Taking Suboxone early on purpose to shorten detox period?

[DonRet]

This is going to sound odd and against what the advice is when starting suboxone, however I am wondering if anyone has taken suboxone early on purpose in order to basically put yourself into precipitated withdrawals and shorten the total amount time it takes to detox?

During rapid detox they basically td this but put you to sleep so you don't feel it, if you have a very bad habit with strong narcotics you obviously do not want to do this on your own, however I have experienced the precipitated withdrawals and although they are pretty bad they usually don't last a long time and you can take meds like valium or chlonidine to get through it.  However, when I got the precip withdrawals I had still waited 48 hours to take the first suboxone.

The reason why I would even consider this is because, for example the pills I have had addiction issues with is DHC which has a long half-life and although you mentally feel like garbage after 24 hours, the physical withdrawals don't peak until around day 4 and by then you have been in bed for 3 days and can't take it anymore and relapse.  I would almost rather pump myself up mentally and just take the suboxone to immediately push all the DHC off the receptors and deal with the physical withdrawal right away then go through it gradually over 5 days.

One contradiction I do see is that even though the sub wiped the DHC off the receptors, it doesn't mean that they are clean or your body is free of opiates, the bupe is actually filling the receptors in order to block other opiates.  That single dose of suboxone still has to clear your system although I don't know.  I guess I am just curious if you are still going to feel physical withdrawals after the precipitated withdrawals are over?

I am just curious if anyone has tried this method and had a much shorter but more intense physical withdrawal period?  I have read nightmarish stories about people on methadone taking sub early so I wouldn't suggest taking my advice and trying this, but I wonder if it would actually be preferred with weaker opiates and if you had valium and chlonidine type meds to take during that precip withdrawal period to help lesson the blow?  I just hate waiting till day 3, then day 4, then day 5 to finally detox the body of all of it.

Just curious if anyone out there has experience with this?

[nursegirl6572]

You've really been all over the place with this sub plan.  I totally understand that you WANT to use the sub, but are trying to minimize the chance of you ending up addicted to that.  Unfortunately, there is just no easy way out, and no way around w/ds completely.

With your mindset about subs, I would really recommend you just trying to some off the DHC and skip the sub all together.  If you still want to use sub, I would recommend doing it the RIGHT way (no more trying to find short cuts) and commit to the process for a while, if even a few months.  The most important part of your recovery moving forward will be your "work" done in aftercare.  You can GET clean, but staying clean is much harder.

Good luck!

[DonRet]

Thanks for the advice, yea I only have 6-8mg films, so its not much.  However when I took the Suboxone I didn't need more than 8mg for it to work well enough to not have the cravings or anything, so I could use a lot less just for tapering purposes.  

DHC is also a synthetic opiate like tramadol but structured differently, its big in Europe and I get them online which is how I became addicted to them.  The suboxone does block the effects of the DHC even with it being synthetic, although at least with me suboxone doesn't block tramadol so if you ever go through a horrific precip withdrawal, tramadol will relieve it, at least it did with me.

Its too bad Suboxone is so hard to get off of because it really does work wonders in that it helps cravings but doesn't get you high and lets you go on with your normal life without the crazy ups and downs of being on narcotics.  It is a great tool in that you can establish a daily routine that doesn't revolve around illegal activity and getting high but in the end when you feel like you have your life together you have to endure a crazy long withdrawal which ends up being worse than the original drug you abused.  I guess thats just life not letting you get a free pass.  

If they ever invented a drug like suboxone that was easy to detox off of the FDA probably wouldn't pass it because drug use would run rampant.

[dirtydirk]

well subs have a long half life as well......if i was u i would try and do a shorter taper then 30 days in my experience using subs  i would feel worse off the sub wds compared to heroin wds ...if i used them for weeks but if i used the subs for 5-10 days it would be just enough for me 2 get over the worst of the heroin but not long enough 2 feel the new weight of the sub wd......!!!!!   were all different  but wheneva we talk about semi-synthetic or  synthetic opiates  it seems 2 be somewhat worse on the user than normal pain pills and/or heroin !!!  dont have much exp with DHC personally but ive been a great quitter for years.....hopefully this was my last time ill hafta say i quit....!!  keep fighting  maine!!!

[DonRet]

Yea, I have felt the precip withdrawals as well, twice actually, but it wasn't worse than the peak of normal physical withdrawals I felt at least.  I never had any valium or chlonidine at the time to help though so I ended up taking some tramadol which actually got rid of them 100% which is odd because most people on the web says it blocks tramadol.  

I have some suboxone but not enough for a 30 day taper or anything like that.  I was just curious if someone has ever tried this and found it easier.  Its such an odd medication and since its fairly new in the US there is a lot of contradicting information on it when using it as a short term med.  I am looking for first hand experience instead of just someone reciting what they read.

Unfortunately the drug I am addicted to is DHC which is time-released and has a long half-life and it takes much longer to get through the withdrawals than other opiates.  Day one I am fine till the evening when I start to feel depressed. Day two I get extreme depression and very lethargic, I will literally sleep the entire day and most of that night, and thats all I really want to do because my brain feels like its literally dead.  Usually on Day 3, about early evening is when the runny eyes/nose, RLS, and extreme anxiety kicks in.  I have detoxed off tramadol in the past and it was really hard but it was also over quicker, which made it easier to stay mentally strong though.  However this time around it seems like I am so tore down mentally by the time the physical stuff even starts to peak that I just cave.  I have never had a whole week free to go through a detox, I have a great job but I can't take off a lot of consecutive days so I will try to use a weekend to go c/t but it never works.

Like I said, I was just curious about others first hand experiences with suboxone.

[dirtydirk]

putting yourself into detox quicker is not a good idea and yes u will feel like 1000 lbs has dropped on youself instead feeling it more and more each hr.....etc...  the naloxen in the sub will make u feel like crap trust me ive used subs 2 early and it only took 1 time 2 realize that was not fun.....its not guna shorten your wds either its just guna make u wd quicker harder.....!!

[Merri123]

I have always heard you will feel like you are dying if you start suboxone before the drugs are out of your system. Literally.

Yes Valium or Xanax really helps with the withdrawal. Literally will take away the stomach issues. But you have to make sure you use it sparingly and less each day as the wds progress. Don't want to trade one for the other.

Why not just stop. Skip the suboxone etc and just ride it out and quit?