Bupe benzo taper and back on Bupe

[Znegative]

So lately I've decided to taper off benzo's, or at least down to a more reasonable dose (been taking anywhere from 7-10 mg of xanax or clonazapam in the last month, and slightly lower doses in the months before)

However, I also just recently quit another one week bender with heroin, doing a minimum of a bundle a day of some pretty decent dope (I'd say as far as measurements go at least a "gram"). Since switching back to the suboxone strips, and switching over to a lower dose of Klonopin to deal with my benzo issues, I've felt that I've had to take an extremely large amount of suboxone to feel comfortable. Were talking sometimes 56 mg a day, and no, you dont have to tell me thats too much. The thing is, is that taking say, 24 mg, really just isn't cutting it for me right now. I'm sure it has to do slightly with the benzo withdrawal, but I fear that I've really screwed up my opiate tolerance too, to the point where I have to take these enormous doses of suboxone. But then again, that doesnt make sense either, because many people do way more than a bundle and a half a day, and feel fine on just 8 mg!

I've never had this problem before, and I really cant afford to keep dosing myself like this with the suboxone. I know I'm going to get a lot of comments saying that its all in my head, but I know that some of it is not. If I try to just take 16 mg SL, I will start getting hot flashes and chills later on in the day. It's fucked up. And the worst thing is I cant potentiate my suboxone with benzo's anymore, because now I'm seriously trying to taper off of those.

I guess my question is this. I've now been back on suboxone for 4 days. Will I start to feel more relief from it, and less need to keep dosing throughout the day as the half lifes build up more? Or have I screwed up my suboxone tolerance too, and will have to just tough it out and deal with the bullshit untill I adjust to a reasonable dose.

Any advice would be helpful, and please don't flame me for taking such huge amounts of suboxone, I know its rediculous, but I'm not making this up, and I'm really uncomfortable and want this to change.

 

[stray cat]

all i can really think of is that the sub isn't really effective for you any more bc of switching back and forth between full and partial agonists so much. i would think if u were to remain on sub for an extended period of time that your body would get used to it again and you wouldn't feel like you needed to take so much, but that's really all i've got... i think i remember from your posts many months ago that you used to be able to get by on much smaller amounts, so all i can think of is that maybe all the switching back and forth caused it to lose its "magic" or whatever. i don't know though. maybe someone else will have some better ideas... good luck

 

[OEandricearoni]

I'm pretty sure the reason why you're feeling crappy isn't because you aren't taking enough suboxone, but because of the benzos. When i was doing .5 G of heroin a day i could get by on a pretty small amount of suboxone (3-4mg was plenty) so there's no reason why you should need such a huge dose. It's gotta be the benzos man. You're probably just feeling some benzo withdrawal because of your taper, and it has nothing to do with your suboxone dose. you're planning on staying on the benzos right? Just trying to get down to taking a more reasonable dose? I'm sure once you get down to whatever dose you're trying to get to and stay on it for a few days you will start feeling better

 

[adder]

I jumped on buprenorphine from 120-160mg of morphine / ~40mg of levorphanol a day and I needed at least 16mg to feel alright, it doesn't necessarily mean comfortable. I kept taking buprenorphine for over 2 months and on 8mg I was sweating, I almost had diarrhea - it was simply no solution for me. I changed buprenorphine for methadone and I've been going with it since then. Well, the textbook solution is switching to methadone if buprenorphine doesn't work at max. 32mg (and that's really a lot, if it works, then it should at 16-24mg at most).

Anyway, benzodiazepines might be involved too. If you lowered your daily intake, anxiety must have risen as well. I know you didn't want replies denying that 56mg of buprenorphine is too high etc. But 56mg of buprenorphine is actually as good as 32mg at most. With partial agonists it is that the curve stops to go higher and higher at some point and for buprenorphine it happens somewhere at 32mg so everything you take above this value, you actually lose.

You've got 2 addictions and that alprazolam/clonazepam dose is quite high. I've been there. I used to take even 30mg of clonazepam a day regularly, now I'm down to 6mg (but to be honest I take more on harder days) and I'm on methadone. So I know this addiction combo. The first thing to do here is to focus on benzodiazepines, then taper down the opioid.

 

[Georgie25]

Have you tried taking small doses of suboxone? I find taking any dose higher than 2mg will just give me bad effects and not help at all. But when taking 2mg or less more of bupes agonist properties are unleashed and may do you some good.

 

[OpiYum]

Hey i have to take large doses of suboxone otherwise im not blocked. sometimes to fight precipated w/d i'll take like 80mgs in a few hours and the symptoms subside for me.

I take about 16-32mgs, split over 4 times a day (to reduce the amount of cravings). I get definitely get away with much less, but a high dose controls the cravings better.

i think u'll be able to taper slowly. one battle at a time. plus it takes some time to build up. my last switch from a multi month long h binge and taper was absolute hell. i wanted to kill myself and suffered the most psychological pain. i even tapered to what i considered a min h amount before switching to subs and was in pain for 4-5 days. I have a small benzo habit for about a month for myself like 1mg kpin and .5-1mg of xanax per night, which my dr. said is not my main concern now. Clonidine helps my initial w/d symtoms

Anyway, i think u'll feel better as the days continue. i felt like shit, i thought i needed hospitalization and almost lost my job and quit school. but i kept getting better. u have suffered worse, from what i remember. let it build, work on the benzos, and u can always PM me....