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Subutex/Suboxone withdrawal after long term use, HELP!!!
I am in day 4 of Subutex withdrawal. I was on it for 5 months. The first 4 at 4mg a day, the last month gradually tapering down to .5 mg.
I am in withdrawal HELL. No energy, I take vitamin B supplements, which help very short term. I am taking clonidine, which helped some as well. But the RLS is driving me insane. HOW can I stop this? And when will I start to feel better. Can long term sub users who have gone through withdrawal please help me?
I was always told the withdrawal would be very mild, and this is a miracle drug. I will say, my life and habits have changed. I have no desire to use any pills at the moment, and I don't expect that to change. I was abusing hydros after 2 shoulder surgeries. Counseling and support from friends and family (who I was deathly afraid to talk to) has been amazing. My best friends wife came over and took my hydros from me, and basically helped save my life. I am lucky to have them.
I am in withdrawal HELL. No energy, I take vitamin B supplements, which help very short term. I am taking clonidine, which helped some as well. But the RLS is driving me insane. HOW can I stop this? And when will I start to feel better. Can long term sub users who have gone through withdrawal please help me?
I was always told the withdrawal would be very mild, and this is a miracle drug. I will say, my life and habits have changed. I have no desire to use any pills at the moment, and I don't expect that to change. I was abusing hydros after 2 shoulder surgeries. Counseling and support from friends and family (who I was deathly afraid to talk to) has been amazing. My best friends wife came over and took my hydros from me, and basically helped save my life. I am lucky to have them.
everything is written down here is realy helpfull.. sorry for the bad english ,i m watching from europe. After a long period of heroin use i did the withdrawll using small amounts of suboxone.I was taking everyday and less ammount of the sub reaching the point even at 0.2 maybe mlg. I did everything bymyself without prescription.. now i m in the 9th day of taking really NOTHING AT ALL. My biggest problem is RLS or "kicking the habit" and the really small time of sleep everynight.Please can anyone tell me what can i do for the RLS without taking clonidine or diazepam medicines. Is there any herbal way .Is it possible to have some relief by making my body tired by going to the gym or running around the neighberhood??
everything is written down here is realy helpfull.. sorry for the bad english ,i m watching from europe. After a long period of heroin use i did the withdrawll using small amounts of suboxone.I was taking everyday and less ammount of the sub reaching the point even at 0.2 maybe mlg. I did everything bymyself without prescription.. now i m in the 9th day of taking really NOTHING AT ALL. My biggest problem is RLS or "kicking the habit" and the really small time of sleep everynight.Please can anyone tell me what can i do for the RLS without taking clonidine or diazepam medicines. Is there any herbal way .Is it possible to have some relief by making my body tired by going to the gym or running around the neighberhood??
Thanks for sharing all of that and good luck with the plan. We'll be here for support and to offer a suggestion or two...Can you start your own thread when you check back? I'm afraid this may get overlooked here...on an older thread.
I've heard others talk about the flatness in personality and outlook with Suboxone and I think it's sad to not feel but agree that Sub has its place in our medicine cabinets. Keep in touch!
I've heard others talk about the flatness in personality and outlook with Suboxone and I think it's sad to not feel but agree that Sub has its place in our medicine cabinets. Keep in touch!
I am grateful for this forum. I was looking for information, advise, help, support... getting off subutex, long term user.
First what a great drug. For opiate abuse, addiction, this is truely a life saving drug. Right off the bad stuff to a drug that can sustain your health,
is not 'addicting' in the sense that you do not need more to maintain the benefits, (though Im sure some addicts have people convinced that subutex is like an opiate...to justify their increased dosage) but it does not and my story will illustrate.
I got hooked on pain killers in early 2001, and by 2003 was buying them over the internet. It was bad, and just as I knew I was on the verge of a real disaster I read about subutex in the NYTimes. I got on it right away, and have been on it ever since. I started on 8. millegrams, and got down to 2 within three years or so. I have been on 1. a day for a long time. I cut the 2. in half. Then I cut the half in half, trying not to get a buzz and to spread the pill to a morning and evening dose. I do a get a bit of a buzz, and worry about the dependency on taking something.
I read some of these posts and am going to start pulling myself off the 1. m. The idea is to stay off the real opiates, and if I feel in danger I will go back on subutex for sure. But the resolve to be drug free can take you over that ... if you are resolute. I am not sure what this many years of subutex has done to my receptors... IM sure, considering I take so little, that its not going to be the worst thing, or that I am damaged.. hopefully.
The symptoms though, I do think this drug eliminates kinds of emotions, that have to do with largeness, large feelings, big feelings, thats the
impotency factor, or great sorrows, or great joys. Its like you were manic depressive and this is your lithium. But with that is a great cost, no real creativity, no real 'feelings' to contend with, and certainly sex is strangely catorgorized, the homoginous feeling of the orgasm is simply taken away. I guess this is how, or part of how the drug is able to attack the painful things that make us crave opiates in the first place. It can address the brain, or hormones, or glands, whatever, and control impulses which affect behavior. I know its 'coating' receptors, but I think the effect if more than that. This is not an opiate high, though it is akin to it. I think it could be a good drug for kinds of mental illness, or kinds of depression. The side effects we are experiencing, we who use it for a long time, well we are the guiney pigs... and we can decide if we feel its costing more than its helping.
I have decided I want to feel again, the scope of what I feel. I hope that the withdrawl RLS does not go on too long, but I have had that from time to time anyway. And I hope the terrible heebie jeebies dont last long, thats the worst, the creepy edge of the universe nothing fits feeling...
Just the other side of the everything fits and you can do it feeling..neither of them is true. We just live day to day, fitting what we can, going to sleep at night, laughing with our friends. We have a reason to live, even though sometimes it seems like we've lost it. These drugs may have helped at the moment, but they are complicated cost .. and I mean to leave this part behind.
I will let you know how it goes. IM going to go half of my dose three or four days a week for a few weeks, and then .. maybe cut that in half again.
im excited.
god bless you guys.
First what a great drug. For opiate abuse, addiction, this is truely a life saving drug. Right off the bad stuff to a drug that can sustain your health,
is not 'addicting' in the sense that you do not need more to maintain the benefits, (though Im sure some addicts have people convinced that subutex is like an opiate...to justify their increased dosage) but it does not and my story will illustrate.
I got hooked on pain killers in early 2001, and by 2003 was buying them over the internet. It was bad, and just as I knew I was on the verge of a real disaster I read about subutex in the NYTimes. I got on it right away, and have been on it ever since. I started on 8. millegrams, and got down to 2 within three years or so. I have been on 1. a day for a long time. I cut the 2. in half. Then I cut the half in half, trying not to get a buzz and to spread the pill to a morning and evening dose. I do a get a bit of a buzz, and worry about the dependency on taking something.
I read some of these posts and am going to start pulling myself off the 1. m. The idea is to stay off the real opiates, and if I feel in danger I will go back on subutex for sure. But the resolve to be drug free can take you over that ... if you are resolute. I am not sure what this many years of subutex has done to my receptors... IM sure, considering I take so little, that its not going to be the worst thing, or that I am damaged.. hopefully.
The symptoms though, I do think this drug eliminates kinds of emotions, that have to do with largeness, large feelings, big feelings, thats the
impotency factor, or great sorrows, or great joys. Its like you were manic depressive and this is your lithium. But with that is a great cost, no real creativity, no real 'feelings' to contend with, and certainly sex is strangely catorgorized, the homoginous feeling of the orgasm is simply taken away. I guess this is how, or part of how the drug is able to attack the painful things that make us crave opiates in the first place. It can address the brain, or hormones, or glands, whatever, and control impulses which affect behavior. I know its 'coating' receptors, but I think the effect if more than that. This is not an opiate high, though it is akin to it. I think it could be a good drug for kinds of mental illness, or kinds of depression. The side effects we are experiencing, we who use it for a long time, well we are the guiney pigs... and we can decide if we feel its costing more than its helping.
I have decided I want to feel again, the scope of what I feel. I hope that the withdrawl RLS does not go on too long, but I have had that from time to time anyway. And I hope the terrible heebie jeebies dont last long, thats the worst, the creepy edge of the universe nothing fits feeling...
Just the other side of the everything fits and you can do it feeling..neither of them is true. We just live day to day, fitting what we can, going to sleep at night, laughing with our friends. We have a reason to live, even though sometimes it seems like we've lost it. These drugs may have helped at the moment, but they are complicated cost .. and I mean to leave this part behind.
I will let you know how it goes. IM going to go half of my dose three or four days a week for a few weeks, and then .. maybe cut that in half again.
im excited.
god bless you guys.
i have been shooting subs probably 1 to 1.5 mgs a day and now in day 3 of extreme withdrawl. what can help to slow it down and when will it stop??? im in so much pain right now
I know that this is an old post, and that many wish to create a new one. I think these stories and the support is inspirational and realistic. You have real people telling what they are actually going through as they are getting off. Doctors are not always truthful or they aren't as knowledgeable of this drug as they think or let on. I understand the Subs help addicts get over whatever they are on by blocking the receptors in the brain but the longer a person is on them, all they are doing is trading one addiction for another, and one drug for another. (and the WD are twice as long compared to other drugs, from what I understand since this drug is a long-lasting one)
My husband 5 years ago was pulled over and arrested for a DUI. His conditions were 10 days jail time and 2 years suspended license with 3 years probation. He violated, as many drug users and alcoholics do, not once, but 2 times. And the second was for crack (which I NEVER knew he did until he was arrested and I visited him at the jail and he told me what he failed for.) His drug of choice was pain pills usually. After he was arrested for violating and spent time in jail and 4 months work release, he vowed to stop drinking, and doing pills. Which is basically what I told him he had to do in order to make this relationship work, because those two things made him a completely different and not so pretty person that I couldn't stand to be around. He does smoke weed, which I'm ok with because it just mellows him out instead of making him an a$$. He talked to one of the guys at his work about wanting to get off the pills, they told him about being on Subutex and how it takes away that craving for the pills and that high. He didn't have insurance so he bought them off of this guy and he only used a quarter of one a day for the past 3 years (so 1 pill would last 4 days) but at $15-$20/pill, it's still steep. A week before Christmas 2012, he decided all on his own to get off the Subs. I didn't even know about it till I commented on how much he wasn't sleeping and he told me that he stopped taking the Subs for 3 reason he said: 1) He's tired of being on them, he's ready to get off and now is as good as a time as any 2) They are expensive and me being a SAHM money is tight and this will open up a lot more cash for other things 3) For our family and especially for our 2 year old precious girl. So he's been off them for a little over a week. I'm so proud of him and I don't know any of you that have kicked and are in the process of kicking the Subs but I'm proud of all of you. This is a really HARD thing to do no matter how long you've been on them!
I've never been addicted to anything and I don't know how that "drive" feels or the WD so I can't even relate, but seeing it first hand the damage it does to a relationship I can relate to your families'.
This might be a TMI but Subs reduce a man's testosterone...low testosterone means lower energy and NO SEX DRIVE, which causes a HUGE problem in our relationship and I'm sure others. He's 28 and I'm 30 and to have sex once every 3-6 months for 15 seconds is TERRIBLE! He has absolutely no drive to have sex, any kind of sexual activity, at all. The TV and pills are a higher priority than me (TV helps him Zone out). I don't care what anyone says, Subs and drugs are literally "the other woman", IMHO, that he cheats with and prefers over me. I pray and HOPE that this changes in a month or two when he's fully clean to finally be functional.
The second is that it kind of makes them zombie like, I feel like it almost makes him a little depressed. Not a ton of energy, and distant, like he "forgot" how to open up and share without prodding. He used to tell me how his day was and surprise me with a cute card or a text, he used to be flirty but since he's been on the subs it's literally like that ALL stopped. I hope I get the flirty, open guy back.
Sorry so long. But I wish the BEST OF LUCK to ALL!
My husband 5 years ago was pulled over and arrested for a DUI. His conditions were 10 days jail time and 2 years suspended license with 3 years probation. He violated, as many drug users and alcoholics do, not once, but 2 times. And the second was for crack (which I NEVER knew he did until he was arrested and I visited him at the jail and he told me what he failed for.) His drug of choice was pain pills usually. After he was arrested for violating and spent time in jail and 4 months work release, he vowed to stop drinking, and doing pills. Which is basically what I told him he had to do in order to make this relationship work, because those two things made him a completely different and not so pretty person that I couldn't stand to be around. He does smoke weed, which I'm ok with because it just mellows him out instead of making him an a$$. He talked to one of the guys at his work about wanting to get off the pills, they told him about being on Subutex and how it takes away that craving for the pills and that high. He didn't have insurance so he bought them off of this guy and he only used a quarter of one a day for the past 3 years (so 1 pill would last 4 days) but at $15-$20/pill, it's still steep. A week before Christmas 2012, he decided all on his own to get off the Subs. I didn't even know about it till I commented on how much he wasn't sleeping and he told me that he stopped taking the Subs for 3 reason he said: 1) He's tired of being on them, he's ready to get off and now is as good as a time as any 2) They are expensive and me being a SAHM money is tight and this will open up a lot more cash for other things 3) For our family and especially for our 2 year old precious girl. So he's been off them for a little over a week. I'm so proud of him and I don't know any of you that have kicked and are in the process of kicking the Subs but I'm proud of all of you. This is a really HARD thing to do no matter how long you've been on them!
I've never been addicted to anything and I don't know how that "drive" feels or the WD so I can't even relate, but seeing it first hand the damage it does to a relationship I can relate to your families'.
This might be a TMI but Subs reduce a man's testosterone...low testosterone means lower energy and NO SEX DRIVE, which causes a HUGE problem in our relationship and I'm sure others. He's 28 and I'm 30 and to have sex once every 3-6 months for 15 seconds is TERRIBLE! He has absolutely no drive to have sex, any kind of sexual activity, at all. The TV and pills are a higher priority than me (TV helps him Zone out). I don't care what anyone says, Subs and drugs are literally "the other woman", IMHO, that he cheats with and prefers over me. I pray and HOPE that this changes in a month or two when he's fully clean to finally be functional.
The second is that it kind of makes them zombie like, I feel like it almost makes him a little depressed. Not a ton of energy, and distant, like he "forgot" how to open up and share without prodding. He used to tell me how his day was and surprise me with a cute card or a text, he used to be flirty but since he's been on the subs it's literally like that ALL stopped. I hope I get the flirty, open guy back.
Sorry so long. But I wish the BEST OF LUCK to ALL!
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