Bupe Is it realistic to taper off subs in 5 weeks after taking 8mg a day for 3 years?

[ickray]

My sub doctor is retiring, and I have 5 weeks left in my script of one 8mg strip a day. I've rebuilt my life, and look at this as a sign to try living without a crutch. I know 5 weeks is a short time for the 3 years I've been on subs, and I don't expect that there won't be some discomfort, but I want to hear from people who have tapered in a short period of time and what their experiences were. If anyone can direct me to a taper schedule that seemed to work for them I'd appreciate it too. Can I realistically taper off 8mg a day over 5 weeks with minor discomfort?

 

[Gorillaboy21]

I’d put it this way, you definitely can get it down substantially in 5 weeks to where things will be bearable. I’ve been tapering for 3-4 weeks myself using heroin and fent and I’ve managed to stop injecting first time in 7-8 years and just smoking it. I also lowered myself from 0.4-0.8 IV tar a day to 0.1-0.2 smoked tar/weak fent just about equal strength a day, in 3-4 week. What I used to take 3-4 weeks ago would absolutely put me on my ass right now.

I’m also very happy I don’t even feel the craving to shootup, in fact can’t even imagine shooting up even though I did it 4 times a day for 7 years...

crazy how things can change like that so quickly. I noticed during this process almost every 2-3 days I would feel like the world is becoming much much clearer and just clean to my brain. I remember things better, I’m more attentive, I’m more interesting to talk to everyone says that now. It’s definitely worth a try, your other option is just taking it for 5 weeks and waiting for the last moment to make a rash sudden decision. I did it because I have to get clean for school I can’t push off college any longer.

I think it would be easier for you controlling a drug that has pharmaceutical mgs attached to it compared to my random different batches of heroin and this weak ass fent or whatever I’m smoking some weird rocks.

try it lower your dose however you can. I’m not familiar with subuxone but I would taper down to 4 mgs within 2 weeks. It’s not until you get down to the 0.25 mgs that you wanna cut slowly

 

[burn out]

There's likely to be more than minor discomfort, even if you taper longer than five weeks. In my experience the hard part is when you try to stop completely even after a slow taper.

 

[wizardknight17]

I don't have any personal experience with subs but while I was on about 400-500 MME a day of fent,oxy, and norco I've read a massive amount on it (some on this site, some from online articles) and you definitely need someone with personal experience to help you on this and I hope someone here will.

That being said, what I do know from other accounts is you need to drop from 8mg to 2mg as quickly as possible. The jump from 2mg to zero is SUBSTANTIALLY more difficult than the jump from 8mg to 2mg. Along with this, the quicker you go from 8mg to 2mg = the longer you have to wean yourself down.

Assuming you had no taper in place and originally spoke of 5 weeks at 8mg. You would have 20 weeks at 2mg instead.

To add to that, you shouldn't take the full 2mg the whole time either, you should be tapering. Which means you could probably stretch what you do have to a year.

As far as schedule, I have read one on this site a couple years ago so I know it's here. Someone with better knowledge of this site could probably help you find it but it's basically something along the lines of...

Step 1: Get to 2mg as quick as you can. This lower dose shouldn't help a bunch with cravings but should not put you in a bad withdrawal either.

Step 2: every week or two cut the dose in half until your down to 0.25mg, even then, attempt to cut those in half to the best of your ability. And reduce until you literally cannot half a dose anymore. Most people I read about didn't have issue after cutting 0.25mg in half for a few weeks then jumping off.

Like I said, this is from what I read ON THIS SITE. An actual schedule is here, and people with first hand account of going through this is here. If either have different knowledge/advice then listen to them, not me. I'm just trying to help in case no one else does. good luck.

 

[hotfriesmmm]

It is highly unrealistic. My experience was: I had been on subs like you for a little over 3 years. I ended up going to jail and having to cold turkey. Now I know your experience would be nothing like this. But I say it is highly unrealistic because I know I was in w/d acutely for about 60 days. Followed by very serious PAWS for approx one year.

 

[VanOccupanther]

Rough one man, it’s gonna be tricky if you ask me. I recently made the bad mistake of jumping off at 4 mg and it hurt really bad, to the point I had to get back on. I’ve been getting off as fast as I can since then. I’ve got from 4 down to two in a couple of weeks no problem and I’m hoping to be down to 1.2 in the next two weeks. No problem at this point. I’ve been led to believe the last 0.2 can be a little tricky but not too bad on the scheme of things.
Good luck dude.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

i don't think it can be accomplished if you still have to work, sleep, function normally during that time frame. getting down to 1 mg is easier than you think though, the real difficult part is going from fractions of a mg to 0 mg.

 

[oldhippytony]

Can you jump to zero in 5 weeks with only minor discomfort? I doubt it. After 3 years the bupe is stacked big time and the body needs more time than 5 weeks to produce what it needs to feel "normal." Just taper slowly. No need to put yourself through the agony of withdrawal if it isn't necessary or unavoidable (jail).

 

[Ticket]

Is it realistic? Nope. You might be able to do it but it'll be hell on earth. Tapering with bupe is easy peasy, you can smash off 2mg at a time pretty quickly with very little discomfort, but jumping off entirely is a whole different beast. At 6 weeks clean I'm only just starting to feel functional and somewhat normal again, after a little over 3yrs on bupe, 32mg daily at the highest and .1mg daily at the end, tapered over several months taking a fortnight to a month between dosage drops, small dosage drops once I got below 2mg, and I even switched to Norspan patches (10mcg/hr, then 5mcg/hr, then 3.3mcg/hr, then 2.5mcg/hr etc, cutting the patches smaller and smaller). It's gonna be rough as guts OP. However, if you start slashing your dose now while you still have a lot of wiggle room from that 8mg, you could easily get down to 4 or 2mg daily and stockpile the rest to continue tapering until you get to like half a mg or less daily, that'll give you way more time to do a proper taper if you can control yourself. But you're not gonna be able to go from 8mg to 0mg in just 5 weeks if you have literally any kind of social, work, family, pet, financial, legal, school, or life obligations to uphold at all. Bet on yourself the right way and get down as low as you possibly can now, then take your time and let your body and brain adjust between taper drops, give yourself a fighting chance. Bupe is so good for maintenance in large part because it's so long acting, which also means that everything else you do with it is gonna move sloooowwwly slowly when you need to adjust doses and kick it for good. It's a LONG process coming off bupe after that long being on it, I'd hate for you to set yourself for failure and turn to smack because you just can't bear the bupe withdrawals a moment longer.