what helps suboxone withdrawal?

I have been taking Sub for 11 months......... before I was using H, speed, and oxys for 8 years. I am tierd of beeing dependant on the sub and want to stop..... I have been taking 1mg for about 2months now. I am finally accepting that I am scared to stop. any suggestions?

Since ur down to 1 mg ur in the best place to start -- but its still gonna be rough. What you probably need to do is slowly taper down from 1 mg to as low as you can get - til your just using crumbs off the pill. If you do this slowly (staying on each increment for 1 week) you'll stabilize on each dose before the taper and supposedly this works better altho you will still have withdrawals when you jump completely off. However if you wanna just be done with it and tough it out, then do a day-by-day taper of 1.0, .75., .50 and .25 if you can break it that little (basically just a crumb or dust under your tongue). If you do it daily, you'll be in withdrawal each day. You'll likely experience diarrhea, shakes, hot/cold flashes, painful and restless legs, and terribel insomnia. Xanax, Klonopin or even Valium is a godsend if you are confident you can take it responsibly and not get addicted to it. But hopefully once you jump after a quick taper you'll have 1 week most of withdrawals since you've already a week before during the fast taper. I'm hoping a fast taper will give you a more sever, but less drawn out withdrawal which i personally prefer over the traditional 2-3 week withdrawal you hear about with suboxone on slow or no taper.



So bascially you can go slow and it will be less harsh on you supposedly, or you dive right in and get it over with quicker. I kinda dove right in on daily taper described above. Now on day 7-ish of withdrawals with complete jump off today. Feel okay b/c I took a Xanax. Hoping this might be getting near the end for me, but I doubt it since I hear it can take 2 weeks from your jump to feel even somewhat normal. Remember you will never feel as good as when you are high. So you have to be realistic and accept that fact -- you lose that euphoric edge over life by being clean, but you gain your freedom and dignitiy and so much more.



Good luck to you.

I am a 19 year-old mild addict who is about to have too many things going on in my life to continue an addiction. I have been using about 90-120 mgs. of roxicodone per day intravenously, and i just recently heard of suboxone. All this talk about "hell on earth" is making me very skeptical about the whole thing. Considering I only used for about 4 months, I feel like I won't need to take the 6 month suboxone route. I have a friend that started using literally the same day I started, and he has been on suboxone now for 2 weeks and has already weened from 4 mgs a day to 2 mgs a day, he says he is taking the fast route (about 1 month) and by the end should only be on about 1/4 mg per day. Is this a good idea? I guess my main question is, is it worth it to go on suboxone and deal with the potential withdrawals that ive heard are worse than oxys, or should i maintain my oxy addiction and ween off of those and just deal with the withdrawal, because the whole reason i am going to a clinic is to avoid withdrawals, not to get on something that causes worse ones. I can deal with stomach pains, body pains, stuff like that.....the sleeplessness mixed with all those is what drives me completely nutty, which ive heard trazidones help with the sleeplessness aspect. Any credible suggestions are greatly appreciated. :]

I just have to say first and foremost that I cannot BELIEVE that doctors would be irresponsible and cruel enough to prescribe suboxone for vicodin "abuse". That is absurd! Vicodin is hardly more than acetaminephine! I was addicted to oxys and then heroin for 5 years before I started taking subs. I have been on the subs now for a little over a year, and had my prescription stolen YET AGAIN, so I decided to just go off of it cold turkey from 4mg a day. I am on day 7 and was expecting to wake up today feeling all better. I never woke up because I haven't been to sleep. I have only been sleeping thus far because I had a small handful of sleeping pills. I was expecting 5-7 days of withdrawals. I know a lot of people who have come off of straight opiates, and that's about what it took..but funnily enough, everyone I know who is on suboxone is still on it. Even after years. Maybe this is why. :cry: I used to exaggerate the reasons that I couldn't get off of the subs, and talk about weeks to a month of withdrawals, but I didn't really expect for that to happen! I wish my doctor had told me when I started how severely addictive this stuff was! I knew it was extremely potent because I know of a lotta foolish kids who try to use it to get high and just end up throwing up violently off of little pieces, but this is ridiculous! I don't know if it would have made a difference to me at the time. I would not have had the strength to kick the dope without it and simply couldn't afford to keep doing opiates. HOWEVER I certainly would have been more careful what dosage I was taking, and tried a lot harder to wean myself down. I have been trying to get myself down from 4 mg to 2 mg for months now, with hardly any success.
So what I would like to know from the people who know best and have come out the other side is, should I just go back and start tapering down again? Is it a waste since I have been off of it for a week now? I'm thinkin it doesn't really matter all that much after reading all of this, lol. Also, this depression ***edited by moderator*** ** inappropriate posting** worries me, because I am ON 20 mg of lexapro in addition to my subs, as I have suffered from clinical depression most of my life. I assumed the reason I have been so negative and depressed was simply due to feeling so physically crappy. Now I am worried that this increased depression won't go away so easily! Man.
Also as a side note, I must say that my doctor also offered to keep me on the subs for life as a method of treating my depression and anxiety. I thought the idea was ludicrous, but now it makes a little more sense. It's all a scam to make more money. I hate being the butt of the joke!

WAHAHAHAHA, day 7 b**ches! and you know what I feel f**king great. Get this, almost a year and a half on sub... I snorted 2 mg a day for a year and a half thats right snorted. Was getn them illegaly so had to stretch it out. I am 26 years old weigh about 135 and was doin oxy prior. I have a low tollerence to everything, 10 years getn high and I still get high on a couple hits. I am fully aware that symptoms vary per person but for those of you tired of the ones saying they are in misery even at day 15 THIS IS FOR YOU. IT'S NOT THAT BAD. On day 2 I went a picked up some flexeril from the doctor which helped a little for days 3-5 but now day 7 and I don't even need the stuff haha the doc gave me 40! and a refill! Exercise, MAKE YOURSELF GET UP AND DO SOMETHING! You will feel so much better while you are doing something. The hardest part are the nights which still aren't easy for me. I have probably had about 15 hours of sleep in 6 days and really bad night sweats, but you know what, I have never had this much energy as I have on day 6 and even today! This is freaking great. F**k the sleep if I can feel like this. Such a feeling of accomplishment. After reading EVERYTHING that I could possibly read on this I was scared cause everyone said ITS AWFUL. I popped an antihistimine (can cause RLS in some) to void the runny nose and watery eyes but those symptoms are done now. I popped advil for the temp that I never gave the chance to rise. Took vitamins, drank ALOT of water and gaterade. Never lost my appetite I stayed eating something, never threw up not once didn't even feel the urge. HEAT helps, go sit in ur car with a waterbottle and sweat baby sweat. That s**t really helped me. Couldn't get the clonodin, doc was worried my BP would fall too low but I am glad now cause I am kinda a hypochondriac and woulda been all worried about hypertension whatever it's called. I have spent my life making things out to be worse than they really are, call it preperation... expect the worse and when the worse doesn't happen feeeeeel gooooooood. I'd say I am at about 85%. I expect things to feel a little OFF for a while, that's my punishment and I am damn willing and prepared to except that. Are YOU? (that comment was directed towards those of us that have no medical need for the drug) Best of luck, do it... so worth it.

gavin111 wrote:

la_calle_negra wrote:

Any opiate withdrawal, but especially suboxone withdrawal, is like hell on earth. I've unfortunately been through it like 5 times (for SOME reason) and every time I'm like, "That's it!!! Never again!!!"
SUPPOSEDLY bananas help because of the potassium but seriously, you could munch as many bananas as you could and you wouldn't notice a damn difference in symptoms, which is really frustrating.
When you're in the worst of it, which is usually day 3 or so, and you're like literally losing your mind, try taking, if nothing else, tylenol. It will help a teeny tiny bit with the leg cramps and spasms and such, but nothing too dramatic. Just enough to take a tiny edge off.
Only take Benedryl if you haven't slept in like 2-3 days and you can't keep your eyes open but you can't sit still kind of thing. At least with me, the benedryl made my head spin because it made me more tired but it didn't do anything for the restless leg and in the end it made it worse.

The best thing would be to get your doctor to prescribe you like 10 atavans (spelling?), which is a benzo, and it's really the only thing that can keep you from really losing your mind. It doesn't make everything go away, it just makes it so you don't care as much. And it will help you sleep, which really is a big deal. Lack of sleep=crazy. Crazy+withdrawl=panic. You really don't want to go into panic mode.
The only doctors that will actually give you benzos for this would be the doctor that you're seeing to get the suboxone. If they won't, they won't but most of them will offer it for when you're finally getting off the suboxone.
And from .5 mg a day, it won't be as bad but don't underestimate it. I went from .5 to nothing thinking it would be a breeze and only took like 5 days off of work and it ended up being like 3 weeks of hell and had to end up quitting my damn job over it. But, just think about how much worse it would be it you were going from like 3mg to nothing, or 10mg to nothing. At least it's not that bad. Just keep telling yourself that.
And one last thing...
When you can't sleep, don't fight it. Don't keep trying to fall alseep when you can't. You'll only get frustrated. Try pacing around or taking a bath or stretching. Put some mindless movie on in the background so it's not so quiet and just let yourself be angry. Punch your damn pillow, swear really loud, cry, sob, whatever you have to do.
Drink lots of water, it'll help the toxins leave your body faster.
Ensure will probably help with calories. You can't not eat for a week so yeah, if you can't eat anything, drink ensure for sure.
Have someone around to wait on you hand and foot and BABY you. I know I needed to whine and complain like a little kid and I needed someone there to feel sorry for me and baby the hell out of me. It does help.
And after you're finally done with it, it'll take a few months to feel normal again. Cravings for dope or oxys or whatever you do will also go up. Mouthwatering cravings. If you can just get through like 6 months it'll get easier. Just try and remember how shitty the withdrawal was. I know that never stops anyone but what the hell.

especially suboxone? are you joking me? your telling these people that a partial opiate is harder to come off of then a full opiate? common sense here tells us your wrong but for those that dont belive in or have any i have 2 friends that walked of suboxone with the mildest of symptoms. they tried getting off oc's and methadone and couldnt do it but after tapering ther suboxone they both said it was a cake walk if you cut 1/4-1/2mg every week or 2

I can tell you from being an opiate addict for years and taking 8mg suboxone everyday for the past year that opiate withdrawals are A LITTLE bit worse. Not much. Suboxone withdrawals last longer, but go from being minor to intense back to minor then you're set, but I must say getting off suboxone is NOT a cake walk like you make it seem. Don't throw out your opinion if you're not even on the pill. That's just stupid. I can honestly tell you that between day 3 and 5 is VERY VERY uncomfortable. I felt very natious, very cold in 90 degree weather, anxiety through the roof (one of the worst parts for me), Very hard to sleep, Leg cramps. It's not as bad as opiates as I stated above but it's pretty damn close. If you have detoxed from Methadone you have nothing really to worry about because it's no where near as bad as detoxing from methadone. The best bet I think for getting off subs would be too cut your doses like explained above in the other post. Also if you can get your hands on something to help you sleep that's a plus. Try to get out and walk a couple times a day, you wont want too, but trust me it helps. Drink gatorade. One thing that helps the MOST I think is marijuana. Now I understand some people will be dead against that, but I'm telling you a couple hits and it literally takes away almost all the symptoms! only temporary though, but IT DOES HELP ALOT!
When I first started taking subs I used to read online all over the place "Oh there's no withdrawals for suboxone" "It's not that bad" BS. I'm telling you right now if you've been taking 8mg's or more for a year plus it's going to be an uncomfortable next couple weeks to a month in some cases so DEFINITELY prepare yourself as much as you can.
Thanks and I hope this helped a little.

I agree suboxne is especially harder to get off of than other opiates. The process takes longer than other opiates. Maybe this ass wipe that posted something on your post should go thru it first hand instead of hearing from his friends. I think your post is very accurate to the detox process of suboxone. As far as this other guy, I'm glad your friends got off of it easily. Good for them!

I just stopped taking suboxone and the withdrawls r horrible. I have been off of oxy's and methadone but nothing like suboxone. Im not saying that o's n methadone isnt hard to come off of cuz they r . But my experience is that subs r harder. Im in day 3 n i feel like c**p subs r all i think about. I just wish i had some kind of booster to keep me pepped with energy.

the quickest way to get off suboxone is to take half a naltrexone tablet and alot of sleeping tablets youll do 1 weeks worth of withdrawal overnight but be warned condensing all that withdrawal could put some people in hospital.drink lots of water cause youll sweat like crazy and get ready to go to hell.the next day youll feel alot better but not 100%a few more days youll be normal.p.s this will only work for certain people depending on dose etc.

Hi, I want to thank you for the post you wrote a year ago about withdrawal from sub not being too bad, IF one is willing to get take one's time getting off the medication. I am switching from methadone (current dose= 18mg) to subs, and my stabilizing dose on suboxone should be around 4-8mgs. After reading other posts about how horrible getting off of suboxone is, I was really starting to freak out. However, your post made me feel much better. I have taken a year and a half to go from 130mgs of methadone to the 18mgs that I am currently taking, which has worked really well. In past attempts at recovery, I would (being the good addict that I am) impulsively decide that it was time to get off all meds and force the situation, which invariably led to relapse and further pain. So while it would be nice to be off of all medications right now, I see that taking my time, being patient, and looking at what will promote long term success are more important. Your post really helped reinforce that I am taking the correct approach. It is also extremely helpful in a practical sense, in that it lays out a reasonable means to get off of subs with the least amount of discomfort and likelihood of relapse. Thank you much for taking the time to give people like me some needed hope! Believe me, it does make a difference.

I have been using to sub 8mg cutting it into 6 pieces for a year now. 4 days ago I stopped for 2 days halfway through the 3rd day(yesturday) I couldn't take it anymore. I took a half of 8mg. Today I went to the treatment ctr. for help. I don't know what to do. I have no insurance so I need my job to pay for this treatment. My question is how much time do I need to take off work. How long will I feel crappy that I don't want to work. I did not mention that the sub. was coming from anybody that was selling it on the street. Does anybody know how long the restlessness lasts? I thought when I started with this it was only temporary. I was on a methadone program taking 2mg. got off the program to hide the fact that drugs were still in my life. Now I haven't used illegal drugs but I came clean to my mom that I'm addicted to something else. That wasn't pretty. Although I feel it's different she doesnt. I dont know what to do. I've read about I V amino acid therapy. Is their a way to get clean of this without any or 7 day withdrawal?

It must be different for everyone!! My emotions stuff is done. At first I cried over Casper movie. Hahah. It's day 15. My hands are still shaking. And I've ate probaly 30 imodiums in the days still pooping like crazy. But I'm so happy to be over this. I was put on hydros by a doc. For my knees. And getting married so I'm trying to grow up!!! My doc cut me off bc I missed 2 appt. I was on 4 my a day. It's ruff but I'm not giving up. I did take 1 hydro on day 3. It's need. But only one!!!!! Deal with it!!! I'm almost done.

seriously,the reason why its so bad is because all you guys do is dwell on how bad it is.EXCERSICE!!!HYDRATE!!And try not to think about it every second.i withdrew from heroin for a month straight.i didnt sleep for a month.that was bad.if you detox from subs at .50 mg at the most its just mental.trust me.i detoxed from subs at this amount in basic training for the army.that was the best desicion i ever made.in basic training you didnt have time to sit and feel sorry for yourself,and the amount of excersice your doin really gets your mind off feelin like c**p,but i guess for most people that arent as mentally and physically tough.just keep on moving and try not to stop moving for the entire day.the more you lie around...the longer its gonna take to detox from your body..the human body is a wonderful thing when it comes to ridding itself of toxins..and everyone thats saying its sooo bad.nice encourgement for these people.just do it and get it over with.do not jump off anything more than .50 mg.just motivate yourself to run and sweat sweat sweat.exercise releases natural endorphins and speeds up the dopamine process tremendously.KEEP MOVING.AND DONT STOP PUSHING FORWARD.LIFE GOES FAST.A COUPLE WEEKS OF WD's from subs is worth it and it is a valuable life experience.

Hey everyone. I needed to vent and i have a couple of questions about the suboxone withdrawal. Not sure why I have questions...this is a monthly thing for me!! Every month for the past 2 years I run out a week early or more. This time is the real mother load though. It has been 6 days since I took my last 8mg Sub and I havent slept in about 3 days. I tried Benadryl which IS BAD IDEA. It makes you want to sleep more but it makes the whole leg restlessness so unbareable. I have considered suicide about 4 times this week and was saddened when i realized that i am broke and dont have enough tylenol to do the trick and too chicken sh*t to use sharp objects.
What is it that makes people keep doing this to themselves? SERIOUSLY?!? This is got to be the 10th time for me. But on the 8th I will be at the pharmacy or probably the at 11:59 the night before I will be awaiting at the Walgreens. I say it every time..."this isnt worth it" "never again". I(am so mad at me right now as I sit in my computer chair in my two oversized sweaters and snuggly with the heat on....in Alabama. I cant eat I cant sleep and most annoyingly my husband wants sex..... so not going to happen. >:(

Does drinking water really help anything??

Thanks everyone for all your help,today is only my first day of subs and im realy scared. been through the oxy withdraw several times rehab everyting, but my husband doesnt know im back on anything,dont know how im gonna go through this. But i know i have to. Im so scared of the nights and not being able to sleep. ireally cant afford to go to doctor for any meds because i quit my job mainly becaus i know i have to go thru this if not for me for my husband and kids who think im really depressed right now have no idea. i just really needed to know how long is it really gonna take.is it really longer than oxys?