I started out taking just a couple of the 5 mg hydros a few times a week. I did oxy every now and then but they would make me throw up if took enough to get a good high. Id get norcos or percs when I could too. I gradually got really addicted and was taking 16-18 of the 5mg a day. I just thought fuck that and I went to a suboxone doctor and Ive been on that for 2 years
while i agree with you and do think sub maintance is a good thing, i am on the stuff myself, i just want to remind everyone to be mindful about what your putting into your body, there is 8mg of buprenorphine and 2mg of naloxone, bupe, the partial opiod antagonist is a very strong narcotic that is actually 30x stronger than morphine, we just dont realize it because of the very low ceiling of sub, but i can promise you this, taking 8mg per day for 1 year is the same as taking about 240mg of morphine sulphate per day for one year, and you WILL withdraw accordingly, i can promise you this.
the trick to suboxone is one of two, if you are less than a 12 month user, you should enter rehab facility, eat subs starting at 10-12 mg per day or lower if the patient can handle it, and then slowly through a 10-15, maybe even 20 day taper work them down to taking less than .5mg of bupe per day, eventually stopping it all together, you will still detox from it, but since you took it for such a short period it wont be nearly as bad. itll take about 2 weeks to start feeling like you can move, 1 month before the full physical sickness actually goes away, 3-6 monthes before your body starts fully working and responding to its own endorphin system and yourself again....and finally anywhere from 6 monthes to a year until PAWS may fully subside, and for me personally it was over a year, and it could be longer, i have talked to people who had it pretty rough for almost 2 and a half years, im not exaggerating, and i fully beleive them. if you replace your own endorphin system with synthetic opiates it can take almost as long as you were using to get back to normal (1,2 even 3 years)
The second way to take suboxone is daily maintance, Personally i do not think this is the absolute best route, but for ME, it worked, and still works, and im happy it saved my life, but i am also unhappy to be addicted to a powerful narcotic. it really hits home for me when a totally opiate naive friend comes over to my house, begs me for 2-3 mg of suboxone, i comply and give him some..from there hes nodding very very hard, throwing up, nausea, dizziness, very high for pretty much 2 days etc etc...that should tell you enough right there. the real key to sub daily maint. is getting yourself REALLY maintained on a really low dose of sub. im not talking about usin sub for 3 weeks and getting high one week or anything like that, im talking about taking suboxone every day no exceptions for 3-4 monthes..you will then be 'maintained' on sub. hopefully by this time your not taking large amounts of it, anywhere from 3-8 mg sounds right, 8 being the very very high side of things, the lower the better. after a few months start to very slowly taper off to .5-1.2 mg...if you do it slow enough ( im talking .1 mg or .2mg at a time) over about a month or two period your body will start to slowly kill off the extra opiate receptors your brain has made to receive the opiates. it may be a little bit uncomfortable at times but NEVER full wd and never bad, if its that bad your not taking enough. once your able to taper and maintain a low dose such as .5mg to 1mg per day or per 2 days, your body will only have so many receptors to accept the opi because if your not taking large amounts of narcotics, your body does not have alot of receptors, its when you start taking them everyday and they are always filled, your body starts to make more and more receptors so it can receive more of the drug, this is known as tolerance to us.
i have been able to do about 1.5 mg per day for about a year or so now, my sex drive has almost fully returned and while i do know im still on a powerful narcotic, i know im not taking alot and damaging my bodys own endorphin system (not badly or as bad a full agonist opiate) so at least i know i am slowly healing my body. I eventually plan to taper .1mg at a time every 2 weeks until im down to .1 to .4mg the next step after that is actually stopping all together 100 percent, i hope by this time my receptors will be so few that WD wont be hell, i hope this helps someone understand this a little more and i hope everyone can beat their demons.
I just wanted to remind everyone that bupprenorphine is a very powerful narcotic opiate. do not start taking it for a small addiction that u had a few months from taking vicodin 5s, the bupe is much stronger and more addicting that hydro so save yourself the trouble, doctors today want to get people hooked on this shit so they havea steady supply of money for a long long time, not all doctors, but there are many. they also start people on 2 or even 3 8mg strips A DAY, this is outrageous, plain and simple you dont need more than 12 mg to start period, i had almost a 25 bag dope habit IV, or 10 to 12 30mg roxicodone per day and i didnt need anymore than 12 mg to feel better. its good drs give us 2 a day so we could hopefully set some aside on days we dont use it all, but u do not need 2 per day, good luck everyone sorry for the novel
