Long term methadone to long term suboxone

[GoodOleAddiction22]

If this post is in the wrobg area please move it. This is my first post so if I'm in the wrong area my bad. Ive been a huge fan of the site and have been coming here regularly for a really long time. anyway I know there is probably a thread about this somewhere I have found some but they where older threads. my question is I was in methadone for 2 years it saved my life, it pulled the needle out of my arm and my life started coming back together. I loved the methadone my dose didnt get me high I was at 100mg and ir was perfect. All the things I love about opiates the energy, the warm blanket, the great mood, hell I even like being constipated since I had bowel problems my whole life. So I moved to another state and here the nearest methadone clinic is just way to far and 5 dollars more a day then what I was paying so i found a suboxone doctor. After I went through hell I made the switch and went from 2mg to 4mg to 8mg to 12mg and now I'm at 16mg in just a month and a half. I keep going up in dose because I'm looking for relief! I'm at 16mg right now and no warm blanket feeling, still have the shits, I have no energy or desire it's awful. I remember taking 2mg subs back when I was shooting and I can remember feeling significant relief. I was curious to see if my dose was just to low I double dosed and had 32mg still nothing. I wanna go back to methadone but this suboxone program they have here only cost me $3 a visit which I go once or twice a month and the prescription is free! So it cost me 6 dollars a month to for my subs, doctor visit and 30min counseling you can't beat that (no insurance no nothing) especially when my methadone was 16 bucks a day... Am I at to low of a dose? Is there things I can take with it to help intensify the subs? Beside the obvious benzos alcohol ect. again ive only been on suboxone for a month and a half so will things get better as more time passes? Is my body just adjusting from having 2 years of methadone to having none? Is being on suboxone long term better than methadone lobg term? Am I looking for relief in suboxone that I'm never gunna get? I'm just telling myself give it time give it time. Anyone out there successfully made the switch have any insoght? Any answers on this would be greatly appreciated

 

[Pickledlemons]

How much methadone were you on when you switched to suboxone? You are suppose to be taking no more than 40mg, if you were taking 100mg and switched, that could explain why you are feeling like shit. The sub ceiling is around 30mg, but I don't think you should go up in dose. Your body will adjust in time. 16mg is already a huge dose.

 

[JessFR]

Welcome to bluelight, or rather welcome to bluelight membership since you've been lurking for a while .

OK so, wish I had better news, but it sounds like your tolerance is above the subuxone ceiling dose. If you were used to 100mg of methadone then that wouldn't surprise me.

In which case, you can try but I doubt increasing the subuxone dose will help. I suspect you have two options, you can either wait for your body to adjust or switch back to methadone. At least switching to methadone from subuxone is far easier than the other way around.

If you don't or can't switch back to methadone, I'm not sure what else you can do that doesn't involve using apart from waiting. Eventually your body will adjust to the lower dosage. In the long run that could be a good thing, but it could take weeks of feeling like this, maybe longer.

Sorry, wish I had better advise. But that sure sounds like the problem to me. Good luck man. I have a heavy opioid dependence myself so I know how sucky it is. Good luck man.

 

[GoodOleAddiction22]

Hey thanks I appreciate the response. Yeah right now I'm managing. I'm not it flown blown hell I'm just border line ok some days better than others but yeah I'm gunna stick it out and let my both my adjust and hell if my tolerence goes down thats always a good thing too lol. Really you gave me the best news I could have heard which was eventually ill adjust.

 

[JessFR]

No problem. Yeah it's only temporary. Because of the long half lives involved it could take a while to adjust, but it'll happen. I say it'll take a while, but by a while I just mean it might be more than a few weeks, not that it'll take a crazy long period of time or anything like that. Just longer than you might expect I'd you've gone off heroin cold turkey before for example.

If you wait it out, the only other thing I'd add is to make sure you keep in mind that your tolerance will have substantially dropped. One if the most common ways people end up overdosing is when they haven't been using for a while and have lost a lot of tolerance without realizing.

All I'm saying is, if you wait it out, and if in the future you decide to go back to methadone or start using recreational opiates like heroin or whatever, that you keep in mind that you may need a lot less than you're used too and to be cautious. That's all. Good luck man .

 

[Keif' Richards]

Hi there newbie! Let me start by giving you a warm welcome to the forums! We're genuinely happy to have you.

I'm on my tablet, so please forgive me for being a little bit brief, but the hard fact is that Buprenorphine does not work for everyone. You'll notice the simple fact that Buprenorphine is much easier to access than Methadone, yet folks still opt for the more strictly controlled Methadone. Buprenorphine just didn't cut it for me and I would venture to say that it is not uncommon for those with a particularly heavy habit to have bad luck when attempting Buprenorphine maintenance.

Sadly, if it is not working for you in any way at this point, given that you are already at a fairly high dose, it's not likely that it will start working once you get to a higher dosage. You can try of course, but this will in turn increase your dependence upon a drug that in your own words, doesn't really work for you.

You are saying that Methadone is completely out of the question? What about hanging in there until you get take-home medication?

 

[Beefy]

It sounds like you got off of methadone when you were taking too high of a dose. You're supposed to be on 30mg before making the switch to suboxone. That will prolly explain why you feel uncomfortable and such.

 

[paulforaname]

I was on 20mg of methadone for 3-4 months highest 50 but went down to 30 for year then went down to 20mg in 2 months. Been 2.5 weeks off methadone but used gear after 2 days off then used small amounts to hold off WDs , was hard not use more but stuck it out then after after 6 days waited 18 hours and took 2mg of suboxone then couple of hours had 2mg more then took 2mg for anther day then 1mg for few days and been off everything since. Had few days of stomach issues and headaches but few days off now im feeling ok. Just hope it continues.

 

[Beefy]

that sounds encouraging for me. I'm only on 20mg now for like 2 months I think. I want to get off of it, but i'm kind of scared that i'll become very depressed and end up going back on heroin.