What's up guys? Long time lurker, first time poster. I've been a stereotypical heroin junky for the past 5, almost 6 years. I'm also only 20 years old. I've been taking 16 mg of suboxone since April 4th, it's worked great! It's getting to the point where the medication is just too much money. I'm on day 4 of detox, and booooyyyyy I am dying! This WD is so much worse than a heroin detox, my god. It honestly costed me my job, I work outside. The WD's are so bad I legit could not work. I've had to go to the bathroom atleaat 15 times a day! I really wanna get some H to ease of this shit, but I know that's not the right decision. I tried Xanax, I felt the WD's through it. This shit sucks man... Are sub WD's usually worse than heroin WD's? I really don't want to rely on anything to feel like a normal person. I honestly wanna be sober, no subs, no nothing, but man...... I feel like death.
What people easily overlook is that kicking a serious heroin habit is essentially the same as quitting a serious (insert name of any opioid here) habit. There are some nuances to the experience of withdrawal (longer acting opioids like buprenorphine have a longer but slightly less intense period of acute withdrawal, whereas shorting acting opioids like oxycodone have a shorter but significantly more intense period of acute withdrawal). Some people certainly are more sensitive than others to the way particular opioid dependencies cause withdrawal, but considering you've been taking a high dose of buprenorphine for some time it isn't surprising that stopping c/t would lead to a nasty withdrawal syndrome.
What does surprise (a little) me is how difficult it seems to be for you. You've been on buprenorphine for about a month and a half, taking a large daily dose. It makes sense there would be a withdrawal syndrome considering you stopped abruptly and were on it long enough at high enough doses to make it a shitty kick. Also, considering you switched right from heroin to buprenorphine, as opposed to detoxing off the heroin first prior to getting on the buprenorphine, that would have also contributed to why your dependency to the buprenorphine developed as fast as it did.
There are a lot of medications and things you can do to help manage your withdrawal however, no matter how bad it is:
For the GI issues and shits, get yourself some loperamide (10-20mg should make a huge difference with your GI issues). Definitely get some gabapentin to easy the symptoms during the day and the RLS at night. Clonidine is great for managing a number of symptoms. Longer acting benzos like clonazepam and particularly diazepam are also much more effective than alprazolam/Xanax at helping with symptoms. Ondansetron is great for nausea if that's an issue. A non-habit forming sleep medication (like trazadone) will also help a lot with insomnia for the first few months your off buprenorphine. Basically, if you can secure enough of the following meds to last for 2-3 weeks you'll be infinitely better off: loperamide, gabapentin, clonidine and diazepam.
Other than bad diarrhea, what particular symptoms are you struggling with? If you feel like you're going to end up using heroin, and particularly if the other meds are too difficult to get properly from a doctor get yourself some kratom instead of heroin.
The acute period of withdrawal from the buprenorphine will only last about two weeks, three given your situation at most. There will be some annoying lingering symptoms that hang around for a while after that, but they will be easily managed by medication and healthy improvements to your lifestyle.
Kicking maintenance drugs c/t is never recommended and a lot of work. Keep your head up OP. It's just a matter of keeping you from going insane for a couple weeks before the symptoms begin to significantly resolve. It'll be tough, but there is a LOT you can do to make it more bearable, such as getting some gabapentin and loperamide! Any doctor in their right mind would be happy to prescribe gapabentin, clonidine and a non-habit forming sleep aid to someone going through opioid withdrawal, and loperamide is OTC. The buprenorphine withdrawal won't last forever.
Good luck! Please let us know how things develop.
