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courageisAll

Greenlighter
Joined
Nov 18, 2015
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Im very new to these things so I thouht I would take a swing at it. Ive been doing ( up to ) a half of subutex a day for the last almost 5 years. This isnt my lifestyle, not how I was raised, ect. I currently am a single mother with a full time job. I have tried countless times to get off these things. Rehab isnt an option for me. I know I have the strength, courage, and faith to do it. What stops me is the headaches and low energy. I am beyond ready to quit as its way too much money and too much bullshit trying to find these things. Ive never been in this situatiom before but as much as ive been thru sorta seen it coming. Ive never been on heroin or anything big like that. Use to do a perc here and there or a methodone once in a while. But then I met my match with the subutex. Any help, guidence, information would be so much appreciated as im stuck about to just jump off of these things as I just got precribed adderyll.
 
Ween down, every 4 days or so drop the dose a mg or so. When u jump off it'll be from as little as possible. It's gonna be long and rough cause subs have such a long half life. Good luck!
 
Thankyou!! How long is the half life. I wish I would of never touched these things and I feel horrible for people who do worse than this its crazy how much control a crumb of pill can have on you.
 
It's long, idk the exact te but I'm sure someone who knows will chime in. You'd be better off weening off something with a shorter half life like oxy or hydrocodone IMO. U might want to think about switching up so ur jumping off one of those instead. The difference is being sick as hell for 4-5days from oxy or hydro vs being sick for well over a week jumping off of subs. Fuck, even dope would be easier IMO. Not saying go buy dope but... Not the best hr I admit but it's the truth IMHO
 
Ive had plenty of friend die from that heroin shit. Im going to take adderall 20 mg and see how that works. Coming off them orher pills are horrible. I had to after two different surgies and was in the hostpial sick as hell. I appreciate the advice!
 
The subs are gonna be worse FYI.
I'm not saying go get dope but maybe if can find some oxy or something it'll be much less painful to use that to ween
 
Buprenorphine's half life is 25-60hrs or something. If you taper down to 2mg or less, coming off it really isn't bad at all. Don't get me wrong, you still get to experience plenty of withdrawal side effects that suck. But it's no where near as intense as coming off a full agonist habit like heroin or oxycodone. The primary difference, of than buprenorphine's withdrawal being a bit less acute/intense, is that it lasts a long time.

When I jumped off buprenorphine, after taking it for two years, and when I jumped off I'd been taking 4mg/day for about a month, the withdrawal was way way manageable. Only issue was I felt this general mailase that it's hard to describe. But none of the stereotypical kicking signs, perhaps other than some insomnia. All I used was temazepam and eventually some gabapentin, and it was cool.

A LOT of it is in our heads, especially with buprenorphine and methadone. Especially when done right, and tapering off after using it for a long period of time. If you can get some comfort meds, or something like kratom, and make sure to taper as low as you can (ideally less than 1mg/day), coming off buprenorphine won't be bad at all. The difficult part will be stuff related to cravings. But that really goes for coming off any opioid.

Since you've been using Subutex for five years a taper is HIGHLY suggested. At least you haven't been taking more than the 4mg/day you mentioned. First I'd split the 4mg you've been taking into 2mg you take in the AM and another 2mg you take in the PM. After a week or two of that, cut down to 2mg once a day OR 1mg twice a day (am and pm). Stay there for at least a couple weeks, ideally a month. Then go down to 0.5mg, and basically stay there for a couple weeks. At that point you can either go down to 0.25mg or just jump off.

With comfort meds like a sleep aid, gabapentin/pregabalin/baclofen, loperamide/immodium, kratom, clonazepam/diazepam, etc., you'll be totally fine and function pretty damn well. If you can keep your head up and have a positive attitude about it all, like focusing on all the awesome things that you'll get to experience as a result of not being shackled to opioids, you'll be golden.

Good luck OP! Did you have any other specific questions?
 
Toothpaste dog said it all. I think his advice is very good. I was on 8mg last year and cut down to 4 for couple of days then off and I was miserable!! But toothpaste dog had a really good schedule for you and with those other meds he mentioned you should be fine. Will power has nothing to do with drug use. It's worthless and if you just rely on will power drugs will usually win and that's everybody, not just you. Good luck to you and go slowly and soon you'll be off. Use your kid as motivation. Be safe
 
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