Starting & Stopping Suboxone: A Poll

[m060mm]

I'm at the point where I've separated myself from heroin enough to feel Suboxone is no longer necessary. The cravings are biological and mentally I hate the idea of using. Too bad I traded one addiction for another.

If I don't get 1 mg twice daily, I get what feels like a moderate cold;
2 mg daily - is it worth trying to taper down more before I stop?

More importantly, how long did you use Suboxone and how long did withdrawal symptoms last for you?
I've only been on Suboxone for two months but my body hates to be without it. (Heroin use was ~30 months, heavy.)

 

[Effect]

Although I'm still taking 2-4mg per day (most days, sometimes less) and haven't really thought about a taper plan because I don't feel ready, I can say that most people on BL would definitely suggest to work your way down past 2mg to around .25-.5mg before jumping off. From what I've read, that seems like the best route to minimize discomfort during withdrawal.

I'm sure there are some people out there that would say just jump now and get it over with, but I can't imagine that being an easy task even being highly determined.

 

[ExInMil]

What I did was switch to a shorter acting opiate for two weeks and then jumped.

Worked out well for me. Not sure how you feel about switching to an other opiate....

 

[Captain.Heroin]

I went through withdrawal for about a month - there are still peripheral symptoms for me but I feel considerably better.

 

[caseface99]

I would definitely suggest tapering a little bit. You haven't been on it for terribly long so things won't be overly terrible hopefully.

 

[m060mm]

Okay I'll get more scheduled with my dosing and taper a bit further but for some reason, Suboxone has always done little for my symptoms and caused horrid withdrawal almost immediately. Part of the reason I don't want to be on it longer than necessary.

Suggestions for short acting or are we all already thinking heroin? Part of the problem is availability. I have few options. Two. Suboxone and heroin.

Suggested Plan: Crushing Suboxone down to 0.5mg doses (I metabolize quickly and thus, always refer to twice daily). Jump. Take clonidine, clonazepam and mega-dose loperamide (or use a lesser opiate non-intravenously) as needed for a max of two weeks.

I can handle anything (injecting 4mg Sub film way too early, coming off a heavy habit, it's been the only time I've actually wanted to die. It puts other experiences in perspective for me, still.) in the short-to-intermediate time frame. PAWS is what gets me.

Exercise and meditation only take you so far when you can't sit still, stretch constantly and you have all the head cold shit while in a terrible mood all by itself.

 

[ExInMil]

Suggestions for short acting or are we all already thinking heroin? Part of the problem is availability. I have few options. Two. Suboxone and heroin.

I switched to methadone for a week and then H the second week since it was the shortest acting opiate I could find. I snorted it for a week and then stopped cold turkey with comfort meds. The acutes lasted about 5-6 days, one of which was bad. Worked out well for me, but I had support via my straight-edge girlfriend who wouldint let me continue to use after that week even if I wanted to. Actually my dealer also agreed to only sell to me for that one week.

If you trust yourself to only use for that weeks time I really do recommend this route. I have quit methadone cold turkey and those two/treeish weeks were living hell, especially compared to the most recent withdrawal.

As for the PAWs, two months before I jumped I got put on venlafaxine (Effexor). It made the depression associated with PAWs significantly better.


Some things to think about!

 

[m060mm]

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately Effexor is the only med I was on when some symptoms of schizophrenia (auditory hallucinations, delusions, along with the negative symptoms which were chalked as depression/anxiety) emerged. That was five months ago and the auditory hallucinations have barely lessened. I'm way too suspicious of SNRI's. Even though I could really use one. (75mg/day btw)

If it gets heroin out of my life for good though.. I can put up with some non-existent nagging. Maybe I'll try to get back on an SNRI before jumping the taper.

Thanks

 

[ExInMil]

Oh that is really too bad especially at such a low dose, but there are others in that family of drugs you may want to look into with your doctor.
Here is a little study that found venlaxafine specifically to be effective in opiate wtihdrawal.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18344729

What did you decide about a shorter acting opiate?

Never mind , You said jump the taper.

 

[m060mm]

Any more success stories in either direction? I've heard of the short term switch after suboxone but it invites a lot of risk.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18344729

Holy shit, 300mg/day, starting from nothing? Once I took my 75mg twice by accident and 150mg induced a panic attack and very real cardiac symptoms. Granted I was damn near unconscious most of my days during that period, so a stimulant was an unwelcomed addition.

I'm not entirely consistent with my 1-2...-4mg sub/day.. I go on feeling not a number.
I'm going to make sure my body is okay with a lower dose by strictly following 1mg/day for at least a few days.

Then I'll consider how I feel, where I think my body is headed, etc.
I'll either utilize a short acting opiat-oid to tide me over a week or just start standard detox protocol eg.
clonidine
loperamide
doxylamine
clonazepam
..as needed.
And exercise even if I hate it. Suboxone keeps me opiate-warm and that's a huge part of my addiction so.. I need to address it until spring has really sprung. (Even then, somebody must know what I mean by a cold sweat in the sun.)

Also, if I've been around the 2mg/day with Suboxone, should I be concerned about lowered tolerance, or will the buprenorphine have kept it up/prevented it from dropping?

Thanks for all the help/support!