Hey guys, just kinda wanted to give an update. I took my last dose of 1mg of
Suboxone on Friday October 23rd. I know i didnt follow Roberts program to the T, i wish i did but i was on a bit of time constraint. I probably should have but i was set on starting this saturday and thought i could tough it out, which i did but i realize now that minimizing the withdrawal symptoms is a BIG plus because they do a bit of long term damage as you deal with them, its not really a cathartic process that you have to go through to feel better. You start to get into bad habits...staying in your pajamas, wanting heat pads, sour stomach, anxiety, lack of sleep all starts to wear on you and prolongs you from returning to your "normal" self and its starts to scar you a bit scars that take effort and more time to get away from. The less withdrawal symptoms, the less long term scarring. But you still have the long term "adjustment" phase i call it where your better but your still a little off, not necessarily a bad thing.
I digress, anyways its been a week and i pretty much feel great. Ive been pushing a metric-fukton of water through me everyday and eating lots of fiber and protein. I worked out everyday since ive quit, the first 4 days of working out were.... not the best. I did 30minutes of cardio and light weight lifting on my first two days...getting your heart rate up is a strange experience then, even 1mg of suboxone mustve been depressing my system a good amount. i didnt get any of that "natural high" i normally get after the gym until the third day. I tried to not shy away from the gym and make those workouts some of my toughest and it helped.
Sleep is the one thing im still having trouble with, a few nights i got about 6 hours of solid sleep but mostly its 2 hours of sleep followed by 2 hours of wake followed by maybe 2-3more hours of interrupted sleep which is taking its toll a bit. Im trying not to use
tylenol PM but i might pop one tonight. I took some Valerian root and that helps but it seems to wear off after 2-4hours.
Anyways just wanted to give some feedback for others attempting a similar thing, if you try this here are some pointers:
follow Roberts guide!!! The more you taper the less withdrawal symptoms and the less long term anxiety and other symptoms because of it... you really can go from 3-5years of drug use to a 3-5month Suboxone taper and walk off ALMOST unscathed. My path was; 4-5years of opiate use (oxycontins,heroin) to 3-4years of
methadone lowered my dose from 90 to 18 (very gradually like over a year or more) then made the switch to suboxone at a high of 8mg and within 3months was down to about 2mg then floated at 1mg for a bit and finally off.
Get out of your comfort zone once you quit, try not to setup too much to wall yourself off from others or uncomfortable things because you think you need to while your quitting. Get out! I remember i was getting ready to settle down for the evening on my third day of quitting, my brother called up last minute and needed help moving furniture i didnt want to go, see him and his friends and have to socialize. But i went and the time really flew by compared with if i just sat there watching tv putzing around and i slept better that night.
So thats it for me, thanks Robert and Intelmetal for responding to my questions and for being on this board to help others.
After 3 years methadone & 4 months subox im 1 week clean 
Linear Mode
