Experiences With Suboxone Withdrawals

I've just been taking percocent to deal with the withdrawals just to get through the first 3 days.

Like an above poster wrote, it's entirely possible to psych one's self into a state of such anxiety and anticipation of the train that must be roaring at them that all of the horrible experiences provided here can provide even more fodder of the psychological aspects of withdrawal to prey upon.

Two things are certain. The placebo effect is real (especially among addicts) and suboxone withdrawal has a much longer time span than most opiates because of its long half life. And while most will experience some kind of withdrawal, each person's experience is going to be unique and it's important to not let whatever that withdrawal is going to be made worse by the fear and anxiety of others whose physiologist and psychology may be entirely different.

I have been an alcoholic/drug addict for ever it seems. I got off alcohol after many DT's 8 years ago but had gotten hiv+. Since being hiv+ I have gone from Zanax with bouts of cocaine (daily) to now sober from alcohol in Alcoholics Anonymous for over eight years. I have tried to commit suicide several times. The last one was because of AIDS related pain. I nearly died from AIDS nine times. I have survived 25 years and now know I can survive many more years. I am back to just HIV+ today but know that with the latest research a full life can really be expected BUT ONLY if I heed what I have learned here about the difficulty of coming off suboxone. It has been heck getting addicted to suboxone but still falling into other methamphetamines. Life has been hard but now that AIDS is no longer a death penalty I see I need to get off suboxone one month at a time as well as Valium, Ambien and possibly anything else God brings to my attentention. I am no gay basher yet I do believe that homosexuality is a sin for me. Before coming to this forum a few days after my last wean piece of suboxone. I have lost 20 pounds and would never lead anyone down the hard road I have chosen for myself. It is only a miracle I am alive like many alcoholics/drug addicts but pray for me that I will be able to wean off or to wht I hear God say is right for me off of suboxone. I go to the sub doctor tomorrow and will take this forum with me to explain how badly I want to cut down as I can. I do have peripheral neuropathy that is often very painful from the early AIDS drugs. God bless all who have chosen some of my choices and may He continue to use this forum.

Well everybody, I have read most of your posts for quite sometime now. I was 16 when I started abusing oxycodone, at one point i was taking 180mg. of it in a day. Finally about Oct.2008 my parents had enough, because of my stealing, lieing, and everything else in between. December 4th I entered myself into rehab, was in there for 4 days, really just to make my parents happy. Then when I got out I took an oxycodone the day after, I felt awful! So I went to my suboxone doc. / therapist and finally got started on treatment, I went from 6mg. a day down to 4 mg. within a month? maybe month and 1/2 then he tried puttin me down to 1/4 mg. of suboxone a day, while the only reason I couldnt do this was physcological, now just about everytime I run out before my appointment, and have to reschedule sooner because I cant pshcolgically withdraw. While I dont get half the symptoms all of you do, my backs a little sore, Im a little uncomfortable, and anxious, but thats about it. I dont feel creepie crawlies under my skin, I barely sneeze, I only have a headache if I stare at TV or computer for too long, and I deffinatly dont feel sick to my stomache. SUBOXONE will only work if you want to get off narcotics!! I wish you all luck and I hope I am able to wheen off it and not detox to bad, but you can always continue your life reguardless what you were on, its will and want to be off. Love ya'll and god bless ya

hey yall i just recently got off suboxone heroin/opiate user for 4 years and this website with all the posts and experiences really helped me get through the suboxone withdrawal it is hell but if you stick to it it is possible but while getting off the suboxone i started to take roxicet to ease the withdrawal its been 2 weeks and i want to stop taking the roxicet now that the suboxone withdrawal is gone im just wondering if i start to withdrawal from the oxy now would i be able to take 2 mg of suboxone for 4 days or would i withdrawal again from the suboxone any suggestions would be greatly appreciated thank you

To save time and alot of reading for you guys , I'll spare you my history. I have been on suboxone for a little over 6 months now (started at 8mg, broken up into 4 mg twice daily) and about 2 months ago I cut my dose down to just 4 mg once a day. I made that jump fairly easily. While i still felt a little restless and went through small cases of hot/cold sweats, it all subsided after just a couple days and I felt the same as I did before dropping from 8mg to 4mg. Fast forward 2 months to about 8 days ago. I started breaking my 4 mg piece of sub down to about 2 mg and did that for about 4 days, then broke that little 2 mg piece down in half to about 1mg for 4 days (and I really never did feel bad after dropping from 4mg to 2, 1).

after the 4th day of about 1mg pieces, I stopped altogether. Let me tell you, I have been through withdrawls from almost a 1200mg a day Morphine (Pill, and liquid) and 24 mg a day Dilaudid habit which the withdrawals from damn near killed me as i would puke night and day non stop for 3-4 days which would cause my toes/fingers to loose feeling from wrenching, my stomach would hurt horribly from puking and eventually my nose would start bleeding from the high blood pressure. Anyway, those are the worst withdrawals i've ever had but I've also had pretty bad ones coming off of maybe 2 packs of H a day.

I'm now on my 4th day off of suboxone and while I don't feel perfect it's getting easier. The first 2 days were actually the worst believe it or not, and I was actually able to sleep the 3rd night with the help of a few benadryl and today the 4th day, I am still having some hot/cold sweats and goosebumps and watery eyes etc but I can also get up and be productive If I absolutely have to. I haven't felt much fatigue yet, have yet to really lose my appetite (and eating meats has made me feel much better) and have yet to really get diarrhea or stomach cramps. I don't know what i've done differently than others or if the fact that I am fairly active in the gym has helped me have easier/shorter withdrawals or what but I just wanted to let everyone know that not everybody's experiences with suboxone detox are horrible and I wish luck to anybody else trying to get this damn gorilla off their back.

So im 19 days clean off of suboxone. Most of the pains are gone and im sleeping but I am still sweating under my arms like crazy. I never sweated like this before the drugs is this going to be forever? If anyone can help please let me know.

Thanks...

Hi, I was addicted to loratab 10's for 3 years and suboxone saved my life. I was on suboxone for about 6 months with maintenance and slowly began tapering myself off even though my dr said i should maintain at 16 mg for a few months. i got down to 2 mg a day and one day just stopped taking them and was fine. I went without taking them for almost 5 months and then... my son (he is 4) and i were playing ball and he threw the ball and it busted my front teeth. i had to have mouth surgery and thought i would be ok take the pain medicince given without getting addicted...wrong. i got back on suboxone about a month ago and i've almost tapered myself all the way off again. i am down to 4 mg either daily or every other day just depending on what is going on. i cant afford my correct dosage so that helped me cut down too. i also agree with the person above that said if you keep yourself busy and dont think constantly about how much you 'need' to be taking, it makes it a lot easier. i know when i was taking opiates, i was constantly counting and recounting my pills to see how many i had left which in turn counting down until withdrawal time again. Now, i dont have that worry and i feel like i have me back again. Suboxone is definitely worth it! it is a great way to come off the opiates and still be able to function and slowly work your way off of them at your own pace. i owe my life to a dear friend who let me know i had a problem {like i didnt already know :0)} and showed me a way at the life i was missing out on. i thank that person every day for giving me back!

I have a question that maybe someone here can answer for me. I've been on Suboxone for two years or something, lowered a while ago to 4mg, but I'm not going below that, because I'm too scared of horrible withdrawal symptoms. Luckily, here where I live, you don't pay for methadone or suboxone, as long as your health insurence is A-OK, you'll get it for free for as long as you want to. If that's a good thing or not - who knows...

Anyway, about two months ago I recivied a large amount of money and I immediately knew that I wanted to spend it on heroin. So I kept buying 5g of heroin, which I'd use in a week or less and whenever I felt a withdrawal coming, I'd just go buy another 5g. Now that the money is gone, I thought I'll just go back to my Suboxone so that I can nicely escape any withdrawal alltogether. In the pamphlet it says to wait at least 6h after your last heroin dose. I waited 12h and took 4mg of Suboxone. Not half an hour passes and I feel like I want to just kill myself! The withdrawal is horrible, I have restless legs and can't sleep at all. I have chills, no appetite, dripping nose, watery eyes...

WHY, WHY, WHY didn't the Suboxone prevent ANY withdrawal symptoms?? It seems to me it even CAUSED it!!!

That's precipitated withdrawals! You didn't wait long enough after your last opiate use, and when you ingested the suboxone, that forced the opiates out. This is the worst kind of WD, if you ask me. Make sure you wait at least 12 hours, or better yet, until you feel a little sick to take your first dose of the subs after taking an opiate. hope that helps.

If you are smart enough to start reading these posts before you come off suboxone then do yourself a big favor and heed the advice given by most of these posts and taper off very slowly, to a virtually negligible amount. 0.25 mgs every other day seems to be pretty effective place to stop, but if you can go any smaller then by all means do so. It is possible to come off suboxone with no withdrawals, but most doctors will tell you to jump off at 2 mgs. Bad idea.

Nevertheless, I predict the majority of people reading this are probably going through withdrawals already and looking for remedies to help them get through it. I've been there guys, I know how prickly life gets. Unfortunately, there really isn't any easy way out of withdrawals except for relapsing, and you're too good for that. So allow me to share these tricks I've learned coming through my last withdrawal:

1. First and foremost, keeping active is vitally important. I know going outside and exerting yourself doesn't sound so enticing right now, but do it anyway. You'll be so pleasantly surprised how much better it makes you feel. I would go surfing and I seriously could not tell I was going through any withdrawals at all.

2. NO CAFFEINE! I know you have no energy right now, but caffeine only increases the symptoms of withdrawal. If you must have a pick-me-up, yerba mate and 5-hour energy don't seem to hurt as bad as coffee or redbull. The best things to drink, however, are protein shakes and gatorade.

3. Don't keep it a secret. Talk to somebody you trust about what you're going through, blog about it - I dunno. The important thing is you need to vent right now, and you must have a channel open for encouragement.

4. Are your legs spasming out when you try to sleep? Aleve works miracles.

5. Are your bowels immediately spewing out everything you put into them? Try Immodium(Loperamide).

6. Insomnia? This is a tough one to cope with. I used Melatonin, Kava Kava, and Valerian Root and still had trouble sleeping. I got my hands on some benzos, and they seemed to work real well, but of course there exists strong potential for abuse.

7. Don't give up hope. You can do this. This is a temporary illness and it will pass. I jumped off at .5 mgs per day and got better in a week's time(a hella long week). All you need to do is focus on how great it will be to have your body to yourself again, and eventually you will get it back.

I've been a heroin addict for over 15 years. My habit got up to 3 grams of gear a day until I decided 6 months ago to get on suboxone....worst idea I've ever had!! At the moment I'm detoxing from jumping off 20mg of suboxone. Sub led to me developing a ichy, red rash on my legs and my doctor has decided this is an alergic reaction and refuses to prescribe to me any further. So I'm left, having my last dose on Wed morn (today is Sat) and I'm jumping off this f***ing stuff at 20mg. The doc wouldn't even taper me down first...f***ing medical negligence as far as I'm concerned! Can't stop crying, feel very alone and will never, ever tell medical ppl the truth again. I'm scared to death that this withdrawal will be the end of me! (feel like I will either OD on heroin or ???) I don't want to be around ppl and have only now realised that there is absolutely no-one that will help cos their own lives are more important to get back to! - So much for friends or for the people that said they would be there for support if needed!!! I hate how ppl treat you when they know you've been/are a heroin addict!! And as far as suboxone goes, it appears there's not enough research done on withdrawal of this drug other than what people write on threads like this -- why doesn't anyone listen to us! I want to complain about everything that's happened to me but there's no-one to complain to!! I want justice but I'm just a junkie who is a waste of space. I want out!!!!!!!!!!!

I also am WDing from Suboxone..8mg. My doctor wrote a prescription for Elavil (Amitryptalin) and it has helped me a lot with less withdrawal symptoms. I would recommend it to anyone trying to kick this drug. The other suggestion, Aleve for the aches is a good one. I hope you get through this ok...I am on day 8 and can tell that I might be feeling a little bit better...so hang in there.

I was on heavy doses of oxy and norco for 2 years because of a back injury. It was finally fixed and I was eager to get off the meds but I couldn't deal with the withdrawal so my pain doc put me on suboxone 8mg. I've been on it for 7 weeks now and I'm at 1mg a day and having the worst sickness. Stomach cramps, acid reflux, no appetite, diarrhea, mild restless leg once night hits.

According to my withdrawal plan I'm done on tuesday. I just met with my pain doc and told him all my symptoms and he said, "Well just hang in there."

I'm worried that I'm doing permanent damage to my body and I'm wanting to just stop now and ride out the withdrawals.

Has anyone felt the same as I am with the sickness?

I was on heavy doses of oxy and norco for 2 years because of a back injury. It was finally fixed and I was eager to get off the meds but I couldn't deal with the withdrawal so my pain doc put me on suboxone 8mg. I've been on it for 7 weeks now and I'm at 1mg a day and having the worst sickness. Stomach cramps, acid reflux, no appetite, diarrhea, mild restless leg once night hits.

According to my withdrawal plan I'm done on tuesday. I just met with my pain doc and told him all my symptoms and he said, "Well just hang in there." I've had stomach xrays, ultrasounds, and an endoscopy. I'm in a clean bill of health so it's been determined the medication is the cause of my absolute misery.

I'm worried that I'm doing permanent damage to my body and I'm wanting to just stop now and ride out the withdrawals because I know that come tuesday, Im not going to be able to simply drop off and will have to stay on it for a bit longer.

Right now I'm tempted to just quit, with today being my last dose and riding out the withdrawal. I'm in a definite pickle, with nothing but pain on both sides of me.