[Robert_325]

I know that everyone is different. I just feel I should share my experience as it may help someone else starting, getting ready to start or wanting to know how to take Suboxone successfully and then stop. Let me say that for those of you that have been on Suboxone for an extended period of time, like many months, this probably won't help you and I would recommend a slow taper as most everyone else does. But if you are like me, I did not want to stay on any drug for a long time, and Suboxone is a drug. Not wanting to do another drug is why I went into rehab to start with.

I detoxed from OC and other drugs years ago ... was taking 25 30mg Roxicodone a day plus Somas,Xanax, Remeron, a bunch of garbage drugs .. just like so many of us. I relapsed due to ongoing pain from serious injuries and health problems. This time around I was taking 40 Lorcets a day,(400mg of hydrocodone daily) plus probably 25 Somas and loads of Xanax and Klonopin. I was a zombie. I was in ambulances 4 times the last week alone before admitting myself into detox again. I was on the verge of death no doubt. This had gone on for several years. I have had my heart stop and nearly died numerous times. I only share this to make the following point.

I logged on to this site and saw nearly everyone taking 12, 16, 24mg and more of Suboxone a day. After all the drugs I had taken for so many years, going back almost 40 years ago in high school, I started on only 12mg the first few days and then dropped to 8mg with no problem. I don't understand why everyone needs so much Suboxone. Surely everyone is not taking that many more RX pills than I was taking. I would recommend that you do not take more than 12mg a day if possible to start, but reduce it as quickly as possible if you want to get off.

I am convinced the key to using Suboxone successfully is to realize it should be used to stop the W/Ds from opiates... whatever opiates we are on. That is what I understood it to be for. My psychiatrist wants me to stay on it indefinitely, but I think he doesn't want to lose a patient. Drs are like any other business, they need customers. My receptors were just as fried as anyone elses. I did not have to do Suboxone for a year so I could heal from the damage I had done to myself. Maybe others were doing 100 Lorcets a day and I was a wimp. I don't think so.

I knew I would suffer W/Ds for probably close to a month as many RX drugs that I was taking. I took my Sub faithfully for about 3 weeks and decided it was time to change. I did not have to do a slow taper, no horrendous night sweats, no puking, no nothing. I had an upset stomach one day. I went for about one week skipping doses, then skipping days. Last Thursday I took only 4mg, Friday had a stomach ache and took maybe 2mg at the most, and have taken nothing since. I have had no W/Ds whatsoever. Nothing. I am convinced that the people who have quit Suboxone successfully have not stuck around to share their experiences, but have gone on with their lives. Not everyone has a difficult time with Suboxone. We only hear from the people who are struggling.

I was actually upset when I realized what my dr had given me in rehab, that I was still going to have to go through W/Ds according to all that I read here. Well it just isn't so. I have had 5 knee operations (played competitive racquetball and ran cross country for over 20 years), have degenerative disc disease, congenital scoliosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Raynaud's Phenomenon. I am always in some pain. But the whole key to using Suboxone is to realize what it is actually for. It is not going to replace OC or hydros or other pain meds. It is designed to help us get off of those drugs. Why try to replace our habits with another drug? Granted, Suboxone is better than OC or heroin. I have no doubt of that. But we don't have to continue to use it indefinitely. It is mind over matter.

There are exceptions to every rule. I am sure there are people who for whatever reason have to take Suboxone for an extended period of time ... like maybe for getting off heroin or methadone or something. I don't know. I just know for a fact that if you are an RX junkie like me, it isn't necessary. Don't listen to the garbage that is put on you that you have to take Suboxone for many many months and then taper off after you have spent thousands of dollars on scripts and you are still addicted to something. I think Suboxone is great. I am not against it at all. It saved me from another miserable time in rehab. It just needs to be used as it was intended. Then you can stop with relatively no problems whatsoever.

Good luck and I hope this helps someone. You can see daily posts of what was happening with me and some others during the time on Suboxone under the thread titled Suboxin started by Allyopp in Featured Conditions.

[chalumni]

Anyone out there taking Suboxone for postacute withdrawal after detox from opiates? Thirty years taking opiates and postacute withdrawal symptoms are a *************************.

[Robert_325]

Originally Posted by chalumni

Anyone out there taking Suboxone for postacute withdrawal after detox from opiates? Thirty years taking opiates and postacute withdrawal symptoms are a *************************.

I was taking opiates on and off, mostly on, for nearly 40 years. Suboxone will help you I assure you.

[evolutionofthemind]

I was wondering if anyone could help me with a Suboxone question that I can't find any answers for. I can't get the tablet to dissolve correctly underneath my tongue.. the best it breaks down is into a pool of yellow paste, and no matter how long I let the "dissolved" paste sit under my tongue, it doesn't go anywhere. I've been just swallowing it after 20 mins or so cause I don't know what else to do, but I think I'm getting the naloxone with any buprenorphine and is canceling out the opiate. I've been at this madness for two weeks now and don't know what to do! I even took the pills back to the pharmacy and they replaced them; when I got the new ones I had the same problem as before. I've followed the directions perfectly. I even take a drink of water, swish it around in my mouth and spit it out before placing the tablet carefully under my tongue. I've tried breaking the tablets in half, and even in quarters and nothing works. Someone please help! Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated, either on here or by email:

evolutionofthemind@msn.com

Thanks.

Evan

[Robert_325]

I always drank a glass of water before I took the medication and never had any major problems. Eventually it always dissolved for me.

[evolutionofthemind]

Originally Posted by Robert_325

I always drank a glass of water before I took the medication and never had any major problems. Eventually it always dissolved for me.

It does eventually dissolve... but just, like I said, into a orange paste in a pool of saliva. Do you just let the tablet sit there under your tongue? or do you take a pro-active approach and press down on the tablet with the backside of your tongue to "force the action"? I've taken medication sublingually before but none of them were even as close to being as difficult as the suboxone...

[Robert_325]

Take another sip of water if you have to if it will help it dissolve better. Other than that I don't think there's an answer to that one. Suboxone isn't the easiest to dissolve. I always managed though when I did it.

[learning_to_be_free]

Originally Posted by evolutionofthemind

I was wondering if anyone could help me with a Suboxone question that I can't find any answers for. I can't get the tablet to dissolve correctly underneath my tongue.. the best it breaks down is into a pool of yellow paste, and no matter how long I let the "dissolved" paste sit under my tongue, it doesn't go anywhere. I've been just swallowing it after 20 mins or so cause I don't know what else to do, but I think I'm getting the naloxone with any buprenorphine and is canceling out the opiate. I've been at this madness for two weeks now and don't know what to do! I even took the pills back to the pharmacy and they replaced them; when I got the new ones I had the same problem as before. I've followed the directions perfectly. I even take a drink of water, swish it around in my mouth and spit it out before placing the tablet carefully under my tongue. I've tried breaking the tablets in half, and even in quarters and nothing works. Someone please help! Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated, either on here or by email:

evolutionofthemind@msn.com

Thanks.

Evan

this has never happened to me try not to look at it after you put it in mouth please take no offence maybe its a mind thing maybe your minds playing tricks on you its not uncommon with drug addiction

[evolutionofthemind]

Originally Posted by learning_to_be_free

this has never happened to me try not to look at it after you put it in mouth please take no offence maybe its a mind thing maybe your minds playing tricks on you its not uncommon with drug addiction

lol I hear you on that one..

it just seemed like for the first two weeks the pill would dissolve great.. I had no complaints, now it's being stubborn. I took 48mg of suboxone yesterday trying to get at least one of them to dissolve, and I felt more withdrawal symptoms then opiate feelings - how can that be all in my mind?

[learning_to_be_free]

Originally Posted by evolutionofthemind

lol I hear you on that one..

it just seemed like for the first two weeks the pill would dissolve great.. I had no complaints, now it's being stubborn. I took 48mg of suboxone yesterday trying to get at least one of them to dissolve, and I felt more withdrawal symptoms then opiate feelings - how can that be all in my mind?

thats alot of sub ask dr if there is a way to measure how much is in your system that a good way to find out if its a mind thing or not. you have me stumped beyond that though it should have gotten easier to take not worse. try taking one in front of the dr show him your results , the orange paste see, what he says

[musicman48]

Originally Posted by evolutionofthemind

lol I hear you on that one..

it just seemed like for the first two weeks the pill would dissolve great.. I had no complaints, now it's being stubborn. I took 48mg of suboxone yesterday trying to get at least one of them to dissolve, and I felt more withdrawal symptoms then opiate feelings - how can that be all in my mind?

Drinking alot of water before will help but try this also.After breaking the pill in quarters place a very small ice chip under your tongue at the same time as the quarters..You can also try a very :and I mean very small ice chip on top of your tongue while the sub is under your tongue.As the ice chip melts it will help dissolve the pill.Good luck

[sisterwin2]

Originally Posted by evolutionofthemind

lol I hear you on that one..

it just seemed like for the first two weeks the pill would dissolve great.. I had no complaints, now it's being stubborn. I took 48mg of suboxone yesterday trying to get at least one of them to dissolve, and I felt more withdrawal symptoms then opiate feelings - how can that be all in my mind?

It sounds to me that your sub has been exposed to moisture or they are old. I would take the remaining back to the pharm and let them see them... don't expect too much from them as it is a business.

I suggest you let the pill melt for ten minutes then just spit... this worked for me well...as I said on your other post that the sub is absorbed by the blood stream via the veins under your tongue and just by the tongue itself.

Let me also just put a warning on the dose you just took....... I was on 40mg as rx by my quack. Way large a dose..... putting the 1/2 life of the drug in action you will be affected by that dose for the next 10 days or so. I would be careful about how much you digest as there is little known about the long term affect of suboxone with prolong usage. Just food for thought.

I am going to bump up a post that I acquired at another site... I suggest you read it. It is not my work but from another sub user who was misinformed. That person got the information thru many yrs of helping others wean from suboxone.

Godspeed,
Sister