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Heroin Heroin to Suboxone taper sucess story

aesthetics13

Greenlighter
Joined
Sep 17, 2013
Messages
33
Please pardon me for beginning with alcohol, I feel it all leads in to the context of the story..


Ok.. first off from the personal hell I just went through, DO NOT listen to anyone who tell's you you can use heroin for a period of time then use Suboxone during the withdrawal and be good in 3 days, this is COMPLETELY untrue. To begin my story I used to be a alcoholic from 2001 - Spring 2013 drinking approx 12-24 beers per day, and sometimes binges that lasted 3 days where I would reach 50+ beers a day. The beginning of the end was when I went on a week long trip to New Orleans in the very peak of my alcoholism, I would require a 1/5 of vodka for breakfast in the hotel room just to begin my day, then irish coffe's once I hit bourbon street before breakfast. The rest of the day would be constant drinking then mdma at night with continued drinking, don't get me wrong that was the most fun I have had in my life by far, but I didn't for see the dark cloud coming a head.

Cutting this part of my story short, I woke up the day we had to hit the plane back to Detroit with no alcohol in the room left, thought oh well I'll get drinks on the plane. That Being said, by the time we took off, withdrawal was crippling and I had to wait about 45 mins until I was able to obtain a couple shots of Bombay and 3 Coronas to make it back, oh the relief was great! Once we landed I departed from my girlfriend and went home, only to my grandpa being at my house, asking if I would come stay with him for a few days. And let me tell you my grandpa's house is a liqour utopia with a garage fridge filled and cabinets all over the house filled to the brim. Well I said yes and went, and I got down hard on the liqour, I was always a beer guy and was fine being a alcoholic, would sleep fine then begin drinking around noon with no problem. Well the first night at my grandpas I fell asleep after drinking mad liqour, and woke up in the middle of the night gasping for air! It felt like I had to suck my soul back into my body because I was dying and it was departing, I instantly had to hit the fridge for a drink.

Moving on to the next chapter, I finally after all these years knew I had to quit, I went cold turkey for one day, and once the night hit, I couldn't sleep and my heart was pounding out my chest all night, I was on my death bed fighting for my life, one panic attack and that would of been it. The next day I decided I had to get into detox, called but they had a week long waiting list, so I hit the street to get some benzo's to help get me through it. It took about a month to feel better but I made it. Only thing is I was using the benzo's to get through the alcohol withdrawal the whole month, I thought I was good then BOOM couple days later the benzo withdrawals hit, and believe me they we're NOT fun unless you like to feel like a robot trying to swim in the ocean. Well since I only used them for a month, I was over the withdrawals in less than a week.

Onto the next chapter, I was sober and happy for a while, but then that void hit. I tried sniffing heroin and loved it, I was able to use it once in a while and control myself from the spring into early summer this year, with no withdrawal or addiction. I would use mabey 2 times a week, but my friend that got me into it told me you can use heroin everyday then just take a suboxone when you want to quit, and it will take you through the withdrawal, then your good! So I was stupid and began using everyday for about 2 months. Only at the point my girlfriend of 13 years wanted to leave me if I didn't get my life back in order, I decided to quit. I kept using until I could get my hands on one single 8mg suboxone film, I waited 24 hours which DAMN was really hard, I couldn't stay still, my legs were cramping up, the headache and anxiety we're level 10, horrible! Then I waited longer to the 28 hour mark and BOOM ate 2mg then proceeded to the shower and was in there for about 45 mins. When I got out I laid on the bed and felt relief all the symptoms were gone! I then melted into sleep.

The next morning I had to wake up at 3:30 am to go into work for a 12 hr shift of crippling labor, I ate another 2mg of sub at about 5am, and that held me through the workday, and held me through sleep that night. The next day I ate another 2mg of sub which did the same, sleep then work again in the morning. The next day I ate 1mg to start to taper, same story work then bed, the 1mg held me down. Then the next day was my last work day then 3 days off, so I thought the 3 days off we're a godsend to get me through this. I ate the last 1mg of sub I had at lunch at work, it held me all day but started to stop working so well. Once I got off work I was feeling like shit and beat, so I went to the bar and relapsed on alcohol after all I have been through with that demon. Had about 6 beers and was feeling MUCH better, but got stupid and went to my boy's house that I did the H with thinking I could not be tempted. But he told me since the sub was gone and the H was out my system that one more bag of H would smooth out the sub withdrawal. I then said what? What sub withdrawal, you told me the sub would take me through the H withdrawal then I would be good?!?!? So I was stupid enough due to the alcohol, even after what I been through, to believe him and do the H to knock me out the sub withdrawal, even though it didn't do much since the sub was still blocking my receptors, but I did feel it a little bit and slept great! Well the next morning I felt all better, and usually when I did H I would be in withdrawal by the morning, so I thought WOW the one last bag of H did take me out the sub withdrawal! It's over!

I was convinced I was good the next day and felt better the whole day, the night hit and I slept fine. By the morning BOOM I felt sick again, I was so discouraged, I just wanted to die. I thought if I'm going to make it through this I need some Xanax and Alcohol to knock me out at night, then I'll just tough it out during the day. I did this for a few nights even though alcohol and benzo's were the 2 last shitty withdrawals I made it through, and it worked. But I toughed it out and stopped terrified of their withdrawals. And man after that, during the day it felt like a demon was in me and my body was trying to excorcise it, the constant pressure in my head and chest, and severe anxiety/ depression was crippling. But I stayed strong, my aunt even offered me a Vicodin at the nursing home when I was visiting my grandpa, and I turned it down even though I was in WD hard. I'm no religious man but at that moment when I turned that vic down, I saw the light and my symptoms became more mild, almost like god rewarding me for turning it down, and believe it or not it WAS the turning point. The days went on and the symptoms began to get more mild, they just came in waves. But then when I thought I was almost better, I began getting the pressure back and bad heart palpitations at night / severe chest pain in waves, but I was able to sleep. Yesterday I woke up and the heart palpitations were gone and all the symptoms, now I just felt beat and had that malnourished feeling / body pain. But I knew it was over, last night I slept fine, and today all the symptoms are gone. I know it will be a sec before I feel completely 100% but it IS FINALLY OVER! Plus during the withdrawal I didn't lose my job & didn't lose my girlfriend. So now in about 13 years, this is the first time I have been clean from everything! a side from the short time between the alcohol and H.

So pretty much don't believe the hype, if you use a sub to get off H, even one single sub like I did you won't be good in 3 days, it's more like 3 weeks and it completely fucking sucks, I just went through hell, now it's time for the body to recover. Searching for that balance, hope I can find it..
 
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Using subs for 3-5 days certainly makes going through opiate withdrawal a lot easier, but you're still guaranteed to experience at least 1-2 days of being uncomfortable.

However, I wouldn't say that a fast taper on subs is a terrible way to go. It definitely makes things smoother and the last time I got clean, this is what I did and managed to do well for two years after that. This is not to say that it's the best way to go and anyone that tells you that it's an easy or pain free process is not being completely honest with you.
 
Bupe is just an opioid like any other, albeit a weaker, longest lasting, and less abusable one, which makes it easier to taper off Bupe than Heroin or Morphine (for most people anyway). If you cease using opioids there isn't a magic pill or medicine you can take that will stop you from withdrawing, there are only medicines that will ease the symptoms a little, or temporarily postpone the withdrawals.

Bupe does the latter, it postpones the withdrawals, which is why it's a popular maintenance drug - if someone takes it every day for the rest of their life, they'll never have withdrawals, because they have Bupe, an opioid, in their system the whole time.

When taking Bupe to taper, the reason it's better than tapering off say just the Heroin itself, is because the longer duration, and weaker overall effects, mean that once your body has gotten accustomed to the Bupe rather than the Heroin, you'll have slightly longer, but milder withdrawals, and if you gradually reduce your dose of Bupe, those withdrawals will get easier and easier, until a point when there are barely any withdrawals if you drop the dose low enough and taper off at the right speed for you.

There are two main types of tapers, fast tapers and slow tapers. A fast taper works where you start on say 2-3mg of Bupe, and lower your dosage by 0.5-1mg every 1-2 days depending on what works best for you, ending up jumping off the Bupe and getting clean after 5-14 days. A slow taper does a similar thing but you stay on each respective dose for several days or a week before dropping down. The first method tends to be the most successful since tapering fast forces you to actually get off and doesn't get you too accustomed to the Bupe itself, so you get off quickly rather than just replacing one habit with another - however the second method can be good if you find a quick taper too mentally stressful for you.

I've had great success with both methods, when my tolerance was 70x higher than baseline I managed to drop it down to 0, and avoid withdrawals entirely, with a 5-6 day Bupe taper, starting with 2.5mg and working down each day. Other times it took several weeks, so it really depends on you, your individual habit, and such, but yeah Bupe can pretty a pretty great taper drug.. just you have to know what to expect - it isn't a magic pill, it won't "cure" your addiction, but it can help you get past your physical dependence on your own terms without the uncomfortable taper that shorter drugs like Heroin itself have.
 
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