Re: 22 yr. old son just began Suboxone

[puddinface]

Well everyone...please say a prayer for my son. He just started his suboxone treatment last night and Im so proud that he is taking a step in the right direction. He is only on 4 mgs and then 1/4 and 1/4 if necessary. So far he is feeling great. Had a little bit of rough time sleeping last night but other than that...fine. I pray we made the right decision to start this treatment. Thanks for listening.

[baggervance]

I f he can stay at 4 great tell him not to take the 1/4 as precautionary measures. When it comes time to jump off he be glad he did.

[christin1225]

for your son that this will be only the beginning of new life of sobriety for him.

[puddinface]

Thanks Cristin...he is doing fantastic. Tomorrow will be one week and he is only taking a 1/2 pill per day. He looks fantastic and is tolerating the pill very well. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that he continues doing well.

[sicntired]

Okay. Not to be a naysayer here. While it is great that there is a spark of hope that he wants to turn around, there is a reality check here. Speaking from personal experience of ten years of opiate addiction (the last five of which were spent mainlining heroin), methadone and suboxone are not the way to go. Using substances to get off substances is illogical. Just face down the monster head on. Whether it's changing your scene by checking into drug rehab The sky will clear up like never before and a person can begin to truly live their life.

[Nallabelle]

You must be proud of your son. Im not sure how much education you all have had on this drug, nor do I know your son's history with opiates, but I would like to share some of my experience so hopefully you can use this to your advantage.
Suboxone can give bad headaches, especially in the beginning. Excedrin worked well for me.
I wanted to be on the lowest dose possible so I still had some minor withdrawal symptoms from the pain pills (insomnia, sweats, etc). Took a few days to adjust.
There ARE withdrawals associated with suboxone. The best advice I can give is to communicate well with your doctor about tapering off. They almost always try and do it too rapidly. Yet, in MY opinion, suboxone should be short term.
The biggest mistake I made while I this drug (which ultimately contributed to my relapse) was that I did NOTHING to recover while taking it. I wasnt going to therapy. I didnt change my friends or my life, and I didnt join NA. I reccomend doing all of those. Suboxone doesnt cure addiction, it just buys you some time so you can handle life once you get off. You have to take it seriously. Good luck to you and your son.

[puddinface]

Thanks for listening everyone and giving some great advice. While I agree with you both - yes it is only a tool to help him (where it goes from here - I couldnt say) it is the first time that HE has not been ashamed to seek some kind of help on his own. And for that I am grateful. I do realize that he should be working some kind of program as well. This, hopefully, will be the next step. But for now, I am happy that he is clearing his head and taking the first step. For this kid - taking the first step was a real biggie.

[christin1225]

Puddin,
How are things going with your son? I've been struggling myself and have not been posting much. I just read your comment about a recovery program. There is not a doctor in my area who will prescribe Suboxone without his patients attending NA (or another recovery program) and counseling. Even the Suboxone literature (including the pharmaceutical's DVD) will tell a patient that counseling is necessary.

Sub cannot get an addict satisfactorily high (and forget even trying to get the slightest of buzzes after the first few days, even if you abuse it). If an addict does not work on addressing that issue, the chances are that he will relapse (maybe not on his DOC, but on something that will get him high). Although I'm coming from the position of one who still craved while on Sub, I believe that the obsession to use will most likely be too great, unless the issues that led to the addiction are addressed. I hope that your son is working a program of recovery.

I'll say a prayer for him today.

[Pistoletta]

Originally Posted by sicntired

Okay. Not to be a naysayer here. While it is great that there is a spark of hope that he wants to turn around, there is a reality check here. Speaking from personal experience of ten years of opiate addiction (the last five of which were spent mainlining heroin), methadone and suboxone are not the way to go. Using substances to get off substances is illogical. Just face down the monster head on. Whether it's changing your scene by checking into drug rehab The sky will clear up like never before and a person can begin to truly live their life.

I have to disagree with you. I do not think it is illogical at all.

While your struggles may have been longer and probably far more intense than my own, I have found suboxone to be a bit of a miracle.

I tried kicking cold turkey, and I couldn't do it. (Kudos to you if you could, you're a stronger person than myself.) I was killing myself and destroying everything in my life with heroin. I'm sorry, but if I have the option of either taking a pill that has been approved as being safe for opiate addiction by the FDA or shooting up God only knows what into my veins, I'd opt for the former rather than the latter. Not everyone can just STOP shooting heroin (or taking pain pills, or whatever their addiction may have led them to.) If it were that easy, you wouldn't have addicts running around like lunatics, dope sick, and doing whatever they had to to get that next fix. That kind of behavior is illogical. If it were that easy for everyone to just stop-don't you think they would?

It's illogical to suffer if there is another positive alternative to the suffering.

Taking a regulated dose of a medication to help ease withdrawal symptoms from an opiate does not sound illogical to me.

Shooting dope, putting yourself in multiple dangerous situations (there are so many times I could have been robbed, raped, or shot in the situations and neighborhoods I put myself in to get dope), the potential to overdose, the amount of money spent on the drugs themselves--that is illogical.

And frankly, I think that it is illogical to think that everyone can just QUIT. If we could, we would.

The person who I began doing heroin with has tried to kick several times, with no luck at all. He began taking suboxone last Monday or Tuesday, and he's not touched a needle or a bag of dope since.

I think it's rather counter-productive to come into a forum titiled suboxone and methadone maint. and criticize the methods that are keeping people from shoving needles in their veins and pills up their noses and down their throats.




By the way, puddin...I'm glad to hear that your son is doing well with his new treatment and things are looking up. I believe that you are doing the right thing and that you guys are taking the appropriate logical steps to your son having a happy and healthy recovery.

[puddinface]

Pistoletta - thanks so much for the kind words! As a matter of fact - my son is doing fantastic on the Suboxone! He is only doing 1/2 pill per day. We make him get up in the morning - and we give him the 1/2 pill. We dont allow him to control the prescription. I am seeing him come back to life little by little. I am seeing the child I used to know. As of right now I wish that I could get him to go to some meetings or work some sort of program but it isnt happening yet. He has tried that route several times and wasnt very receptive to it. He's very shy and didnt like speaking very much to counselors and whatnot. I look at this as one step at a time. Right now - he hasnt used since June 8th and I am so thankful to god. I am also so grateful that I had these forums to come to - to know that I wasnt alone in all this. I know that I am no expert to all of this - but at least he's on a good path right now. Thanks to all of you.

[christin1225]

Originally Posted by puddinface

As of right now I wish that I could get him to go to some meetings or work some sort of program but it isnt happening yet. He has tried that route several times and wasnt very receptive to it. He's very shy and didnt like speaking very much to counselors and whatnot.

Puddin, I'm not only an addict, I'm the mother of young adult men (16, 19, 20). So, I completely empathize with you wanting what is best for your son.

Please understand that an addict alone is in bad company. I can't emphasize how true that is. I would be negligent if I didn't tell you that I'm concerned for your son in the long run if he doesn't get some kind of support. Addicts helping addicts is a proven method. I don't understand why the Sub doctor is not requiring him to attend a recovery program. Please keep encouraging him. He doesn't have to say anything at a meeting.

Crossing over to another path is important, but if an addict doesn't take steps forward on that path, away from the point where he crossed over, it's a very short hop back.

Still

[puddinface]

Christin ... He has only seen the sub doctor once so far. He will be going back to see him in early July for his follow up visit and Im sure he will talk to him then about getting involved in some meetings. (He will also drug test him as well). I was with him when he went to the doctor and it seemed as though the initial visit was basically gathering information about him and his drug history. He also explained to us all about Suboxone and what his goals were for him as far as how long he wanted him on it. So, we'll see what happens at the next visit.

[LoveLivesFree]

Puddinface - Give your son a BIG HI FIVE for me!!! I've been on Suboxone for a little over a year now and let me tell you it has literally saved my life (and my husbands as we went into treatment together) An option for your son, if he doesn't like groups (which I didn't when I first got clean, but I attend one now) is individual counseling or something anonymous like these forums. He can come here and talk about whatever he likes and none of us know him.

And about Suboxone being bad ? No way can a drug that helps you stay clean off of heroin be a bad thing. It's got naloxone in it which is an opiate blocker so it's not like methadone. And it's awesome that you get him up in the morning and give him his first pill. And it's also awesome that you can see a change in him, it really doesn't take long at all to wake back up after a heroin addiction. I'm so happy for you.

[kj3880]

Yep, suboxone was a life-saver for me. But I too recommend NA meetings for your son. Find out on line where there are some and take him and drop him off at a variety of them until he finds the young people who are doing well (there will be a group of young people that all go to a different meeting each night that are staying clean, that's who he wants to find) and he will see that NA people are the most accepting group I've ever come across. I am very shy, but I have more friends from NA than I did my whole life. It can be a lot of fun. I can't recommend it too highly to him. His isolation and loneliness may have been what lead him to addiction, and NA is a very effective way to counteract that.

Love,
KJ

[Spiritual Seeker]

Lots of us parents around here are seeing our AS/AD is recovery
Yea that your son is moving in that direction !!!

[puddinface]

Thanks everyone for your support! I am keeping my fingers crossed for him. We'll start having some discussions about those meetings. Hopefully he will want to attend. Right now Im just so happy that he's handling the suboxone well and coming back to life! Hugs to all!:ghug

[baggervance]

I'm glad you and your son are getting hope back. Imo If he can stay at a low dose he'll have much easier time when the time comes. you seem to be very supportive and proud of your son, good for you.

[puddinface]

Thanks so much. I am proud of him for wanting to take this step...believe me, he's had plenty of troubles over the last few years. I still cant believe he's doing so well. And he still is only taking 1/2 pill per day. He's feeling great, working and staying home alot. He is also avoiding the old friends. So, its a great beginning for him. So far so good. One day at a time..