Soma, Suboxone, Vyvanse, Xanax, and Anxiety

[Slavetoopiates]

I am a 50 year old former "dope fiend" and I am currently on
Suboxone Maintenance for several years. I also take Vyvance as well as Lamactal and Xanax ER.

Does Anyone Take Soma During The Day?

Like an idiot I tried to take on two "full time" jobs at the same time and I basically flipped out. My Entire Body Is Always Tense. I have had such high anxiety levels that I was not eating, my hands were shaking, and I can't seem to "settle down" into my "normal routine"

Prior to this mess I found that smoking marijuana using a vaporizer helped tremendously in terms of relaxing both my mind and body but at this point it's just not enough.

I never required the Xanax during the day and in fact took less than the recommended dosage of 1.5 MG daily. Now I MUST take a Xanax as soon as I wake up.

I got my hands on some Soma and it provides fantastic relief but at the price of falling asleep.

If I Can Somehow Get The Relief Soma provides but without the heavy sedation I will be OK. In addition to these extremely high anxiety levels I have a bad back and my back muscles hurt from constantly being tense.

I also have Skelaxin and Flexaril but I never bothered to try them since they never appeared to do anything but make me feel "rubbery"

Does Anyone Have Any Success With Soma During The Day?
Does Anyone Have Any Success Using Skelaxin?

Does Anyone Have Any Suggestions?

 

[sid3]

I take vyvanse but wouldn't both taking it if I was going to use somas during the day. I'm thinking your anxiety is getting magnified from the weed being mixed with the amps and subs. The soma seems to help as it's slowing your brain down.

 

[NotQuiteAnonymous]

Break the Somas into pieces. You should be able to experiment and find a dose that works well and is minimally sedating.

Too bad you just can't get Miltown...

 

[love2party]

Soma is probably not a good choice for anxiety. It's very unpredictable and tolerance rises too fast. It's half life is about 10hrs., but the effects only last about 3-4hrs. I have never taken soma regurlaly, but after a couple of days of taking it, I stop taking it and I feel tense for the next 1-2 days.

 

[sid3]

Does the vyvanse increase your anxiety, or does it come from just from having two jobs? I recently noticed that not eating enough when taking the vyvanse can cause a lot of problems, joint pains,no energy, increased anxiety. What part of your back hurts, hopefully not near the kiddneys I've a few friends that will take sub and somas during the day and they're sleeping on the couch by dinner time. Pretty sure your suppose to taper off of the somas if you've been taking them for awhile.

 

[leiphos]

I take Vyvanse and Soma or Flexeril at the same time (and was using opiates with them for a while, and then while tapering off the opiates) particularly when I go to work. I work in stand-up retail and also have back problems. Often I will take the the muscle relaxant with Vyvanse when I wake up, but do not re-dose again during the day; I find redosing with a stimulant like Adderall (a so called "booster" dose) increases muscle tension. I also take a prescription anti-inflamatory, Voltaren.

 

[K'd-OUT-in-AZ]

I suffer from the same problems that you do, opiate addiction, adult ADD and anxiety problems that causes muscle pain.

Vyvanse can increase your anxiety. As you know its an amphetamine and stimulants can make your situation worse.

Soma helps you because its primary metabolite, meprobamate, has barbiturate like modulatory effects on the "GABA-A" receptor. As you know and have explained, anxiety produces muscle tension and pain. Drugs that have affinity to the GABA-A receptor produce anxiolytic and muscle relaxant effects. Also, drugs that have effect on GABA-A produce sedation. The only way you can mediate the sedation of Soma is by taking a lower dose. Take 1/2 a pill less.

One problem with taking Soma everyday though is that you'll eventually gain a tolerance and possibly become physically addicted if taken too long, especially if you have pre-existing addiction problems.

Skelaxin may help your muscle pain but not nearly to the extent of Soma. It won't help you with anxiety either. It causes less sedation though.

 

[bigslick57]

I have the same problems! Severe GAD/social anxiety, depression, adult ADD, and insomnia. Also have two herniated discs in my lower back, a narrow spinal canal, torn meniscus left knee, etc. which caused a past dependency on opiates. And im only 25. I too am on suboxone(16mg daily) which does not cause ANY drowsiness, euphoria, etc(which is exactly what its supposed to do and what i want it to do), it just takes away the need for full on opiates. I take generic Dexedrine(30mg a day, will be upping the dose when i move back to Oregon next Thursday and find a psychiatrist up there). The suboxone helps with my back pain, it also eases my depression a little, and the Dex is managing my ADD, although the dose needs tweaked, it also helps with depression.

But as far as my SEVERE anxiety/insomnia, i am at a loss. I was on generic xanax 1MG as needed/up to 2MG, for 3 months until two months ago, it helped with the anxiety/insomnia, but it was to much for me, it was nice not having anxiety all day long and being able to fall asleep at night, but there were times it caused some nasty memory loss, and i wasnt able to tweak the dose to see if i could make it work for me because i decided to move from here in ARIZONA back to my family in OREGON and didnt make another appt with the doctor down here. With this move(i am using one of those PODS, and i have to fit everything i own in a 6' x 7' container! sold all my furniture) my anxiety is through the roof, had a panic attack two nights ago that lasted almost 2 hours, i thought i was going to die, couldnt even breath. I dont know how i am going to make it until i can see a doc in Oregon in a week or two.

Anyways, sorry, didnt mean to steal your thread... As far as the Soma goes, i am surprised it knocks you out, how many MG are you taking? and how many MG of sub and xanax are you taking? I know when i was on xanax too, that made me tired, so im sure the combo of xanax and soma(and your sub too) would cause drowsiness. I know when i was on Opiates or tramadol along with soma, i didnt have much drowsiness at all. I had a tolerance to opiates, and eventually to soma, but even when i first started soma it didnt cause drowsiness at all(350-1050MG at a time). I know my tolerance to soma built incredibly fast, literally if i took it on consecutive days, its effectiveness would be cut in half or more. You could try to cut the pills in half. And as mentioned above, the vyvanse is probably adding to your anxiety, and could cause pain as it is a vasoconstrictor, and the weed cant help either with all the RX medications you are on.

Have you tried excercising? Even just starting out taking a brisk 15 minute walk a day can help, and does wonders when you are in a habit of excercising every day(30+ minutes). I know excercise plays a huge roll in how i feel. Also, make sure you get plenty of quality sleep, have a balanced diet, and drink a ton of water.

 

[phatass]

meprobamate is slightly less sedating than soma

 

[Specterchild]

Same Boat

Im currently on Suboxone, Vyvance, and Clonidine and my day seems like a roller coaster of depression and briefly feeling content. This ends each nite with a cocktail of alcohol, diphenhydramine, and clonidine.

Of anyone has any comments or suggestions P.M. me.

 

[K'd-OUT-in-AZ]

Im currently on Suboxone, Vyvance, and Clonidine and my day seems like a roller coaster of depression and briefly feeling content. This ends each nite with a cocktail of alcohol, diphenhydramine, and clonidine.

Of anyone has any comments or suggestions P.M. me.

You say that your day is like a roller coaster of depression and briefly feeling content. Have you been checked for bipolar before? Or possibly its the Vyvanse coming up and down. I take Suboxone also and then Adderall XR for my ADD, as well as Valium (for Klonopin taper), Lyrica for fibro/anxiety and Lamictil for Bi-Polar. I know how feeling up and down feels like and it sucks being on multiple medication including one for opiate addiction.

 

[sid3]

I'd think the booze combined with the dip. and clonodine every nite would make you feel slugish and depressed the next day. I'd cut one or even two of them out.

 

[jjdonkey]

I'm currently taking Suboxone and Concerta and Effexor and Wellbutrin. I have serious low energy issues ever since I stopped taking Oxy/vicodin, so I'm on everything that can boost your energy (and still I fall asleep a few time a day)

BUT ANYWAY. When I take all this stuff, undoubtedly I run into anxiety every once in a while. However, my detox doctor told me straight up....DO NOT. TAKE. ANY KIND OF BENZO. While Soma ISN"T a benzo, it IS used as a substitute, and is still a downer so it can lead to the ol' "go to sleep and never wake up" side effect. It makes me nervous to think of you doing that without the advice of a doctor.

You'll want to punch me in the face when I say this, but do you do anything like exercise, yoga, running, swimming laps? When I used to go to yoga four times a week, it blasted stress like no one's business. Just a suggestion.

 

[ADDuniversity]

My experience with mixing Lamictal, Vyvanse, suboxone and Xanax

To Slavetoopiates,

First off I would like to emphasize that I am not a physician. I am a 21 year old college student who is relatively successful with grades given my positive and negative experiences I discuss.

I have a very similar mixture of drugs. I take my prescribed 400mg of Lamictal daily to treat bipolar, 8-12mg of Suboxone prescribed to me daily for opiate addiction, vyvanse 50mg subscribed to me taken a few times a week as needed for A.D.D.

I use to take SSRI's for anxiety/depression prior to my opiate addiction, until suboxone was my savior and successfully got me off opiates. In addition, I have found suboxone to be by far my best antidepressant--combined with Lamictal I've felt the most stable I have in many years (please remember everyone's brain chemistry varies)

Where my self medication comes in is when I'll take no more than 1mg of xanax a day but almost strictly use them to ease the anxiety/depression I sometimes get from vyvanse, especially when I'm coming down from it and also rarely used when having trouble sleeping at night. That said, my sub/vyvanse/lamictal doc did prescribe me Ambien CR to be taken as needed for when I come down from vyvanse and have insomnia/sleep paralysis but it got rejected by my insurance and it was only after I stopped Ambien that I self-medicated with some xanax. I've never had any problem with my dosages and combo's I've taken at all, but keep in mind, IMO, that these doses are in relatively moderate doses and higher doses the more careful you and your doctor have to be.

As far as Soma's- At one point last year I was prescribed another muscle relaxant Skelaxin taken up to 2 times daily from an orthopedic surgeon (who I did not tell about my suboxone use) for muscle spasms and was extremely lethargic the month I was on them and experienced high anxiety while coming down from them. I personally got off them pretty easily by weaning my dosage over 1 week and would recommend to remove the muscle relaxant out of your combo if anything.

Being in college it is very difficult for me to avoid (binge) drinking. However, on days I plan on drinking later, I will take nothing besides Lamictal and Suboxone and rarely no more than 0.25mg xanax (which I admit is a bad idea). I would refuse to take more than 0.5 xanax or any other depressant with alcohol which can be lethal, and have high anxiety/ hypomania drinking on vyvanse. I haven't had many problems--at most occasionally feeling a little drowsy while drinking.

Just reminding you I am not a doctor, and that everyone's drug tolerance and brain chemistry varies.