Actually, I've been on subs less than 7 days, today would be day 5. I was thinking of cutting my strip in half, taking 4mg today and then breaking up yet another strip for 2mg for the following two days. Does cutting the film strips with scissors work?
Yes, you can cut the strips, scissors or anything will work. I just rip them apart when I don't need to be super accurate. As someone else said, unless you're looking for LONG term maintained, which the OP is not, the less time you're on suboxone the better off you'll be (because it'll be easier to get off).
Your plan -
Day 1-5 @ 8mg/day
Day 6 @ 4mg/day
Day 7-8 @ 2mg/day
This will work find for your purposes. You'll have very minimal w/d either way, if you were to go c/t or do this rather short taper (the taper is so short it's not going to be like a long term taper... if nothing else it'll be good for your mind).
Again though, if you've only been on suboxone for
5 days, a taper, even a quick taper, is by no mean necessary. But it's good to make your own decisions, and a taper certainly wouldn't be a
bad decision...
As someone else stated, the sooner you get off suboxone (as in tomorrow versus three days from now) the better off you're going to be. Besides, if you end up not using your last strip for this "pseudo-taper", you can hang on to it and use 4mg at another date if you're having a really bad craving or something.
I'm almost certainly people who are saying a taper is necessary have not taken into consideration that the OP's only been on it for five days... After using if for a month or months or a year or years, a taper would be ABSOLUTELY necessary as I've said. But five days? Even the most sensitive person would require a taper next to those longer terms users I just mentioned.
As a last note, if you want to make the most of your taper, I'd suggest the following (and again, if I were you I would not taper... but I'm not
)
Day 1-5 @ 8mg/day
Day 6 @ 4mg/day
Day 7 @ 2mg/day
Day 8 @ 1mg/day
Day 9 @ 0.5mg/day
Day 10 @ 0.25mg/day
Day 11 @ 0.25mg/day
It's significantly more difficult to go from 2-0mg than 8-2mg, so focus your taper on the lower end of the dosing. And yes, that wasn't a typo. 0.25mg. But that's if you're only anal like me (again again again I really just suggest getting off the suboxone).
If you want to taper that's the most thorough way to do it. Again, as the most time you're on suboxone @ almost any dose the hard it will be to jump off it totally, I wouldn't suggest using more than the 8mg strip (as in don't use more than 8mg to taper down from days 6-11).
Given that you've only been on suboxone a couple of days, you can really taper according to pretty much any schedule you want. In some ways your proposed taper, where you jump off @ 2mg, might actually be better than my proposed, if more rigorous schedule, simply because it will further limit the total time you're taking suboxone.
To directly answer the OP's question: Is a suboxone taper necessary (given they've only been taking it for 5 days)? No. A taper is not necessary. Advisable? Maybe, especially if the suboxone has been getting you high the last five days. If the suboxone has merely been keeping you from getting sick while getting the other opioid out of your system, a taper really won't make a huge difference, as it would in my case (I'm a long term maintenance sub patient). A bad choice to taper? Absolutely not. But absolutely necessary? No.
Bottom line: The sooner you get off suboxone, totally I mean, the better off you will be in the short and the long run.
Kapiesh?
Good luck OP!!! Let us know what you decide to do, and how it works out for you.
EDIT:
You should definitely taper. I once stopped taking my subs when I was on 2mg/ day, after gradually coming down from 8mg/ day, and I ended up relapsing 2 days later due to wd's and went back to herion. I was taking subs a lot longer than you have though but I'm pretty sure you will still withdraw.
(underlining me)
Compared to me or Matty here, the OP's w/d from jumping of the 8mg suboxone/day will be nothing compared to what longer term patients like us would have had to suffer through, if we were to jump off 8mg/day after using it for a year(s).
OP, you will feel minor w/d (and I mean minor) if you've only been on 8mg/day for five days. The w/d will manifest itself most noticably in a crabby mood for a week or so (but this isn't really possible to avoid; I don't mean soul crushing dope sickness depression, just a little irritability).
Furthermore, c/t at this time from 8mg won't be significantly worse than if you were to do a super quick taper and jump off at 6mg, 4mg, 2mg or even 1mg. Why? Those doses won't have time to stabilize in your system (which in my experience you need 2-4 days minimum for this to happen), so, if four days from now (after taking 4mg tomorrow, and 2mg the next two days) you were jumping off from 2mg as you propose, it'll still be more like you're jumping off from 8-6mg. That being said, there's no need to worry though. You've only been on suboxone for five days after all.
You have nothing to worry about OP. No matter how you manage your taper, or even if you choose to go c/t, you'll end up feeling pretty much the same. But if you choose to use more suboxone for your taper or continue using it for whatever reason, in that case you'll need to be more careful tapering. Not to mention you'd suffer significantly more by doing such.
good luck