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getting suboxone/subutext in the UK? need advice please!

Thanks so much for sharing your experience. I stopped by my GP and he was sympathetic but made it sound like it would be a long process, like 2 weeks minimum. I went to a drug centre this week as well and they said to come in this Tuesday because there wasn't a doctor there who could see me and they seemed a bit more hopeful about it being a possibility to get it soon, but they still said I would have to be assessed and blah blah. I am going to go back there on Tuesday. Going to clinics it not the easiest thing for me because I work until 6am and by the time I get there, around 3pm, a lot of the doctors are gone or they've filled up appointments for the day.

I found a private clinic but they have told me they won't be able to give me an appointment until the 12th of May. They asked for proof from my doctor about dosage/period on subs so I'm going to call his office on Monday and ask them to e-mail me some kind of proof or fax it to the centre, I'm hoping that will perhaps speed things up a little bit. Did you go private or through the NHS?
 
RaspberryJam said:
Here's what happened to me:

Called up. Same-day appointment with a drug-worker who took a urine sample and scheduled an appointment that evening with a doctor. They asked me how much methadone I needed. Buprenorphine was offered, so I assume this would've worked equally fine. The day after that I was picking up a dose at a local pharmacy. I remained on maintenance for a couple of years and then decided to start tapering off.

I really feel your pain, mrs_mia_wallace: a couple of times I've had some really close shaves. Once I was at university after picking up the thrice-weekly script and it fell out of my backpack and smashed all over the floor. They couldn't replace it without a new script, so I had to get on the train and get there, which led to them getting the doctor to write a new one on the same day - the doctor wasn't at the clinic, so I had to wait until 6PM, but it was alright 'cause I'd already had my dose that day.

Fixing it for new jobs and stuff has really been annoying, but they really are angels about it. My experiences have been with a place in the North-East of England, so I don't know if it will help. How are you doing so far? Have you been to see them and talk to them about it? I'd take the pills along and just try to be as honest as you can. They certainly don't want anyone to go into withdrawal or screw up after eight months clean! Their hands may be tied, however, by the fact that they don't know you and the doctors they tend to use for this sort of thing only come by on certain days each week.

Good luck! I hope it all works out for you. If you fancy a chat any time about it, drop me a line.
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Wow, you got lucky, you've got some good services in your area! The 1-2 week waiting period mmw mentioned is far more commmon.

MMW: You still managing on the subs you've got or have you had to use?
 
Nope, still doing well! I found a fellow addict who was willing to help me out with some subutext, so I may actually be able to make it through to that May 12th appointment as long as I stick to a pretty low dose (not exceeding 4mg which I think is becoming more difficult because there's not as much suboxone/subutext in my system as the days go on). Hopefully the centre will be able to help me out sooner tomorrow, it would certainly be nice not to have to pay that 300/400 pound charge, but I'm not holding out much hope for that to be honest.
 
Nice one for keeping strong and sticking to the subs.

I'm not religious but I'll do a little prayer that something pops up for you sooner rather than later.
 
NHS doctors have not been very helpful! Going back again tomorrow to try to speak to someone again, they told me to come in the afternoon today but opiate assessment was in the morning... this centre doesn't much seem to have their stuff together as even the times on the NHS website are incorrect, I had to go twice last week to get ahold of someone. But it's unfortunately my only option as there isn't anyone else in my catchment area. t have my appointment with the Stepleford Centre for next Tuesday so I just end up going with them. After the initial assessment treatment becomes pretty manageable at 35 pounds a week.

Monsta-- tried to send you a pm, have a question for you but your box is full.
 
Yeah NHS centres can be a nightmare, or they can be really good. It's a lottery really.

Glad you've managed to get something sorted out finally, props for sticking to the subs through the difficult period.
 
So I had my appointment at the Stapleford Centre today, it went well-- the doctor was cool, very not judgmental at all, didn't even lecture me about stripping which everyone always does when they find out about substance abuse. He just asked me about my entire drug history (took about an hour and a half) and told me my three options were methadone, morphine, and subtex. I'm having a different reaction to the subtex than I did with suboxone-- it's making me very jittery and almost high like in an amphetamine way, the only thing Suboxone ever did was make me sleepy, but this is definitely putting my up not down, sometimes I can't sleep if I take it too late. I hate methadone and am afraid of the withdrawals from it so he said I should try the morphine, that with slow release tablets I won't get a high from it and will just feel well. He gave me the fast-acting one when I was there and I definitely didn't feel a high from it, just sort of sleepy and nauseous. Has anybody else been on this stuff? It's called Zomorph, I'm on 300mg a day which seems REALLY low to me considering I used to shoot a gram of a H a day but....
 
mrs_mia_wallace said:
So I had my appointment at the Stapleford Centre today, it went well-- the doctor was cool, very not judgmental at all, didn't even lecture me about stripping which everyone always does when they find out about substance abuse. He just asked me about my entire drug history (took about an hour and a half) and told me my three options were methadone, morphine, and subtex. I'm having a different reaction to the subtex than I did with suboxone-- it's making me very jittery and almost high like in an amphetamine way, the only thing Suboxone ever did was make me sleepy, but this is definitely putting my up not down, sometimes I can't sleep if I take it too late. I hate methadone and am afraid of the withdrawals from it so he said I should try the morphine, that with slow release tablets I won't get a high from it and will just feel well. He gave me the fast-acting one when I was there and I definitely didn't feel a high from it, just sort of sleepy and nauseous. Has anybody else been on this stuff? It's called Zomorph, I'm on 300mg a day which seems REALLY low to me considering I used to shoot a gram of a H a day but....
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I know they have prescription heroin programs in the UK, but I was unaware that they prescribed morphine for it. I am not judging, but for me that would be counter productive. I feel like it would encourage drug seeking behavior in me. But everyone is different and I hope it works for you. I actually liked Suboxone the best because I knew I couldn't get high when I was taking it. I am off it now though.
 
^Yeah, I don't know much when it comes to prescription opiates because I was purely a heroin user, but he said it's not the same as heroin at all. He said a heroin prescription would be Diamorphine or Diconal and that there are some clinics in the UK that prescribe those but that they do not. He said that the fast-acting morphine would be similar to heroin (it was called Sevredol) because I would take it 3x a day and feel the up and down, but that I shouldn't feel the Zomorph coming on at all. They definitely take a whole different approach here though, which was very strange to me-- he said that they sometimes prescribe oxycodone in the UK for opiate maintenance but that they personally don't do it because it's too expensive! Good luck finding a US clinic willing to give you oxys for opiate maintenance, I've never even heard of a clinic being willing to taper someone off opiates in the US if they were an addict. But I guess it's more lenient because this is a private clinic, not NHS affiliated-- I highly doubt an NHS clinic would prescribe me morphine.

If they prescribed Suboxone here I would take the Suboxone, I've been on it forever and I love it-- my body is just reacting totally different to the Subutex, and I'm not sure why since if I understand there's really no difference between the two except that Suboxone has naltexone and Subutex does not. But from doing research online it seems that I'm not the only one who notices a difference between the two. I mean I'm so jittery on it, and my hands shake so much I can barely sign my name on a document and customers keep asking me "are you nervous? you're shaking" so it's kind of embarrassing at work, no one wants to dance with a stripper who is so nervous they're shaking... the prescription is very controlled though, he gave me a script for the next three days but I can't fill my prescription for tomorrow until tomorrow and Thursdays on Thursdays, so there's not really much way to abuse it.... then I have to go back for another appointment Thursday to check in with him and he will give me a script probably until next Monday or Tuesday. He said after a while he will give me a script that I can take to a chemist and fill for a whole week. We'll see, to be honest I have to be pretty perky at work so if I start to feel sleepy and nodding from it I won't be able to stay on it!
 
mrs_mia_wallace said:
^Yeah, I don't know much when it comes to prescription opiates because I was purely a heroin user, but he said it's not the same as heroin at all. He said a heroin prescription would be Diamorphine or Diconal and that there are some clinics in the UK that prescribe those but that they do not. He said that the fast-acting morphine would be similar to heroin (it was called Sevredol) because I would take it 3x a day and feel the up and down, but that I shouldn't feel the Zomorph coming on at all. They definitely take a whole different approach here though, which was very strange to me-- he said that they sometimes prescribe oxycodone in the UK for opiate maintenance but that they personally don't do it because it's too expensive! Good luck finding a US clinic willing to give you oxys for opiate maintenance, I've never even heard of a clinic being willing to taper someone off opiates in the US if they were an addict. But I guess it's more lenient because this is a private clinic, not NHS affiliated-- I highly doubt an NHS clinic would prescribe me morphine.

If they prescribed Suboxone here I would take the Suboxone, I've been on it forever and I love it-- my body is just reacting totally different to the Subutex, and I'm not sure why since if I understand there's really no difference between the two except that Suboxone has naltexone and Subutex does not. But from doing research online it seems that I'm not the only one who notices a difference between the two. I mean I'm so jittery on it, and my hands shake so much I can barely sign my name on a document and customers keep asking me "are you nervous? you're shaking" so it's kind of embarrassing at work, no one wants to dance with a stripper who is so nervous they're shaking... the prescription is very controlled though, he gave me a script for the next three days but I can't fill my prescription for tomorrow until tomorrow and Thursdays on Thursdays, so there's not really much way to abuse it.... then I have to go back for another appointment Thursday to check in with him and he will give me a script probably until next Monday or Tuesday. He said after a while he will give me a script that I can take to a chemist and fill for a whole week. We'll see, to be honest I have to be pretty perky at work so if I start to feel sleepy and nodding from it I won't be able to stay on it!
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Yeah I actually had experience with the NHS. I went to school in London and got super sick (not drug related.. but I am sure they were not helping) to the point that I had to go to the hospital as an American. However, I actually had a really positive experience that just reconfirmed my personal belief in single payer systems.

Also, I had no idea private clinics even existed over there. I guess I believed this because I have seen very wealthy Europeans and Arabs come to the States for medical treatment. Which is great when you can afford it.

Also, I totally have heard about Subutex making people jumpy and jittery. Do you think that might go away if you take it for a few days? I know work is a concern. I myself am having to work while detoxing (which I am almost done with physically at least).
 
mrs_mia_wallace said:
Diconal
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I'm unaware of this being prescribed for opiate maintainance! It's probably the most highly abusable pharm out there on the market today, I was under the impression it was only prescribed to those who have been on a script (for pain reasons) for years and years and that it was stopped being handed out to anyone else because it was so highly abusable. It was what did for most of the veins in my arms.
 
Personally I did not have a great experience with the NHS-- but that's just me. It may have been the drug centre I went to was just not the best, but unfortunately you've got the place in your catchment area and that's it. My friend has the most terrible GP in the world but she's stuck with him because he's all she's got in her catchment area.

With the subtex, I dunno, I was on it for a week-- do you think staying on it longer would help with the side effects?

So, not having the best experience on the morphine. I don't feel high, but so goddman sleepy, like I cannot stay awake, but sleeping in a nod way not an actually asleep away... I tried lowering my dose to about half but I'm yawning every 30 seconds. I'm also very, very nauseous. I need to go run some errands today and I feel like I can barely get out of bed to do that, not even heroin makes me feel this way! I'm definitely going to have to call out of work today and hopefully get a script for something else because I can't miss the whole weekend... could this just be an adjustment period and it'll get better?
 
mrs_mia_wallace said:
With the subtex, I dunno, I was on it for a week-- do you think staying on it longer would help with the side effects?
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I cannot promise anything, but often times our body adapts pretty quickly. Actually, one of the benefits of being an addict is that it seems (in my experience) that we acclimate to medication as well as we do to drugs. For me, that is pretty quick. I get hooked physically and mentally real damn fast.

As for the NHS, my experience was likely colored by the fact that I want a universal system in the US and I have no insurance right now (about to purchase a good plan, better to spend money on that then dope).
 
So I have my check-in appoint with my doctor in a few hours and I'm gonna ask to go back on the suboxone, or methadone. If I reacted this way to the morphine will I react the same way to the methadone? I don't want to be jittery and switch with the suboxone but I also can't spend the weekend in bed, sick to my stomach-- I won't be able to work and a) they'll fire me and b) I can't afford that!
 
I would strongly encourage you not to go on to methadone, it's a motherfucker of an addiction and is horrible to detox from.

What makes you worry about the switch back to bupe regarding the jitteryness? Is it just a personal thing?
 
I think my body was doesn't like subutex, I dunno! I've never had this problem with the suboxone, but subutex is making me jittery, shakey and amped up. I told him about it when I saw him Tuesday and he said my only other two options were morphine and methadone and I didn't want to do the methadone because I've heard the withdrawal is so terrible. But the morphine didn't work, I mean I couldn't even take it today because I knew I would not be functioning enough to make it to my appointment.

The doctor I spoke with today was not as qualified as the one I saw Tuesday... like he could barely figure out what my dosage of subutex should be, wasn't super impressed, so I wasn't going to sit and discuss the pros and cons of methadone with him, I just said to switch me back to subutex. Hopefully it gets better this week, if it doesn't then I'll talk to the other doctor next week about methadone. I just really, REALLY don't want to go on methadone.
 
Yeah I'm with you on that. The only reason I would ever go back on it was if my habit was so big buprenorphine couldn't cover it, or I felt like I was I was in such a chaotic state that and incapable of stopping using but needed some of the stability a script would provide. Anything to avoid the juice detox really.

I'm sure you can get suboxone in this country if you want it, did you ask about it specifically? Hopefully your body should level out to it within a couple of weeks even if you have to have subutex.
 
I don't know, when I called the first time and asked for it they said they don't do suboxone, just subutex. Maybe the NHS does, not sure... I don't know why it feels different though, I mean they're the same thing right, just no naltrexone? I'm wondering if perhaps the dose just needs to be different?
 
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