I've been on sub for a little over a month now and it's a miracle for me. I was using opiates for 6 years before that, basically self-medicating more than recreational use though. I have really bad depression and anxiety, social anxiety, have for at least a decade, and I also have uncomfortable sensory issues where things such as the way clothes feel bother me unnaturally and really interfere with daily life. Needless to say, opiates fix these issues, or at least take them out of sight for some time.
Without opiates, in w/d or not, is so so hard for me. I take w/d worst than most people, even mild w/d's, and also PAWS... I just cannot tolerate it. It brings me close to suicide. Living without opiates is like living without oxygen for me. I don't know if I do, but I believe I have some sort of opiate deficiency. I just do not feel normal and happy unless I have an opiate. And I did not feel normal before I tried opiates either. That first vicodin at 17 was like an epiphany, this is how life should feel, no absurd anxiety and worry every minute, just calm content-ness and motivation and energy, willingness to go out and do what needs to be done. Opiates work far better than the 7 or 8 different anti-depressants I've tried. I can't really take any anti-depressants anyway because they all seem to fuck with my stomach, which has problems in the first place.
So I have no plan of getting off suboxone anytime soon. Will I eventually, I guess so, but why worry about it now when I am finally excelling in life and feeling whole and complete and anxiety-free? Life is just too overwhelming and uncomfortable and threatening for me to bear without the shield of suboxone, and if I need that "crutch" or drug to not kill myself, then what is the problem? People with a condescending attitude about suboxone make me sick, because they don't realize that EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT and not everyone is capable of quitting opiates and managing to continue with life, even if it's difficult. I just can't do that, not yet anyway, and god knows I have tried many, many times.
Suboxone isn't perfect but for me it is what helps me wake up every day, alive and happy for once. That's important. So fuck all the people who say there's something INHERENTLY wrong with being on it for more than a week, or a few weeks, or a month. EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT. Imagine that /s ... imagine what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes for a lifetime, someone who is suffering from something only one thing can help with. Until you do that, then shut your fucking presumptuous, arrogant, uncaring idiot mouths.
/rant