suboxone withdrawal: how long is this going to last...I'm mi

Hey friend... I actually tapered at about the same pace with the same increments. My doctor thought I was crazy for cutting my strips into tiny pieces so that I could gradually yank myself off of it. I originally was addicted to poppy seed tea...crazy nastiness that is, and my doc said it would be even harder for me to "kick" the PST because of all the other alkaloids the concoction contained. I think you should go no lower than the .125 dose. Not sure how half of that dose would even help. It mght actually make you feel a craving like it did to me, which was weird, because I never wanted anymore anything for 99% of the duration of being on subs. I was on subs from October 1st of this year, until a week ago, and the fact that it was in my system for only 2 5 months, and I'm still withdrawaling says a lot about how ridiculously potent Bupe is. But, I must say...I just woke up and I feel twice as good as yesterday. :) Go at YOUR own pace and what feels right. Your situation is a lot like mine. Keep it up and the sooner you can get off it, the better.

thank you buddy for youre response im def gunna jump at 125 i just dont want to miss work and be usless.Unfortunatly no one knows about my problem not even my wife ,shame on me ,i keep no secrets with her but this .im thinking about taking withdrawel ease to help. have u tried taking any thing over the counter to help youre process.Im impressed with youre ability to quit it gives me hope.im glad that ur sub situation is similar to mine and youre clean im so happy for you i know how bad it must suck rite now

Hi I was on subutex foe 3 yrs... noone knew worked 7 days a week went to school went thru seperatiob of 14 yr marriage 2 teenagers. After 9 months me and my husband decided to work things out and he had moved and moved on w/ our kids and me drinking on syboxin and subutex combined 120 dollars a month and a daily to bi daily regular at my walgreens across from my job cash daily.. could of bought a house by now and done so damn much soo much of my hard earned money daily.. secretly. I'm too ashamed to calculate but the day after 9 months of living alone ( roomate) got the opertunity to be w/ my family again... I cut cold turkey.. subutex.. drinking. My job also and friends because my husband doesn't know thst he's my hero.. thinks ivjust gave up my bad influencing job and drinking habit .. 3 days just sweats n night... and a little anxiety then ithought.. that's it? Uh uh.. started reading and after this experience I can truely say its 50/50 and if noone knows and u have to hide the withdrawls, its easier cuz on the outside yur normal but on the inside, 3 days after u stop subutex the worst will kick in.. ur weak as hekk, anxiety when u want to sleep yur stomach cramps and legs ache and u can't stop tossing and turning. While everyone getting up early to go work and school u just wanna die but u can't so u just want timevto go by and its soo hard toact like u want to cook and clean snd be normal and ccan't eat or drink.. its so unappealing. Coffee n morning tucking kids n at nite.. laundry on weekends.. k I'm done it gets better take vitamins force down crackers hot baths and poweraid.almost 2 weeks after the 3 day worstm its good now still lazy weak but family and something better than that sh*t to look forward to everday is a blessing now.. if I can do this, u can for sure. U will never go back after.. just won't... god luck and two weeks is such a small part of what your here for.. energy will come back.. fresh air. Driving music even grocery store makes u feel good at this point. Waking up and actually GETTING UP is your turning point. Luv u alllll. Plz remember this thru all.

thanks for your advise ,thats awsome that u kicked this damn drug ,its goin to b tough but hearing your story givs me hope.im continuing the taper process for another 2 months then the jump .im on a low dose now .25 but it hurts,was on.5 for a month but that was easy.gotta set goals and just man up and quit.good luck .keep in touch lmk how ur doin through this

Hi all, I was hoping somone could help me out.  I kicked an 8month habit of oxy back in June 2013.  I did a little here and there over the following months, but can see that I feel pretty much completely back to normal for a good month in Sept-Oct.  Unfortunately I went on a 3-4week binge in november.  I got a hold of 5 subs in Dec and felt fine day 6 without any.  I guess I thought I was back to normal again and was enjoying the subs so I got 5 more.  Again was feeling good so I figured I was okay to take some oxy again.  Not daily but twice a week, with subs in between.  Today I am feeling extremely anxious and I am concerned I am having withdrawal from subs.  I did do some oxy last night and two nights before that, so I am hoping I am just feeling like this from those.  Anybody have any idea if I am going to have bad withdrawal from the subs?  I really can't go through that again.  Thanks for you help!

Ive been taking suboxone for mabey 9 months mabey longer had a doctor but screwed that up with weed,iv Ben buying subs about a half or a quarter at a time and i even cut quarters into two pieces but.i got it in my head that i wanted off this sh*t and now im on day three going on the fourth Ive took nothing all i really feel is my heart is beating fast or at least i think it is and my sleep sux other than that i feel ok its the mind playing tricks on us as they say the mind is a very powerful thing

I've been on and off suboxone for a year now, as well as methadone, morphine, hydromorphone (dilaudid) and heroin. suboxone, or buprenorphine comes with some different withdrawals, for me anyway. I've tapered off methadone twice, tapered of morphine a number of times, tapered of hydromorphs.. obviously not that successfully. Recently went to a detox to do their prescribed subox taper, went from 20mg of methadone + 200-300mg of IV'd morphine, if I didn't do morphine I was taking 120-150mg of hydromorphs or a 1/2g of heroin. mostly it was morphine though, either way it was on top of the methadone. Taper took 15 days I believe, they made me wait 3 days to get on the subs and that was brutal, but the taper was easy. Always found subs easy to taper down on. Once off I was relatively ok for a day or so but the withdrawals slowly crept up. Nights were rough, my skin was burning, whereas the 3 days without anything prior to subs I was covered in goosebumps, shivering/shaking, vomiting, hardly enough energy to move except to sit in a bath tup every 2-3hrs to warm up. Chills would happen during the day and my skin burned at night, the same feeling as though I was standing in direct sunlight, that hot searing sensation. Sleep wasn't happening. Suffice it to say, I left that place early - in part because I was told I'd get clonidine after the taper but they refused to let me see the doctor, which I had to pay for up front. Even to drink Ensure (vitamin & calorie rich liquid meal replacements) needed doctors permission. I'm about to jump off in a week or so from another taper. I've been on morphine and/or methadone for 8 or 9 years now.

While in this treatment centre/detox I talked to one guy who'd stuck it out, he was 5 weeks off subs and said that it took about 2-3 weeks before he started to really feel better, his sleep was still screwed up, getting an hour or two at night and throughout the day. After I came back from that place it took me about 3 weeks to get use to the poor sleep scheduale. I don't watch TV but I've found watching sh*t online to pass the long nights by. That and reading. Distracting yourself during this period is really helpful. Everything I've read over the years seems to support this man's experience of it taking a while. This is also dependent on how long you've been on opiates for. For him it was 16yrs, for me it's been 9yrs. At the peak I was taking 600-900mg of morphine a day IV, there have been many periods where I've had ready access to large amounts of pills, liquid (for IV use) and sometimes powder. The more that's there the more I ended up using. It's nothing to be proud of, when the supply runs out you're screwed and forced to suffer or spend a fortune to lower it comfortably. It's cost me 9yrs of my life and a lot of money just to not be dopesick. f*****g retarded.What's going on is physiologically is we've caused significant changes to our brain's function which changes the way our bodies & organs function. Once the suboxone leaves our system, even though the withdrawals are minor in comparison, for me and many others that is, either way - full agonists like morphine, oxycodone, heroin etc or suboxone - the time it takes for your body to return to some state or normalcy won't be overnight. It's going to be rough, but it won't last forever. Your brain for one needs to start producing endorphins again, which are our natural opioids that our brains no longer produced when the brain was oversaturated with much more powerful opioids on a regular/daily basis.

To make this period of adjustment easier to manage consider these:Immodium (aka Loperamide) an opioid that only hits the receptors on your intestines, if the bottle says take two and your gut is squirming around, take 4 and wait an hour or so. Don't take it for too long otherwise your gut won't get use to being opioid free.Gravol/ginger gravol - both can help with nausea, the first can aid in sleep at night, the latter doesn't leave you feeling screwed up if you react poorly to the regular kind (dimenhydrinate)Trazodone - old school TCA antidepressant, non-addictive, at doses from 25-150mg are used for sleep.Seroquel is also used for sleep at low doses, in Canada these two are easy to getBenzos; Valium (diazepam) Ativan (lorazepam) Klonipin (clonazepam) Xananx (alprazolam) are harder to get, especially if your dr knows you've had substance issues in the past, at least where I am. These can be physically addictive with the withdrawals leading to seizures, so short term use is ideal.Gabapentin - similar to a benzo with the same risks but aids in anti-anxiety and sleep.Only other thing I'd recommend is drink as much water as you can. You'll likely sweat a lot, and you need to flush your kidneys out. You'll feel worse as you start to dehydrate. This is a problem for me as in withdrawal swallowing is rather uncomfortable. If you can't eat get some of those meal replacements, they can and do make a difference.

These are things I've found helpful over the years. When detoxing I try to limit any other substances I'm taking. I've found Cannabis can be both helpful as well as a hindrance, the latter due to an intensifying of the uncomfortable sensations. Eating it in cookies, for example, or taking the prescription cannabinoid, Nabilone, seems to aid in sleep more so than smoking/vaping it, for me anyway. If you can go for a walk for 30mins or more at least once a day this will help your body and brain repair itself as well as produce endorphins compared to sitting/laying about. I find once moving I no longer feel sick or like sh*t. I've walked several kilometers dopesick trying not to sh*t myself just to pick up, so for me this wasn't asking much of myself.

If anyone's read this, I hope it can help. Keep in mind this doesn't last forever. I'm in the process of doing this all over again as I've stupidly picked up a few times too often. A few weeks off opiates and a weekend of using put me back at square one. 

 

I wrote too much, but just to reiterate one crucial point: don't expect the withdrawals to go away quickly, even if the taper was dead easy. Buprenorphine, the opioid in subs has a half life of up to 3-4 days, Up to that long, making the rather quick dose decreases seem easier. However we've caused physiological changes in our brain and bodies' functioning which will take time to adjust to. From my experience, and that of other users of 8+ yrs of heavy opiate use, you can expect to feel better after the 10-15 days off everything. These improvements can be slow and you can expect to have days where it feels like you've gone backwards, this is short lived. This whole process is temporary. Just keep your focus off of the withdrawals, neither dwelling on how shitty you feel nor trying to fight it, mentally that is. There is simply no way around it, but it is only temporary. I've kicked methadone, morphine, hydromorphone (dilaudid), heroin and buprenorphine. Regardless of taper it all took about 2-4 weeks before I really started to feel like my regular self. Only difference was in how easy or difficult the taper was and how intense the withdrawals were. Suboxone was by far the easiest for me to taper off of and the withdrawals were mild in comparison to methadone or morphine/heroin/hydro which was, for me, about 10-15 days of pure hell. First time kicking morphine I didnt sleep for 4 days, first time kicking methadone (and in a detox) I was awake for 5 nights. Sleep came in 15-20min naps, and not real sleep as i could still hear everything.
If you really want to put this life behind you, you'll endure it. For me I relapsed each time as either I gave up or thought I could still be a casual user - unfortunately I do know casual heroin/pill shooters and smokers. bastards

I had back surgery about 8 years ago and took hydrocodone for pain for about 3 years - never abused it (or any other drug) and never took more than prescribed, but after a few years at maximum dose the hydrocodone no longer helped my back pain.  When I tried to stop taking hydrodocone, I realized my body was physically addicted to it and it wasn't going to be as simple as to just stop taking them.  My Dr. prescribed Suboxone to help get off hydrocodone AND to take in place of hydrocodone for pain management for my back for the future.  At the time he said it had recently been discovered that Sub could be used for chronic pain in place of opiates.  So having no idea that I was simply moving from one addictive pain medication to another I started taking Sub and continued it for 3 years.  Just this past month I was uninsured for 60 days due to a job change and when I found out the full cost of Sub was almost $400 a month, I decided it was time to quit.  WOW!  I asked Dr's advice as to best way, tapered down per his suggestion (the taper was easy), and he said withdrawals would not last more than 3-4 days.  NOT true.  When you decide to stop, which I do recommend b/c I had no idea how much that drug sedated me and affected my quality of life until I quit, plan to be out of commission for at least a week.  Completely too miserable to work or function or fake it - sleeplessness, muscle aches, restless legs and arms, no appetite, sweats & chills, feels like your bones and skin hurt, diarrhea.  Ask your Dr to prescribe Clonidine and something to help you sleep - the Clonidine helped a lot.  Getting up and walking helps but it's hard to make yourself do it.  I just wanted to post b/c my situation seems to be a little unique from reading this forum since I have never abused drugs.  I'm on day 16, feel almost normal, just the weird skin/muscle/bone pain, can't sleep for a decent period of time, and yawns.  I ENCOURAGE you to get OFF Suboxone! There is light at the end of the tunnel, and who wants to be dependent on a drug that costs so much and can wreak this havoc on your body and mind!  I also encourage you to time it right, taper, and get a Dr's help.  Have immodium at home.  I do NOT encourage ANYONE to take suboxone for a long period of time for pain management - I am sure my withdrawal has been so long and hard partly b/c of how long I took Sub. If you're taking it to get off optiates, get off it as soon as you can.  To me this was no easier than stopping hydrocodone cold turkey. God bless you all!

if u take 8 mg of suboxone , 24 hrs later there is 4 mg still inyoursystem

I just don't get the people who get a "buzz" off of suboxone.  I was on methadone for two years, and I've been through withdrawals cold turkey off that c**p so many times I can't even count.  Suboxone is completely different.  I don't feel anything off of them, and if I miss a day or two, I still don't feel anything.  It is mostly mental.  I wish there was a way that someone could flip that switch in an addict's brain that makes you feel like you need to take something to have energy.  Suboxone is a breeze compared to methadone.  I think every person will react differently to the withdrawals.

 

ime going to explain what I did to come off SUBOXONE and today is day 8 cold turkey with no taper. I was on suboxone or subutex for about a year, not prescribed. At first I felt in my mind because its not an opiate,then i wont withdraw.... I was WRONG Thats how powerful addiction is u replace one with the other. Ime a Union Carpenter and work very hard. On Subs, but when i ran out i couldnt go in to work i felt like someone was rubbing ice on my skin and the stomach pains were outrageous. i went from 4-8mgs a day to none. I had to lay myself off of work cuz i wanted to end it. So i read a book on opiate addiction -Tait Addams- was author cuz i wanted to educate myself my first 4 days was the worst 4 days of my life.I was useless Couldnt eat, couldnt sleep I wanted to jump through my skin then day five i shoveled the whole driveway and sweat so much i could drink water and eat a lil but still bad stomach pains. By now ime functioning, and my emotions skyrocketed. i thought cuz day 5 was ok then day 6 will be better wrong again 6 was worse than 5 wtf i was getting frustrated i wanted my normal life back. I started reading Quotes in the book I talked about earlier. One stuck it was. THE ONLY WAY OUT IS THROUGH- by Robert Frost so it gave me hope day 7 no chills no leg aches a lil lazy and its amazing to feel those emotions that i shut off when i was using. Now day 8 got up drove my 5yr boy to school went looking at a brand new car that i will easily be able to afford now that ime not doing drugs and they approved me for it. Its still day 8 and ime trying not to think about it so ime keeping myself busy cleaning and anything to get my mind off how i feel i feel good but not great u can make it worse if u just sit around all day so my advice Eat healthy Take a good multi-vitamin drinks lots of water protein shakes and go buy that book it saved my life.... thx

its good to see this.

i myself went from pain meds to sub. then the v.a.. put me on methadone now i jst want free from it all. funny you talked about your vision and health of your teeth both have been cause n me problems had no idea the sub was the cause. thinking about jst stopping the methadone on my own try to make it thrue the sickees

wow, you wrote this over a year ago. I'm 25, been on drugs (opana,loratab,oxy,herion,methadone,morphine)since I was 18.I have been misusing subs for about 3 years,just to feel better,but still misusing. Now I want to quit, I want to get my life back,but I have things to do,obligations.I can't be sick. But I'm going to have to tough it out. I'M SCARED!