Successful Heroin Detox Using 5 day rapid suboxone taper

[DECEASEDWITHIN]

I see threads all the time about using suboxone as a crutch to get off heroin but not too many success stories so I thought i'd share mine. Not gonna waste time with boring details of my drug history, its the same as most started on pills graduated to heroin. I used h solidly for about 5 years, IV use the last 2, but opiates in general for closer to 8-10 years. Tried to quit on my own, unsuccessfully, at least a dozen times during that period. Life went to shit as it quickly does on h, so I knew I had to quit before my life got any lower. I have experience with sub, was on it for quite a few years in between the time off pills and before h. I quit that successfully, but dealt with withdrawal for almost two months coming off the sub. So anyways, after using the h for that 5 year stint, i used just a few subs over the course of five days, 6mg first day 4mg the next 2, and for the final two 1 mg.
I wish i could say, yea that was painless, but that's never the case, BUT it made it substantially easier to handle. First day was hell, since I had to wait a good 23 hrs before taking the first bit of sub, afterwards felt relatively ok, minus anxiety, for the next few days. The worst of the withdrawal didnt even begin til the 2nd day off suboxone completely. From then til three days after that I was pretty much in hell but it did start to let up quickly after that. At this point im two months clean, i am finally sleeping 8 hrs a night, eating fine. stomachs still not right and anxiety comes and goes but im pretty much out of the woods physically.
what i always heard people say is its harder to stay clean than get clean and i know that its unfortunately true after my last relapse after being clean off sub. it can sneak up on you out of no where and bam right back to square one and addicted as ever. this time im making changes that are keeping me clean, exercise every day, as much social interaction as i can handle, and eating like crazy. but its totally worth it. for anyone dealing with dopesickness, or anyone that is tired of the lifestyle, it does get so much easier if u can just get through those first two-three weeks clean.

 

[Phil.McKeer]

Yes, awesome, another successful rapid subutex taper! Very happy for your two months off! How long did the insomnia last after you discontinued the buprenorphine?

 

[DECEASEDWITHIN]

thanks! insomnia started to let up after about 3 weeks off of everything, went from an hour here and there, to about 4-5 hours a night, to now where im sleeping a good 8 hours a night again. my sleep patterns are still fucked up though, I tend to wake up at 7am on the dot no matter what time i fall asleep, and im the kinda person who used to love sleeping in haha so its taking some getting used to.

 

[spacejunk]

Good stuff! I'm another great advocate of bupe rapid tapers.
Keep up the good work - it's good to be free

 

[DECEASEDWITHIN]

fuck yea it is, i think the only problem with the taper is people think its a jail free card, but thats a negative. without it, i probably never would have made it because i tried cold turkey of h plenty of times to no avail by day two to or three. just too brutal, the sub gave me just enough relief that i could mentally handle it all. if everyone understood that quitting needs to be a want, not just a maybe in your brain, it isn't gonna happen! lol I was ready mentally to battle this, i think that accounts for really quitting even more than any drugs you could take to help you quit. i also did this without benzos and i honestly think my sleep returned more naturally because of that.

 

[EnlightenedOne1]

Congrats!!!! Your approach with the Suboxone is admirable and that's how it is done my friend.... A lot of people just replace dope with Suboxone and then find out that tapering off of suboxone is HELLL

 

[DECEASEDWITHIN]

yea, sadly i had that experience when i switched from oxys to subs quite a few years back. honestly, that sub withdrawal was immensely worse than this time when i only used it for five days strictly to taper off the h. i am already feeling 100% better that i was when compared to how i felt when i came off long term sub use.
quick sub taper is the ideal way to quit h, nothing else ever worked for me.

 

[DECEASEDWITHIN]

and thank you for the positivity, im so happy to be away from the needle, i should add im also a huge advocate of smoking herb, without it the boredom would have probably driven me back to hard drugs by now. funny thing is, while on h i hated smoking bud. after i got clean however, i found it extremely enjoyable again.