blues runner
Bluelighter
I've got a problem here. I'll be as brief as possible.
I'm an opiate addict who's been using on and off (usually on) for the last 12 years. My one and only period of being off heroin and living effectively too has been the year and a half that I took a combination of buprenorphine, buproprion, and a very small dose of clonazepam.
Doctors used to not ever want to prescribe sedatives like benzos while having a patient take buprenorphine, fearing the worst as to the effects this approach would have on the respiratory system. However, it's been plainly documented that for patients with opioid and bezodiazepine tolerance, it's perfectly safe.
For the last three month I've been taking 4mg of clonazepam every day. Today he told me he'd start me on Suboxone but only if I agreed to cut out all use of benzos entirely, effective immediately.
Isn't this insane? He wants me to start on the 6mg of bupe right now, but say goodybe to a three moth hapit of heavy benzodiazepine intake. He's not even willing to try and titrate the benzos down. Now, I know its being a depressant will have some calming effects, and there' seven evidence that buprenorphine can have antidepressant effects (especially in patients traditional ADs haven't worked for, like me). But what about the cut-off from 4mg clonazepam daily to nothing, just like that! Won't my benzo withdrawal be hellish?
Any thoughts are welcome and appreciated.
I'm an opiate addict who's been using on and off (usually on) for the last 12 years. My one and only period of being off heroin and living effectively too has been the year and a half that I took a combination of buprenorphine, buproprion, and a very small dose of clonazepam.
Doctors used to not ever want to prescribe sedatives like benzos while having a patient take buprenorphine, fearing the worst as to the effects this approach would have on the respiratory system. However, it's been plainly documented that for patients with opioid and bezodiazepine tolerance, it's perfectly safe.
For the last three month I've been taking 4mg of clonazepam every day. Today he told me he'd start me on Suboxone but only if I agreed to cut out all use of benzos entirely, effective immediately.
Isn't this insane? He wants me to start on the 6mg of bupe right now, but say goodybe to a three moth hapit of heavy benzodiazepine intake. He's not even willing to try and titrate the benzos down. Now, I know its being a depressant will have some calming effects, and there' seven evidence that buprenorphine can have antidepressant effects (especially in patients traditional ADs haven't worked for, like me). But what about the cut-off from 4mg clonazepam daily to nothing, just like that! Won't my benzo withdrawal be hellish?
Any thoughts are welcome and appreciated.
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