SUBOXONE - Does it help?

If you have ever dealt with opiate addiction then the chances are that you are familiar with what it feels like to try and stop using opiates. The withdrawal symptoms can be a monster to deal with. Medicine exists to help ease withdrawals and make opiate addiction a bit more manageable. Methadone has been around many years and has been a primary "go-to" for help with this matter but now there exists a medicine called SUBOXONE or Buprenorphine.

Buprenorphine is used as an opioid replacement in treating opioid addiction. It is used in controlled amounts to replace heroin and/or oxycodone in most patients. This treatment can be short or long term. The drug has a long half life meaning that it remains active in a patients system for around 24-60 hours. It can really help with detoxification from opioids by eliminating or reducing the uncomfortable symptoms of withdrawals. As far as stopping the use of opiates and going into recovery from opiate addiction, this CAN be a good place to start. As long as it is understood that this drug just REPLACES another drug.

It was September of 2015 and I had decided to stop using heroin. I went into a rehabilitation program at a local St. Louis hospital so that I can be somewhere that i can receive medical attention if needed. I was introduced to SUBOXONE once I was there.

Having tried to stop using heroin before I knew I was in for horrible withdrawal symptoms that included cold sweats, hot flashes, severe abdominal cramping and pain, severe diarrhea, bone pain, chills, nausea, vomiting, general extreme weakness, migraines, and just about every other bad symptom I can think of when it comes to just feeling the most discomfort a person can feel. The withdrawal symptoms is the reason why I even kept using heroin as long as I had used it. Many addicts will say this same thing and I can easily see why. The suboxone really did help A LOT. It made my detoxification very easy to handle and made the symptoms near nonexistent for the most part. I was in the hospital for 10 days and was given Suboxone for 8 of those 10 days. I was finally not on heroin! I was thrilled and relieved.

The day came where I had to leave the hospital detox program and go back to normal life. I was ready. It was 11 days since I had last used heroin and this suboxone had really helped me kick heroin with VERY minor withdrawal discomfort. I left the hospital a few hours after my morning dose of suboxone and other meds that are commonly given to heroin addicts when they detox. I was good.

The next morning I woke up and was experiencing a little pain in my bones and a mildly upset stomach. As the day progressed the stomach cramping got worse and worse and I had developed bad diarrhea. THE WITHDRAWALS hit me full force when I woke up the next day. Man, it was day 13 and I was having the worst withdrawals that I have ever experienced. I could not go back to the hospital and I was not given any prescription of Suboxone to take home. What was I going to do? After hours of extreme discomfort and severe withdrawal symptoms, I went out and got some heroin and used again. I relapsed already. I stayed on this relapse until very recently.

The dangers of suboxone are very deceptive. You will love life for the most part while on this replacement drug but when you do not have it, it is no different and somewhat worse than when you stop using heroin. Suboxone is best used in a long term opioid replacement therapy in my opinion. With that being said, all you are doing is replacing the opioid with another synthetic opioid that can be managed somewhat and you can then taper down doses. It is not the miracle drug that people claim it to be. It is just another scam drug. THE BEST WAY TO STOP HEROIN AND STAY CLEAN is to quit using cold turkey and work a program of some sort. Once you quit cold turkey and go through what you hate going through, it gets better every day and I know this because I have done this before. The hard part is not the discomfort of withdrawals, the hard part is living everyday and focusing on not using each day. One day at a time.

Well if Suboxone does not work you have a few options. Most of these options are the same. You can look into going to a methadone clinic and utilizing a methadone program but coming off of methadone is one of the few things worse than getting off of heroin. It could take years to do with assistance. You could tough it out and stay clean for a few days, go through withdrawals, and then look into the Vivitrol shot which is an injection that dissipates over about a months time and helps fight any withdrawal symptoms and helps reduce cravings for opiates. This is actually probably not a bad idea for a lot of people but if you do go out and use heroin or painkillers after you get this shot, you can become violently ill or worse.

THE BEST WAY to stop using heroin and/or opiate painkillers is to quit cold turkey and work a program to help yourself stay clean. Getting clean is not going to be easy but it will be worth it in the long run. You can have your life back! I know it is extremely easy to easy and extremely hard to do but it is extremely rewarding once you do it.

How much longer must one wait before they realize that the best way to be free and clean of a substance is to not use that substance or a substitute for that substance?

Many opiate addicts never asked to be addicted in the first place. Maybe even EVERY addict never asked for it. Many never knew what being addicted entailed although they knew the risk of becoming addicted and that it was a likelihood of using opiates. For some, the pain they face with certain painful conditions is a huge reason why there was not an option when it came to taking opiate painkillers. For a large number of other addicts, they just wanted to feel the euphoric feeling associated with opiates and have searched this feeling out to the point of becoming addicted to the actual substance. Either way an addict has become addicted to an opiate the fact remains that a person at some time or another will HAVE to stop using opiates. I hope this helps someone even just a little bit when it comes to keeping informed about what goes into your body.

THANK YOU FOR READING THIS AND KEEPING INFORMED ON WHAT SUBSTANCES YOU USE. Please share this article and help others stay informed! Feel free to comment, ask questions, and i will do my best to respond with informed researched answers.

THIS HAS BEEN MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION ON THIS SUBJECT. I do research what I put into my articles and would not post something without checking facts. For the most part my articles are written on subjects I have personally experienced and dealt with myself. ENJOY!