drip123

Ive had a friend who has a fairly steady habit as he puts it for the last 3-5 years. Starting from Vicodin, fluctuating to heroin, finally settling back into either time released morphine or Oxycontin in various strengths. For a while he has been slowly lowering his dosage to the minimum he can stand and progressing slowly past that, to the point where he is now taking 1, 30mg Extended release morphine a day. He has done this on his own, made future plan for the next two weeks, for a minor vacation from work to detox himself as unfortunately he doesn't have any insurance... and a detox facility or a program of any period of time would be out of his price range. Ive seen him try to do this before, but completely at once. He succeeded for a month or so before relapsing. He stated how bad the initial 3-5 days are compared to the rest. If he were able to have access to Suboxone for say, enough for 5 days. Would that just prolong the initial onset of the symptoms? Or would it be...physically at least, like he is 5 days into being off the Opioids ?

Any information would be greatly appreciated, i would like to be able to help him out in anyway i can...even if that is just the sharing of the information i learn here. Thanks in advance for whatever help this community can provide !

brokenheart

When I saw that no one had posted a reply, I felt compelled to at least try to share.
I have 2 sons, and both have been where your friend is now.
I asked one of them to respond to your question. He refused, saying that he could not with good conscious recommend either suboxone or methodone to come off of any addiction.
He then said that he also could not with good conscious recommend any plan at all because of the liability involved. If he were working with someone to help guide them and they slipped and overdosed, then he would feel responsible.
I don't know if that is why others haven't responded or not, but I just wanted you to know that people do care.

drip123

I appreciate your response and that does make complete sense. I have been hoping to hear from someone with first hand experience as everything ive read contradicts each other at one point or the next. If it is a case of people not wanting to volunteer information id like to point out that he ends up taking the minimum ammount everyday so that there are no withdrawal symptoms and thats it. I like to think anyway, that the fact he has access to X ammount of pills... and continually only takes the bare minimum so not to get sick, as opposed to taking however nessacary to get high is a good sign. From what ive read i believe the term is 'tapering' from a higher to lower dosage.

I appreciate your reply and the attempt to elicit help from someone you know with first hand knowledge. I hope others will pick up where you left off. Whether people reply or not he will still continue to do what he is doing so any knowledge one way or the other will be helpfull.

Thanks again.

sixth

Drip, I'm sorry to read all that. All I know from my years in Pharm is that Suboxone was always dispensed in three packs. It's not necessarily something you take every day but the Doctor would assess the needs as to how often. The thing is, ya "dispense" the suboxone in the 3 pack, then ya never hear the results! I saw SO many teens coming in for it. Just breaks my heart.

Wish you and your friend the best. It's prolly worth a try, but I'd call my own Pharmacy (I mean yours - lol) The Pharmacist would be GLAD to answer any questions you have and you would NOT have to give your name. That's not what Pharmacists do. (= He or She will help you though with your anxiety and questions.

Actually, I've always said (and this is true) I've always said if I have questions about a "drug" I would ask a Pharmacist over a Doctor ANY DAY OF THE WEEK and twice on Sunday. That's what they study for 7 years! That's it! So yeah, they're the ones.

*hugs*

Myshot59

I am brand new here and tapering on suboxone, I kicked on methadone previously and know what that feels like, but not the meds your friend is on,..but suboxone is a really bad one to get off of, look it up and really read the effects...it isn't written a lot about really but the stuff is horrible! I mean it all is horrible, but this stuff because of its half life is particularly horrible! Do some research before you let someone dive in! my nephew told me about this stuff, it let me lose weight and feel better, but I tell you it all goes to the wayside when you are tapering and cant sleep or eat or think, or the PAWS afterwards, lots of mental stuff afterwards for many folks. So methadone or one of those other drugs might be a better way to get off that ride than suboxone, because that ride only slows a little then you have to jump! Just my opinion, I'm in it right now, about three weeks into my taper, I went a bit too fast, gotta slow up a bit and regroup. I would really think hard about not doing suboxone though!