Suboxone Abuse (Page 2)
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My son has been on suboxone for over 1 year now. He was a herion addict for over 12 years. Been clean off and on during that time. I have seen a personality change in him which is almost intolerable. It is like he is fine one minute and then goes off the wall the next. Has anyone who has been on suboxon or knows someone who has been seen a personality change.

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I just saw your post and had to reply. I suffered great financial loss because of my addiction. But unlike you, I was unable to work as hard as you, I was not mentally strong enough. I dont think you give yourself enough credit for your perseverence. Good luck and admire your strength.

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COULDNT AGREE MORE...!!!!!!

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Totally agree...Debbie you shouldn't judge someone on Suboxone...This drug has saved a lot of addicts form death and the rollercoaster ride of pain meds...I am currently on suboxone and it has helped me off the ride with opiates..i do not feel high off suboxone...it is a great tool to free your mind from the cravings and obsession to use opiates..

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I am in the exact same boat as you. But my boyfriend abuses his and then comes to me when he is out. His whole script for the month gone in 4/5 days. His attitude is horrible. I am weaning off them, just scares me I work around narcotics. I know I am addicted to subs , just want to be clean 100%

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Suboxone withdrawal may take a certain length of time before it goes away compared to the effects of regular opiates

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Hey Danni, Glad to hear your are learning to deal with your "New Life"!! Yes...I am 53 and feel emotionally like a 25 year old. But hey, like you said...that's not a bad thing!! At least not for me. So if something good comes out of the years I literally lived in hell then that is fine with me!! I live in Los Angeles and can really enjoy this great city and all it has to offer. As you said, my worst day today is better than my best day back when I was using. I am happily married and sharing a productive life today with the woman of my dreams, my wife Teresa. Good luck and don't worry about getting off the suboxone. When it is time you will know. Just like you knew it was time to get clean. But thank God for suboxone or I would definitely not be sharing with you today. All my old friends are dead and I no doubt would be too if not for this treatment!! Good luck in your future and God bless!!! You deserve to be happy.....and now you can be. With piece of mind!!

All The Best,
Ricky P.

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Ricky, thanks for your excellent message - I take suboxone as well, coming up on 3 years, and while it's not always been easy, even the crappiest day on suboxone is 10X better than a "good" high day on pills/coke/meth/booze. I especially appreciate and relate to what you said about our emotional age after we put down the drug and/or drug...NO, we sure as hell do not automatically turn into normal people our age....AND WOULD WE WANT TO?? Lol, probably not, I am thinking ; ) Most days I feel like a responsible adult, but other weeks/days, I feel like this immature little imposter who is 42 going on 22 and I don't know how I've made it this far. I also have no immediate plans to go off of suboxone though I am taking less now then when I started...my doctor has been very open minded about this and hasn't bugged me to take less.

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Hello. I was an addict for most of my life. 35+ years. I tried heroin when I was 16 and thought I had found the secret to life. I remember that day like it happened last week. I hate to speak for your son but I CAN speak for me. When I finally had enough I was taking 400mg of methadone daily. That finally became impossible to maintain and I was either going to stop or kill myself. And I KNEW this. For me I knew the first time I took suboxone it was the answer for me. It worked and I DIDN'T crave getting high. The thing I WASN'T prepared for was LIFE!! After living most of my adult life high I had never dealt with FEELINGS. Emotions. My emotions were stunted at 16 and I was 49. It was something I never thought about having to deal with. I had to LEARN how to live with the feelings and emotions that non-addicts naturally "grow into". It wasn't easy to say the least. Please just realize that there is much more to the picture for long term addicts than to just stop getting high. Your son is NATURALLY going to have personality changes as he adjusts to these feelings he's never dealt with. He may have THOUGHT he was all along. I did. But I really never did. I've been on Suboxone for almost 4 years and have stayed "clean". I would certainly have been dead without suboxone. To this day I continue to work on my "life skills" that I never "grew into". It is a much overlooked issue. You don't just stop getting high after years of numbing your emotions and expect life to be as that of a non-addict of the same age. It doesn't work that way. I would suggest your son talk with a professional and learn how to deal with these feelings that are BRAND NEW to him. I wish you and your son luck. Life is a different animal today and I ENJOY just being alive. Many people I ran with were not as blessed as I have been and are dead now. I did a lot of talking and was honest with my doctor. It was just as important to my recovery as the suboxone was in order for me to come to terms with all the work I had to do.

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Yorkshire...I am still around but i'vebeen off Suboxone since Feb 19. The doc tapered me down to 1mg per day and I ran out and just never refilled. The withdraw wasn't that bad BUT it's been, what, 5 months and I am depressed now and have been for the last two months. I am thinking about getting on an antidepressant. The good news is that I think it's just me and my head...I don't think the depression is due to any kind of withdraw....it's my own natural state. The other good news is that I still have absolutely no cravings for painkillers of the Norco kind. Good luck to you!

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Well, I am going to post an update here. I started methadone maintenance on 4/23/13. The Suboxone was bad for me. The doctor would not, could not, prescribe me anything except for clonidine and ativan for the withdrawals. I stopped taking the subs on a Thursday but had to wait until Tuesday to get the methadone. I was very upset that I had to get dopesick until I could make it to the clinic. I was going to score some H but did not want to basically steal my mom's car and money and s***.

Anyway, almost 3 months into the methadone, I am starting to get nauseous, and my feet are swelling up again. It stopped for like 2 months. So, why would this be happening?

Is is an opiate thing? Well, heroin, Vicodin, OxyContin, and morphine never have done this to me. I have taken illicit opiates for many months, sometimes years, at a time. But, now, after 2 months on Suboxone (buprenorphine), my feet swell up with edema. Then, I get on methadone, everything is fine, until after 2 months or so, now the edema is returning, and I am starting to get more nauseous, just like when I was on Suboxone.

The people at my clinic have no idea what is going on. The doctors did not know. I am going to make an appointment, and try to get to the bottom of this. Does anyone else reading here have experience with these symptoms? I feel fine, except, from time to time I wake up in the morning EXTREMELY nauseous with that feeling in my throat like I'm gonna hurl. And, my feet, especially my left one, is swelling up, I think it is edema, which means, when I press down on the swollen area of my foot, I can leave an indentation, like putty. It is real f***ing weird and I am not liking this at all. I am really thinking about just getting off the 'done, and fending for myself again. That means, back to alcoholic city, using speed, using dope probably until I get another habit, jesus, is there no end to this?

I went through chemotherapy for testicular cancer about 9 years ago, I always think maybe the side effects from that are lingering on, on and on.

Let me know, someone, if you have had a similar experience.

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honestly it sounds to me that he isn't trying to quit drugs and only uses the sub to curb withdrawal until his next dope use in my opinion suboxone will not work for u unless u actually want to stop using fo rme 5 years of pill addiction to the point of stealing robbing whatever I had to do to get my pills and at that time I was in the age range from 17 to 22 and I used sub through those points when I couldn't find my drug of choice I have been on suboxone myself since I was 22 and it has worked wonderfully for me this is coming from a guy who hit rock bottom fast sold my car lost my job and maxed out so many credit cards and personal loans that I had to file for bankruptcy my advice would be take him out of state somewhere he cannot obtain the drugs for a little while and he will be forced to only use sub which may help him keep using sub and and stay off the dope

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I know you are struggling with pain issues, but if you talk to your doctor about the pain, he may be able to prescribe something non-narcotic that will treat the pain in a different way together with the suboxone. Some antidepressants, like cymbalta, treat depression, and also help with pain, too. Try sticking with the suboxone, though, because its easier than any other opiate to taper off, and also, because it stays in your body longer, you won't have the sudden return of pain, which causes some people to take stronger opiates. Plus, your getting a really expensive medication for free! Good luck to you, hang in there!!

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Iv benn on subs for 3 yrs 32mg a day iv noticed a lot of changes in myself mood and depressed im now on them for pain mangment I have seen many addicts use subs only when they dont have there drugs so wat they do is there still addicted to that drug and when they dont haveit they use subs so they dont have to wwithdraw from there drugs so there changing one high for another its like a crutch when ur leg is good u walk on it but if u go bad u will use ur crutch to help u walk so u dnt have to sit down u need to tell his dr wat is going on so he can help him and stop this from happening he willcstill give him the subs but just watch him carefully maby even only give him 2 or 3 at a time

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I was shooting heroin, went to detox for 5 days, was on Suboxone 8mg twice a day for 1 1/2 months, then went back to dope for about 3 weeks, now back on Subs for the last 2 1/2 months. The Subs really helped getting off dope, the second time I got back on them was easy. I waited 24 hours after my last shot, took Subs all day, and was through it. But now I'm getting side effects.

My feet and lower legs are swelling up, where you can push down on the tops of my feet and leave indentations. Also nausea, vomiting for the last two nights. I do not feel held and have discussed the fact with my counselor and mother that I am planning my next use, and I would rather not but I need some kind of relief. I am getting intense pain in my neck and shoulder, which is partly due to a past injury. For the first month or so the Subs really helped with pain, but not anymore. I figure if I am feeling s***ty like this all the time, why not get back on dope?

I can't take it anymore, I am seeing my Dr. on Wednesday to discuss other options. Possibly methadone. I am trying to make a case for slow-release oral morphine, seeing as how if I were maintained on this, the side-effect profile is "more attractive" and tapering off of low-dose morphine should be a lot easier than getting off of Subs or methadone. I've heard that morphine will hold you better than the other two, I'm sure of it, I just do not know the legality of this. I am not sure if my Dr. can prescribe MS Contin, or whatever, for this purpose, opiate maintenance therapy.

The thing is I am getting my Suboxone for FREE. I have no insurance, so I enrolled in a few programs, now my Dr. and counselor visits are $7. The company that makes Suboxone, Reckitt Benckiser, has a program called Here to Help, and that is how I am getting free Subs. Check it out. It is a new program, and limited in numbers that are accepted, so act fast I guess. This is one of the problems, I don't want to switch to methadone or morphine and start having to pay up the pooper for it like I had to the first month ($450 for 1 month of Sub). But the side effects I am experiencing with the Subs, and the fact I do not feel "held", means I may have to seek an alternative. I don't want to go back to shooting dope, but honestly I think heroin is better for me than buprenorphine. The pharm company lied about the inclusion of naloxone as well, they added it to get the FDA to approve over other bupe formulations. I have shot up my Sub films, never more than 2mg at a time. No rush, just a warm feeling. An absolutely NO precipitated withdrawal. I put Subs up my ass a few times too. That gives better results. Point is, the binding affinity of bupe is stronger than that of naloxone. Period.

So I feel that because of the large amount of heroin I was doing, I need to seek out an alternative form of therapy because the Subs are just not doing it for me. I have never been on methadone, and have conflicting feelings about it. Any thoughts?

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Danielle,

I just posted in response to the girl regarding better than any anti-depressants. As stated I felt better than I had in years. I've been on subs for 4the days now and I am truly shocked at the lack of cravings. I've gone cold turkey many many times with some success however the lethargy & depression always brought me back. The ones that run this particular program assure me the tapering will be minimal as their words a "hickup" the paid the of withdrawal isn't so much my concern but rather the lack of energy and the depression always scare me. Any advice??

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Danielle,

I just posted in response to the girl regarding better than any anti-depressants. As stated I felt better than I had in years. I've been on subs for 4the days now and I am truly shocked at the lack of cravings. I've gone cold turkey many many times with some success however the lethargy & depression always brought me back. The ones that run this particular program assure me the tapering will be minimal as their words a "hickup" the paid the of withdrawal isn't so much my concern but rather the lack of energy and the depression always scare me. Any advice??

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Zlovergrl, r u still around. Im on day 4 of the subs and feel exactly as u do. Best I've felt in years, no depression etc. What am I to look forward to down the road. My desire is quite strong. Taking subs with an intense outpatient program. As god is my witness I told the leader today im afraid this seems to easy. Thx for the tips

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What is your mom's age? If she is in 40-50's she may, on top of her addictions, be going through menopause. I think moms should be open with their husband and children about any meds they are on - dosage, timing of day to take, etc. It's helpful all around if there is open-eyed ingestion of meds in a household, even if it is an illegal substance.

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All I know is my story of addiction. My first round of addiction was with food, I was a Bulimic/Anorexic for 11 years. After a lot of work and many relapses, by the grace of God I over came this. I felt that I was in a good place in life-going back to school, single parent-happy. Then I met an abusive man who slowly creep his way into my life. I never grew up in an abusive household, so I knew it was wrong and strange his outbursts, but he was so good at explaining it away and there it began. The severity and frequency were far between at first, but the stress of it started to erode my self-worth. I started getting sick and my body started failing me, with an ACL repair and then HIP replacement, then a neck fusion, then the other hip started going. Basically I was on/off pain killers for a long time and started noticing that they numbed the emotional pain as well. As the years went on and a failed attempt at leaving him, my addiction grew. It was when I went to a pain management Dr. when things took on a new life. The Dr. put me on Fentenal a person who is use to taking Hydrocodone on Fentenal. I became instantly addicted and attempted to get off it myself and almost ended up in the Hospital. At this time, my back was giving me problems so sever I couldn't walk at times. Several back procedures later and getting off Opana-not fun, I ended up on Suboxone. The Dr. raved about it and said, "you could be on this for a long time, if you wanted". By this time, I was so messed up emotionally, the abuse was progressing, my children were suffering-the more I tried to help them, the more sever the attacks on me became. I started shop lifting because he controlled all the money and asking him for grocery money was a humbling experience..I isolated and pushed everyone I loved away and no one believed me about my home situation. I felt abandoned and hopeless. I became suicidal and then I had a God moment. I started researching Suboxone and found out that it is one of the worst drugs out there to be on long term. Further it is very very difficult to get off of and for me being 54, it was pure hell. But I had a belief that life is more than looking forward to taking that strip and feeling somewhat "normal", but never too good. I feel for everyone that has been on Suboxone for any length of time, it compromises your entire mind and body. And I know, that when you are ready, if I can do it, anyone can do it. For some, it just might be the best way. For me, I found myself drowning emotionally and spiritually. I am 106 day clean and still have some fatigue, but I am feeling now and I actually felt a real scene of joy the other day! I pray for each and everyone of you to find your right path..no judgements here, everyone has a right to their own life.

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i have been sitting here reading and reading and smiling & either agreeing or disagreeing and finally friendofgrandma i feel total relief to have read your post, because your post is my post, too...i can't and won't deny it - i tried tapering down and after starting at 20 mgs october 2010 i am at 10 mgs....i was at 8 mgs for a few months but all in my head or not, i was thinking about full opiates more & more frequently, and just adding another 2 mgs took the thoughts away, and that was over 6 months ago and i have stayed at 10 mgs since then...i am lucky to have my insurance cover my prescription i pay my $10 brand name copay, but i do pay the doctor every month, he won't take my insurance...but i do work full time, it's just me myself and i in this life, and working 50 hours a week sucks but it's afforded me a decent life and when i do my budget that monthly doctor visit gets included right along with the electric bill, rent, cable, car insurance and groceries, because without the suboxen, i am only TOO sure within a matter of a year or less, the other bills will not be getting paid and eventually i will lose my home because the drugs will take everything from me, so it's the lesser of the evils, and though i have never said i am a lifer, i can say i am on it indefinitely and am ok with it most days, so i try to stay away from the negative remarks, they sting a little because i'm a big girl, 42 years old, on february 24 i will be sober off of alcohol 7 years, and i drank every day for over 20 years, the pills were harder for me, without suboxen, even if i were clean, i would be thinking about the pills, and no crappy antidepressant was ever able to get that thought out of my head...i know the people who say will power and tough it out with the withdrawals are completely correct, but it's just not feasible for me at this time in my life...i have no close confidantes, my employer of 4 years does not know this about me, and i would never be able to work 9 hours a day, 5 days a week, if i am going through the hell that would become my life as a taperer....the couple times i had days where i took just one pill were days of anxiety & dread...i know u have to do it slow slow slow little by little, but it will smack u in the a** when that half life catches up, and that's when i'd end up losing my job, plus it's just me, and even on good days, i don't get it all done. i am ok with taking the suboxen and if that makes me a half asser who couldn't go all the way, so be it, i'll take this any day over the life i had september 2010 - wasn't even getting high anymore, pissing all my money away to maintain, and that is as sad as it gets for me...i agree with the lady who referred to suboxen as an antidepressant that actually works...for the most part, i feel the same exact way...i just feel normal, and that's about the best i can hope for!

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