Bupe Buprenorphine Withdrawals

[asouthern]

i have also been taking benzos to help with WDs (usually 1mg xanax but the first few bad days i was taking 2-4mg) and want to be sure that once i'm through WDs that i'm not hooked on benzos. i don't even like the fucking things but they are a godsend for me at this point.

i'm certainly trying not to take a lot but am not experienced at all with xanax outside of a handful of cases and just want to be sure that i'm not going to have any kind of dependence on benzos when i decide i don't need them anymore (hopefully very soon.)

 

[sissyfist]

oh and i've also had a few weird hallucinations or half-awake moments like the other night my gf was hanging out with me and i just started calling her cat's name, i thought i saw him walking across the end of the bed. we weren't even at her apartment. then yesterday she called me and the first thing i asked her was what she wanted on her hotdog. seriously, the strangest kind of sensation i've felt. snapping out of a short dream state. it actually worried my gf, she thought i was going crazy but i'm sure it's just the WDs combined with multiple sleepless nights.

I feel you man...I recently detoxed off 4mg a day (for over a year) cold turkey in jail. The wd and sleeplessness lasted a little over 30 days for me.
Unfortunately I am in wd again I just moved from maine to tennessee and can only get 80s right now which are pretty much just making this process worse I think. I am on day 6 with no sub and 2 days after doing an 80. the oxy is making the wd worse right now...

 

[Ronald MacDonald]

It is. I'm currently on 0.25mg per dose, a very nice half way point.

How do you measure it .25? Is it just an eyeball based off a quarter? Thats what i do.

 

[lakeman990]

I am on 8 mgs of the sub and want to get off this crap bad. I have been taking the sub for over 4 years and have starting the feel depressed and my sex drive sucks as well. I went straight from 16 mgs to 8 mgs and felt little difference. Could somebody give me a good tapor method without to much suffering ?...i am 50 and realize the longer you take the sub the worse the wds are and at my age i worry i will be going thru hell soon. I need to work 6 days a week, is it possible to tapor without missing work and feeling like shit? Maybe you could lead me to a post where somebody has tapored from this dose. I realize 8 mgs is a hell of a lot of sub but for 4 years my sub dr. never talked about a tapor. I want my life back, this shit sucks. I am new here and have read a hell of a lot of cool stuff. I really like this site and hope someone can help me.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

How do you measure it .25? Is it just an eyeball based off a quarter? Thats what i do.

Nah, I liquid measure. Theoretically if you just wanted to use an oral syringe to put 0.25mg underneath your tongue, here's what you could do.

put 8ml of water into 2mg.

1ml = 0.25mg.

At the moment though I use 0.1mg (100mcg) per dose. This way, I put 2mg per ml, and I use 5 units (0.05 mL).

I am on 8 mgs of the sub and want to get off this crap bad. I have been taking the sub for over 4 years and have starting the feel depressed and my sex drive sucks as well. I went straight from 16 mgs to 8 mgs and felt little difference. Could somebody give me a good tapor method without to much suffering ?...i am 50 and realize the longer you take the sub the worse the wds are and at my age i worry i will be going thru hell soon. I need to work 6 days a week, is it possible to tapor without missing work and feeling like shit? Maybe you could lead me to a post where somebody has tapored from this dose. I realize 8 mgs is a hell of a lot of sub but for 4 years my sub dr. never talked about a tapor. I want my life back, this shit sucks. I am new here and have read a hell of a lot of cool stuff. I really like this site and hope someone can help me.

Sure thing.

Break up your 8mg pills into quarters. If you get a nice pill splitter, you should be able to do this with very little crumbling of the pill.

This way, take 2mg. And see how long it "holds" you so to speak. You can use two milligrams up to 2 or 3 times per day if you need to, and this way you'll lower your dose to 4 to 6mg per day. This is 25 to 37% of your original 16mg per day dose. You'll start to feel better once you adjust to this dose.

You may even find 2mg by itself will last you the whole day. I didn't find it too hard to use 2mg once in a day (sublingually) and not use it any more. I think you should be able to as well.

If you want to step down to 6mg today (or when you're ready to) and then 4mg the next day, you can hold onto 4mg for a while. This way when you go to 2mg, it'll be less troublesome to get this low. You can take a while to adjust to 2mg, and then eventually when you're ready you can start dosing every other day, or jump off all together.

If you want to taper down to 0.5mg at the lowest, the easiest way to do this is to ask for 2mg pills from your doctor instead of 8mg. Then by cutting a 2mg pill into quarters, you can use down to 0.5mg at a time.

Good luck!

 

[WSB15]

I last WD'd off Subutex about 6 months ago - I jumped off at just 0.2mg a day, and still felt like UTTER SHIT for a fortnight.

Not nice at all.

Even from 0.2 mg it sucked? I've gone off at 1 mg in the past, and "utter shit" is pretty accurately how I felt. Honestly I preferred the oxy withdrawals until my habit got above 60-80 mg...there was more physical symptoms but less mental agony and insomnia, and it was a week of shittiness, not three. How were you taking it, IV?

I've been assuming the w/d would be easy from 0.25 mg, what exactly should I expect?

 

[oldhead]

I am on 8 mgs of the sub and want to get off this crap bad. I have been taking the sub for over 4 years and have starting the feel depressed and my sex drive sucks as well. I went straight from 16 mgs to 8 mgs and felt little difference. Could somebody give me a good tapor method without to much suffering ?...i am 50 and realize the longer you take the sub the worse the wds are and at my age i worry i will be going thru hell soon. I need to work 6 days a week, is it possible to tapor without missing work and feeling like shit? Maybe you could lead me to a post where somebody has tapored from this dose. I realize 8 mgs is a hell of a lot of sub but for 4 years my sub dr. never talked about a tapor. I want my life back, this shit sucks. I am new here and have read a hell of a lot of cool stuff. I really like this site and hope someone can help me.

Man this thread is old. I remember feeling bad for the op.
Whats up lakeman? I too am a 50+ bluelighter. I have been on subs for a while now. I had a big habit and never needed 8mgs to get relief. I went from 160 mgs oc to 2mgs subs in about 2 weeks. But I've never got below 1mg a day, yet. I think you could get down to 3-4 in no time at all with no pain. You have a ton of it built up in your system. Check out the Suboxen mega-thread for great ways to reduce. Captain H will give great guidance. Good Luck!!

 

[BIGsherm7272]

I was on subs from AUG 2008 to AUG 2009. Literally pooped once a week and never had a sex drive. I had two 8mg tablets and bit off of them for two weeks. That is how i titrated down. I only took a small bite when I felt the WD's coming at me. I have been off for seven days. I felt a bit of uncomfortableness for two days and that was that. I am not 100% yet but I feel better and better everyday. I honestly would have stayed on them if the doctor did not try to rip me off. He wanted 500 dollars a visit. I was like, are you using oxy's or something. What in the world. Ther are only a hand full of physicians in my area that distribute them. I have no desire to get high again so I guess the nasty tasting orange pills served their purpose. Do not ever go back...Stay clean.

I feel the same exact way on subs.....I have absolutely no sex drive, and only take a shit once a week (only with the help of magnesium citrate and many stool softeners), and just feel lethargic all day. I also sleep 12+ hours a day. I am at 4mg, and hope to be on 2 in a week. I can't wait to get off bupe. I wonder why the constipation is so bad from bupe compared to other opiates. And even if the hottest girl in the world just pranced in my room and fucking started sucking my dick, it wouldn't even budge. I would prolly just be like "I feel like shit cause I can't take a shit and I just wanna sleep."

 

[WSB15]

^Hahaha lower the dose you somnolent constipated eunuch. Then you should feel a-ok.

 

[MaddTime]

Theory to possibly reduce Bupe W/D's

Let me begin by saying: I began taking suboxone for treatment of PT addiction but the main reason I began the Bupe maintenance program is because I read that Suboxone withdrawals would be minimal compared to full-agonists opioids. It was only later that I read that this is only the case when bupe is used for rapid detox, not when used as maintenance. Then a crazy idea popped into my mind: what if, in order to be able to do a rapid detox, you switch back to your opiate of choice for about three weeks (long enough for the buprenorphine to get out of your system, and then began the suboxone week-long detox the W/D's of which should be very tolerable (according to some reports).

also: quick questions about buprenorphine withdrawal:
1. Would antidepressants help when in opiate withdrawal to relieve some of the depression, lethargy, and anxiety?
2. Is it better to have a job and be working when in bupe withdrawal, or would it be better to just stay at home and have nothing to do?

 

[QuasiStoned]

2. Is it better to have a job and be working when in bupe withdrawal, or would it be better to just stay at home and have nothing to do?

Depends on the severity of the withdrawal, if you can it's always better to keep busy though. My withdrawals always seem worse when I'm sitting around doing nothing.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

le merged

 

[MaddTime]

I'm sorry, I forgot to ask the main question. For people with experience with suboxone, what do you think of this plan? Would it work? and any suggestions on how to improve it would be appreciated.

 

[theseeker]

Let me begin by saying: I began taking suboxone for treatment of PT addiction but the main reason I began the Bupe maintenance program is because I read that Suboxone withdrawals would be minimal compared to full-agonists opioids. It was only later that I read that this is only the case when bupe is used for rapid detox, not when used as maintenance. Then a crazy idea popped into my mind: what if, in order to be able to do a rapid detox, you switch back to your opiate of choice for about three weeks (long enough for the buprenorphine to get out of your system, and then began the suboxone week-long detox the W/D's of which should be very tolerable (according to some reports).

also: quick questions about buprenorphine withdrawal:
1. Would antidepressants help when in opiate withdrawal to relieve some of the depression, lethargy, and anxiety?
2. Is it better to have a job and be working when in bupe withdrawal, or would it be better to just stay at home and have nothing to do?

Antidepressants DO NOT help when in withdrawal- at least for me. If you really feel the need to try this- proceed with caution and use the lowest dose possible. They can make things so much worse..

 

[WSB15]

Don't take any antidepressants that increase norepinephrine, your body/brain already has way too much of it during opiate withdrawals. Stimulants make most people feel worse too (again, by increasing norepinephrine).

 

[Partykid12]

I started on 24mg/day about 6 years ago and have been on it since then. Currently I am at 8-12mg/daily (I'm supposed to be at 12mg but I'm trying to cut it to 8mg) and I plan to get down to .5mg/day before I go to .25/day for 2 weeks and then .25 every other day for two weeks and then finally maybe .25mg every 3 days for a couple of days. I only read one report on this thread that dealt with someone skipping days on the last days of their taper. Has anyone else done this? If so, is the withdrawl still horrible? I don't think I can take off work to do this so I'm hoping that with Clonidine and Valium this will be a pretty easy process but I'm scared that it's going to be horrible since I've been on it for 6 years.

I have a pretty good Bupe doc so I'm sure he'll help me in anyway that he can and allow me to taper in anyway that I want so any advice on this would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[WSB15]

^I went down to .25 mg (actually more like .35 mg) and this is the 3rd day without it. The withdrawal is much worse than I expected. Last night I only slept 1-2 hours, had the terrible restless snakes under your skin feeling. I'm going to try to get clonidine, better sleeping pills, and benzos, but if this gets worse, I'm going to have to get back on at 0.25 and try tapering lower, because I just don't think I can function at all like this. Like you I can't take much time off work.

So don't underestimate it. Kicking that small an amount of bupe sounds like it would be easy, but its really not (I've cold-turkeyed off 160 mg OC). I think the length of time you've been on it does really matter. I've been on it for 3 1/4 years.

 

[Partykid12]

^^ All I can say is: fuck!

 

[WSB15]

It seems to be getting better each day rather than worse...with benzos and sleeping pills this isn't bad. But just don't expect Suboxone withdrawal to be "easier" than any other opiate. And even if the symptoms are milder, it'll last several weeks rather than 1. The doctors always say that but there's really no get out of jail free card...you have to pay your dues with opiate addiction.

The good news is that most people find it really easy to taper from higher doses. You can drop 1 mg and won't notice a thing until you get to lower doses (1-2mg).

 

[WSB15]

To update this...my symptoms have rapidly improved. Don't expect 3-4 weeks of withdrawal like some people say. I still have the equivalent of a bad cold and am kind of drained of energy but it's getting better each day. I can sleep now without sleeping pills. If you taper slowly down to 0.25 mg, letting your brain adjust at each dose it will be so much easier than it would have been...it's still hell for about 5 days but after that you'll feel ok. I'm 65% better. Yesterday I even did a few sets of push ups. My appetite is still terrible though.

The best part...I was on Sub for 3 years and my cravings mostly went away on it. I thought they'd come raging back when I finally kicked the Suboxone, but they haven't.