Bupe How long until I can take my Suboxone?

[pocketsevens]

My merciful doctor finally gave me Suboxone. I just filled my script for 8mg pills. When I first went in this morning they said my withdrawals weren't strong enough and to come back later in the afternoon. I was afraid if they didn't prescribe them today I'd have to go to work tomorrow with withdrawals... so this time I exaggerated my symptoms a little more. For example said I was nauseous and stuff. My actual symptoms are sweating and just a general feeling of weakness and shittiness. My last dose of Oxycodone was at 8pm yesterday, but I did take twice as large of a dose as sort of a farewell ritual...

Another thing to keep in mind is that my withdrawals don't seem to follow all of the symptoms on the COWs scale, at least not until like the 4th day. For example the last time I had withdrawals the first 3 days were just that shitty feeling and being unable to sleep, and it wasn't until the 4th day that I had diarrhea and nausea. But in my opinion I was suffering just as much the first 3 days, so just because I'm not having all the possible symptoms doesn't mean I'm not withdrawing at all.

That being said, do you think it's safe for me to start my Suboxone now? It's almost been 24 hours. Also, the doctor gave me an 8mg pill, but I was only on about 40mg of Oxy a day. Is it necessary to take the whole pill or should I cut it in half? I'm not gonna lie, my doctor doesn't seem to know what he's talking about on this drug.. :/ Is it even possible to cut the pill in half? It says its sublingual. I just want to make sure it effectively stops my withdrawals instead of precipitating them.

 

[Znegative]

Yes, the suboxone will probably get you wrecked. I wouldn't start out with more than 1-2mg. 40mg of oxycodone is a really light habit.

 

[pocketsevens]

What do you mean "wrecked"? I thought suboxone doesn't get you high?

Meh, I guess it was more like 60. Ten to twelve 5mg pills each day. Funny, doesn't feel like a light habit, especially when I have to withdraw. And my wallet doesn't think it's a light habit haha.

Do you think it is too soon to take one?

 

[pocketsevens]

Shit.... I just swallowed half even though it's sublingual, I forgot that part.. is it not gonna work?

 

[Znegative]

Yeah, it will get someone with a light pill habit, very fucking high, though the high will go away after a few days once you become tolerant to it. Buprenorphine is a very powerful narcotic, it's just that it has a ceiling effect, meaning that past a certain dose, there is no increase in effects. It's opiate ability's are equal in strength to about 30-40mg of methadone. Past 4-6 mg, and some people might say the ceiling is higher or lower, you are just going to be overloading your system with buprenorphine and insuring that it stays in your system longer. That's why it is a good drug for the treatment of opiate addiction. Buprenorphine doctors often don't know a fucking thing about the drug and prescribe unreasonably high dosages, regardless of whether you take 200mg of codeine a day, or have been slamming $300 of dope, you'll likely get prescribed the same dose, which is probably going to be 16mg, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.

There is an argument though, that high dosages are good for some people, as 8-16mg of suboxone will efficiently block your opiate receptors, whereas 2, will not (well it depends on what opiate you're using, and how you're using it. IE 2mg will usually not block/hardly block a good shot of dope, but it will probably block 30mg of hydrocodone, though you wouldn't necessarily know as hydrocodone is so much weaker that you might not feel it because your tolerance is much higher from taking the buprenorphine.), so if you feel that you need that safety net, don't feel bad about taking 8mg, but I'd suggest you start off low, as you might get sick if you take too much, and by sick i mean puking your guts out because you're so fucked up, not because you've been thrown into precipitated withdrawal.

 

[Znegative]

the absorption for oral buprenorphine is 10%, sublingual is 30%, so no it probably won't do much if you swallow it, I'd stick a quarter of an 8mg tablet under your tongue.

 

[xivixive]

you are in for a world of hurt if you trade your pill habit for a bupe addiction... you may want to research this decision, OP.

 

[FatCatOpie]

Hi Steven

In my experience 4mg of sub for a 40ish mg of oxycodone is way to much. For instance doing 130 mg of oxy a day I was able to not be sick with 1-1.5 mg sub first day or 2 then after that go down to .5 mg a day. Granted it was not painless but did take away most of my withdrawal's I didn't puke or anything like that but had some discomfort and trouble sleeping( but 100 times better than cold turkey). But less is more with sub if you do 4-8 mg a day you will probably be higher off sub than your oxycodone and after a few weeks give or take you will be dependent on suboxone. And the withdrawals from sub will likely be worse than oxycodone it may not be as intense but will last a lot longer and some people say the withdrawal is actually worse.

It it would probably be worse fore you because your treating your habit with a bigger habit. Some people need to be on sub a long time to keep them from using. But if you could do a small taper it might be better like 1.5 first day or 2 then 1mg day or 2 then .5 dot or 2 then skip a day and do one last .5 mg dose. Ideally this would ease your withdrawals works for some not for other. Or could you taper down with oxycodone if you could get down to 5mg a day of oxy wd's shouldn't be to ruff might have few bad days but would be over quicker and easier that suboxone withdrawal. However tapering with your favorite drug is really hard/impossible for most people myself included.

Im not a dr this is just my opinion. It's all easier said than done I've tried a short tapper with sub countless times and it seems to work but I always slip up. Congrats on trying quit and yea 40mg might be small habit but I know what you mean about it feels huge especially on your wallet I was in your shoes not long ago wish I was still only on 40mg a day. Anyway good luck and I hope whatever you chose works for you keep us updated and how are you after that 4 mg you swallowed

 

[pocketsevens]

I got paranoid that the 4mg wouldn't work because I didn't let it dissolve, so I took the other half sublingually for a total of 8mg. Yes, I would say that it "wrecked" me. I just passed out for two hours and then had a comfortable high feeling that I didn't want to get out of bed as I woke up. But it's not a good high like Oxy really... Once I got up and started being productive I felt really really irritable. Been kind of snappy to my friends which is never good. I can't tell if I'm irritable because the Suboxone is wearing off, or because it's still in my system, or because of being off Oxy.

@Xivixive: I have researched my decision, and although I know that Suboxone is addictive too I thought I wouldn't be as tempted with it because of the ceiling and because it is more closely monitored by the doctors. Idk. Isn't the idea that you taper down to such a small dose that you don't get withdrawals, or would you still get withdrawals from quitting the 2mg?

 

[FatCatOpie]

If you stay on sub for a while then yes 2 mg is probably to high to jump off from this stuff is a lot stronger than you think most people jump off at .5 or .25 mg

 

[Zerwas]

or would you still get withdrawals from quitting the 2mg?

Yes, 2mg is way too high to jump of. For example I was on 0,5-1mg and when I jumped off at 0,5mg I experienced 1 week+ of the harhest withdrawals including intense vomiting and not being able to eat for about 4 days. I was a bedridden mess and couldnt even stand up straight barely keeping fluids in to the point I worried about dehydrating....it was pretty horrible.

Buprenorphine has a potency of 30-40, meaning 1mg is equal to 30-40mg of Morphine, so you can calculate that 8mg is a very high dose and I would only take 2-4mg max. with your previous habit and not stay long on it but do a fast taper over 1-2 weeks. Otherwise it will make you addicted as well.

 

[manboychef]

Yes, 2mg is way too high to jump of. For example I was on 0,5-1mg and when I jumped off at 0,5mg I experienced 1 week+ of the harhest withdrawals including intense vomiting and not being able to eat for about 4 days. I was a bedridden mess and couldnt even stand up straight barely keeping fluids in to the point I worried about dehydrating....it was pretty horrible.

Buprenorphine has a potency of 30-40, meaning 1mg is equal to 30-40mg of Morphine, so you can calculate that 8mg is a very high dose and I would only take 2-4mg max. with your previous habit and not stay long on it but do a fast taper over 1-2 weeks. Otherwise it will make you addicted as well.

This. Bupe is definitely a lot stronger than most doctors that prescribe it know. I cannot stress enough that you should just do a fast taper on it. Side effects will pop up rather quickly.

My side effects were:
Vomiting in the morning.
Sleeplessness, or sleep paralysis.
Lack of emotion.
Cravings for other drugs.

 

[AnythingEverything]

I took my first SUBOXONE dose about 24 - 36 hours after last using from memory and I was fine. Have never ever felt stoned from it. Is this just a quick taper plan? You wouldnt reallt want to go on long term maintenance for a 40mg oxy habit would you? Though if you think you're just headed further and further down it may keep you safe beibg on it longer. 2mg is too high to jump off comfortably i believe. I've known people to cut a 2mg into like 16 pieces at the end of their taper. 8mg is fairly high as a starting dose. I started on 16 from memory and am now on 32 but have a condtion that metabolises BUPE differently to most people (always get criticised for my dose but I was still waking up sick even at the highest dose, once I started splitting it all changed, I wish he had told me to split it before I ended up where I am....found out about splitting it from a forum, not my dr.). My last 2 or 3 jumps were for pain relief due to mutiple hospitalisations for pneumonia (stupid as it does nothing for pain at that tolerance and stupid dose.)

Sorry, rambling, but I've always heard people taking it fairly soon after and being fine. Eveyone reacts differently though. Good luck with getting clean.

 

[Znegative]

Alright, I think we can all agree that 40mg of oxycodone is a light habit to trade in for a buprenorphine habit, but people, can't we all agree as well that being on suboxone is much more 'manageable' for any opiate addict? We don't know how much the OP is paying for his oxy, whether money is an issue, whether he's getting pressure from his family, whether he has legal issues etc.

Don't get me wrong, it seems that the OP is a little uninformed about buprenorphine (no offense), and it's a good thing to let him know that buprenorphine is an opiate, though a partial agonist, and is very physically addictive, and I suppose for some psychologically addictive too. So yeah, OP, I would not be taking 8mg/day, I would start at 2mg and over the course of the week try to taper down to like, .5mg/day, and maybe maintain at that dosage, or kick the habit completely, and then just use the subs when you're feeling cravings (something I always wanted to do, but for some reason was impossible because I guess I'm too much of a junky). If you're worried about being tempted to use on top of the subs than maybe you do need to be on 4-6mg, though 2mg should adequately block 40mg of oxycodone (unless you are shooting the oxy, then it might break through).

 

[AnythingEverything]

Alright, I think we can all agree that 40mg of oxycodone is a light habit to trade in for a buprenorphine habit, but people, can't we all agree as well that being on suboxone is much more 'manageable' for any opiate addict? We don't know how much the OP is paying for his oxy, whether money is an issue, whether he's getting pressure from his family, whether he has legal issues etc.
).

Yes, which is why I said what I said. Trading a small habit for bupe is not always ideal but some addictions just spiral out of control and if that seems like what will happen then subs could he a safe optjon either for a taper or to stay clean longer term, if, for like me, someone has dealt with addiction to anything and everything for over 20 years. It can help make life more manageable in those cases. Im replying because your post was just after nine and I just said exactly that. I was on oxy too (this time, Heroin previously), granted, a heck of a lot more especially for someone of my size but if I had gotten on SUBOXONE when my habit was smaller, it would have saved me and my family a lot of pain and suffering. Each situation is different.