Bupe trying to stop my suboxone habit. advice, experience or encouragement?

[throwaway20]

So I've had an opiate addiction for a little over 4 years now, with the past year and a half only doing suboxone except for a handful of occasions when i couldn't find it. I usually do about 2mg of suboxone a day to feel totally comfortable. Even though i had pretty much stopped my habit of doing pain killers and opiates, I've gotten really tired of having to get suboxone in order to feel normal. My plan for the past year or so has been to try and ween myself down to a small enough amount where i could (almost)painlessly stop, but i've made little to no progress in that time. I have never had a prescription to it but i really dont want to, to be honest. Im so sick of this condition im in, I just want to stop it and be done with it. So, I have some time off from school and a place where i can lay around like a bum for a couple weeks and be fed and i really want to take this opportunity to kick it.

So i have a couple questions:

1. How long would you estimate WD's will last? how long till i can sleep properly, eat properly, wake up with energy, etc etc... roughly
2. What kind of things would you have on hand if you were in this situation. im confident i can handle having benzos on hand for sleep and i smoke alot of weed anyway so im trying to get as much as i can of both. what else, vitamins? otc meds?

Half of me wants to think it wont be as bad as im making it out to be but the other half of me is really terrified to have to deal with this monkey on my back finally. advice? encouragement (please)?

 

[Ohayou]

I am kicking buprenorphine myself right now, I'm on day 5 or so...I did do some fentanyl though. Anyway, ween down as low as possible then prepare for some hard times. Benzo's will of course help...laying (or is it lying?) around is a bad idea, keeping busy can help keep your mind off the suffering. Someone should link the suboxone withdrawal thread, I know there is one somewhere.

 

[paperchaser]

bump how long do bupe w/d's go for?

 

[hellocatastrophe]

Please check out the suboxone megathread(s) here in OD for answers to your questions- as well as advice, tips, other users experienes, coping mechanisms, and outcomes.

It's very helpful

 

[Znegative]

Get a lot of benzo's, lyrica or gabentin, and I heard Kratom and loperamide work wonders too.

 

[phatass]

t really depends onn the person, i found bupe reletively easy to wean off... but i would recommend talking to your doctor about it, and forming a taper plan , 2mg is a low dose, you can taper 0.4 or even 0.2mg per week if you want it to be entirely painless... the hardest will be going from 0.2mg to 0mg, but think the hardest wll be the psychological addicton, if you taper sowly enough you shouldn't have any sleepng or eating probems... and if you really do you can allways take a sedative anti histamne lke doxylamine or diphenhydramine...

 

[Tommyboy]

bump how long do bupe w/d's go for?

It varies, but for me it's about 3x longer than withdrawal from other opiates. The "peak" of withdrawals lasted for 3 days, with 2 bad days of withdrawal leading up to the 3 day peak, and another couple of days of moderate withdrawals after that 3 day peak. So a week of moderate to severe withdrawals, followed by another week of lingering withdrawals, followed by a longer period in which your body gets used to functioning without opiates. It gets a lot better after week 1 though.

If you taper down more, it won't be as bad though. You are likely going to suffers PAWS due to the amount of time that you have been using opiates. 2mgs is still a high dose to jump off at, and one of the main points of being on suboxone is to taper down to a very low dose to prevent the more severe withdrawals that come with high dose opiates. Its known to give longer withdrawals than other opiates, but the severity isn't supposed to be as bad since you should be down to .25 or lower when you get off. Stopping at 2mgs would give you both the severe withdrawals, along with them being longer and more drawn out. If you taper down to a low dose the withdrawals should be very mild, but still a bit drawn out.

 

[Trigeminal]

You, buddy, are the last person I'm ever going to tell this to, because I have stopped caring: I wouldn't use the benzos if I were you. Suboxone withdrawal is a joke compared to benzo withdrawal. People vary greatly in their susceptible to benzo dependence--you may be one of the sensitive ones and not know it.

 

[Howdoesitfeel?]

I recently tapered off suboxone. Got down to .5mg/day for a month, then stopped. Had very mild withdrawal symptoms, absolutely nothing compared to the oxymorphone withdrawal I was accustomed to. I was able to attend all my usual university courses, and found it helped a lot to stay busy, focused on things. Hiking, exercising, rock climbing, schoolwork all helped me forget about the discomfort. What I would NOT recommend is letting yourself just lay there and feel bad. You're going to feel shitty whether you're up and moving or not, and with bupe withdrawal, you actually have the ability to occupy yourself, unlike some other withdrawals.

My symptoms lasted 10-12 days, I would say. Was the easiest opioid I've ever come off of, I'd recommend tapering down as low as you can, and then make sure you stay busy in the days after you stop completely, to avoid getting super bored, feeling sorry for yourself, and taking some sub.