Bupe Suboxone withdrawal

[Pillsbury_Dope_Boy]

I'm 25 and going through Suboxone withdrawal. I was on Suboxone for 2 years while continuing to use heroin on-and-off.

I'm American but I'm currently living overseas in a country where I have family. I moved here 2 months ago and I brought a prescription of 15 8mg Suboxone tablets. I tapered off slowly and managed to make the prescription last a month. The last 2 pills alone lasted me about a week and a half. During my last week of using Suboxone, I was taking only a little tiny bit (less than 1 mg) in the morning, and at night I would take Xanax to help with the withdrawal symptoms.

I've been completely off Suboxone for about 3 weeks (I don't remember the exact day). During the first week, my symptoms weren't that bad. I was only sleeping 4 or 5 hours a night and wasn't eating much, but I could walk around, go outside, see people, etc. I wasn't bedridden. I was also taking Xanax, which helped with the symptoms. However, it's been 3 weeks now, and while the symptoms have gotten better (I don't need to take Xanax every day anymore), they're not completely gone. I still only sleep 5 or 6 hours a night, and when I wake up in the morning I feel like shit, and I lie in bed writhing in pain for about 2 hours (not an exaggeration) before I feel well enough to get out of bed. Once I'm out of bed and showered, I usually feel okay for the rest of the day.

Back in 2012, I quit Suboxone after being on it for 8 months, and the withdrawal symptoms only lasted a week or two. However, this time I was on it for 2 years. Could that be why the symptoms are lasting so long? Has anyone else had a similar experience after quitting Suboxone?

PS: I don't have access to heroin or Suboxone where I'm living now, so relapse is not an issue.

 

[Phil.McKeer]

What was the exact dosage you were taking at the end?

I took subutex for a year at 0.25mg/day and getting off was a bit difficult but nothing beyond a week or two of poor sleep and lots of sneezing.

If you were accustomed to large doses (4-8mg+) before rapidly tapering down that might be the culprit right there. Suboxone is a powerful opioid.

 

[chelle216]

What was the exact dosage you were taking at the end?

I took subutex for a year at 0.25mg/day and getting off was a bit difficult but nothing beyond a week or two of poor sleep and lots of sneezing.

If you were accustomed to large doses (4-8mg+) before rapidly tapering down that might be the culprit right there. Suboxone is a powerful opioid.

Phil summed it up nicely, but to add, suboxone takes foreevvvvveerrrr to get out of your system and this directly relates to the amount you we're taking most often towards the end months of your taper. Because of the long half life, the each daily dose stacks on the amount left in your body, so the amount of time you were on it also plays a role.

Also, you're doing a great job and you should be proud of how far you've come! You've totally got this, and things should start looking up soon!

 

[Pillsbury_Dope_Boy]

Thanks for the responses.

I'm not sure the exact dose I was taking at the end. They were 8mg pills, and I would literally scrape a little bit off with my teeth each morning. It was too small an amount to be able to cut the pill with a knife. The last 8mg pill lasted me about a week, in which I took it maybe twice a day for 4 days and then once a day for 3 days. If I had to guess, I would say I was taking between 0.5mg and 1mg each dose (possibly less).

I did taper off kind of quickly. I was taking 4-6mg per day (sometimes more if I had used dope recently) for most of the two years I was on Suboxone. I started to taper down when I had about 5 pills left, which lasted me maybe 2 and a half weeks.

It's been about 3 weeks and I'm still not sleeping well, sneezing all the time, etc. I feel better now than I did the first week. Like I said, during the first week I needed to take Xanax every day, and now I don't anymore. But there hasn't really been any improvement between last week and this week. I still wake up every morning feeling like absolute shit (headache, body aches, restless leg, extremely tired but can't go back to sleep, etc.) and it takes me several hours before I'm feeling well enough to get out of bed. The first time I got off Suboxone (about 4 years ago) I had all these symptoms but they were gone within a week or two.

It's not all bad, though. I feel a lot better in a lot of ways (as opposed to when I was on the subs). For example, when I was on subs, I always had trouble getting up in the morning. Sometimes I would sleep a full 12 hours and wake up at 3 or 4 in the afternoon. So it's kind of nice being awake before 8 every morning. Also, Suboxone dulls your senses in the same way other opiates do. You don't notice it the same way you do when you're using opiates, because Suboxone doesn't make you "high" in the same way. You feel like you're sober when you're on Suboxone. But now that I'm off Suboxone, I really notice a big difference. It feels like I was just drifting through life for the past 2 years in a semi-numbed state of consciousness, which I didn't notice at the time but is obvious to me now.

Anyway, I just hope the withdrawal symptoms go away soon.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

It might take weeks to months to feel better.

 

[Phil.McKeer]

Your taper was a bit too quick. It doesn't seem like it but 4-6mg is a lot of bupe and as chelle pointed out due to slow elimination halflife it stacks.

As others have said, your getting over the hump and doing a great job. Don't get discouraged and feel.free to do whatever you need to do to get some sleep.

 

[SKR]

I think everyone summed it up nicely for you. The biggest factor I see here for you OP is that you have withdrawn many or at least a few times before and this time - now- being your latest one - it is also likely to be your greatest one. I would expect it to be your worst withdrawal simply because you have done this more than once etc.

I'm prescribed and depend on, and of course am addicted to opiates/opioids for chronic pain going on 3 years now and have never withdrawn, never gone through that process but I read all the time that each withdrawal is worse than the one before it - perhaps this is your reason. You also had to WD from Heroin somewhere in that mix too, sort of. Take Care