Comments on: Suboxone Taper 101

By: dan

dan — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:44:57 +0000

I’m seven days off sub and feel fine(93%). I was a long time user, oxy’s, heroin, for several years. Faced with several real serious personal tragedies and looking at a state sentence, I had to quit. So I have more motivation than most! Kicking a habit in the joint is true hell on earth!!! I did a six week taper, starting at 8mg/day, for three days. Decreasing to 2mg at week 3. Week 4 1mg/day. The road gets rougher once you start going under a 1mg/day. I did experience some withdraw, but would take .25mg as a rescue dose. The last 4 days I was almost stable at .25mg(thats 250 micro grams). Day thru day 5 you get minor w/d’s(sneezing, stomach feels bad, lethargy(real tired!), and bad sleep for about 6 days. I took restorol for the first 5 nites(life saver). It gets better every day!!! I can honestly say at day seven I feel pretty good, I think once my sleep normalizes I’ll be fine. I will add here that I’m in excellent condition and I’m sure that helped. I also exercised as much as strength would allow thru the entire detox to speed up the healing process. don’t lay around it just makes the w/d lag on! I hope this helps some of you. You all can do this and break your tether of addiction!!! It’s one or two (at the most) bad weeks to get your life back. But do yourself a favor and taper down. This was the easiest detox i’ve done! NO where near the pain of kicking dope!!! God Bless and good luck!! Pray for me I’m going upstate for two years and losing a good women and two great kids from this stuff, it is the devil in chemical form!!!!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:03:57 +0000

Your story is so inspirational. I too am getting off of suboxone. I havent been addicted for only a year or so now but i was getting pretty deep into them. I first started out with perc 10s then went to oxycotin and then started to do opana and dilaude. It wasnt till this summer i went on sub. I am down to about i think 2 mgs. I want to be clean before i get worse into the pills. I lost my job and almost lost my wonderful boyfriend over this stuff. I wanna get my life back before its too late. I hope my tapering isnt hell but i will have to face it sooner or later…

By: Brad

Brad — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:27:10 +0000

I have in on sub for 2 years 6 months. Ihave a question, this is my second time gettin off sub. The first time was about 4 mouths ago, and was off 32 days, I could not deal withthe depression that went with it, so my Doc put me back on it with wellburtion. Now four months later I just stopped cold turkey at 4mg a day. Its day six and I dont really feel to bad. is the half life gonna catch up tp me or is it the same either way?

By: dan

dan — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:15:34 +0000

Im 50/yrs old and have been using opiates on and off for almost 30 years(unfortunately). I was shooting about a half gram of real good heroin for a time, then my connect got busted and decided to start on a regiment of 200-300mg of oxycodone and tried to wean off with some perc 10′s. I think you guys get the message. I have always been a high functioning addict, working and even working out, and staying in good shape(by the way your physical condition will definitely, and i mean definitely speed up your detox! Especially that I don’t have enough energy to sit upright feeling! During those 30 odd years I have been clean for brief periods of time(6months- year and a half) and I before sub I don’t think I would have ever quit.
I think the key is a slow and steady decline in the dosage. You want to get to a reasonable dose (2mg or 1mg). Then once you feel comfortable the hard part is getting from your comfort dose( that 1-3mg) to, say .25mg. a
At that point you have to start thinking in terms of micro grams, not milli grams, the only way to do that is to get to the 2mg strips and section them with a “sharp” razor blade into smaller and smaller sections. I jumped off at 50 micro grams and its tolerable and that OMG I don’t have the energy to put on my shoes feeling will not persist as it will with some one that jumped off, say .5mg(500 micro grams). Yea! It take longer and requires more discipline, but it’s way more comfortable and we addicts are real cowards when it comes to withdraw pain! Get those 2mg strips cut them down small. You’ll get there! I tapered a little over 2 months from a 3 year,300mg oxy habit. Feeling 100% takes about a week if you taper slow. Good luck every one. Can’t believe how many suffering addicts out there, especially the mom’s with kids! My heart and blessings go out to you all! You gotta stick with it, it’s a time thing, it seems forever but it just seems like that!

By: zach

zach — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 06:35:28 +0000

I need help tapering please call me 7703344655 i want this part of my horrible life over i already have been quit from roxys for two days i took 8mg of sub the strips and feel great what next

By: dumbcountryboy

dumbcountryboy — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:18:33 +0000

Hi Folks, and thanks for your time invested,

just gona give a quick rundown of my drug history before suboxone

age 16-26 lots of alcohol (for a 16yr old atleast)12pk every night after work, drugs few times a week, mostly pot, then shootin coke by age 18, darvset, codine, but really was raised to belive that drugs would put you in jail and fuck up so whatever you do, dont get hooked, early 20′s a liter of vodka every morning, waiting in parking for liqure store to open @ 700am and off to work then shaking like a 50 yr old wine’o by 300am back to Licqure store parking lot before 700am opening time, detox,treatment,jail, skidrow couple times a year

Meet young nieve beautiful girl that thought I was coolest cowboy she had ever meet married and drunk entire 1st year,

Baby on way, sober 8 months when baby boy was born, clean & sober 10 years, 1 wife, 4 boys and 0 divorces, And lots of less important stupid shit, like house, cars, trucks, boats, motorhomes, horses, cows,dogs, every man toy I ever wanted, drug free with beautiful wife and 4 boys to enjoy it with, life was good I was happy, perfect poster child example of how bad drugs & alcohol can be and just how wonderful life without drugs or booze can be,

My wife pulled a musle in her neck and after a dozen trips to a chiropractor and massage therapist at a hundred bucks a pop, I took her to a neoroligist and came home with 180 ultrams

That was close to 8 years ago and I have used every single day for well over 7 years except the 3 times I tried too cold turkey it, never making past 10-13 days each time,

1st time was around 100mg hydro and 8mg zanx daily for 2 years, cold turkey for 10 days with the 10 th day
just as bad as the 3rd, worst hell ever felt in life up till then day 11 went to doc got some oxy’s, told him to stick the zanx bars up his butt.

another couple years on oxy’s every single day, 120 mg-upto 300 mg a day, down to zero overnight, another 12 days of living hell, but still not as bad as hydros and zanx where the time before, 13th day went to doc,

wasted another 2 years using every day ,never missing A day of methadone oxy’s and morphine, getting really serious this time so I get vitamin B complex and tyrsine and cold turkey it for 12 or so days, another 2 years of methadone, morphine and oxcy use made widthdrawls was as bad as the zanx and hydros 4 years before, really just a living freakin hell, went to doc told him to keep the methodone and morphine, funny thing was every time I told him to keep zanx, morphine and methodone he just seemed so proud that I so responsibile with my meds acting as every suggestion I made to increase the oxys was great so It’s to doc at around 13 days again, back on every day using and could’nt get high and could not lay off a few days so I could get high
6 months ago went to sub doc, 16mg per day for couple months then in 1 weeks time easily down to 8mg per day,
stayed there couple months then piece of cake to drop to 4 mg per day, then down to 2 mg a day for couple weeks.
it was much more like taking candy from a baby than taking dope from a junky, jumped off at 2 mg per day 12 days ago, 1-3 easy 4th day rough,5th-12th up and down back and forth, but nothing like any hell I went through before,
now some people say suboxone gives them thier life back and makes them normal, My first day on suboxone I was not close to normal, I got best opiate high in my life, I was out working in the yard and even ask a neighbor that I cant even look at to come and help me clean up, it was first time in years that I felt great, I was high like years before, But not normal and after first few hours of that first day on subs, I was not high ever again, but I felt foggy, maybe stoned a little is kida a way to put it, but not what I remember as normal for sure, I know I kinda came off fast at 4mg for couple weeks then 2mg per day for couple weeks then off at once, but I want to feel again,and now at 13 days with zero stripps or pills, it seems it would be stupid to go and get back on subs just to take say 1 mg then 1/2mg and so on, HOW MANY JUMPED AT 2MG ?? AND HOW MANY OF THOSE MADE IT 2 WEEKS, SEEMS LIKE EVERYONE IS SAYING, REGAURDLESS OF JUMP POINT, THAT AFTER 30 DAYS OFF SUB YOU COULD NOT MAKE THEM TAKE SUBS ARE ANY DOPE OF ANY KIND, for me its up all night. then little sleep next night, then up all night again then little sleep next night, all 3 times before the sub taper when I would try, no amount of imodium would stop the stomach pain or diarea, now 13 days after subtaper, never any fever, never sweats or chills never RLS, just tired, with depression up and down, never praying that I would die a single time Plus very little imodium helps the stomach pain, and passing solid stools like I was taking 16mg of subs a day or 300mg of oxy a day, now somone please tell me this is real and that on or about 1-1-2012 and around 26 or so days off my subs I’ll be oh so close to normal.

thanks all, sorry I did’nt keep it short or spell check it

By: dumbcountryboy

dumbcountryboy — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:44:09 +0000

testing1 2 3 testing 1 2 3

By: JOE

JOE — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:17:47 +0000

Hi Brian,thanks for posting this stuff. Some people have no idea of this battle we fight,my hat is off to you. I tapered off methadone 90mgs to 28 mgs over 1 and a half years. Ive been on sub.for three weeks now(2 8mg sublingual melt strips a day) I want to start the taper,for my clinic wants me there FOREVER* . I run a great program(aa/na meetings and have two years TRUE sobriety. Any suggestions?? Thank You very much! Joe:)

By: Myca

Myca — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:49:14 +0000

This site got me through and let me know what to expect. I’m on day 19. Still am not 100% but should be by day 25.

By: Just T

Just T — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 23:29:43 +0000

Bro, I read your entire post. I gotta say, this is truly the light at the end of a very dark and long tunnel. You give me hope, dude. That says a lot! I tried to kick suboxone a couple of times now (Once, just jumping off at 16 mg/day, and again at 2 mg/day) and the first time, I was in the hospital because I thought I was having a heart attack. The second time, I just gave in and took the suboxone again. I ended up going back up to 16 mg/day, and alternating down to 12 mg/day just to start to taper. I think I’ll be okay at just 8 mg/day for now, but I want to get off of it. I mean, yeah, I made some HUGE changes in my life since being on it, and the treatment only gave me the strength to do so, but I think it’s time to move on, and finally write the end of this chapter of my life. I know, once I kick it completely, my family, and my girlfriend will be proud of me. It’s the fear of going through the w/d’s that worries me. I know what to expect, and I know how I’m gonna feel. The only thing I don’t know, is how to deal with it all! It’s a terrifying thing to deal with and I got to about day 5. . . then I turned back. . . I wish I never did! I’m glad that you are doing okay now, though! Hopefully, the next time I write to you, I’ll be in the same place. . . Cheers!