Hello my friends, Off pills, getting off Subs
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Marietta, Georgia
Posts: 1
Hello my friends, Off pills, getting off Subs
I know my story might not seem as "hardcore" as some peoples. But I am an addict, I have had my problems, and I am getting my life back in order. I have been on and off user of Hydrocodone for 5-6 years. Mostly recreational (after having some kinda surgery or being hospitalized for intestinal issues I would be put on pain killers then I would stay on them because I would get rehooked and I consider this recreational). For the last 1.5-2 years I have been getting a small 120 ml bottle of Hydromet Cough medicine for chronic Bronchitis. I was getting the bronchitis from being around cig smoke because I have asthma and I am allergic to the smoke. I am no longer around the smoke and therefore no longer getting sick so often. When I ran out of the hydromet, I would take 15mg Morphine ER twice a day to get me by until I got my next bottle. Two weeks ago I said enough was enough. A buddy of mine gave me some subs and gave me a couple of weeks worth. I went about 48 hours without any opioid before starting the sub. I started at 4mg a day (2mg morning, 2mg at night). Then after a couple days went to 4 mgs in morning and 4 at night. Tonight was my last 4 mg of sub and I plan to be completely free from it for now on. I have come clean to all of my friends, family, and loved ones that support me. I have searched forum after forum as to what I should expect, if anything, from coming off about 15 days being on 8 mgs of suboxone a day and I can't find anything. Every story I read is something of people using it as maintenance (which I might consider if I go into relapse) or people who have been on it for years and trying to come off. I know everyones story is different and I went to a couple of NA meetings and was kinda tossed aside because I was a "hardcore user" or my story wasn't "telling enough" for them to find interest and I had no help from them 
Should I experience withdrawals from the suboxone after the 2 or so weeks I took it to get off the opiods and if so, what should I expect? I am really looking for some answers and help. I know I should have gone to a doctor but I have no job (and have 2 degrees from a great public universtiy but was laid off a year ago and cannot find work for anything). I don't have the money at the moment to go see a sub doctor or anything. Is there anyone out there with some more knowledge that can maybe point me to some info I am looking for? I am kinda scared now because I wanted to get off the opiods so bad but feared the withdrawals (been through them before) but I read now that so many people have MUCH worse withdrawals from suboxone. So of course it has my mind racing and being scared to death now lol. If anyone could help me out, give me some direction, and support, I would forever grateful. By the way, I have been clean off of the opiods for over 18 days or so!!!! Which just amazes me! Thank you so much in advance and I look forward to carrying on conversations and helping support as much as I can on this board.
God Bless everyone of you!
Greg
Should I experience withdrawals from the suboxone after the 2 or so weeks I took it to get off the opiods and if so, what should I expect? I am really looking for some answers and help. I know I should have gone to a doctor but I have no job (and have 2 degrees from a great public universtiy but was laid off a year ago and cannot find work for anything). I don't have the money at the moment to go see a sub doctor or anything. Is there anyone out there with some more knowledge that can maybe point me to some info I am looking for? I am kinda scared now because I wanted to get off the opiods so bad but feared the withdrawals (been through them before) but I read now that so many people have MUCH worse withdrawals from suboxone. So of course it has my mind racing and being scared to death now lol. If anyone could help me out, give me some direction, and support, I would forever grateful. By the way, I have been clean off of the opiods for over 18 days or so!!!! Which just amazes me! Thank you so much in advance and I look forward to carrying on conversations and helping support as much as I can on this board. God Bless everyone of you!
Greg
Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: In the South
Posts: 228
Hi Greg, and welcome to SR. I'm pretty new to this forum and have found a wealth of helpful information here. I can't speak to your issue as intelligently as some can because I have never personally been addicted to the painkillers, but my son has. He's gone the suboxone route, the methadone route, etc. and I've spent the better part of the past 6 years suffering with him. My AS is an injector, DOC is the oxys/roxis, but of course for him any opiate will do, morphine, dilauded, whatever. Sometimes he'd take a break from injection and sniff the pills. Not sure why, but that's what he did. A few years back he decided to get clean and try Sub. He had only about a week of sub in him and he got arrested, and the local jail didn't allow suboxone treatment so he was really scared, awaiting the withdrawals. But to his surprise, it didn't happen. He said he felt just "yucky" about 3 days after he was locked up, but that he never really suffered any wd 's. He had a similar situation a year or so later, when he'd relapsed, then decided to try methadone. Was on a stable dose, got locked up yet again. He was fearing the dreaded wd's, and again it didn't happen.
However, what I have observed in my AS, and his numerous opiate addict friends and aquaintences, is that it's the cravings that come back in a big way. The brain has gotten so used to those euphoric chemicals in it that it's stopped producing that naturally occurring endorphins altogether, and it's like a hungry baby screaming for that bottle. My AS has never been able to figure out how to resist the cravings and he always submits to his God Morpheus, as I call it.
My AS also has an AGF, who is on suboxone. She takes her sub sporadically, then waits a few days for it to get out of her system, then uses opiates again. Then goes back on her sub. It's a crazy cycle.
From what I understand from researching NIDA and NIH, it takes at least 6 months for the brain to start to heal, and 12 months for cravings to begin to subside. I have also talked to career addicts who say that regardless of how long they have been clean, that craving is always just beneath the surface. I think being aware of that, expecting cravings to occur, might help to be prepared, to have a plan for when cravings start to do something until they subside. This is were a recovered addict could speak more intelligently than someone who has only observed it, lived in the house with it, and read about it.
I wish you success, positive energy, and solid emotional support through this. It sounds like you are making progress already!
However, what I have observed in my AS, and his numerous opiate addict friends and aquaintences, is that it's the cravings that come back in a big way. The brain has gotten so used to those euphoric chemicals in it that it's stopped producing that naturally occurring endorphins altogether, and it's like a hungry baby screaming for that bottle. My AS has never been able to figure out how to resist the cravings and he always submits to his God Morpheus, as I call it.
My AS also has an AGF, who is on suboxone. She takes her sub sporadically, then waits a few days for it to get out of her system, then uses opiates again. Then goes back on her sub. It's a crazy cycle.
From what I understand from researching NIDA and NIH, it takes at least 6 months for the brain to start to heal, and 12 months for cravings to begin to subside. I have also talked to career addicts who say that regardless of how long they have been clean, that craving is always just beneath the surface. I think being aware of that, expecting cravings to occur, might help to be prepared, to have a plan for when cravings start to do something until they subside. This is were a recovered addict could speak more intelligently than someone who has only observed it, lived in the house with it, and read about it.
I wish you success, positive energy, and solid emotional support through this. It sounds like you are making progress already!
Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: California
Posts: 60
Hi Greg! Congrats and SUPER job getting off the opiates! 
That's no easy task, I know first-hand myself so good for you! "Hardcore" or not, addiction is addiction and nobody should be judging anyone else and everyone is different as to how they may react regarding WDs, whether Suboxone, Opiates or anything else so I can only speak for myself (we can't give medical advice so this is only culled from my own experience with your question).
I'm on Suboxone now to help me deal with and recover from years of opiate addiction. I tried it last year but this time it's working
because I'm allowing it to work while I work on the issues that got me here in the first place, rather than relying on the Sub to be the miracle cure all in itself, because it's not but damned if it hasn't made a world of difference in a good way. I would not be here if not for Suboxone, I can tell you that.
I'm not to the point of going off entirely yet but I know from personal experience, that of others in my recovery group (not NA either, I attend a women's group at my addiction doctor's office), advice from my doctor and the research I've done myself that going off it without the horrible WDs can be done if you do it correctly, which is to say by tapering slowly over a period of time by stepping down the dosages. There is no clear cut right or wrong answer for everyone across the board though, we all get there in the way and time that is right and works for us, I think.
I've tapered both on my own and under a doctor's care so I know it works, but I know I have to take it slowly and gradually, no rushing, going cold turkey or assuming that just because I might feel ok phyisially that all my work is done, because that may not be the case and certainly was not the first time I tried, which naturally was not successful. I know I have to be smart about it and take it slowly, don't rush and go by how I feel, not what others scare me into feeling or thinking. I made that mistake and now know I can only go by what's best for me in my specific situation, not what anyone else says or does who isn't in my situation and I would say the same thing to you. I no longer listen to the fearmongers, doing that did nothing but make me more fearful and mess up a lot of hard work I did by believing everything I read or heard, which was only negative as they seem to be the vocal ones about Suboxone, not the ones who have been successful! I WILL be one of the latter, because I'm not listening to the former anymore.
When the time comes and I'm ready to go off entirely I will, and I will do it the right way - by tapering slowly and gradually, further and further apart in smaller incriments depending on how I feel, the way my doctor recommends which they say keeps the physical WDs to a minimum if at all. I know going Cold Turkey doesn't work, been there done that, don't recommend. I've since realized my mistake(s) in not coming off Suboxone slowly, not dealing with my other issues that surrounded my drug abuse that go me here, and not listeing to my doctor who told me how to go off of it properly. It can be done if you don't try to do it overnight. I didn't get to this point overnight, and I won't get off of this or anything else overnight either. It's a process, but one I now know I need to be strong for, be smart about and patient with, or else it will come bite me in the ass like it did before.
Good luck to you and hang in there. You've already made it past some really difficult times so I know you can do this too; you've gotten this far and you can get to the end too, in whatever way works best for you. I can only say continue to do your research, take what advice and info you can use, dump the rest and do what's right for you, not anyone else and you'll get where you need to be before you know it!
That's no easy task, I know first-hand myself so good for you! "Hardcore" or not, addiction is addiction and nobody should be judging anyone else and everyone is different as to how they may react regarding WDs, whether Suboxone, Opiates or anything else so I can only speak for myself (we can't give medical advice so this is only culled from my own experience with your question).I'm on Suboxone now to help me deal with and recover from years of opiate addiction. I tried it last year but this time it's working
because I'm allowing it to work while I work on the issues that got me here in the first place, rather than relying on the Sub to be the miracle cure all in itself, because it's not but damned if it hasn't made a world of difference in a good way. I would not be here if not for Suboxone, I can tell you that. I'm not to the point of going off entirely yet but I know from personal experience, that of others in my recovery group (not NA either, I attend a women's group at my addiction doctor's office), advice from my doctor and the research I've done myself that going off it without the horrible WDs can be done if you do it correctly, which is to say by tapering slowly over a period of time by stepping down the dosages. There is no clear cut right or wrong answer for everyone across the board though, we all get there in the way and time that is right and works for us, I think.
I've tapered both on my own and under a doctor's care so I know it works, but I know I have to take it slowly and gradually, no rushing, going cold turkey or assuming that just because I might feel ok phyisially that all my work is done, because that may not be the case and certainly was not the first time I tried, which naturally was not successful. I know I have to be smart about it and take it slowly, don't rush and go by how I feel, not what others scare me into feeling or thinking. I made that mistake and now know I can only go by what's best for me in my specific situation, not what anyone else says or does who isn't in my situation and I would say the same thing to you. I no longer listen to the fearmongers, doing that did nothing but make me more fearful and mess up a lot of hard work I did by believing everything I read or heard, which was only negative as they seem to be the vocal ones about Suboxone, not the ones who have been successful! I WILL be one of the latter, because I'm not listening to the former anymore.
When the time comes and I'm ready to go off entirely I will, and I will do it the right way - by tapering slowly and gradually, further and further apart in smaller incriments depending on how I feel, the way my doctor recommends which they say keeps the physical WDs to a minimum if at all. I know going Cold Turkey doesn't work, been there done that, don't recommend. I've since realized my mistake(s) in not coming off Suboxone slowly, not dealing with my other issues that surrounded my drug abuse that go me here, and not listeing to my doctor who told me how to go off of it properly. It can be done if you don't try to do it overnight. I didn't get to this point overnight, and I won't get off of this or anything else overnight either. It's a process, but one I now know I need to be strong for, be smart about and patient with, or else it will come bite me in the ass like it did before.
Good luck to you and hang in there. You've already made it past some really difficult times so I know you can do this too; you've gotten this far and you can get to the end too, in whatever way works best for you. I can only say continue to do your research, take what advice and info you can use, dump the rest and do what's right for you, not anyone else and you'll get where you need to be before you know it!
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