Down to .5 mgs daily; here's how I did it

[Sitar]

I’ve been able to taper from about 4 mgs down to .5 mgs daily in just 3 months. I had been using pods for a few months before getting myself back on the right track and back on the Suboxone again. I used roughly an average of 4 mgs for the first week, then dropped to 2 mgs for the next 3 weeks, and tapered quickly to just 1 milligram for about 6 weeks. Then I dropped to .75 mgs daily for about 3 weeks, and for the last week, I have been on just .5 mgs a day. Pretty impressive progress, but it has not been easy at all.

The smaller the dose gets, the less time it seems to hold me. It becomes harder and harder to wait a full 24 hours before taking the next dose. I’ve basically spent the entire last month feeling like shit for most of the day. I’ve been trying to take my daily dose as late as I can stand it so that I don’t wake up in the middle of the night from withdrawal. The withdrawal from Buprenorphine is milder than that of a full agonist opiate like Morphine, but it’s still pretty nasty. So I basically spend all day feeling yucky with no energy until I take my dose in the evening.

I guess I should mention that I'm not working right now, so I have the luxury of just lounging around all day if I feel like crap. If I had a fulltime job to deal with right now, it would probably be far more difficult to deal with this aggressive tapering. I'm taking advantage of the situation while it lasts (I'm returning to work next month).

I keep thinking that eventually my body will get used to the dosing schedule and the smaller doses, but it seems to be a pretty hard, long process. My plan now is to just remain stable on .5 a day for maybe at least another week or so before attempting any further dose reductions. Also, I take my doses intranasally, which I feel makes it twice as effective as taking it sublingually.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you guys either on bupe or thinking about getting on it that tapering off of it seems to be extremely easy in comparison to all other opioids. I haven't gotten totally off of it yet, but so far I'm really pleased with my progress. I don't plan on trying to stop taking it altogether until I'm stable at just .125 mgs per day. That's an incredibly tiny dose, but this is a very potent drug.

[bronyraur]

congrats on your acomplishment, Sitar.

It's also good to hear that people are able to wean themselves down successfully (for the most part) on Subs.

I hope you're able to make it down to .125mgs and then off completely if you should choose to do so.

Best of luck to you.

[noahzark]

Sitar, are you cutting the 2 MG pill with a knife? Does it have anny effect by doing that? I have the 2's & the 8's laying around for an emergency. One day I will need these guys. I wonder if a guy who had a pretty bad, lets say 500 mg morph taken orally habbit like me for 4 years, had say 30 2mg's and 30 8mgs pills to be enough to get totally clean?

Is that nuts?

Noahzark

[Sitar]

Well I get the 8 milligram pills which does make splitting it down into little doses hard, but they're cheaper than the 2s (go figure). But I do it by cutting one in half with a decent pill cutter. Then I take one half and cut that into two pieces with the pill cutter.

Then I take one of these 2 milligram chunks and crush it in a pill crusher. I dump out the powder onto a smooth table and use a razor blade to divide the pile of powder as evenly as possible into two piles of 1 milligram each. I'm very meticulous about that. I make the 1 mg piles into as perfect and even squares as I can and then I can divide those squares into whatever little micro-doses I want.

I'm really starting to think about just dissolving a whole 8 mg tablet in a certain amount of vodka and using a dropper to drop a specific small amount in my mouth. That would certainly make travelling with bupe and dosing a whole lot easier and quicker. And since it would already be dissolved in liquid form, I think it would absorb really quickly in the mouth and be about as effective as snorting it.

As for whether 30 2s and 30 8s would be enough to quit a 4 year morphine habit, that's hard to say. I definitely think that it's enough for most people to be able to detox from the morphine and then taper off the Suboxone within a month, which is really the best way to use it. So yes, it could work, but it really depends on the person and how determined they are to make sure it works and stay clean. Since it's easiest to get off the bupe if it's only used for a month or less, then yes, it's enough of a supply to get you clean, as long as you have the motivation to really do it.

I actually have about 50 of the 8 mg pills, and since I'm down to .5 mgs per day, each pill will last me 16 days. So I have enough to last me over 2 YEARS at this dose! But since I plan on being totally off of it by some time in April, I have no idea what I'm going to do with all that excess amount.

[noahzark]

Thank you for your response. I don't think I am ready to quit yet. I like it too much. I am an unhappy person and narcotics makes me feel good. I admit that. I have the meds to get clean if I need it. That is what I meant.

Good luck to you!
It's a hard road and I am sure you have moments where you want to give it all up and get the big buzz.

Peace

Noahzark

[Sitar]

I forgot to mention in my first post that in addition to some insomnia, which I've been treating with Ambien, and a general yucky WD feeling before dosing each day, I've also had some really awful depression in the last month or so. I believe it's been caused at least in part by the quick tapering (the awful winter weather doesn't help either).

It's seemed to clear up a little bit now that I'm taking the taper down in much smaller increments, but it got really bad for a while there. Tapering from Suboxone is not necessarily easy, but it's not debilitating or exceptionally difficult. It's certainly easier than any other opioid I've ever dealt with. It's bearable.

I've now started to split my .5 mg doses into two doses of .25 mgs every day, that way I spend less time feeling nasty and it still seems to hold me just fine. I take one dose a couple hours after I get up, and the second dose a few hours before bed and this seems to be working much better than struggling to get a single dose to hold me for 24 hours.

I've had to stop taking Ambien this last week because I was starting to develop a dependency to it, and I really don't want a poly-drug dependency going on here. I've had some rebound insomnia from stopping, but I'd rather put up with a few restless nights than to become addicted to another drug.

In other related news, I haven't touched a Benzodiazepine in almost a full month. Although I have a legitimate prescription to Klonopin, I am trying to get as many drugs out of my system as possible, and I've even reduced my caffeine and alcohol intake. I'm trying to habituate myself with NOT taking drugs, and attempting to rehabilitate myself to dealing with stress and problems in a more "normal" way without meds.

Thanks for the support, guys. It helps to come on here and talk about this.

[ProdigalSon]

Holy smokes man you doin great. Thats a hell of a story. I would like to know what you were on before. Great!!! Keep it up man, Itll be over with soon

[Sitar]

What was I on before the Suboxone? I was using huge amounts of large poppy pods primarily. I would occasionally supplement that with other opiates, and I even used methadone exclusively for a few months (that was awful coming off of, even when switching back to the pods). I had been using opiates daily for over 3 years when I sought Suboxone treatment.

And I'm now down to .375 mgs! I can't believe I've been able to get this low. Once I got down to 1 milligram a day, it seemed impossible to get any lower than that without feeling awful, but I somehow got through it.

I can't even really tell the difference between .5 and .375 mgs. And that's the key to tapering off of anything; just making very tiny decrements of dose. Going down by tiny amounts is the way to go.

Many times, lowering the dose hasn't produced too many noticeable effects, so I would highly recommend to anyone using Suboxone to try lowering your dose just a bit and see how you feel. I think you'll be surprised to see that there's not much difference at all. Once you get to the really low doses, you'll need to slow down on lowering the dose, but going from 12 to 8 to 6 to 4 to 2 is no problem at all.

My plan is to be totally free of drugs by April.

[kyuss]

great job sitar.
you sir
are the man.

[nick]

Go Sitar-much respect to you man.

[Sitar]

Thanks a lot, guys!

The last week or so, I've been taking .25 mgs shortly after getting up, and .25 shortly before bed, and that's worked much better than all .5 of it at once. But the last few days, I've been taking .25 in the day, and only .125 at night. So I've already been able to drop to .375 mgs per day. I can't even feel or taste the dose when insufflated.

I may switch to a sublingual liquid preparation soon since preparing these tiny doses is difficult and time consuming.

[bronyraur]

again Sitar, mad respect to you. It goes to show where there's a will there's a way.

you'll be down to 0 before you know it.

[noahzark]

Sitar, you are awesome! How do you feel now? Can I ask you 2 things? One, why are you winding down? Are you giving up getting high? Second, are you gonna get high after you are clean?

Thanks

Noahzark

[Sitar]

Well, not that I'm into the whole NA/12-step thing with addiction, but I've just very much realized over the last year how badly addiction has kicked my ass and ruined my life. Opiates make me feel awesome, but it comes at such a huge destructive price, which I'm no longer willing to pay.

I will absolutely not be getting high once I'm off the Suboxone. I used to think that I could still mess around with opiates once in a while and keep it in check, but I've finally seen the light and actually understand now that if I couldn't keep it in check before, I will never be able to do so. I just cannot mess with opiates ever again.

And of course I feel a sense of loss for that. It's like losing a dear friend. I try to tell "normal" (non-addicted) people that it's the same thing as giving up sex for the rest of your life. Once you've discovered something immensely pleasurable, it's a terrible thought of having to give that up forever. But for me, opiates are too damaging to continue to use in any context for any reason. And I really don't want to be dependent on any substance any longer. It's a really shitty lifestyle.

And now that I've experienced addiction with opiates, I have to be careful and avoid other drugs as well and avoid replacing opiates with some other drug like alcohol or whatever. It's no worry for me really. It will be weird adjusting at first, but I went the first 23 years of my life without depending on drugs; I'm sure I can do without them again.

By the way, dropping down a bit again is catching up with me, but I'm sticking to it and staying at this new dose. I feel fine mostly though, now that I split it up into 2 doses.

[Sitar]

I actually have about 50 of the 8 mg pills, and since I'm down to .5 mgs per day, each pill will last me 16 days. So I have enough to last me over 2 YEARS at this dose! But since I plan on being totally off of it by some time in April, I have no idea what I'm going to do with all that excess amount.

I thought maybe that statement would possibly cause some trouble. Just to let everyone know, I am NOT interested in getting rid of any of my Subs! I just can't do that. I wish I could help some of you out but I just can't go there.

[Sitar]

Well folks, I'm officially stable at just .375 mgs of Bupe per day! I can't believe I've gotten to this low dose. I'm so close to being free I can almost taste it! Oh wait, that's the orange flavoring!

I've been stable at .375 for a few days now, and I really can't tell much difference between this and .5, so maybe stepping even lower won't be too much trouble. I just cannot believe how quickly I was able to drop down to .5 and then very quickly right down to .375 mgs!

I'll be really elated once I'm down to .25, a quarter of a milligram, although I'm not going to attempt to stop using Bupe until I'm at less than .125, which will basically be just a speck of powder.

I will try to drop to .25 in about a week or so, and I'm not anticipating any trouble. I haven't taken any benzos of any kind in well over a month, so if I have any troubles with coming off the Bupe, some judicious benzo use will likely help quite a bit, but I'm very cautious to not pick up a habit with those.

The coolest part about this tapering is that I do not crave opiates ONE BIT! I have no desire to use opiates whatsoever (I even turned down some Oxymorphone a few weeks ago)!

[Chipper]

Well done, Sitar. Good timing - you wouldn't want to be getting up and working whilst tapering

[Dezarc]

Ths taper that you are doing, is it going to be painless when you are finally done? Or will there still be WD no matter what? I would like to try a quick taper, and I am wondering what I am in for.

[Duckfeet]

Just a friendly reminder to you, and other newbies: to always check upper left hand corner, to see date of previous posts... Best to stick to threads that are a lot more current than this one...One way to do this is by clicking at the top of the page on "new posts" and then, again, to always check the upper left corner...catch a current, or ongoing thead!

Thankyou, closing this thread...

df
admin


Ths taper that you are doing, is it going to be painless when you are finally done? Or will there still be WD no matter what? I would like to try a quick taper, and I am wondering what I am in for.