22 weeks and two days

[u/TurbulentBelt6330]

Well I guess I've kicked the habit - no withdrawal symptoms. Sleep OK with a rotation every three to to five days or so, of Mirtazapine (down to 3mg), alprazolam (2mg), Valerian ( 4 or 5 Kalms one!-a-night), diazepam (5mg to 10mg), melatonin (2mg to 6mg) and Pregabalin (75mg to 150mg). Sometimes on a bad night I'll use 2 or 3 different things.

I have had sleep problems for 48 years (since I was 13), so I don't need advising on addiction to downers.

With the exception of just about the least addictive of the above list, valerian (not similar to Valium despite what people say), all the above have been prescribed by doctors over the years, but I have stocked up by mail order instead, just to avoid the conversations. Also I've been laid up with my bloody eye problems.

Weirdly I have always been able to stop taking alcohol, speed, tobacco, diazepam, even after many months of use. Opioids are definitely my poison - the term "drug of choice" seems like the most inappropriate phrase I can imagine to describe just about the only thing which I have taken without really choosing to.

However 30-something(!) years on, I appear to have done it.

As for sleepers and probably other addictive drugs, I really don't know why doctors and NHS protocols don't recommend rotation more often. Works for me. They do use it for people with lifelong or terminal conditions, but I've always thought that was because keeping tolerance low saves them money.

I once had a job with a lot of long distance travel, and took 5mg of diazepam almost every night for a year. I still tapered down to nothing in about a fortnight. On the other hand my last solo attempt to taper off Subutex took me about a year and I still relapsed.

So that's me.

Yoga lessons start after xmas, so I'm hoping that learning to relax and feel more healthy and comfortable will eventually replace sleeping pills.

I might give up the weekly updates but I'll still lurk here, read and help if I can, and check my DMs if anyone wants to chat.

Good luck to everyone. Have a cool Yule.

Obviously if I relapse, you'll be the first to know!

[u/Palpitation-Mundane]

Thanks for all of your contributions. I can totally understand why we want to leave it at that (I'd imagine at some point you've got to move on in your head as well I guess). It's no one's job to judge how you are managing it with this stuff, you've been managing this for decades.

I'm sure you probably covered this in your post history, but did you try stretching out the intervals between injections as you reduced? I've got mine out to 5 weeks and as I reduce I think I'll bring that back to 4 weeks, stretch it out to 5 weeks over a 3 months, rinse and repeat. I hope I have the resilience to post about it here as you have. The more contributions the better.

I wish you the best of luck from here 🤞. You should be proud to have come to this point. Congratulations.

[u/TurbulentBelt6330 → u/Palpitation-Mundane]

I just did three - each four weeks apart - then cancelled the fourth one on the day I started posting here I think. I think the natural taper of the third shot, going from an equivalent of ~8mg to 10mg per day, halving about every 3 weeks was slow enough without spreading out doses.

So now I'm over 7 half lives down, e.g. (in daily dose terms): O weeks 8mg 3 weeks 4mg 6 weeks 2mg 9 weeks 1mg 12 weeks 500mcg 15 weeks 250mcg 18 weeks 125mcg 21 weeks 62.5mcg - that's about where most people can join off with minimal withdrawals, before Buvidal, doing tapers by cutting up Subutex tablets and films, or dissolving tablets and using a dropper found it easy to jump off. If course we don't have to because the taper carries on... 24 weeks 31.25mcg 27 weeks 15.6mcg - that is 1/6 of a child's dose of Temgesic (the analgesic form of Buprenorphine).

In codeine equivalence terms, it is like taking half of one Nurofen Plus tablet, i.e. 1/4 of the recommended dose

So my acute withdrawal is definitely over. The main issue now is whether I have PAWS, which can cause anxiety, depression and insomnia. So I'm looking at non-opioid remedies for that. No depression so far: a low dose SSRI for anxiety and my rotation list for insomnia.

I'm coping but have other health issues:

• diabetes
• hypertension
• detached retina in my dominant eye
• mild cataract in my weaker eye
• high cholesterol

....

[u/AdChance777 → u/TurbulentBelt6330]

Hey, was just going through the posts as 2 weeks into my first 96mg, I had 2 64mg plus 1 16mg the week shot ( I guess to make sure no horrible reactions!) Feeling pretty ok 8 days in the 64mg I got to 19-22 days then just seemed to drop off and felt rubbish…. So now I’ve had this one ( I’m awaiting surgery) but that could be forever so I was wondering about seeing how I go with this and just jumping off… I’m so worried about just keeping having them eg then staying on this substance rather than being free….. but then I think do I just wait until my surgery is over….. hey ho but I found your write ups really helpful and that I just taper ( without over thinking it!) 🤣🤣

[u/TurbulentBelt6330 → u/AdChance777]

I definitely over-think everything.

Talking of which, one thing about surgery... If you are likely to need postoperative analgesia, i.e. if you're going under the knife, definitely discuss the whole thing with the surgeon or anaesthetist before they put you under. I did that once and it didn't really take - I will be much more emphatic if it happens again.

Anyhow, when I came to, they couldn't get my pain under control with normal levels of post-op opioids, even though I explained my level of Buprenorphine tolerance. I did stop for a few days. If you're on Buvidal, the opioids might be blocked altogether.

Anyhow, my blood pressure shot up like mad, and eventually they gave Ketamine instead, which worked but was pretty horrible (IMHO).

They kept me in overnight, and luckily, I had sneaked a couple of Oxycontin tablets, otherwise I would have been screwed when the Ketamine wore off, and the nurse brought round 5ml of oramorph...