Originally Posted by
SobRecNYC 
I know that my boyfriend should not be mixing Suboxone and Klonopin and the fact that he is using and/or has so many substances around him (Suboxone, Klonipin, Flexeril, pot, alcohol) is almost a no-brainer, huh? He just speaks with such certainty that drug abuse is behind him and I believe he believes it's that easy and simple, but it makes me wary.
Hi SobRecNYC. I read your post. Sorry to hear what you are going through. I am an addict. I have over 2 1/2 years clean off Heroin (and pills and booze and pot and whatever other drugs I used to pile on top of it).
Personally complete abstinence is THE ONLY WAY that ever worked for me. Your boyfriend might actually believe that drug abuse is behind him. I too believed it for a time and played that game before too. Well if I just don't touch opiates and stick to booze and a bit of pot it is okay. For a while I thought the Heroin was the root of my problems and as long as I didn't do that I could justify everything else. Unfortunately booze and pot are drugs too, but many an addict has a harm reduction mentality until that blows up in their face enough times and they finally find a bottom.
Maintenance meds have their place for sure, but when I was just taking Suboxone or Methadone and still drinking and not working any type of recovery program I was destined to fail. Yes I could function a bit better on alcohol or pot for a while, but inevitably either my drinking / pot use progressively got worse OR I would eventually find my way back to opiates.
My sobriety date started the day after my last dose of Methadone (I had been on Suboxone many times before that too). I am not saying that to start an argument and for a time I considered myself sober, but after getting off methadone (which sucked by the way) and getting truly clean from everything my outlook did change quite a bit.
I came to realize how much work I had to do on myself when I couldn't reach for a beer, or a joint, or a pill, or a needle full of dope to wash away my feelings. I had to start to really feel them good and bad and realize I don't have to act on every thought that popped into my head. Learn some actual coping skills basically. There were good days and bad. Actually there were plenty of bad days early on where I was about to jump out of my skin, but until I was ready to do the work on myself SOBER nothing was going to change long term. My brain and body also had to recover from all of the abuse I did to it over the years which took a while too.
Anyway that was and is my experience. Things might get worse before they get better (or they might just keep getting worse unfortunately). Take Care!!!