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  • AADD Moderators: swilow | Vagabond696

In need of help please on suboxone addicted to Valium

Sez00008

Greenlighter
Joined
Feb 11, 2018
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Hey everyone I'm new here so I hope I'm posting in the right place lol. I have a bad addiction to codiene which I am now on suboxone for. Now my problem is that I am addicted to Valium bad. I've been taking 4 5mg tablets everyday. I got my script for 50 just 12 days ago and I'm out. I have a doctors appointment tomorrow to tell him about it, does anyone know what he will do to help me? I also have insomnia and have tried lots of herbal things, melatonin and sleep aid, nothing works. So what can the doctor do to help with me not sleeping? Thank you all so much ? basically I'd just like to know what to expect
 
Hi Sez00008

That's absolutely amazing that you're on suboxone and valium. In NSW at least I believe prescribers of suboxone are technically not allowed to be prescribing benzodiazepines to their patients. You really don't want to get your doctor in trouble. Eespecially with that super massive dose your getting - 50 tablets?!

Valium is a benzodiazepine. A benzodiazepine addiction is a very serious matter. No doctor, unless you live in the US, will ever make a benzodiazepine addict go cold turkey. There is a fairly even chance you'll die, and if that happens they could easily be sued for malpractice.

Now you should not be using benzodiazepines for sleep. Sleep is a form of consciousnesses whilst what benzodiazepines do is make you go unconsciousness. One is real sleep and the other is not sleep. They were originally prescribed at low doses to help relax people so they could fall asleep the trick being that you would be unconsciousness for only a short period before you slipped into a sleep state.

Unfortunately people who take ever increasing doses of benzodiazepines to sleep are only increasing the period of unconsciousness which is only making you even more sleep deprived. Sleep is really really important (watch this to find out why). So you're in a vicious positive feedback loop. You take benzo's to sleep but you don't end up sleep much, so you're tired but you want to sleep more. The suboxone probably keeps you awake (i know it had a strange effect of amping me up especially when i was tired). So you end up taking benzo's to help getting to sleep and on the loop gets, requiring more of everything to continue in this fashion.

So what to do.

1. tell the doctor.
2. tell them you want to get off them and find a way to sleep.
3. ask them for a taper plan and be honest.
4. get off the valium and ask to see if you could try mirtazapine. I've known heaps of insomanics, especially benzo and cannabis addicts (who would smoke heaps in order to sleep) and mirtazapine was a fucking miracle.

You really don't want to get your doctor in trouble. A good doctor who is willing to prescribe this sorts of drugs should not be abused. Instead treasure them and cultivate them. Use these drugs when you need them. Not when you just want to get high.
 
In NSW at least I believe prescribers of suboxone are technically not allowed to be prescribing benzodiazepines to their patients. You really don't want to get your doctor in trouble.

I'm not sure about NSW, but this definitely isn't the case Australia wide. At least here in SA, I've known a large number of people (including yours truly) who've been prescribed both, and some who've been prescribed benzos with methadone or other full agonist opioids. I think it mostly depends on the doctor and how cagey they are about the situation - A lot of doctors aren't above saying they can't do something as a way of avoiding a dispute with a patient over whether they should do it.

There is a fairly even chance you'll die

Let's keep it realistic. Benzo addiction is a serious problem, and cold turkey is, by all accounts, universally horrible and potentially dangerous, but I don't think there's a "fairly even chance" that someone will die from coming off 20mg/day valium. Seizures and other complications are a real risk, but that risk should be kept in perspective.



OP - good luck. You've probably already spoken to your doctor, I hope it went well. Insomnia is a cunt of a problem, I'm only just beginning to get a handle on it after years of work improving my health, changing my diet, therapy, meditation, etc etc. It's something you'll probably need to approach from quite a few different directions over time to make improvement, but you absolutely can make improvement.

For what it's worth, opiates definitely don't help. Short acting opiates like codeine are the worst for this, and I'd be surprised if anyone with a serious codeine habit had a decent sleep cycle, but even longer acting opioids like suboxone will mess with your sleep over the long run. I noticed an immediate and substantial improvement in my sleep as soon as I came off suboxone. Something to keep in mind for when you're ready and able to come off the subs.

You really don't want to get your doctor in trouble. A good doctor who is willing to prescribe this sorts of drugs should not be abused. Instead treasure them and cultivate them. Use these drugs when you need them. Not when you just want to get high.

I'm sure he doesn't want to get his doctor in trouble. I also doubt he's super happy about being dependent on suboxone and benzos either, or all the time and effort and money that went into maintaining a codeine habit beforehand. If drugs were as simple as making the right choices across a purely rational plane, addiction wouldn't exist. I'm not saying potential consequences should be ignored, just that if there weren't other, powerful, internal needs driving addicts, they wouldn't be addicts.
 
I'm in Melb and my doc will prescribe me benzos + 'done or subby. She doesn't like doing it, but if I need some benzo's she'll write a script.

That said - it's obviously too late now, but in case anyone else is watching - NEVER swap codeine for suboxone or methadone. You're essentially trading a very mild (not saying it's pleasant or easy, but relatively speaking: mild) opiate addiction for a very serious one.
 
Also, regarding benzos - do what I do when I get a benzo script - get the same doc that does your sub to do the val script and just get it dosed at the chemist, so you can't fuck it up. If I was allowed to fill my script of benzos, I'd eat them all before I even got out the door of the chemist. Seriously. I literally advise my doc to write out the script so I can only get X dispensed per day, so I can't just deliberately OD on them the first day, which is what i always do if I buy them black market.

also - lol, going CT off 20mg val a day is not going to kill anyone.
 
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