sunflower1776

Shelly--another thing I wanted to add but my post didnt give me the option to edit. You say you want to get off the subs ASAP--are the fears of WD the only reason? Are you on a time constraint from some reason or another? The biggest concern people have with subs is that they will go through wd when quitting. However, this does not have to be the case. Tapering is the most important thing. You do not go from 8mg one day to 2 mg the next day, etc. Most people drop maybe 1-2mg at the most every week or longer. From what I've read, I'll sum it up by saying on average a good taper wtih good results with the most minimal of wd effects is at least a month. Now, that is just from what people have posted who have not experienced wd. People do it faster than that a lot, but they also post horrendous stories of how awful it was. Look at it this way--if your doc was oxys and you were taking 200mg/day (just an example), if you were to steadily and slowly decrease that amount by let's say 5mg/day, you would have minimal wd--it would take in this case 40 days to get off of it, but you would not be in any discomfort. However, if you take 200mg/day and then the next day take 100mg then 50 mg you are going to have wd symptoms. This is the same for subs...the slower you go with the taper, the better it will be for you physically. There is not a rush to get off of them. Do not read into all of the hype about how awful it is to stop using them. It is this erroneous information that keeps people from starting them in the first place. Your doctor should work with you to establish a tapering schedule. If you were to start feeling some wd, then you add a little bit back and then slow down a little more. I've read posts from people who were literally slicing those 8mg pills into 16 pieces--that's how slowly they went. The point is, there is no rush. Whether you take the subs for 1 week or 1 year should not matter. What does matter is do you have a recovery plan in place for when you are not on the subs--will you be able to handle cravings shoudl they arise. You need to have all the neccessary things at your disposal to help in your recovery for when you do stop using the subs. Please, don't be in a rush to get off of them--take it a day at a time and let them work with you. You will know when it is the right time to stop taking them and at that point you will have the knowledge, hopefully from what I've said here and from what others will say, to taper properly and not go into any type of wd. Lastly, when you do decide that it's time to stop, keep posting on here and we can guide you through it and of course offer support.