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

People, do NOT LISTEN TO THIS. F all the hype, I will tell you after 4 months of Subutex, the withdrawals were so bad, I lay in bed so damn miserable with every bad feeling mentally and physically, physiological, spritually...you name it. I lay on the bed tossing turning, crying, man...I've withdrawal before from Vics, Percs, 4 year straight habit...really bad and will HONESTLY TELL YOU! Subutex was the worst thing I have ever been through, I've been through bootcamp, quit smoking cold turkey, wars, you name it! It was so bad I would make myself go into a sexual orgasm because MY BODY KNEW HOW IT NEEDED TO RELEASE SOME CHEMICAL!!! I'M NOT FRICKEN JOKING OR PLAYING AROUND HERE! Crazy I know...but when you give yourself orgasms to relieve the hurt, the pain, the fricken nightmare hell ride that those dammed pills give you...you know it's the worst. And know what? I give NOT ONE sh*t on what anyone says, I spent weeks of agony and pain, almost suicide because of Subutex. Compare opiate withdrawals with Subutex? No way in HELL! Don't listen to ANYONE telling you it's nothing...BS!!! It's as close to hell as you'll ever get on this planet! I was taking 12 little sublingual pills a day, don't know the mgs, didn't care, all I can say is while they did work while taking them, they started changing my brain, way of thinking...memory, dropping things and effecting my cognitive and my attention to detail, I knew it was time to look into it. After 4 months in at 12 little pills a day, I found all the horror stories "if you take them longer than 6 months, your through". Then talked to a family dr, a Neuro Surgeon, he told me..."get off NOW, go through the pain and agony or you will literally need medication for life and your brain will NEVER RECOVER" So...I went against the Clinic advise and quit cold turkey, weening may of helped a little, but I doubt it. All i want to say is that this drug was the worst thing I've ever experienced in my life and I literally almost gave my life up during the withdrawal. I don't sugar coat sh*t, nor do I down play or over exaggerate. I FEEL for ANYONE going through this, I TRULY DO. Sadly enough, I'm taking opiates again to feel normal and unless I find an alternate route, I have fell victim to Opiate depency, all caused by one vehicle accident. Kratom helps with withdrawal but it is pricey, does work though. But don't listen to people like this who say it's nothing...I can't stand misinformation on topics like this, people need to know accurate truth. I'm here to say and tell all of you who have not experienced it or are thinking about Suboxone or Subutex...you will ABSOLUTELY have to get off and WHEN YOU DO ...Oh sh*t! So so so bad! I cannot tell you enough...when your body tells you and forces you to orgasm because IT'S SO BAD! SOMETHING IS WRONG!!! The strangest part is...the orgasms helped and took about 70% of the withdrawal symptoms away for about 5 mins or so each time...this includes the restless legs and arms...this may be funny or a joke to some...but I literally had about 20 BODILY INDUCED ORGASMS a day until I felt better, which was about 2 weeks or so of hell!!!! I don't need any feedback, I know what I experienced and how it was compared to Vicoden, Oxy and Percs ...those are Heaven compared, don't care what ANYONE TELLS ME!!!

Sub wd is definitely no joke, but dude, did I read correctly that you were taking 12 subs a day??!!??!! That's INSANE! I jumped off at 1/4 pill a day and went through hell! I was actually told by a Dr that 2mgs of sub = 40-50mgs of oxy, putting you (if correct) at almost 3,000mgs a day! That much would intoxicate a village! No wonder you went through hell for 4 months. I was on subs for almost 3 years and began to feel better at around the 3 week mark. It IS possible to come off of subs if you taper correctly. I've read a lot of success stories and most had tapered to .5 mgs a day or lower. Anyway, I hope you're doing better now and don't get discouraged. It's a long hard road for all of us but sobriety is possible. I was sober for 2 years and felt great before stupidly relapsing. Now I'm back on the bumpy road of PAWS again, but determined to get back to where I was. Just keep plugging away.

I've been on Subutex for 3 months, i'm on my 110th day off this drug. The first 3-4 days are the worst, then the withdrawal symptoms comes and goes in waves, (hot and cold, chills, discomfort and restlessness, insomnia). Somtimes it gets really bad and i feel really sick and depressed. I'm taking Tramadol, Multivitamines, Gensing and Rhodiola for energy. I think i'm on the right way, hope it gets better.

Be careful with the tramadol. That can be a nasty addiction and ugly withdrawal as well. Tramadol has anti depressant components to it so if you do withdrawal from it, you'll get a double whammy of opiate/anti depressant withdrawal symptoms. I got on subs to get off of tramadol. I've withdrawn from Vikes/Percs/subs and tram and I can say hands down tramadol withdrawal was BY FAR the worst. Keep your doses as low as possible and get off the tram as soon as you can.

Day 11 off Subutex, still painfully experiencing withdrawals, restlessness, mood swings, discomfort in my body, like i wanna leave my own skin. I don't have much of a choice only to go through this hell. I might need to stay active, eat well, and exercise. I hope this nightmare is not gonna stay longer, i can't take much of it. God be with me.

Staying active, exercise and eating regularly is key. If you've made it to day 11, hang in there. It's should be any day now that it eases up. When I quit subs it was day 14&15 that I noticeably turned the corner and it gets easier and easier from then on. You'll still go through PAWS but that's nothing compared to acute WDs. The exercise and active lifestyle will also help repair the endorphin system and that will dramatically shorten the length of PAWS. Be proud of how far you've come, 11 days is no easy feat! Good luck in your recovery and remember, it DOES get better and you're almost there!

UPDATE: it's day 12, i feel a lot better, especially in the evening. But i must stay cautious as symptoms may come in waves, but i hope i'm at the other end of the tunnel, i really suffered a lot and i cant' take more of this, (yesterday i spent the night driving and almost had an accident as i was very restless but tired at the same time). I have a migraine right now but i can handle it. Withdrawing is a real act of courage.

Thanks for your encouragments, i actually stopped Tramadol for good now cause next time i'm gonna put a bullet in my head before going through any of this shitty withdrawal, i was prescribed Codeine before Tramadol for my terrible chronic migraine, that's why i got hooked on Codeine for 1.5 years, but now i'm gonna stay away from them and convince my reluctant doctor to prescribe me Triptans, ( they may as well have stroke and heart attack as side effects, LOL, but still better to me then Codeine and Tramadol).
By the way, I'm on an SSRI named Zoloft, please tell me the withdrawal is easier cause i'm terrified now.

How long before you felt back to normal

UPDATE: it's day 13, i feel sucks again, insomnia, restlessness, discomfort. It's like a never ending agony that's killing me slowly but surely. I'm horrified to see people going throough 1 month without much improvment. How long am i gonna stay in hell !!!

It does come and go in waves. Some days will be better than others but keeping a positive frame of mind will help a lot. Instead of focusing on how bad you feel, focus on how far you've made it. Reading some people's horror stories will only make it worse. When I quit subs I always felt more helpless after reading some of the stories of bad withdrawals. At 12 days in, you're definitely over the hump. It will take about a month to get back to normal but after the 2 week mark it improves every day. When I hit day 14 I started to get my appetite back, which in turn helped my energy, mood and sleeping patterns. It's baby steps for sure but soon the small victorys will begin to snow ball and its all down hill from there. And remember, staying active and keeping your mind occupied is the best thing you could possibly do right now. The less you think about it, the less it sucks and vice versa.

Thanks a lot for you reassurance, it's why i'm on this site, to get some hope and advices, i'm on DAY14, and still not feeling well, i'll try to exercice this evening, i hope it's gonna get better. You know this experience taught how much i have wasted of my time and life and how i'm really now ready to move on and have to a better life.

I don't usually post on blogs or websites. But I am compelled to tell MY story. I was a big opiate user for years. Ended up on Suboxone for several reasons. I tried several times to taper off of it but sould never make it past day 9. The withdrawals were horrific. They included body aches, RLS, Anxiety, sneezing, nausea and depression that was severe. I always re-started the Suboxone. I just couldn't handle the withdrawals. Finally, on Dec. 1, 2014 I stopped taking Subs. I had tapered down to 1 mg and stopped. It wasn't my smartest move but I knew I was done. The first week was HELL. I could barely get out of bed to feed my puppy and cats. I couldn't walk the dog for 12 days becuz I couldn't manage to leave the house. The body aches were severe. I couldn't eat, had diarrhea, RLS, INSOMNIA, and cravings for the drug. But this time I STUCK IT OUT. I was in touch with my doc who was really great in helping get me off of the sub (not the original prescriber). He gave me meds to help with the insomnia and I had started antidepressants prior to getting off the subs. I am currently on Day 28 of lifee without Suboxone and I can tell u that each day gets a little easier. The body aches r gone. The diarrhea is gone. I am sleeping 6-7 hrs/nite. I've started exercising again. What amazes me is how some of my senses have returned. I can smell things again, I can taste abd I can actually feel emotions. Suboxone was great at numbing everything. That's not the life I want. If I can stop using, anyone can. I was scared to death of the withdrawals. I'd experienced them with the opiates and I heard horror stories about detoxing off of Subs. Just remember, the first couple of weeks r HELL. But it does get better. I am liviing proof.

Hello Allikat, congrats on getting away from subs! My story is very similar. I weened down to 2mgs a day then tried to quit every month for 6 months and I would only make it several days and end up going back to my Dr for a new script. Eventually I got so sick of the Dr's, the pharmacy trips and being chained to a medication that I blew off my Dr appointment, forcing myself to just get it over with. Tgat was in September. After 2 weeks of hell I began to slowly feel better and I was amazed at how much my senses had been dulled. I started really enjoying music again, food, and began having dreams at night (or at least remembering them) which I hadn't done in years. Subs can be a great tool when used for a rapid taper but sub maintenance should only be used in SEVERE cases, but Drs are prescribing it too easily, for too long at at way too high of doses. I wish I had known that when I started it 3 years ago. I began taking subs to get away from tramadol not k owing that the sub addiction and withdrawal would be way worse than the tramadol ever was. I would've just hunkered down and kicked the tram if I knew what I was getting myself into. The Drs prescribing it won't tell you how nasty of an addiction it is either. My sub Dr made it sound so harmless and mild. Either he was totally naive to what he's prescribing or flat out lying to get me hooked. He said quitting subs was a piece of cake compared to pain killers and after 3 days of MILD withdrawal I would be good as new. He couldn't have been further from the truth. The severe withdrawal was 3 times as long as regular pain killers and just as intense, not too mention PAWS. I had zero energy for almost 6 weeks. The small daily victories are what kept me motivated. I wish more people actually researched suboxone before getting on it. BUT it is possible to quit and there IS life after subs! You and I are proof of that! Congrats again and good luck!

New Hope-My story is identical to yours. I am a Critical Care RN who was married to an MD for 25 yrs. I went to see an addiction specialist (also a friend) 2 1/2 yrs. ago who swore up and down that Suboxone was the greatest thing on the market. He likened my addiction to Diabetes. Saying that I had a disease and that the tx for that disease was Sub. I listened to him because I trusted him. I will regret that decision forever!!!!!!!! Like u, I am dreaming again. I'm starting to feel like my self again. Everyone around me notices the change, especially my 2 daughters. I am happy that I chose to stop this drug. Haven't experienced PAWS yet. Do u remember the time frame in which that occurred? You should be proud of yourself. Congrats!!!!