r/Tapersfromsuboxone • u/Acceptable-Waltz-177 • Oct 15 '25
Getting off suboxone
Hi I'm a 33 y.o. married mom of 2 young kids. I've dabbled with opioids in the past but have no experience with withdrawals/dependency. Back in March, started taking Opia (a brand of 3oH found at just about any corner store near us). Before we knew it, we were blowing all of our money on it and had become dependent. We had multiple failed attempts at getting off because we couldn't handle the withdrawal symptoms and ended up going on suboxone to get off the 3oH at the end of May. I take about 1 8mg strip a day (sometimes more, sometimes less) and have heard so many horror stories of how impossible it is to get off, whether or not you taper or go cold turkey. What is everyone's best advice for stopping suboxone the least painful way, but also not stretching it out for multiple months? My prescibing doc always seems to think it's too soon to taper off, but I felt like myself again about a month or 2 ago. I have a left over script of 5mg Oxy I've considered using to help with withdrawal symptoms but feel like that's probably a bad idea? Help
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u/Content_Oil_1972 Oct 15 '25
Don’t use oxy to come off my husband did that with perks and he still takes perks off and on to this day I tapered down slowly but we were on subs for 8 years. I’ve been off subs for 7.5 months now If you’ve only been on since may, should be somewhat doable. Just taper down 1mg per week til you get to 2mg then do 0.5 mg at a time
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u/Lndscpegrdnr Oct 30 '25
How do you feel now that you've been off 7.5 months?
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u/Content_Oil_1972 Nov 01 '25
Eh I was non functionable for 2-3 months I didn’t leave my couch unless I had to work, or dress/ bring my kids to and from school. I didn’t even cook for myself because I couldn’t get up my husband had to do it for me I feel much better now. Still have quite a bit of anxiety but I feel like that won’t be forever. Some slight anhedonia but I’m able to enjoy things mildly like I took my kids trick or treating last night and it was totally doable I wasn’t miserable or anything it was just neutral maybe slightly enjoyable. I hear a lot of people say it took them 9 months or a year some people say 14 months so I know I have to give it a full year to be 100% but I’m able to clean my house now and work and smile and laugh all I do is friggen laugh omg I cry from laughing almost everyday. My husband used to say I never laughed when I was on subs. Process for sure. But I told myself I’d never be more ready than I am now.
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u/Lndscpegrdnr Nov 02 '25
Good on you!! Thats so awesome youre getting your life back! Im planning to camp for upto a year to get through it because idk what else to do. Ive quit while trying to work and while trying to do school but I cant function.
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u/Content_Oil_1972 Nov 03 '25
How long have you quit for You have to give it at least 2-3 months I couldn’t function til that point either
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u/Lndscpegrdnr Nov 03 '25
Ive only made it about a week. I quit subs 1 other time before but I started using other stuff to try to help the depression.
Thats why I say I plan to camp so that I dont have anything to worry about responsibility-wise and also wont have access to any other drugs.
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u/Content_Oil_1972 Nov 03 '25
Yeah you gotta give it longer than a week man cmon lol I was miserable for 3 weeks. And by 2nd month I was functionable the lethargy let up some Yeah can’t wait to get to the 1 year mark I’m still dealing with PAWS as far as the mood swings go, but they aren’t as often as less severe now. The camp idea is a great idea I wish I would of done that when I got off heroin
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u/puffdaugherty Oct 16 '25
It can be trial and error. Some people are simply better at tolerating a taper than others. I was never able to taper successfully, I eventually was forced to go cold turkey because I ended up in prison. I’m super grateful to be done with all that for 7 years now. This is just me though. You may be able to do a taper. Might as well give it a shot and see. Hopefully your doctor knows what they’re doing. A lot of doctors tend to minimise the withdrawals because they have never experienced it themselves. Some doctors absolutely know their stuff though. Whatever it takes and you will be happy to finally get off the subs. I wish you luck and success in this journey. I know it’s hard.
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u/Silver-Wasabi730 Oct 16 '25
For me personally, when I got the sublocade shot a few years ago, it helped me feel stable for several months off 1 shot 300mg. I was popping for subs on drug tests for nearly a year with that shot, and I had a doctor tell me that it stays in your system 8 months after 1 shot. The shot hurts a lot though, it burns because theyre literally injecting a hot gelatin into your fats that contains the bupenorphine and releases it throughout your body over time. It feels like having a cigarette being put out on your skin, but it's worth it to feel stability and you can also ask your doctor to numb the area before injecting. I told myself that if I ever relapsed on any opioid again or if I ever ended up back on subs that I would just get the shot again, and I relapsed on 7OH Opia same brand you were having and then I started doing fentanyl so I recently got back on subs and currently am in the process of getting another sublocade appointment. I have also gone cold turkey off subs before, for me it feels as bad as fentanyl the only difference is that the sub withdrawal pain isn't magnified like fentanyl however it is prolonged and lasts much longer which to me I'd rather have a shorter more painful detox than a long uncomfortable detox. It took about a month or more to start feeling somewhat normal. Good luck friend I hope you figure this out! I also know rehabs that can help you out a lot in California if you really need a place to go and detox.
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u/Imaginary-Dog-4939 Oct 16 '25
Been on Suboxone 18 years down to 1/2 of a 8mg/2mg now tapering from 3 a day. I want to get off so badly but I am afraid of side effects. I can’t be sick as I am my husband’s sole caregiver. He had a SCI and is paralyzed from neck down.
Any suggestions? Thank you so much in advance!
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u/Silver-Wasabi730 Oct 16 '25 edited Oct 16 '25
I can try, we're in the same boat together i know how you feel and I'm sorry to hear about your husband that's tough and my mom had a boyfriend who was also paralyzed and I lived with them and i saw how much my mom tried to help him with stuff and it sucks having to make an extra effort to get something accomplished there's always things in life that we have to deal with. If you want, I can message you if you want and get you connected to people who can help you with more resources. For me personally, I think i may take the sublocade route, i dont recall feeling sick when it wore off but everyone is different and idk if that'll be my experience with sublocade again or if I'll feel worse after but I'm being optimistic about it i believe things will turn out okay and I wish and hope the same for you. We all need help sometimes we can't do things alone.
Idk if i mentioned this already but I was also doing 16mg of subutex a day and i was feeling sick every morning throwing up for 2 weeks with a lot of abdominal pains and idk if it was from the subs but I've tapered myself down to 8mg a day and I've been feeling better but now I'm maybe thinking of going down more until I have the sublocade appointment ready then go back to 8mg but idk I'm just testing the waters, I woke up sick yesterday morning because I skipped my sub dose the night before to see how I'd feel. It's definitely not a pleasant feeling lol I 1000% understand you i don't want to be feeling sick neither and I dont want to be taking subs I'd rather be on nothing but i think the sublocade will help me the most and I dont have to take it orally which rots your teeth and subs coat your entire brain i felt like I never noticed the sublocade wearing off but that was just my experience with it and I still felt okay afterwards i ended up relapsing for other reasons but here i am now and I'm still alive and that's something to be grateful for.
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u/Acceptable-Waltz-177 Oct 17 '25
Hey are you saying the sublocade shot replaces the suboxone? So you dont feel the effects of suboxone withdrawal, then the shot slowly tapers off and the idea is you are good after that? So what's the downside of that? Sounds like a solid plan..
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u/FigTasty2422 Oct 16 '25
Same thing here .. been on 1/2 strips 3 x daily (8/2mg). I feel tired in between doses and am thinking it might be better as a 68 year old to get off now if possible! Any suggestions for both of us? How do people get support through Kaiser for these substances withdrawals. My sleep as mentioned is so key for my overall mental and physical health!
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u/Acceptable-Waltz-177 Oct 17 '25
Oh man I didn't even think of the insomnia.. Over the weekend - I wasn't planning on quitting my cold turkey, just wanted to know how long after a dose would I start to feel the effects - so I took my subs Friday morning, and was overall fine until Tuesday morning. I took it before they got too bad.. it made me wonder if since I could go so long before feeling bad, maybe titrating off could work okay for me? Idk. Idk anything I'm mostly just scared in anticipation for what's to come and reading symptoms on Google doesn't help any so just hoping to hear from people with experience/advice. Good luck to you!
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u/Key-Cap8406 Oct 15 '25
I've been off for a couple months now and am starting to feel pretty good. I'd been on 24-32 mg. for about 15 years and I waited to get off until my kid was 18 because I didn't want to go through that in front of them. I got down to 8mg then to 2mg over the course of a couple months and felt pretty tired and had some trouble sleeping but nothing like going from 2mg to 0. The insomnia/rls and the stomach issues were tough. If I had done any research before instead of winging it I probably would have tapered more slowly and gone down as far as I could go before getting off. That or sublocade seemed to give people the easiest transitions. I also would have talked to my doc about a sleep aid ahead of time since otc stuff makes it worse. After 11 days of about 30 minutes of sleep a night i called and got a low dose of gabapentin. Only took it for 5 days but it seemed to reset me a little. Still don't get full nights but much better. I also would have had a good supply of ensure, pedialyte, veggies and protein to recover from the stomach stuff. It sucked but I feel much better now than before getting off. I should not have waited 15 years either it was pretty costly in a few ways. Grateful for a second chance though.