soberT

Hello to all, I am new to the board and have posted a few times as well as responded to a few post. I am hoping someone may be able to help me with a question. I realize all medical advice should be discussed with a physican and I would prefer that anyone who wishes to respond with an answer to my question have some experience with what I am asking. To give you a brief history I have been addicted to opiates for 8-9 years now and even though it is nothing I am proud to say that I finally quit for good I hope 2 days ago. As 2 days ago I went to see a Dr 100 miles from my hometown to start on Suboxone as all other methods to get me off of the opiates over the course of the time I have been addicted have failed and I have been told wonderful things about Suboxone and recovery from opiates. With that being said I am on day 2 of Suboxone treatment I take 16mg a day. 8mg in the am and 8mg in the pm, Other medical history in which I take medication is High blood pressure(Due to chronic abuse of pain meds and high tylenol intake) I have been taking medicine for High blood pressure for about a year now before last year I never had problems with my blood pressure but when you consume 20-30 vicodin or percocet a day for years on end It leads to hypertension also know as high blood pressure. The medication I take for this is called Benicar I take 20mg once a day. I also suffer with some depression and take 200mg of Zoloft a day.Now keep in mind I realize that most of you probably do not have any medical experience(ie.Doctor,nurse,pharmacist) and again I know I should be talking to my dr but I am looking for advise here right now. I suffer with terrible Insonima as well and prior to starting my suboxone I have been on Valium 10mg at bedtime for sleep as I have tried every drug known to man for help with sleep including ambien,sonata,xanax,other anti-depressants,melatonin,valerian,Lunesta,Rozerem you name it I tried it. Valium is the only one I have had sucess with. However the Dr I went to see that was certified to prescribe the suboxone said he would not start me on the sub taking a benzo because of risk of respitory(spelling ?)problems, So being so desperate after trying ever other method to kick my addiction to opiates told him I dont take the valium anymore as I really wanted to make sure I was started on the sub to beat this addiction and have heard such wonderful things about the sub.Anyway's so I told a little white lie and thought I could research on my own and figure out the Valium thing upon coming home after I had the script and was in treatment. Now please keep in mind I have never had any other kind's of addictions, I never took more valium than prescribed not even once as all it does is makes me sleep it does not produce the euphoria and pleasure that the opiates do so why whould I? I do not drink alcohol and use no street drugs. So anyway I have been searching high and low on the net the last 2 days for info regarding safety in taking 10mg valium at bedtime while on suboxone and get nothing but useless info or mixed opinion. So I am kind of hoping actually praying after the last 2 sleepless nights without valium that there might be someone on these boards that can help me by telling me is this safe? Are there any of you out there that are on Sub and are prescribed Valium to take as well? Again, I am looking mainly for info from someone in my shoes or someone of the professional type(MD,RN,pharmicist,etc...) I want to stay clean and realize that the only way this is probably going to happen is on the sub, However I cannot go night after night with no sleep. I am not looking for alternative methods although I appreciate the thought if you are thinking of replying. Valium is the only one that works best for me,None of the other benzo's even come close to letting me sleep like valium. I have been on them all at one time or another(prescribed by my md of course) but ativan,klonopin,xanax,ambien,luenesta etc..... The best 6-7 hrs of sleep I get is with 1(one) 10mg tablet of valium a half hour before bed...I did'nt want to talk to the dr regarding this as I know he would have chose not to start the sub and I would'nt be on this board right now but instead popping handfuls of oxy or hydro or the such.I need the suboxone as I want this terrible addiction to end, But then again I need the Valium as I need sleep to work and care for my 2 children. Which brings me back to why I need the sub again I have tried every other method to get off the opiates, In-patient detox and rehab 2 times, Out-patient rehab and counseling,Slow taper's from drug(Which any addict should know never works they tell you taper down such and such away well if I got the pills there is no taper because they would be gone in a day or two with me). I tried home detox cold turkey with the use of the medications clonodine and my valium,Did the methadone thing for awhile a couple years back when we lived in the city and there was a clinic but now we live in a small country town in the middle of nowhere and no methadone clinic. I drive 100 miles each way just to get to my sub dr once a month as there are no dr's certified to prescribe it anywhere closer to me. So as you can see this is really my last hope or I should say chance, I have the Suboxone for the cravings and withdrawl,I have NA/AA meetings,I have this board,I have all the love and support from family and friends but most importantly this time I have the will and determination not to give up even if it kills me.Because if I don't the amount of tylenol I was injesting in the pain pills would. I will not fail at sobriety this time no more chances for me this is it I want my life back and I want a sober lifestyle.I WILL NOT GIVE UP,NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS I AM IN THIS FOR THE LONG HAUL. And I actually just learned about the Suboxone and it seems to be helping wonderfully.Now that still leaves my valium issue. So what I am asking all of you out there can anyone please tell me is it safe or should I say is it going to hurt me or kill me to take my 1(one) 10mg tablet of Valium at bedtime??? Is there anyone on Sub and a benzo? mainly valium? If so what dose? I really need some help here guys and I would be so very grateful for any and all advice and help. I have read some stuff on the internet that says it is ok as long as you dont take high doses,then I read other stuff that says you cannot it will cause respitory faliure,then I read stuff on other forums that people are on a benzo with Sub prescribed by the same Dr. I am so confused and have no where else to turn. So again please as soon as possible the more answers the better keep them coming in for me I would appreciate all your reply's on this matter. Can someone tell me if I can take my sub and Valium at bed???????? Preferably as I said someone taking sub and a benzo already?????????? Any help would be so very much appreciated I need sleep badly and I am hoping for a stock pile of replys on this one guys. THANK YOU ALL FOR BEARING WITH ME ON THIS LONG LONG POST AND ALL YOUR INFO AND HELP! I wish you all the best and to everyone keep your head's up!Thank you again

Tom

Peter

I dunno Tom.You have not been completely honest with your Dr. about your drug use and now you want someone here to validate your taking matters into your own hands.

You say your doctor did not want to risk putting you on the Sub while you are still on the valium because of the possibility of "respiratory complications."

I feel very uncomfortable with what you wrote and the only feedback I feel I could possibly give you is to advise you to go back to your doctor.

margo

Hi soberT, and welcome to the forums. I hope you will find the support you need here to help you in your desire to live a clean and sober life. Having said that, it would be highly inappropriate and downright dangerous for any member, even if they were a doctor, to give you any advice about what would be safe for you regarding suboxone and valium. The wrong advice, or another's experience, could end up killing you. Even if there are members here who have taken both at the same time, their experience would not be your experience and your history and medical issues are unique to you. Your only safe option is to go back to your doctor and come clean about the "little white lie" you told. Your doctor told you very specifiically why he would not prescribe the valium and the suboxone, ie:

I would imagine that means the risk of respiratory failure, ie death. Not all doctors are qualified to prescribe suboxone, so if I were you I would heed ONLY the advice of your prescribing doctor.

I really do have sympathy for you in regards to your insomnia problems but there are alternative methods, ie non-drug, that you could try including acupuncture, meditation, self-hypnosis/relaxation/biofeedback training, and naturopathic approaches. I'm sure you and your prescribing doctor can figure out a way to deal with the insomnia issue, which you may find improves as your body heals from the opiate abuse.

SoberRecovery is a great place to come for peer support, but we cannot help you with this kind of advice. Thanks for your understanding.

angelgirl

Hi Tom,,

It is my understanding that it is not a good idea to mix benzos at such a high dose, along with suboxone. As a matter of fact, it's extremely dangerous. I am on suboxone.

I def don't want to sound as though I am lecturing, but I want to say that when I finally gave it over, and got help, which included suboxone, I did tell my doctor everything, because I was ready to be done with everything, and I felt being completely honest was the only way for me to finally get a new life in recovery. I
didn't want to live those lies anymore, or hiding that stuff anymore,, or with the fear.

Call your sub doctor, and talk to him about it. It's really important that you do this. Because it's also not safe to just stop a benzo cold turkey. You need some help.
Be honest.. It will all work out in the end, even if it takes longer,, or is more work than what you thought it was going to be.

Good luck, and PLEASE call your doctor, it's extremely important that you do call him,, and let him know. Also, please come back and post some more, we are here for you..

Prayers,
Becky

ccgirl

I think recovery is about total honesty; to your doctor and to yourself. Recovery is not a comfortable experience in any way, shape or form and bad sleep is part of it. It seems giving up valium is a small price to pay to help with the looming issue of your opiate addiction. Also, at some point down the line, if you no longer have opiates in your system, and your body has time to heal, sleep may come on its own. wouldn't it be nice to not to have to take the valiums at all?

Taking5

Suboxone is STILL an opiod, you will probably want to get off of it too. You can overdose from Suboxone, and you can and will have withdrawal symptoms from it.

Also if you are going to make long posts, and want people to read and follow them, use paragraphs. It makes it a lot easier to read, and you'll get more responses.

Good luck and let us know how you are doing.

spark-o-cet

i agree with what everyone else has said to you on this matter.i will give you my experience with this and this is me only.i have took 10mg with my suboxone many times to sleep and nothing happens to me,but this is me i have a VERY VERY high tolerence to all opiates so this might be what helps me avoid the two drugs interactions idunno.i dont reccommend you do this until you talk to the dr,and you need to know this:HE WILL FIND OUT ANYWAY THAT YOU ARE TAKIN VALUIM AS IT WILL SHOW UP IN THE **** TEST THEY MAKE YOU DO EVERY MONTH WHILE ON SUBOXONE.so you better tell him before you go in there and **** and he finds out with the test, then he will kick you off the program and most likely will not take you back.one hint about sub is you dont wont to take any sub past 3:00pm in the afternoon if possible as it will keep you up and make you restless.good luck-spark

splendra

I am not a Dr. I do work in the medical field and if a doctor tells you not to take certain drug combos there is good reason. You were told due to respiratory failure... that is a pretty sever side effect if you ask me and not worth the risk...

I liked the suggestion not to take the sub after 3pm. There are a zillion things you could do to help you relax ie: take a brisk walk or jog then take a hot bath and drink some chamomile tea without sugar, cut down on or ellimate caffeine white flour and sugar from your diet. drink lots of water. Eat complex carbohydrates and turkey meat has an amino acid that causes drowsiness.

I love to read a long post the only thing difficult about them is when there are no spaces between paragraphs....

emmer

Welcome SoberT,
I knew a very nice lady who mixed her meds laid down on her couch and died.

Be honest with your doctor and take your meds as prescribed, and of course don't take anyone else's meds.

The above things helped me - a recovering pill junkie- to get stable and then clean (9 months now.)

Life is so much better clean. I am much happier.

Take care........... Joe

adoublelife

I was on sub and my doctor stressed to me how serious it was to mix the two. He refused to give me any green light on taking any meds to help me sleep, even warned me it would kill me and that there have been many cases of such, etc. Needless to say he scared me! Good luck and be careful. Congratulations on making this step, believe me I understand about needing sleep to carry on with life~it's very important to get rest especially while recovering. I wish you all the best and keep us posted about your progress!

jbit

Something tells me soberT didn't get the responses he was looking for.

hipmemphischick

well, i will make this short and sweet....

my chronic pain doc , treating me for gastroparesis prescribed suboxone , and she knows I am on 1mg xanax three times a day and 3 mg of xanax at night , as well as 10mg of ambien , she said just try to cut the dosage back and " see how you do" .


I have been taking my mdeds as usual and have had no problems , so , my advie is to honest with my doc and see how i all goes !


Good Luch with your pain !
Tracy:praying

Peter

Hi Tracy, welcome to the forums.

This thread is a little old. How about opening up a new thread and telling us a little more about yourself.

woops

Yes Peter - this is an old thread - only just noticed when I got to your post. Felt it had been a waste of time trying to wade thro that incredibly dense first post............not an easy post to read at all. Given that it is so old and hardly relevant now? Not intending to be critical.

So - a new thread must be the way to go?

Tom - if you are out there reading - will you post and let us know how things are for you now? Would really appreciate an update!

Take care

woops

bval

When I read a post like this, the first thing that comes to mind is ... I wonder what 'a doctor' would say about taking, ya know, 30-40 percocets a day, along with a valium at night? I would be willing to bet 'a doctor' would say 'I would not prescribe that, because the patient may die'.

This is not medical advice, merely my thoughts on a question of this nature. Call me crazy if you like. Percocets are opioids, and so is suboxone. Suboxone is an opioid known to cause less respiratory depression than your typical 'abused' opioid like percocet. This is a known fact, I'd be happy to find evidence of this if anyone has questions about it. IOW, I guess the bottom-line is that it would strike me as 'strange' if taking suboxone and benzos is actually MORE dangerous than taking handfuls of percocet ... and benzos.

But I am not a doctor. Maybe there *is* some kind of 'odd relationship' somehow between buprenorphine and benzos that is somehow 'different', where it's perfectly SAFE to gobble massive amounts of percocet and then take a benzo to sleep later, but it's NOT if you're on bupe. I dunno. In any case, I'm not suggesting someone take matters into their own hands. Clearly, one should talk to their doctor about this.

Goat1221

Since 10mg of valium wont "most likeliy"(I can't say for sure cuz I'm no Dr.) kill you, you do run into 1 problem lying to him. The day you start to get treated with Suboxone, you must fill out paper work and by law you must consent to random drug tests. If you come clean to your doctor and he decides to drug test you; if he finds Benzos in your ****, he has full right to immediately drop you from treatment. So then you would have no Suboxone nor Valium and you'd be screwed. I've been taking 16-20mg a day of Suboxone for about a little more than a month. I also take Ambien(or Lunesta), Ridilin, Vyvanse, Flexeril, and Lexepro. AND I'M ONLY 17 YEARS OLD! Today I felt a little stressed and for the first time in a month, I took 1mg of Klonopin(not mine.) It does seem like it boosted the effects of the Klonopin because in the past it never really did anything. I do feel a little different then usually when I take it, but it doesn't feel like I'm going to fall over dead. Luckily I'm hoping my Dr. wont drug test me..and if h does, I don't see if for 13 more days; but he's cool.
Now my personal opinion, (don't rely on it cuz I'm no Dr.) is that if you've been taking valium for a long time, every night, then the chances of serious interactions with the suboxone is fairly low...that's my opinion. Because you've built up a tolerance to the valium and that's why it shouldn't do too much harm. If you were new to it, then it could be risky... Most of the time, if anybdytakes a low does of a benzo, chances are nothing will happen... It's when you snort it or inject it that it's EXTREMELY dangerous.
So I follow my gut feeling...take 5mg of valium for a little while, then go to 10mg a night. But remember...if your doctor catches you; your most likely ******. The smarter thing to do is wait until the valium is out of your system; then go and talk to him and maybe you can work something out. But if you really need the valium to sleep, you don't have much of a choice...Just what ever you do, don't go to your Dr. with valium in your system and say, "hey doc, I've been takin valium when you told me not to...sorry..." Because he will by law(at least in FL) have to kick you out of the program. I hope this helps...be safe.