meanders

I'm going to go through the forum and read the other threads, but I have picked up on the internet that you must be addicted to opioiods for one year to be considered for treatment with Suboxone. Does anyone have personal experience with this?

A boyfriend introduced me to insufflating (snorting) heroin about 6 months ago. The first couple of times one "bag" was too much and I wished I had split it up. Now I can go through 10 in about 30 hours, and do not really feel much of it. This is very scary, expensive, and has sapped almost all my motivation (the opposite of how it began). I can't imagine cold turkey due to cravings. I just know I would relapse. I would like to get into some counseling and treatment while on Suboxone and taper it down with a doctor instead of slef medicating with whatever I can get my hands on.

I came to these forums recovering from alcohol. I had never even enjoyed pain meds like I did alcohol and benzos. This is a whole different animal and has really thrown me for a loop. One of the things I "liked" about heroin is that I felt calm (relieved near-constant anxiety), motivated (for things like chores and housework), and had energy! I didn't get sloppy and sick like with alcohol. Of course I hadn't been dope sick, yet, either.

I'm 31 years old, female, and a college student (full time, double major in psychology and sociology, though I 've fallen behind in studies).

CleanBreeze

Im on Suboxone and never heard of there being a 1 year limit of being addicted in order to qualify for treatment although it is best to make some attempts to get off before turning to Suboxone. IMO Sub should only be used if its impossible to get off Opiates any other way because Sub comes with its own drawbacks and should only be used as kind of a last resort. Im not a doctor and you should def. speak to one either way but there are other meds you could try to help you get through withdrawals before turning to Sub, unless you try you'll never know if those options are successful for you or not and if they turn out to work for you it would be better then Sub. Some doctors are way to quick to put someone on sub when in reality their habit might in some ways increase because of it.. Speak to a doctor to review your options then make a decision. Get as educated as possible about different treatments then make the best decision for you. Theres alot of great forum sites like this one that will get you very educated about Sub as well as other treatments, If you would like the names of a couple different sites just let me know. Good luck and I wish you the best in your recovery!

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Suboxone is a good detox drug but now I see a lot of people are using it for a maintenance drug. Suboxone was never meant to be a maintenance drug. As a maintenance drug it is just trading one opiate for another. I came off of 45mg. of methadone for 2 years using suboxone. 6 weeks of tapering down until the last dose was just a few crumbs. It was an easy detox. I did this with a DR. The cost of this detox was over $1,000. Not cheap but it did the job. This is my experience with suboxone. Good luck on your journey. logo

CleanBreeze

Sub is being used as a maintenance drug more or less now because the relapse rate is so high for people that just use it as a detox. The detox is next to painless so for most people that makes it much easier to go back to using. Im not saying everyone relapses after using it for detox but most will. The statistics are alot better for people who use the drug with some type of treatment program and work on some things before coming off. I dont agree with the trading one drug for another because 98% of people dont get addicted to it, its just like taking a blood pressure med or insulin everyday. After a few days you will feel completely normal on it, it wont give you no feelings of being high or anything. Sub should be used as a tool to prevent relapse while you are in some type of therapy to fix things that caused you to become addicted in the first place.

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CB suboxone is an opiate and you can become addicted to it over a long period of time. But I guess you are right coming off of suboxone with out a program of recovery your chances are not good that you might return to DOC. For me I found recovery before I was fully detoxed. If you do enough of suboxone it will get you high. 16mg and I felt high as a kite after being on 45mg of methadone for 2 years. Buprenorphie (suboxone with opiate blocker) is a 25 year old pain med. I did a lot of research on this drug and is not what most people think it is. See my post on what I have learned about suboxone and it will tell you the whole story on this drug.

LeftFootFirst

Meanders, I would beseech you to not go on suboxone. I understand that you stated you had a history with alcohol, benzos, and now the hardest of them all to let go heroin. Society shudders and grimaces when the term even comes out in casual conversation. Let alone when its uttered amongst your name. Well I'm a heroin addict, turned suboxone addict with a few months completely sober from both before falling back to heroin, then suboxone again. My first stint on suboxone I spent 3 years trolling around pretending that everything was beautiful, because after all now the medicine I was hooked on was a prescription that was legal! You reach a point where your body and your mind tells you that it is time to move on and grow up, but all of these decisions and indicators mean nothing until you yourself are ready to get better, and are willing to do so. That means putting forth more effort than you did, to gather money, chase drugs, and go find that high, and taking all this new found effort and chase your dreams, sobriety, and your new found lease on life. Because surely the last three come as a package deal.