Exhausted and on Suboxone

[christin1225]

Although I have been told that Suboxone has a very long half-life, I've had w/d symptoms within 16 hours of missing a 4mg dose and also when I've gone 2 hours past due on a second day of tapering by 2mg/day. Also, since starting to taper yesterday (from 12mg to 10mg), I've been so exhausted that I went to bed at 9:30. I'm exhausted again today, had a hard time staying awake while driving. All I want to do is to sleep.

I want to taper off the Suboxone as soon as I can. It's taking a real financial toll on me (been on it since early February). But, I don't know how I'm going to do a slow taper if I can't even drive with the exhaustion. Has anyone experienced such a thing when tapering off Suboxone? If so, does it go away? I'm even considering quitting c/t, since I apparently metabolize the stuff rather quickly. I figure that if the w/d goes on too long and they are too bad, I can just revert back to the oxys, at least a c/t withdrawal from the oxys is more straightforward.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[goldenarm]

I hope you can continue to get off the subs with minimal pain.It appears that the longer your on it and even short term there is going to be a price to pay.ANd because i just started on it for the second time in a yr, last time 10 days. I went back to the oxys.Here i am in my second day of detox and ive taken well below what my Dr told me to take because 8mg 3 x a day in my opinon is way too much.I took 1 and 3/4s one day last yr on day 2 or 3 and it made me feel really bad, I feel best when i just take 1/4 at a time and sometimes i take another 1/4 within an hr or 2 a couple times.Ive only got about 15 days total experince with this stuff and im only on day 2 with this again, and im not going to take more than 1 pill in 1/4s thruout the day and only for a couple weeks at most and lower it before than to make the kick of the oxys more tolerble , that is my plan and i will make it work , i know i will still feel bad to a piont but not as bad as it would hav been, That is my plan after everythign i have felt and read on this board.

[christin1225]

I appreciate everyone's input so much. Monday morning I was barely able to drag myself out of bed, the joint and muscle pain was so great. My PC physician re-ordered blood test to rule out Lupus. I do have a complement deficiency which could indicate Lupus; however, I find it interesting that today is Wednesday and the symptoms, which were less severe yesterday, are pretty much non-existant.

I think that the joint and muscle pain are directly related to me decreasing my dose of Suboxone (as I have experienced withdrawal symptoms with missing a dose before). I intend to decrease another 2mg starting today. My emotional status has been a bit precarious the past few days; therefore, I'm a bit concerned that I will end up struggling with anxiety and cravings with this reduction. But, I'm going to try my best not to project.

If the fatigue and the muscle and joint pain return, it will be proof enough for me that the reduced dose of Suboxone is the cause. Wish me luck.

[cin47]

i have never taken more than a quarter piece of a sub at a time and been on that a year and i cannot get past day 3 the withdrawl is so bad good luck to all and don't for a minute think these pills are not addicting. day 3 i have severe chills zillions of buterflies and it makes me panic so bad  i cannot get off so tell me how i can get past day 3. and good luck to you all on the tapering because one day it all comes to an end and then the withdrawl will begin.  May God Bless YOU

[mtgoat911]

"""nearly falling asleep at the wheel several times on a ten-mile drive home is pretty serious"""

atleast you know that you are doing this, its called nodding out, many people think that you cannot do this on sub. but its the reason my husband lost his job, he would take his morning sub and then an hour later nod out at work

you be safe, and btw, this is the most profound and insightful thing i have read all day

""really busy and that he's just sure that he knows everything that he needs to know about Suboxone. I knew from the first time that I talked to him that in spite of him being obviously interested in the field of addictions that he would be difficult to talk to because he tends to have an aswer already formed in his mind before the question has been asked of him. I didn't think that it would matter. I thought that the replacement therapy would be pretty cut and dry. Not so! Not so at all. """

every time you post i can relate to so much of it!

[lisammm]

trying2helpU, I have been on suboxone since Aug 08 and have been tired in the afternoon. Thanks for sharing your experience. I should consider that I may be taking too much. I will bring it up to my DOCTOR the next time I see her. It helps to know other peoples experiences on suboxone.

christin, I know what you are going through. i will not mention my dosage but I am going to talk to my doctor about possibly lowering by dosage to see if it helps my tiredness. I just recently switched doctors. My previous doctor was very hard to talk to and said that under 4mg you should not have any withdrawal symptom (placebo effect is what he said). I have a new doctor now that takes the time and does not rush me when I see her. Maybe you can find a new doctor but I know that is hard to do. I really wish you the best and if you ever what to chat just drop me a line. I am new here and just learning my way around.
Best Wishes
Lisa

[trying2helpU]

I wanted to touch on a couple things mentioned above.  I used to always get into that '1/2 awake 1/2 dreaming' state when I took too much oxy close to bedtime (oxy was my DOC).  So that made me agree with BQ's idea that may be you were taking too much?
I started my subox inpatient Sept'08 (32mg initially in the clinic) and I've tapered down to 2.5mg.  Tapering was very easy in the beginning, but has gotten harder now.  The only times I can remember being tired from subox, was when I was taking too much.  As soon as I would decrease my dose I would feel better.

Not sure if anything I wrote will help you, but that was/is my experience with subox.  I'm still trying to get from 2.5mg to 0.

Oh yeah, my doctor also told me that coming off subox is very easy and there are NO withdrawl symptoms associated.  He said 'if anything, you will feel a bit tired'.  For some reason, I don't think that's true.

Good luck and hope you feel better!