suboxone short term

9 Jul 2008

I went this same route with sub when I detoxed the final time. It works if you do it properly. I can almost promise you that 5 1/2 pills is not going to get you through a detox from heroin. Sounds like you picked up the suboxone on the street. Wrong way to do this if that is the case. You need to get to a suboxone dr who knows what they are doing. Then you can do this properly. It costs money, but you are pi$$ing off your money on heroin anyway so why not spend it on the dr and do this the right way? People who go on suboxone like you are describing, trying to self-medicate, well this is the origin of many of the suboxone horror stories we hear about. Addicts think they can self-medicate and do this without any help and they most always end up blowing it. Hope you decide to do this properly. Get the meds you need from the dr then I can give you some good suggestions how to use the suboxone short term and also be successful getting off the opiates. Good luck.

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9 Jul 2008

I did get them from the dr. I am prescribed 75 a month and the dr has me on a maintenance dose of 24 mg per day. The problem is that i dont take the pills. instead i sell them and do heroin instead. And now my insurance has ran out so i cant really afford a big script of suboxone. Most of the dr's around here are not advocates of a 7 to 14 withdrawal protocol using suboxone taper. They prefer to keep us on it for extended periods and that is not what i want. I do agree with you though, i do need to see my dr. but i dont have the funds to see the dr or to fill the script. so i am left with the following option:

day 1 be in extreme withdrawal and take 8mg sub
day 2 take 8mg sub
day 3 take 6mg
day 4 take 4mg
day 5 take 4mg
day 6 take 2mg
day 7 take 2mg

or something similiar to that. I know i dont have quite enough for a 7 day taper but i am close and i am willing to experience some withdrawal. I dont care if I am totally comfortable. I am not in the position. Thanks for the input, more would be appreciated.

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9 Jul 2008

I am not trying to be negative just realistic. First a 24mg dose is too high. Promise you I am right. To hell with the drs who are playing guessing games with this. Most of them don't really know what they are doing with the suboxone. They haven't worked with it long enough yet. My suggestions come from first hand experience actually doing this. Drs put patients on this high dose for money reasons I think lots of the time. Lots of them are making a fortune off our problem. And some are doing this exactly right. It takes all kinds of people to make up all the drs.

Bottom line is you have just a handful of suboxone and you have to make the most of it. And it's harder to detox off a large dose like 24mg than it is to detox off say 8mg like I suggest for people to take. I abused opiates for decades and all I needed was 8mg total. And I did the sub for six weeks total including the time I spent tapering off it.

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10 Jul 2008

Robert,
Im not on the subs. Ive beeen doing H and oxy's instead. Just a few bags a day lately. So thats what ill be detoxing off of.

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10 Jul 2008

I understood you to say you were on 24mg a day. Not being on them now will make this a little easier. I would still put it off a little longer up front, give it a 3-4 days if you can. Just saying that any days you can get by with taking none initially is another day that you will have meds as you get into this. At the end is where they are really good to have. After the 3-4 days I would probably change the taper schedule up a little. Something like ...

day 1 8mg
day 2 8mg
day 3 6mg
day 4 6mg
day 5 4mg
day 6 4mg
day 7 2mg
day 8 2mg
day 9 2mg

Doing it like this following 3-4 days in w/d, you would be getting the largest dose of 8mg while you were in the worst part of your w/d. Around the 4th day or so for me was always the worst. The worst of the detox will last at least 4-5 days so I suggest to do it like this so you will have some medication while you are going through the bad part of the w/d and immediately following.

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10 Jul 2008

Good idea, thanks for the post.

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12 Jul 2008

I saw my dr today and got a full script of my subs again and a script of 1mg klonipin 3x a day 1mg. I still want to get off heroin with the subs doing a short taper. Now I have as many pills as i need plus something to help with sleep and anxiety. Can someone recomend a good short term taper. My habit I would consider low even though it is heroin, just doing a few bags a day. And I was in rehab a month ago. So I was clean for five days a month ago. I suspect the withdrawals wont be that bad. I always have trouble on the subs though. The first day or two my they dont seem to work and I still get cold sweats and feel like *. By day 3, I feel that warm feeling like I have an opiate in my system. I cant do maintenence on the suboxone becuase my insurance ran out and i cant afford the high cost of those scripts. So anything longer than a 14 day taper is out of the question. I dont want to get hooked on subs.

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12 Jul 2008

Glad you got some more suboxones. That will help you with this. Here is how I would modify the taper program to fit into a slower taper. Basically I would just change the amount of days at the levels I suggested earlier.

Day 1 ... Day 4 8mg
Day 5 ... Day 6 6mg
Day 7 ... Day 9 4mg
Day 10 .. Day 12 2mg
Day 13 .. take the smallest piece you can break off
skip day 14
Day 15 ... take another sliver
skip two days
take another sliver
skip three days and quit

While tapering you can always take another sliver if you need it. Then you just start over trying to skip three days again. This allows for the long half life of suboxone. That is why you need a taper when you use it.

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12 Jul 2008

thanks much

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12 Jul 2008

now all i have to do is wait till im in withdrawal. And im gonna wait a bit longer than 24 hours cause i dont seem to be that sick at the 24 hour mark, and every time i have tried taking suboxone, even when I was using heavily I still felt like * the first day or two. Is that normal. I didnt feel like i was in full blown withdrawal, just cold sweats and insomnia. But by day 3 I felt great.

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12 Jul 2008

Good choice. I intended to mention that you should really be in w/d for at least 36 hours from heroin before doing the suboxone. If you are not in serious w/d yet, then DON'T waste the suboxone. It won't help you. In therapy they use what is called COWS ... clinical opiate withdrawl scale. It shows how severe your w/d symptoms are. I waited for three days after oxy. You will need at least 36 hours, maybe more. Good luck.

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sisterwin2

19 Jul 2008

OK... now I am getting freaked... reading this I am beginning to think I am doing the wrong thing! I want to be drug free and I thought with the sub I would be... dosnt sound like it but reading the post between you guys. May I infringe on this a bit for some information?

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19 Jul 2008

Suboxone is a type of opiate replacement therapy for treating opiate addiction. It's a great process for becoming opiate free. What information are you wanting? Ask away??

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musicman48

29 Aug 2008

Robert_325,
Bless you brother, for what you are doing here, helping those who need help,guidance,support,info and the like.You are helping more than those visible on these pages.I have been lurking here and reading your post's for the last week or so and you have helped me without even knowing it.I am asking for some info from you now directly when you get time.I have worked my way up to an 80 to 90 mg hydrocodone daily intake over the last 4 years that started with 2 herniated discs and other back issues, also bad judgement on my part working my way up to this quantity of Lorcet.4 days ago I was prescribed Suboxone by a local Sub doctor who seems to be money motivated.He has already told me to plan on 6 months to a year of sub mainteneance.I started on 4 mg subutex 2 times a day for 3 days and today was switched to 8mg suboxone 2 times a day.I asked the doctor if this may be too much and he said to take 2 8mg a day for now whether or not I felt I needed that much.I only took 1 8mg pill today anyway instead of 2 and feel fine.I am ready for bed now and have felt fine all day without the second dose.Does this sound like the Dr is trying to give me too much? I really want to detox as quickly as I can but still be as comfortable as possible.I can get all the Suboxone I want from this Dr, but I really want to take only enough to get thru withdrawal from the hydro and quit the sub.I was wondering if the quick taper plan above you have mapped out would work if I doubled your numbers to make this a month long detox or even perhaps use the taper plan as mentioned the way it is for 2 weeks... whichever is best and still be comfortable.I do not want to take sub longer than needed " I do not want to become addicted to Suboxone !!It has really helped me this week tho .I know when used properly it is really helping alot of people like myself..I just don't trust this Doctor and do not want to use it long term.At least not long enough to become addicted. I am planning on a 6 month to 1 year intensive physical rehab locally here in town to help with my back problems for now and stay off pills . Any advice about the taper or amount I should or could take without becoming addicted would be greatly appreciated.Thanks again for all of your past posts !!

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29 Aug 2008

I would be happy to share some suggestions with you. Glad I have been able to help you.

When we are inducted at 8mg like you were there is no reason to increase that to 16mg if you are stable at the 8mg dose. This is how people get into this too much and can't get off. Very few people require 16mg. The 8mg dose is pretty standard. It's what I used as well.

I would stay at 8mg until you have done this long enough to be past the opiate detox. That should be about three weeks to be sure. Then you will begin to taper down similar to what you posted above. But I would do 3-4 days between reductions in your dose. We can talk about that when you get there.