopefully only 2 more weeks until I'm completely done.

Please keep us posted on your progress. I've been on again, off again subs for years now, mostly on. My story in a nutshell, heavily addicted to heroin, got entirely (NA) clean and stayed that way for 17 glorious years. Then had dental surgery in 2010 and relapsed on pain meds. That turned into occasional H binges which became not so occasional. Eventually I started using suboxone. I currently take 500 micrograms per day (2 x 250 mcgs). My pattern over the last year or 2 (or 3?) has been to stabilize on low dose subs for weeks at a time, then binge on dope for a few days, then back to the subs. The transition back to subs gets more difficult each time, especially if the "few day" dope binge turns into a week of shooting H. I like to tell myself I'm using such a low dose of suboxone because I'm getting ready to jump off but honestly part of the reasoning is so I can still feel the dope real good when I go on my heroin runs. I'd probably be better off on 1 or 2 mgs maintenance. It's Feb 11 today and I haven't used heroin since early January. It's been 1/2 of a mg (500 mcg) of suboxone per day since. I crave dope everyday.
Again, keep us posted.
 
Today marks day 8 for me.. so far it’s ok. Kicks up my anxiety but to be expected. Was able to induct at 1.5. I did have to take a lil bit last night, another .125. will probably chill on this dose all week as I have some stressful stuff coming up later this week and don’t wanna ruin it. But yeah day 8 is feeling pretty ok. Cheers and glad to hear it’s working out for ya too :)
That's great you were able to induct so low and good luck whether it's a rapid detox or long term. The first few days I didn't feel 100% but still fine, usually for me it takes a few days then I'm feeling normal maybe with a little more energy added.
 
@oldhippytony - That's quite a journey, 17 years is a very long time abstaining. So congrats for that. Amazing the things and events that send us into relapse. The countless time I've relapsed are quite a variety. Relationship fights, surgery, the old "just using once", etc. I never really did the back and forth from oxy to subs but every since my first CT detox I always make sure to use subs and usually benzos, never been addicted though. I know exactly what you're talking about low doses of sub. It's good and bad, being so low you could potentially jump but you can also break through with whatever DOC. Cravings are the worst, I have thoughts here and there but then I just remind myself of the past and that's enough for me to abstain.


Thanks for sharing and good luck with everything.
 
Day 15.

Dosed 2mg again. My rationalization: hungover and had some stuff to do in the morning/afternoon. Felt great in the first half of the day then got tired, took a nap on the couch, and felt good after that. Also dosed .5 clonazepam the same time as the sub b/c I had something that involved public speaking, at least that was my rationale. Still drinking too much at night so I need to cut that down. 15 days no oxy, pretty proud of that. Only have 7mg of sub left so probably 3-4 more days of 1mg, then .5 for the remainder. Hopefully won't resort to my comfort meds but I have zolpidem, clonazepam, lorazepam, and kratom. Limited supply of all, but enough for a few weeks.
 
Day 16.

Back to 1mg. Took another .5mg clonazepam the same time, I really need to start cutting back I think I'm just getting anxiety b/c I'm jumping in the next week or two. Also took some kratom last night b/c I was really tired, gave me a bit of energy but only for a couple hours. I was proud of myself, I had an easy chance to grab but I resisted. Just kept reminding myself of how guilty and crappy I'll feel tomorrow morning if I go through with it. Also I feel some sort of cold coming on, I'm stuffy, coughy, and my throat hurts a bit. Got 6-7 hours of pretty good sleep though so that's good. Been able to get to work earlier and earlier so my next goal is to either throw a home workout in or get to the gym.
 
You said that you "have considered long term sub treatment but I'm very reluctant. I really don't want to rely on another drug in my everyday life when the goal is to be completely drug independent."

Wondering where you are at tj? I know the anxiety that comes when the sub stash starts to dwindle.

I bumped up my dosage a bit these last couple of days from .500 mcg to 1 mg. Hopefully the mental cravings will subside with the increased doses. I've been having chest pains. I had an EKG (negative) and next week I'm scheduled for a 2D echocardiogram. I've decided I'm not going to cave in and use heroin until (at least) we get to the bottom of what is causing the chest pain. With that said, I have no good reason not to take as much suboxone as it takes to eliminate my cravings.

tj ... I will be frank with you, judging from your history (the past 12 years on/off opiates), in my opinion and based on my own experience, getting clean and staying clean won't be a walk in the park for you without support.
 
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Hey Tony - Ended up relapsing for 2 days over the weekend. Was about 21 days clean before this happened so I'm not too hard on myself but back on the bupe. I Actually got a hold of a few zubzolvs, they have a nice minty taste but really hard to get low doses b/c they are tablets and tend to crumble. I understand that there is less bupe/nalox in each one b/c the BA is higher, but I figure splitting them into quarters is equal to 2mg suboxone. Has anyone used these? What are your thoughts compared to other bupe brands?


I hope you end up figuring out your chest pains. Is this something new?


Anyway, I'll keep the journal going it definitely helps me and hope it helps others.
 
Day 1 & 2
Dosed 4mg of the zubsolv the past 2 mornings. I think I took .25 clonazepam the first day as well but none the second. Felt pretty good, didn't really expect any WD after only a 2 day relapse. I honestly don't even really think I need any bupe but just take it to not relapse. Will be doing an aggressive taper starting at 4mg and every 2 days lowering 50% until .5, skipping days, then jumping.
 
Day 3
Dosed 4mg zubsolv in the morning, no benzos. 4mg is probably more than enough so tomorrow will be going down to 2mg. Still been drinking a lot at night which I need to cut down. Quit smoking cigs, haven't smoked in 3 days so feeling good about that. Other than that nothing new so that's probably a good thing.
 
Day 4
2mg zubsolv around 8:30am. That's a 50% reduction from the past 3 days and I'm feeling fine so far. Hard to tell the exact dose b/c the best way I've found to split up these doses is with a razor blade which really isn't too effective. If there are suggestions for better methods then by all means let me know. Had a bit of stress/anxiety spring up so I took .5 lorazepam around 1pm. No cravings, good sleep, bit of anxiety but I think that's natural, so all in all everything is great. Anyway, any tips on splitting the zubsolv tablets would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
 
Anyway, any tips on splitting the zubsolv tablets would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
For about a year, up until around a month ago, I was buying 8 mg suboxone illicitly (and incredibly inexpensively) ... no regular visits to the doctor and related co-pays, no urine screens, etc. However since my daily dose (one month ago) was 250 micrograms, I found it difficult, yet not impossible, to split the 8 mg film up into 32 equal pieces. This is partly the reason why I recently decided to stop copping subs on the street and asked my doctor to prescribe me 2 mg. doses. While it cost me ten times as much to go the legal route, it's much less of a hassle to split a 2 mg. film 8 ways than an 8 mg. film into 32 tiny pieces. The primary reason however, is because I firmly believe that being clean extends to living clean. Buying drugs that were originally prescribed for someone else isn't exactly living clean. I've often bitched about how difficult it is for many to obtain buprenorphine. One of the arguments for strictly regulating the drug is to limit diversion. It's hypocritical of me to buy diverted suboxone yet complain about buprenorphine being tightly regulated. It's harder to stay clean living life as a hypocrite. Buying diverted medication, even if the drugs are needed for a legitimate purpose, is a slippery slope for me. Especially if I can get those same drugs legally. I speak only for myself.

Sorry I can't give you any tips about splitting zubsolv as I've never even seen one. The above explains how I successfully addressed an identical challenge.

Keep us posted on your progress.
 
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