Bupe Suboxone/Buprenorphine Mega Thread and FAQ v17.0 + v18.0

[ladianios]

My apologies, I know that this is a question that get's asked a lot. I only made a thread for it because on other forums I use whenever I ask a question in a mega thread it gets lost in other posts and I never receive an answer.

As for ladianois, 4-5 days sounds about right I suppose since I've been on it for so long, and I have a hell of a lot of xanax to hold me over during w/d's so I think I can last 4-5 days. Thanks for the input

When I was on the sub / oxy rollercoaster it was always a solid 2 days or so before I really FELT the oxy, BUT I was never above 3 mg of sub and never on it for more than two weeks at a time....like most junk boxes I used it as a crutch until my next scoop up until this last time when I used sub to properly and almost painlessly step off all opiates, I do miss them like a mother fu***r tho.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

WOW!!! Since I've reduced from 12 mg to 100 mg it's like I 've had a new least of life. I've got so much energy flowing through me it's like electricity. I just feel hyped. I 'm back exercising again. I'm starting to feel alive n the weight is dropping off- so my metabolism must be speeding up again.

Wow just ACE!!!! I thought you didn't feel any effects by reducing suboxone by only 2mg but well I have. I keep singing, dancing round the room n stuff!

Is this normal??? It's like I'm stepping out of some heavy fog that wS weighing me down n I've electricity flowing through me. But that's how I felt when I was doing intensive exercise like INSANITY.

Can any of you tell me your effects when reducing subs? Did the /mg drop affect you in either a positive or negative way?

Evey

I think we've said this to you a few times in the past, to others as well, that often times people feel even better on lower doses. High doses of bupe come with really shitty side effects a lot of the time, and people find that by dropping their dose, they are just as stable with no withdrawal/cravings, but feel a lot better without all the side effects.

So that's good that you're feeling better. Keep it up.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Evey, in my experience, a high dose of suboxone can cause a bit of a "fog" if you will. I am very glad to hear you're feeling well!

 

[hangyourhead]

Yes, high-dose bupe can most certainly bring on a strange fog. Once bupe lost it's euphoria for me (this took place mainly during bupe maintenance), it just started to feel weird and stimulatory. The mood-lift (buprenorphine's acting against cravings for myself) slowly dissipates and the dope/DOC cravings can come back for a fucking vengeance.

 

[Slum Survivor]

Yeah I can't imagine taking a whole strip anymore... certainly not 16mg. I was on 12 for a bit a few years back... I didn't even realise it was giving me the side effects I had. Since I eventually learned more about bupe I lowered my dose.

It didn't cause euphoria when lowering, if anything minor w/d until stable.

Once stable at about 2mg or less I get some energy/euphoria for a bit after dosing.

Bad thing is... lower doses and relapse ime/imo. I had no idea my tolerance was so low and that I had no where near enough bupe on my receptors. Did 2 bags one night about 6 weeks ago. I OD'd from it and it messed me up pretty bad. So stupid of me.

I was toughing the late w/d's with benzos and stable at 1mg once daily for a while... I can't seem to get by on that single daily dose w/o the w/d's. So low dose twice a day for me to have any sort of positive out of it. I hate having to dose more than once. But hate the cold chills and pain worse.

 

[Michelle713]

Hello: I hope that someone here can help me out. I take prescription drugs daily. Morphine 2 times a day. 30 MS contin in the a.m. 15mg MS contin in the eve. I could take 4 breakthru 15mg Oxycodone but am down to two a day. I went to a pain clinic a while back and got a script for suboxone and never took them. I bought the out of pocket as I know there can be issues with insurance (another story.) My questions are: Do I have to taper off first.
How soon after my last dosage do I start taking my suboxone . What is the least amount of time I can be on suboxone before stopping. Do I stop cold turkey from the subs and do I also have to taper off. I know I've asked so many questions but I really appreciate any help I can get. The physician I did see passed away and I'm not interested in paying for any more visits when there are so many people that have gone through the same situation and have more empathy. Thanks Michelle p.s. I'm new to this forum and have posted this question in more than one place. I may not be doing this correctly and for that I'm sorry.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

Yes, high-dose bupe can most certainly bring on a strange fog. Once bupe lost it's euphoria for me (this took place mainly during bupe maintenance), it just started to feel weird and stimulatory. The mood-lift (buprenorphine's acting against cravings for myself) slowly dissipates and the dope/DOC cravings can come back for a fucking vengeance.

Yeah after a while, it really can lose it's ability to block cravings and they do come back, which can lead to you into literally planning your relapse, then stopping the suboxone and getting high.

 

[blubbutterfly28]

Hello I'm new to here.... Ive added you as a friend, please accept. I take suboxone as well and benzos. I'm prescribed xanax 1mg three times a day and two 8mg suboxone a day. I will be lowering my dosage of subs cuz I can not afford my script, I was able to buy a few subs tablets but not my full script. Ive never had any problems while taking my benzos and subs together, whether I take them back to back or maybe a few hours later.

 

[Slum Survivor]

Yeah after a while, it really can lose it's ability to block cravings and they do come back, which can lead to you into literally planning your relapse, then stopping the suboxone and getting high.

You sure are right about that. Like usual.


Every relapse its so hard to get back stable too.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

^^

Yeah, man. That it is.

What's up with you now, slum? Still on the sub and all good?

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

Hello: I hope that someone here can help me out. I take prescription drugs daily. Morphine 2 times a day. 30 MS contin in the a.m. 15mg MS contin in the eve. I could take 4 breakthru 15mg Oxycodone but am down to two a day. I went to a pain clinic a while back and got a script for suboxone and never took them. I bought the out of pocket as I know there can be issues with insurance (another story.) My questions are: Do I have to taper off first.
How soon after my last dosage do I start taking my suboxone . What is the least amount of time I can be on suboxone before stopping. Do I stop cold turkey from the subs and do I also have to taper off. I know I've asked so many questions but I really appreciate any help I can get. The physician I did see passed away and I'm not interested in paying for any more visits when there are so many people that have gone through the same situation and have more empathy. Thanks Michelle p.s. I'm new to this forum and have posted this question in more than one place. I may not be doing this correctly and for that I'm sorry.

The bupe transition always goes easier if you taper down on whatever you're doing, to as low of a dose as possible, first. But either way, to take your first dose of bupe, you need to wait until you are in moderate-severe withdrawal from opiates, however long that is for you. For some it's 24 hours, some less, some more. Then, once you're sick enough, start building up the bupe slowly in your system by taking 1-2mg's at first, and waiting 2 hours (that's how long it takes for bupe to reach peak effectiveness), and repeating as necessary.

Given your tolerance, which is not very high, you are probably not going to need more than around 4mg's of bupe, as it is very very potent.

You have to decide how long you want to stay on the suboxone for. You can either do a short detox, a long one, maintenance, etc. Up to you. But, whenever you stop, you will want to then taper again on the suboxone, because those withdrawals suck too. Gradually reduce your dose over whatever period of time you are comfortable with, until you get to around .5-.25mg's (jumping off suboxone at the sub-milligram range is much easier than anything higher. Like any other opiate, the withdrawals will be worse the higher the dose you come off at).

Then, once you've taken your last dose of suboxone, and if you tapered correctly and came off at a low dose, you should feel very minimal withdrawal. You'll feel shitty, but be totally functional and okay. The acute withdrawal phase will last a couple weeks, followed by another couple months of PAWS.

I'm going to move this to the Suboxone Megathread and I advise you to read through it and the past versions, as there is a ton of info (both basic and advanced, everything you could want to know), in there. If you have more questions after reading through them and doing a search and reading our many other bupe/suboxone threads, feel free to post again and ask.

Also in the future, please do not post the same question in multiple threads. Find an appropriate thread for your topic, and post in that one and that one alone. Thanks.

 

[Eveleivibe]

I think we've said this to you a few times in the past, to others as well, that often times people feel even better on lower doses. High doses of bupe come with really shitty side effects a lot of the time, and people find that by dropping their dose, they are just as stable with no withdrawal/cravings, but feel a lot better without all the side effects.

So that's good that you're feeling better. Keep it up.

Thanks that means a lot. I think in a few months I'll officially ask to reduce to 8mg - though I may drop to 8 before that. I'll do that to be on the safe side. I don't want to officially reduce and then, realise that I've reduced too soon. If I reduce myself then I'm in control - the way that I had when reducing from 12mg to 10mg. I reduced a month ago but will officially be reducing in June. It's very important that I feel in control of this for this to work for me. I'd rather take this slow even if it means reducing over a year - than rush through it and end up back where I was.

Thank you so much, people, for all your support over the last year on here. I know I've snapped a few heads off when there were things I didn't like to hear but all the same some of you stuck by me and continually tried to help. I really appreciate that - and when I advise newbies to come here, in NMI, I truly mean everything I say about these people because you're good, caring, knowledgeable and honest, people.

Evey xxxx

 

[smokemctoke420]

Hello I'm new to here.... Ive added you as a friend, please accept. I take suboxone as well and benzos. I'm prescribed xanax 1mg three times a day and two 8mg suboxone a day. I will be lowering my dosage of subs cuz I can not afford my script, I was able to buy a few subs tablets but not my full script. Ive never had any problems while taking my benzos and subs together, whether I take them back to back or maybe a few hours later.

I suggest you drop your dose in half. 16mg is a lot and 8mg will work just as good if not better then 16, along with less side effects. I would do 4mg 2X a day and throw in a zannie when you dose and you should be content. Good luck.

 

[eteezy915]

Ok so I'm tryn to ease off a iv hydromorphone binge anywhere from 16-40 mg/day 4-12mg a shot for a couple. I was able to make it about 20 hours, around 8pm, before dropping 1mg subL, then round 3/4 i iv'd .5, might have caught some sleep, then around 8am dropped another 1.5mg subL after swabbing the under side of my cotton mouthed tounge with some whiskey to enhance the subL ba. Felt decent on that n was able to make it through work, luckily it was slow, (washing cars in wd blows). Anyway i was gonna tryn ride tomorrow out since i have the day off then when i have to be back at work friday morn it will have been nearly 3 n 1/2 days since last Dilly n with it's pathetic highlife the remaining wd shouldn't be to bad, right, but i got like 3mg of sub left. and i have to work Fri-Mon so my first days with nothing would be busy days at work, which is physical.
I also have a bit of methadone, can one taper with that for a detox similar too the way one uses subs a few days? I only ask bc i much prefer it to subs
Any insight greatly appreciated.
P.S. It's only been about twelve hours since i dosed that sub n i can already feel wd coming back rather abruptly, pretty full on by early morn at this rate. i didn't think I'd feel like this till morning at least

 

[The Doc.]

Hello: I hope that someone here can help me out. I take prescription drugs daily. Morphine 2 times a day. 30 MS contin in the a.m. 15mg MS contin in the eve. I could take 4 breakthru 15mg Oxycodone but am down to two a day. I went to a pain clinic a while back and got a script for suboxone and never took them. I bought the out of pocket as I know there can be issues with insurance (another story.) My questions are: Do I have to taper off first.
How soon after my last dosage do I start taking my suboxone . What is the least amount of time I can be on suboxone before stopping. Do I stop cold turkey from the subs and do I also have to taper off. I know I've asked so many questions but I really appreciate any help I can get. The physician I did see passed away and I'm not interested in paying for any more visits when there are so many people that have gone through the same situation and have more empathy. Thanks Michelle p.s. I'm new to this forum and have posted this question in more than one place. I may not be doing this correctly and for that I'm sorry.

I PMed you an answer the last question like this you posted a week ago or so.

 

[Tommyboy]

I hate having to cut my strips down like u all are talking about. I have to cut down the 8mg strips to 1mg at least. Sometimes, like lately, I have to re dose later in the day and when I do that I have to cut an already small peice of 1mg further. Sucks when I screw up cutting or mess up a peice somehow. Any tips

I like being at the low dose, many positives to it. Just sux how I seem to get w/d's after my morning dose eventually. Like say I take it at 9am usually end up feeling pretty crappy by 8-9 pm . Sometimes sooner. I believe my benzo habit has an effect on it too. Certain benzos help, sux that xanax is all u ever see around here as it seems to help less than say etizolam, clonazepam, and diazepam do to counter act actmy w/d symptoms.
I was reading some info on bupe from a study, forget where. Was a good one too, it see
med. Talked about using the bupe in an alcohol solution too showing the increase in BA%. This study claimed that at low enough doses the length of action didn't last as long. Even when stable for a while at a low dose.
I'm pretty sure that's why I start getting w/d's way before id expect with the long half-life. I hate this. Its been a big cause of my relapses, the last one almost killing me/caused permanent damage and pain.

Anyone else at low doses get early w/d's so to speak?

To break the strip up I fold it in half, and then tear it down like I would a piece of paper. If you try to pull it apart it stretches and doesn't work as well. Once in half you can continue to fold it and tear it at the crease, but be careful not to get it moist or it can get stuck together once folded. You should easilybe able to break it into 1mg pieces that way. As for the duration of low doses, I usually took 3/4 of the dose during the day, then 1/4 of the dose at night so that I could sleep.

WOW!!! Since I've reduced from 12 mg to 100 mg it's like I 've had a new least of life. I've got so much energy flowing through me it's like electricity. I just feel hyped. I 'm back exercising again. I'm starting to feel alive n the weight is dropping off- so my metabolism must be speeding up again.

Wow just ACE!!!! I thought you didn't feel any effects by reducing suboxone by only 2mg but well I have. I keep singing, dancing round the room n stuff!

Is this normal??? It's like I'm stepping out of some heavy fog that wS weighing me down n I've electricity flowing through me. But that's how I felt when I was doing intensive exercise like INSANITY.

Can any of you tell me your effects when reducing subs? Did the /mg drop affect you in either a positive or negative way?

Evey

I don't think that anybody said that you wouldn't feel any different when lowering the dose when it's that high, they just said that the effects would be the same but the side effects would be reduced. So the 'foggy' side effect is going away now that you are lowering the dose, but you should still feel the same in terms of reduced cravings and such.

I think we've said this to you a few times in the past, to others as well, that often times people feel even better on lower doses. High doses of bupe come with really shitty side effects a lot of the time, and people find that by dropping their dose, they are just as stable with no withdrawal/cravings, but feel a lot better without all the side effects.

So that's good that you're feeling better. Keep it up.

Yup, basically the same thing I said.

Hello I'm new to here.... Ive added you as a friend, please accept. I take suboxone as well and benzos. I'm prescribed xanax 1mg three times a day and two 8mg suboxone a day. I will be lowering my dosage of subs cuz I can not afford my script, I was able to buy a few subs tablets but not my full script. Ive never had any problems while taking my benzos and subs together, whether I take them back to back or maybe a few hours later.

You should be able to cut your dose in half without noticing much in terms of effects, and you shouldn't even feel any withdrawals. I would try taking 8mg in the morning and then 2mg at night, and if you can't sleep then take an additional 2mg until you no longer need that last dose. Then go down to 6mg during the day and 2mg at night with the additional 2mg to sleep if needed, and continue to reduce your dosage in such a way until you are down to the dosage you want to be at, or continue to taper off if that's the plan.

If you are in more of a hurry to get down to a lower dose then try to drop the dose faster at the beginning as it's way easier to do so when you are still taking a decent amount. I never felt any additional positive effects above 6mg (only got worse side effects above that dose) so that's a good dose to try to drop to quickly, while also using the method of taking 4mg during the day and 2mg at night to sleep.

Another way to speed up the reduction is to wait a few days after your last dose until you are feeling sick, and then take the 4mg and 2mg at night. If you allow yourself a few days off until you feel withdrawals then you will need even less to feel well, which would be how you can drop it faster. That would be the same as any opiate user, like if a heroin user does 10 bags a day then takes a few days off, they could easily get by with taking about half that dose as they would be sick to the point where only a few bags would be needed for them to get well, then maybe another bag at night so they could sleep.

But if they went to taper down they would feel a little sick with each dosage reduction, so instead of feeling a little sick each time they lower it they can just feel a little more sick once when they drop it more significantly. That's how I would do it anyway, with seeing how long I could go before dosing and then see how little I could get away with doing.

 

[Eveleivibe]

Thank you, Tommyboy n Mr.scag, you're advice has been most helpful n I really appreciate it.

Evey

 

[ladianios]

I have a curious question about the use of lope during a short low dose bupe taper, in my experience whenever I would do a taper with bupe from an soa I would always use low doses of bupe..2 mg or less and for the first few days I still always had the shits which lope would take care of...my question is that if bupe overrides all except fent on the receptor sites how the he'll is the lope effective? I know it is not placebo.

 

[Michelle713]

First I want to thank you and all that gave me such helpful advice. I feel very stupid that I can't figure this out and keep posting on the wrong forums...I mean I'm an educated lady but who would believe that. I wish I had never started taking pain medications and just used mind control to get through the pain issues I have. I have taped off of the oxycodone and very grateful for the small dosage of morphine I have. It takes the edge off of pain and keeps me from cold and hot. The hot feels like lava going through my veins. OK I will try and write on the correct forums. This is a great place glad I found it. Take Care and Be Well! Michelle

 

[Eveleivibe]

First I want to thank you and all that gave me such helpful advice. I feel very stupid that I can't figure this out and keep posting on the wrong forums...I mean I'm an educated lady but who would believe that. I wish I had never started taking pain medications and just used mind control to get through the pain issues I have. I have taped off of the oxycodone and very grateful for the small dosage of morphine I have. It takes the edge off of pain and keeps me from cold and hot. The hot feels like lava going through my veins. OK I will try and write on the correct forums. This is a great place glad I found it. Take Care and Be Well! Michelle

Hiya Michelle,

you're not stupid. BL is a huge site so it's so easy to muddle things up at first before you get used to things. eh I did it when I came here, I made a thread asking questions on suboxone because I wasn't aware of this megathread or the OD list of megathreads. It's why I try to give newbies links and help them try get used to things more quickly.

This is the suboxone megathread so basically anything suboxone is discussed here, you could always add certain forums to your favourites (book mark them) and maybe label them ie suboxone MT, if that would be easier for you. I know a few do that and it helps them a lot.

As I said in another post to you, you are MORE THAN WELCOME to drop me a PM and I'll go through with you things on the site, links and what-not if you'd like?

Mods I'm awful sorry for going off topic I just wanted to try and help Michelle a bit as she's new.

Evey