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Posted: May 22, 2018, 7:01 AM
Hiya š
So hereās my story in a nutshell; Iāve 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 Iāve 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. Iāve always wanted to travel and itās 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 Iām travelling to doesnāt allow you to bring in any medication that is āprescribed for the treatment of addictionā... great š (at least I found out in time to do something about it). So over the last 6 months Iāve been tapering off. Trying to do the 25% reduction every 14 days. Sometimes Iāve had to sit on it for 30 days when the WDs got too hard. Iām now down to 1mg (1MG!!!). Iāve 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 havenāt been clean in 13 years (my morphine habit was only in itās infancy when I went on the methadone program). Itās all a bit scary for me. Iāve been an opiate user for most of my adult life. I donāt know who I am without opiates and I donāt know what Iām 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 |
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