I've been taking Suboxone since last Friday, spent 4 days in the hospital, and was released for the maintenance programme. A very low dose was sufficient for me, i.e. 4 mg and I asked my doctor to cut it down to 2 mg. Well, this is strange as I used to need at least 16mg of buprenorphine to stop physical withdrawal and get some other beneficial effects from the drug. Anyway, 2 mg still seems to be quite stoning for me, so I have a few questions.
Should my pupils constrict much? I get almost pinpoint pupils ~2 hours after dosing.
Is constipation really that bad in case of buprenorphine? I thought it would be less constipating than morphine/heroin, well, it still is [better] but I need something like castor oil anyway.
Is it normal to get noddy on maintenance doses? My mum noticed that I sometimes wake up, sit up, and then fall asleep sitting on the bed. This is clearly nodding for me, besides I talked to people being in some kind of an amok, i.e. I saw everything around me but still dreamed, was half-awake, and could talk to people about things I was dreaming about at the very same moment. This is nodding again...
I myself feel much better, less depression, more motivation, not stoned or sleepy at all during the day, the goal of this maintenance definitely achieved. I want to keep this 2mg dose because it's surprisingly low nonetheless. I weigh 52 kg right now so the situation may change when I gain weight. But for now could cut the dose on weekdays as rules on the Suboxone programmes aren't so strict and I collect my Suboxone for one week after taking a dose at the point.
EDIT: I should probably write a bit more about my situation. I'm addicted to clonazepam too. After I was put on Suboxone, my then 4mg clonazepam dose was cut down to 2mg. Buprenorphine seems to be helping a lot, although I get shaky hands, I don't feel anxious etc. so it does its job perfectly. My clonazepam dose will be further tapered down after another months passes (reduction by 0.25mg or 0.125mg). I want to get off this, it's nothing I'm forced to do. This is another reason I want to keep 2mg Suboxone at the point and reduce it to 1mg perhaps but I don't want to report this so if I feel worse, I can get back on 2mg.
The reason for placing me on Suboxone was helping my refractory depression and giving me a substitute that would clear my mind from thoughts of curing myself with light opioids like codeine (sedation, much less help for depression and anxiety than from buprenorphine, so I agreed). Buprenorphine seems a much better solution, I haven't felt more "myself" during the past years, so all in all it was a good decision and proved my doctor to know how to handle unusual situations (i.e. not only placing heroin addicts on methadone).