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FlappyD's Ultimate Guide to Getting off Suboxone

Old 04-25-2009, 07:54 AM
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FlappyD's Ultimate Guide to Getting off Suboxone

**Ok, so it's your 3rd or 4th day off suboxone, it's 4am in the morning, and you are on the computer trying to find a way to get off this sh*t that your doctor said would be SOOOO.... much easier to get off than opiates. You are really pissed because you are finding article after article that people are having a really hard time getting off this stuff and it seems that the withdrawals last even longer than opiates. A thought crosses your mind about kicking your doctors as*. Then you try and get some sleep. You lay their in bed or on the couch and about 1 minute later, this uncontrollable sensation sets off in your legs and you have to move it. Then again. Then again. Then you wake your wife up tossing and turning. Then she kicks you out of the bed. You try the couch but end up watching infomercials all freaking night...."You get it all for $19.95". Then it happens. You look out the window and you see the sun slowly creeping up on the horizon and you realize that you will be getting no sleep tonight.**

I've been there!! So many times. I can't count the number of times that i have. But this last time I tried something different. And it worked. I have been off for 2 months now and feel great and sleeping every night. I know, you want to know the secret. I will get to that in a second.

First, here are my qualifications.....I started taking hydrocodone about 10 years ago while working as a salesman at a car dealership. One of my friends...i mean co-workers gave me a Vicoden and told me that I would sell twice as many cars today. Well, he was right. I wanted to talk to everyone. I was in the best mood. I had tons of energy. Then I wanted more. So i did what a lot of us had done. I went to the doctor. Got 60 a month but that soon wasnt enough. So I took the next step and found the online pharmacies. BIG MISTAKE for me. Soon I had 5 (120 count of Norco's) RX's being shipped to me at work each month. I was taking anywhere from 10 to 18 a DAY. Yes a day. I got my liver checked each month at my doctor. This continued for 4 years. I wanted and kept chasing that energy that I had when I first took it. My wife would walk in the bathroom each morning to find me in the bottom of the shower asleep because I was so damn tired that I couldn't make my body get up. My 2 weeks of vacation each year turned into 2 weeks of trying (and failing) to get off. It was hopeless. Then I heard of a friend who got off by using suboxone. So i called my local Physc. Doc and made the appointment. Took my first suboxone and 20 minutes later felt like a million dollars. I had done it. I had gotten off Opiates. This was going to be a breeze!! If I had just know then, I could have strangled my doctor while I was there.....

OK...enough of me. You didn't come here to read about me. You want off the damn Suboxone. Here goes...

*1. Number one and most important of all. (This is where I messed up everytime except for the last time.) Miss your next 3 appointments with your doctor and get kicked out of the program. Why? Because when you run out of the suboxone you have left and you are on day 3 or 4 off, you will not be temped to call your doctor and tell him that you just cant make it and ask him for a refill. DON'T HAVE ANY LAYING AROUND THE HOUSE EITHER. Get rid of all of them. Your brain will do this amazing thing and actually help you through it alot easier because you know that there is no option of taking a pill. I would never have made it without doing this because I was just too weak to say no.

*2. On day 4 or 5 you will feel like sh*t. And I mean bad. This is usually a sign that things are about to turn around. I couldnt ever get past this part. I would always give in and take something. DONT!!!! Give it one more day!! Forget about all that sh*t you read about it taking 2 months to feel better. That is bullsh*t and not true. You WILL feel better the next day. Keep telling yourself how good it will feel to be off this stuff and to not have to worry about taking a damn pill everyday.

*3. I know...you can't sleep. DON'T TAKE SLEEPING PILLS!!!! Don't go stealing your friends Lunesta or other sleeping pills. Trust me on this one! You will be miserable on the couch awake but unable to move. The most God awful feeling that I have ever had. Just face the fact that you are not going to get much sleep for a week. Take HOT baths. I took 4 or 5 a night. Drove my wife crazy too. If you are a guy, try jerking off as much as you can. I know, it sounds crazy, but it really did help me sleep.

*4. Call your other doctor and get some Requip. Your legs are going to drive you crazy for a week or 2. Restless leg syndrome is a b*tch. This is what I had the hardest time with but it does get better. Again, take hot baths. Try sleeping with hot patches or cold patches on your legs. This really worked for me. The cold worked better. In between my shoulder blades on my back really bothered me too and the cold patches worked there too. The Requip will help with all of this too.

*5. Dont go jumping off 8mg of Suboxone. I got down to 2mg a day for about 3 to 4 weeks and then jumped.

*6. Stop making excuses to fail. I did this with 2 kids at the house. Not to mention a 4 year old and a 1 year old. You can do it. Stop reading all the damn negative articles here on the internet. It is very rare to find someone who has beat the addiction to come back here on the internet and post a comment. They stay away from it because they are free now. Print this article and put it on your mirror and stay off the internet. If you are so damn weak, how do you have the energy to get on your pc and surf the internet. Never thought about that did you?

*7. Take a lot of Ibuprofen.

*8. There is going to be that day during the week, that you finally get a little sleep, and you wake up and you feel a little better. Go look in the mirror and pat yourself on the back. You will begin to tell yourself, "Damn, I CAN do this!" It's not bad after all. It just takes getting past that REALLY BAD DAY.

*9. Don't hide this from your family. You need the support. Trust me. Tell your wife to give you a break for about 2 weeks. Promise her it will be worth it because you are about to be a better person after all of this. You are going to feel like doing more with the family because you are not so worried about the damn addiction.

*10. If you don't know God, this will be a great opportunity to find him. Dont want to force that on anyone but just a thought.

*11. Try sitting in the sun for a little each day. It will be bright as sh*t because you have been locked up in the house all week, but it really does help your energy levels.

*12. Forget about all that sh*t about being depressed and wanting to kill yourself. I would have killed myself along time ago. I worked for General Motors and then lost my job, lost my house, lost my 2008 Tahoe LTZ, and cant get financed for a vehicle because of all of this. My son asks me everyday to go to Disney World and Sea World. I went from making $120,000 a year to making $0. Actually as strange as it seems, I feel better and happier off the suboxone even with all this going on because I beat a 10 year addiction.

YOU CAN DO IT!!!!! Do it for yourself and no other reason! If I forgot anything I will repost and if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

God Bless and good luck!
FlappyD
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Old 04-26-2009, 10:44 AM
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hi flappy, nice to meet you...

I think about this subject a lot... I'm on suboxone, 4mg per day. Tried to taper down to 3mg a couple of weeks ago, but I'm going to maintain at 4 for a little longer cuz I started to have some pretty serious depression set in. I'm sure some of the depression was caused by the attempted taper but I've also got some stuff going on that is causing some situational depression as well.

Anyway, I nearly made my self crazy trying to decide if sub was right for me or not. I read up here and researched a lot on the net. I also have a pretty good doctor who seems quite knowledgable about the stuff and an addiction therapist I see bi-weekly. I go to NA every Sunday night, although I have not shared w/ them that I am on sub. Most of my family is aware and supportive. However, I'm terrified of the potential struggle I will endure when I try to make my final jump off this stuff.

I made the decision to start it because I was continually relapsing. Although I held some pretty decent amounts of sobriety from time to time, I always ended up going back. I got myself in some pretty big trouble w/ my family the last time and hurt a lot of people I truly love. (hurt myself too...) I knew I had to do something different or I was going to die. So, I'm on suboxone. But, as I said... I'm really worried about when the time comes to jump off completely. I'm trying really hard to get everything in order to make it successful, but I'm still scared.

Thanks for sharing your experience and offering advice. It was a timely read for me, and I'm sure I'll be referring back to it when I finish this stuff.

Take care.
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Old 04-26-2009, 12:22 PM
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JKM, remember we are all different, don't try to cowboy it, Jane said to me in an earlier post that when she was tapering that she listened to her body and responded to it appropriately. It sounds like you have a lot of good support and if you have had a history of relapses do the work you need to do KNOW YOUR SELF. Its an invaluable asset and most people over look who and what they really are by putting tags or names on their lapels. Drug attic, race car driver, cook, gay straight, and leave it at that. We are much more than those names and categories. Don't worry about the sub yet, and don't feel guilty for hurting your friends and family. Your working on it thats what's important.

As far as staying off the net and the boards, ahhh, maybe Ive found what I needed part of it being Flappy D's post.

I don't know why I went on the rant but I did.
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Old 05-01-2009, 10:44 AM
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My experience hasn't been that bad with the subs. I'm very surprised to see so many people having trouble with it .... I don't know. It's very odd.

I'm going down to 3 mgs next month, and then I'll stay on that until I adjust. Then, I'll go down to 2. Then, 1. Then, .5. Then, .5 every other day. Then, .5 every third day. Once day, I'll forget to take it.

I'm prepared for some discomfort, don't get me wrong. That's life. It's not the end of the world, though. I'll have the program of Narcotics Anonymous to help me.

Nothing can be as bad as quitting smoking! If I got through that hell without slipping up ONCE, I have every confidence that this will NOT be that bad!

xo Sugs
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Old 05-03-2009, 11:09 AM
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IMHO, there's a huge difference between weaning down to 2mgs and less and jumping off. A huge difference. When I jumped off at 1mg, my wd was so bad. So be prepared for the worst and hope for the best. BV was a great source of information for me.
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Old 05-03-2009, 04:42 PM
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Come on jane, I was fighting to get to one to make it easier. I had the squirts in wall mart I hate Wal-Mart, the WD just get worse at each step down.
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Old 06-17-2009, 11:49 AM
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right on Flappy

I just want to say that the getting off suboxone guide is right on. I am in the process of getting off suboxone after 4 years!!. I, along with many other people I have read about online, was told by my doctor that I would be on sub. forever. My doctor even told me "If you had a heart condition, you would be on medication forever. Suboxone is the same way." I believe that the suboxone doctors are only out for money, at least the doctors I have seen.

Anyway:
After 4 years of nonsense, I decided to get off. Like many others, I do not feel truly "clean" unless I am on nothing at all. I know of many others that share my sentiments. I remember a day, years ago, when I ran out of sub. taking 8mg a day and went into immediate withdrawal. I even got pregnant and wanted to get off, but was told by my doctor that it was not recommended. So what happened is that my son was in the NICU for 3 weeks, and they gave him tincture of opiate to get him off. They gave my son an opiate to get off of sub., which is not an opiate.

Now I am down to 2mg a day (breaking my pills into half, then half again), and the withdrawal was bad at first. Lots of trips to the bathroom, lots of lethargy. But I am getting better. Next Monday I am getting of completely. I feel extremely hopeful now, since I was able to go from 4mg to 2mg with only 2 weeks of feeling like crap.

I hope my post can make someone feel hopeful, who is trying to get off of this med. What helps me now is more support than I got when I ran out of meds years ago. And to anyone that has a doctor that tells them that they will be on this for the rest of their life: bull-crap. Again, I think it is a big money-making scheme. I don't think that by making the stupid choice of using heroin for 1 year (or whatever you were taking) would mean that I need to be on sub. for the next 50+ years of my life.

If anyone needs support, I am here. I am 25 and have a 3 year old son. I feel like I can finally do it, and know its not that easy if you are working a demanding job or have a demanding home life. Please let me know if this helps anyone.
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Old 06-20-2009, 08:13 AM
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Originally Posted by jane_668 View Post
IMHO, there's a huge difference between weaning down to 2mgs and less and jumping off. A huge difference. When I jumped off at 1mg, my wd was so bad. So be prepared for the worst and hope for the best. BV was a great source of information for me.
Jane, were you on 1 mg every single day when you jumped off? To me, that's still a significant amount, no matter what my doctor says.

He seems to think that 4 mgs is an inconsequential amount. I've talked to enough addicts who successfully quit Subs to know differently. I'm doing the "natural" taper with lots of addict-peer-support.

PM me if you get a chance. Thanks.

Sugar
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Old 06-20-2009, 07:38 PM
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Jayw "and they gave him tincture of opiate to get him off. They gave my son an opiate to get off of sub., which is not an opiate"


Suboxone is an opiate whoever told you it wasnt is wrong
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Old 06-21-2009, 01:17 PM
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Soooo...I haven't really been able to find anything about short term w/d. Most people who go on suboxone seem to go on it for extended periods of time. I'm using it just to ease the w/d symptoms of the heroin detox. I can't afford to go on it long term without insurance or government help, and I can't get either.

To be honest with you, if I weren't sweating like a stuck pig this morning, I wouldn't have touched the s**t. I've been so terrified reading posts (not from this board, most of them from this other site...I can't remember the name, but it's mostly green in the background and has annoying botox ads every few posts) that I'm afraid of relapsing after all this.

I have been taking suboxone for about three days. I think the first day, I ended up doing around 14mg, taking the other 2mg of the 16 around 6am that next morning. Between yesterday and today (today I took 4mg so far and I've been up about 8 hours), I took another 16mg (so 12 yesterday and 4 so far today). I've yet to really feel high from it like some people talk about...which is good or I'd likely be inclined to keep it up. (sorry, bein' honest...) I can remember doing my friend's take home methadone dose once and I was so effed up I couldn't hold my head up for most of the day. It's nothing like that. I got more spent on that than I did on the H.

Anyway, I was thinking about going down to 8mg total for today, then 4 for tomorrow, 2 the following day, 1 the following day, .5 the next day.

Do you think that will help with a short term suboxone w/d?

Any advice on this? Everyone has been so great and pretty much on point so far.
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Old 06-23-2009, 05:41 PM
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Pistoletta - Good luck with the short term w/d. I coukldn't do it myself like that, you are a strong person. I think your plan sounds like a good one!

Jayw - "They gave my son an opiate to get off of sub., which is not an opiate." Suboxone is an opiate. It is buprenorphine which is in the same class as morphine and it has naloxone in it to block the receptors in your brain. Your doc. was right in saying it wasn't safe to detox pregnant, but he could have tapered you down... A friend of mine was on Suboxone during her first trimester and they tapered her down the entire 3 months and her baby was born just fine... and about your doctor telling you to take your suboxone for the rest of your life? That the FIRST time I've ever heard that... ever.

As far as w/d from Suboxone, I've went 6 days tops without mine (it was an experiment to see if I could do it) and the only thing I felt was a little sweaty. I take 16 mg a day now. Our doctor and my counselor will taper us down so our w/d is minimal at best. I'm starting my 16th month of subs, and I'm planning on tapering down in the next couple months. Right now, I'm quite content living on my suboxone.
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Old 06-23-2009, 06:17 PM
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Buprenorphine (Subutex) and buprenorphine and naloxone (Suboxone) are used to treat opioid dependence (addiction to opioid drugs, including heroin and narcotic painkillers). Buprenorphine is in a class of medications called opioid partial agonist-antagonists. Just is case you are wondering, this is why you don't really get a high from suboxone, most of us. It is only a partial opioid agonist, where heroin and oxys are full-acting.

KJ
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Old 06-23-2009, 09:16 PM
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Originally Posted by tbeit View Post
Jayw "and they gave him tincture of opiate to get him off. They gave my son an opiate to get off of sub., which is not an opiate"


Suboxone is an opiate whoever told you it wasnt is wrong
bup is an opioid which is a sythetic opiate-bu is long acting they probably gave him a shorter acting opiate to soften the bottom end. But you can switch one with the other same receptors same feeling same family.
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Old 06-23-2009, 09:17 PM
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oops
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Old 06-23-2009, 09:22 PM
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DR said today six of one half dozen of the other. You go in patient its a five day detox Im going to do it in a month I hope. He told me either way you do it, its gonna hurt you play you pay, bottom line. You want an easy way out check in let them put you under for a week and wake up detoxed otherwise 1mg 5mg 16mg its gonna hurt.
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Old 06-24-2009, 06:25 PM
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Jimba,
Have you ever heard of the rapid-detox thing where they just check you into a doctors' office and "clean out your blood?" A doctor around here was claiming he could have you opiate-free in 4 hours with no sickness. It doesn't totally make sense to me, chemically? What do you think?

KJ
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Old 06-25-2009, 07:21 PM
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That sounds amazing, KJ. I don't understand how that's possible, either. Isn't a large part of withdrawal your body's reaction to the lack of opiates in the brain that it's become accustomed to? We pretty much altered our brain chemistry, right?

or am I misunderstanding it altogether?
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Old 06-28-2009, 08:41 PM
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That does sound a bit crazy doesn't it ? I would think they would have to give you a whole new brain or something crazy like that.
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Old 06-29-2009, 12:54 PM
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I could use a new brain right now!!
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Old 07-01-2009, 03:22 PM
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Originally Posted by kj3880 View Post
Jimba,
Have you ever heard of the rapid-detox thing where they just check you into a doctors' office and "clean out your blood?" A doctor around here was claiming he could have you opiate-free in 4 hours with no sickness. It doesn't totally make sense to me, chemically? What do you think?

KJ
There is a method that will clean the opiates from your body and they put you put you out for the three days or one day and you are over the physical part of it, but I don't think most of us realize that's the part we say we fear the most, but it is only the begining and probably the least challanging. Living sober is the tough part. But yeah throwing up sucks stomach pain sucks having the shitsx sucks and if you can pay or have insurance it's usually covered. PM me I know the name of one of the methods and can point you in some direction toward info.
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