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How long to stay on suboxone?

2dark2see

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 28, 2016
Messages
74
I'm currently on day 4 of detoxing from a 160mg/day oxy habit. I'm using suboxone but don't want to use it long term... at least I don't think I do. Frankly I don't know what to do. First day off oxy I used 8mg sub, 2nd day I used 6mg, 3rd day was 4mg and today is 2mg. And quite honestly I didn't feel I needed the 2mg of suboxone I took today - physically I was feeling fine and the cravings weren't too bad. I only decided to take the sub today after a friend who has been down this road before told me I really really should take it. He recommends taking it for at least a few weeks and then tapering, and his reasoning is that by taking the suboxone I'll be able to start to get some sort of regular life back without relapsing. My intention taking the subs was to help with WD from the huge oxy habit I had and then to stop the subs within a week or maybe 10 days, tapering the dose down as I went. Now I'm not sure what to do! I mean, what my friend is saying makes sense, but at the same time I don't want to trade one drug WD for another and it seems like the WD from the subs would be far worse if I were to use them over a period of a couple months vs 7-10 days. Any thoughts or personal experience with this? Anything would be much appreciated!!!
 
If you think you can get away with only 2mg, use it for as short of a time period you can and then jump off of it
 
Suggest you do it the soonest you can. Do you feel prepared to handle the psychological and physical challenges. You might experience lethargy and become a bit emotional but stick to the plan and you'll that with time it gets better.
Good luck/take care!
 
Thank you both for your feedback. What you both said is pretty much in line with what I had initially planned on doing with the suboxone to begin with. I know once everything is totally out of my system, suboxone included, that mentally things are going to be much harder than they are now, and it's not like this is easy right now but I know it'll get more challenging to resist going back to oxys. I was really ready to quit but that doesn't mean there still isn't a part of me that enjoyed them. I think breaking out of my normal daily routine will help a little bc I used to snort oxy at pretty specific times each day, give or take an hour. I just started a new job (part of the reason I decided to get clean) so that will help also, but the job is only part time so I've got to figure out what to do with the rest of my time. I don't know what my hobbies are anymore bc I literally stopped doing everything, including seeing friends, bc I chose to stay home and get high. So now I have no idea what my interests are!
One concern I do have is that for several years I've struggled with severe depression- to the point of many hospitalizations and ECT treatments. When I was using norco or oxy I at least wasn't feeling deeply depressed, although I do realize that even though I wasn't feeling as depressed it's not like I was out building a life for myself either. I just holed up in my apartment and zoned out on the high. So I know I'm going to be up against that level of depression again soon.
Wow this is going to be a long journey!
 
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