post replypost new topic
Coming Off 1mg Of Suboxone After 6 Years...


Posts: 1
Joined: May 22, 2018


Posted: May 22, 2018, 7:01 AM
Hiya šŸ˜Š

So hereā€™s my story in a nutshell;

Iā€™ve been on opiate replacement for 12 years. 6 on methadone, 6 on suboxone. Switching to suboxone was dreadful. I was the first person in my state to jump from 110mg methadone to 32mg suboxone... had a seizure and ended up in hospital. That sucked, but Suboxone changed my life. Now employed in an amazing job, in a great relationship, financially stable. Yay me.

Over the last 6 years Iā€™ve tried to come off suboxone with varying degrees of success. A few years back I got down to 1.4mg of subutex and went completely berko (I experience pretty serious challenges with my mental health at the best of times). SWIM was shooting up their subs and generally being a nutcase. So went back up to 12mg.

Iā€™ve always wanted to travel and itā€™s a big recovery goal for me. So after saving up money, paying for flights, accomodation and organising the trip of a lifetime, I discovered that the country Iā€™m travelling to doesnā€™t allow you to bring in any medication that is ā€œprescribed for the treatment of addictionā€... great šŸ™„ (at least I found out in time to do something about it).

So over the last 6 months Iā€™ve been tapering off. Trying to do the 25% reduction every 14 days. Sometimes Iā€™ve had to sit on it for 30 days when the WDs got too hard. Iā€™m now down to 1mg (1MG!!!).

Iā€™ve found some things very helpful. Heavy cardio exercise, saunas and steam rooms are probably the biggest. Peer support is absolutely amazing. Clonidine helps with the insomnia and restless leg (body!) syndrome. My mood is pretty good atm.... But I havenā€™t been clean in 13 years (my morphine habit was only in itā€™s infancy when I went on the methadone program). Itā€™s all a bit scary for me. Iā€™ve been an opiate user for most of my adult life. I donā€™t know who I am without opiates and I donā€™t know what Iā€™m in for when it comes time to jump off completely.

For those who have come off long term buprenorphine use... at what dose did you jump off? How was it done (in terms of schedule)? How was it done (in terms of coping mechanisms)? What was it like when you stoped using completely? Have you managed to stay off? Was there post-acute withdrawal symptoms? How was your mental health post use?

I know everyone is different and what you experienced will likely be very different for me. But any advice or insight you could give me would be incredibly welcome ā¤ļø
post replypost new topic