withdrawal from suboxone?
Thursday, April 8th, 2010 at
9:27 am
Ive been taking 16 mg of suboxone for 2 years now after a 17 year addiction to pain killers. I know it has a remarkably long half life. I have to have surgery next month and need to be able to take the narcotics for a short while while in the hospital and at home. I chose relief from the disease of addiction rather than the pain of my rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Here is my dilemma, i stopped taking it cold turkey exactly one week ago and have absolutely NO withdrawal symptoms. Any body know how long for it takes to get out of my system?
Tagged with: from • suboxone • withdrawal
Filed under: Rheumatoid Arthritis Pain Relief
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It takes 1 to 2 1/2 days for half of what you consume to be eliminated. You may start feeling some symptoms within the next week or so. If that happens, I would take only enough of the suboxone to make the withdrawal symptoms tolerable.
It’s really never a good idea to stop any narcotic cold turkey, especially if you’ve been taking it for 2 years. I hope you have some of it left.
My thoughts were that after one week it’s hard not to have had them out of your system.
Honestly, I think you are just one lucky lady! You would think that you would feel something, because you were on a pretty high dose, for a pretty good amount of time, and then all the metabolite buildup..but there is no way that there is enough active Suboxone metabolites in your body to get you through a week without taking it, and having no w/d symptoms. If you were going to withdraw, you would’ve already. Especially since you stopped abruptly (which you’re not supposed to do, silly! Bad!). You would’ve been hurtin’ at least a couple of days ago, and, as time goes by and your body excretes the last of whatever it had saved up in there, you would be feeling even worse by now. I would say you are a miracle of modern science! No, but seriously, I think you’re in the clear. Some people don’t have withdrawals when stopping Suboxone. I’ve never had any withdrawals, and I have stopped using various substances, cold turkey, after long periods of use, and, for some reason, my body wasn’t really phased by it. You would’ve felt something by now, and you should’ve even earlier. (Of course, all of this is just my personal thoughts, based on what I know and what I have experienced. I’m not going to sit here and pretend I am a genius and that everything I say is the absolute truth, b/c, really, neither I nor anyone else is going to be able to give you an absolute answer.). Well, I wish you luck with your surgery… Take care—I think things will be okay for ya
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Edit: In response to what the person below me is saying:
Your body doesn’t wait until the EXACT MOMENT that every single trace of a drug is out of your body to begin to “withdraw”-a minor reduction in dose is enough to begin to have physical symptoms, because it is used to a certain, steady amount of that substance. So, regardless of how long the half life of Suboxone is, she should have felt something a long time ago, especially since she isn’t replenishing the amount of the drug. So, her body is relying on the last dose, and maybe some minor metabolite buildup. There is no way in hell that would be enough to get you through 7 days with no adverse physical symptoms-the concentration isn’t going to stay steady, and your body is going to figure it out, and start to feel like crap as soon as you get down to a certain level (which is different for every person)-SHE HASN”T FELT ANYTHING, and its been 7 days. If she was going to withdraw, she would’ve started already. And by the way, I have experience with Suboxone as well, don’t assume you are the only one who knows what they are talking about.
All the answers so far are dead wrong, as you will soon find out. I love how people give advice about a drug they have never taken or know nothing about.
suboxone has a half life of about 36 hours, and it also has a stacking effect. At 16 mg’s a day for 2 years, it will take over a week to clear your system.
This should give you some idea of how over medicated you have been, and when the w.d.’s do hit, I hope you have something for relief because they will be brutal and last a very very long time.
The good news is this is a great way to reduce your sub intake. you should be able to go back on 4 mg’s a day and have exactly the same relief you had before at 16 mg’s. Are you aware 1 mg of sub is equal to 50 mg’s of morphine?
If you are having surgery next month I’m not sure why you are trying to detox now, but i know many people who have jumped from lower doses of sub and not felt anything for a week or so. Be prepared because it is coming.