From my personal experience using subs to get off a 3 year heroin addiction (IVing for the last 9 months or so):
1.) DO NOT LISTEN TO YOUR DOCTOR - HE HAS NO IDEA WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT! Just use him for refills when you need them and ignore his stupid "2 years at least" and "Two 8mg strips, twice a day" advice.
2.) Find the minimum dose required to take your mind off of whatever opiate you were doing and take that dose first thing in the morning as soon as you wake up. Find this minimum dose by starting low (.5 mg or 1/16th of an 8mg strip) and slowly adding .5mgs at a time until you find your comfortable amount. For me, right off the cold-turkey IV heroin I was only taking 1 mg at a time. I would fold the 8 mg sublingual strips in half, cut along the line, then fold one of the 4 mg halves in half and cut along that line, then fold the remaining 2 mg half in half and cut along that line, getting 2 "pretty close to" 1 mg squares. Leave 1 under your tongue as long as possible, and make sure you salivate as little as possible while its there. I'd have mine there upwards of half an hour. Don't eat or drink anything during this time.
3.) About halfway through your day, take another one of those minimal doses.
4.) Begin tapering as soon as you possibly can - always experiment with tapering. Say you've been on 1mg twice a day for 1 week - next week try to go down to .5 mg twice a day. If you're getting cravings then up it back to 1mg in the morning, but only .5 mg at your second dose, etc. Tapering is key. I was eventually taking .5 mg once a day in the morning - then once every 2 days, then just taking .5 mgs on "breakthrough" or extra stressful days. Until nothing at all.
5.) 6 weeks is really short, give yourself at least 2 months, taking low doses and consistently tapering. Don't expect to be completely clean of suboxone after 2 months either. You will have stressful days and your mind will wander back to using. Keep all of your suboxone (you should have a ton of extra at the rate the stupid doctors prescribe it) and use 1/16th of a strip on these stressful days (.5 mg). Don't feel bad about it, it's keeping you clean.
6.) Don't bother with subutex.
You really have to want it to get off opiates. You have to be strong minded and have a lot of will power. You will still feel withdrawals on some days, no matter how many suboxones you take. That's called your mind "fucking with you" so it helps to keep your mind busy. If you don't have a job, get a hobby that uses a lot of your brain to keep your mind busy. To this day (I've been clean for 2 years) I still occasionally catch my mind wandering to using. Once an addict, always an addict is true. You just have to be stronger then the drug.
