Im about to do the swap from methadone to bupe myself for the second time. The first time I went from 60mg of methadone to 16mg of bupe for a week then down to 12mg then soon after 8mg. I find 8mg is the perfect dose, anything more and I don't sleep, im irritable all the time, I get an uncomfortable stimulation throughout my body that is beyond uncomfortable and the annoying thing is that all the AOD workers always denied that it was the bupe and that really pissed me off because I was experiencing it. Once I stayed at 8mg life got much better and it was much better than methadone(that is if your not one of the people that rely on the slight effect methadone provides to stay clean) Bupe gives you back your motivation, your emotions(but not too much that its a shock to the system), to an extent your sex drive will return, obviously not as much as if you were totally substance free but its better than having zero interest in sex like on methadone or heroin.
Im going from 60mg of methadone to however much bupe feels right. This time im going into detox to do the switch to make it a lot easier mentally and physically. The switch is done differently to when I swapped over a few years ago. They used to just make you suffer, now they give you oral morphine and valium(under supervision obviously, the morphine takes a fraction of the time to eliminate than methadone) and after 3 or so days when the methadone is out of your system they stop the morphine, let you withdraw until your clearly uncomfortable then give you bupe in 2mg increments. If you get sick they stop, if it helps your symptoms they will give you 2mg every few hours until you feel better. then sart giving you larger doses like 8mg at a time, and if need be eventually 16-32mg until you feel comfortable enough to go home and after that your done. Its much easier than it once was.
This time im not letting myself become drawn to heroin which will inevitably land me back on methadone or dead. That's why I ended up back on the juice after I managed to switch. I got out of rehab(getting off bupe which I did successfully) and within 6 weeks of leaving I was using between 0.1g-0.4g a day. Well stupid me oneday after a night on the meth decided to IV 2 points instead of the usual 1 point because I thought the extra stimulation would keep me safe. WELL... I had the shot and the next thing I remember was lying on the ground with mum leaning over me doing CPR, and then just hysterical crying and apologizing to mum for being such a horrible son and putting the poor woman through hell over and over. I really have been the most horrible, selfish and absolutely feral son and since that day I ALWAYS keep vials of Narcan in the house, if I have a shot mum wants to know before and after but I have only used heroin about twice since that incident. I cant do it, I cant disappoint her again. She is too good of a mother she deserves so much better!
So good luck to anyone considering doing the switch. Don't listen to the people at the clinic/pharmacy! Everyone goes on about how its a government scam to get people off methadone, that it will never hold you like methadone, all this bullshit that has been made up by someone with very strange ideas. It wont give you any kind of high if you've been tolerant to methadone, but if you want your life to move forward, if you want a job, motivation, the energy to be a better parent etc then bupe is a wonderful drug
