I took the crushed subutex(the Bup) under the tongue exactly 30 hours after my last heroin use. I was real good and uncomfortable for what felt like FOREVER(I had a pretty high tolerance...I would start feeling bad after 4 to 6 hours between use. It was ridiculous how fast my brain blew through all that heroin)
It's very very important to wait at LEAST 24 hours since the last dose of any opiate to introduce the buprenorphine. You can cause yourself to go into some intense withdrawal that NOTHING will stop. I was terrified of that so I put it off until I was sweating and shaking and vomiting for a good day lol.
Take it in the morning....3 days.. and stop. You'll still have some symptoms but it will be more manageable and there are "helper" meds. Get motrin, some anti shit meds, magnesium(important), maybe some trazodone for sleep, and catapres(clonidin). Its worth it to get some dopamine supplements after about 6 months to a year.
Get into a recovery group and start exercising.
You got this, Shamp. It's completely worth it!
See I was thinking I would be better off on it long term, you seee the thing with me is I don't class my painkiller habit extreme it's the other ingredients that'll kill me quick... I think if I come off it too quick I'll start buying meds again quick... To me this is a safer way to play and if it stops me needing the prees and alcohol too then I should just stay on it imo... The nurse told me the withdrawal from espranor is nowhere near as bad as subutex, so that's a good thing... Yeah she told me not to take any opiods the day before I go or I could find myself in a whole world of hurt... I'm just going to see where it takes me and get my ass back to work again, get outside much more often like I used to, I should be away in the mountains fishing every weekend not lazing about the house taking pharma cocktails, that's just not me... Once I get there I'll be thinking about stopping it... I need the happiness back that drug abuse robs you of eventually...
Well.... Shamp, buprenorphine is buprenorphine.
If you feel you need to stay on, stay on. It's better than a pain pill habit that WILL eventually become a heroin habit. Even if you THINK "I'll never do that. I'll never touch that shit. Ill manage my pill issue" that's a lie you tell yourself.
I thought the same exact way. There was no way I would ever touch heroin, ever. I'm too smart, too healthy and too good for that. All bullshit. When I finally couldnt stay on top with the pills I started "supplementing" with heroin. And I just snorted it. And it was just a little....right? In between my pill refills. So it wasnt THAT bad(in my head). Fats forward a few MONTHS I was full blown shooting it with a 500 dollar A DAY habit and I was flat out suicidal. I was so attached and addicted, I hated it and loved it. The thought of quitting ....it seemed completely hopeless and like lopping off limbs. You really cant imagine your life without it or bare your life with it.
The day before my husband hauled me off to rehab (he was using too. But he was more a veteran on his 5th relapse and he didnt let me kill myself) I took a handful of my mothers klonopin on top of heroin I took that he didnt know I got into and I'm pretty sure I was trying to die. I dont remember much about that night outside of GB(husband....boyfriend, partner in crime at the time) grabbing my face and asking what I was on. Everything is black hole after that and the scary part is I could have died and I was GOOD with that.
An unchecked opiate addiction will absolutely and completely rob you of your self, your soul, and you will to live. That's not an exaggeration at all. That's why so many addicts die and why so many people are just flabbergasted watching these people just decline without any hesitation. You think....wow this asshole really doesnt care what happens to them. And its true. PARENTS stop caring about their KIDS. I was NO different. That drug becomes the ONLY thing you care about. You just slowly stop being a human being.
So dont feel pressure to rush off the buprenorphine if you are concerned about your ability to STAY off the opiates. Its WAY better to be on maintenance than to go down that path. And its inevitable if you are using them. Some people last longer on the edge before falling off it....but everyone falls.
You definately need to get into some recovery counseling so you can start working through the reasons WHY you are drawn to substances in the first place. Even if you dont think it's that deep and you just like being high - trust me - there is an underlying reason for that. You could have a trauma. You could have a chemical imbalance. You could have a dopamine deficiency. If you cant be happy sober there is something going on that you CAN work through. Really try to hear me when I tell you....you CAN be happy and satisfied totally clean. Genuinely BETTER than any thing the drugs can offer you.
I'm so much better off now than I was before that I'd rather be dead than ever go through that again. Absolutely NOTHING about it appeals to me anymore. That was a process though. The more years pass the less I even think about it.
I went on buprenorphine about 3 years ago because I had a few surgeries (I still have the same medical issues that led me to the drugs) and I didnt want to be on pain pills for weeks but it was nessesary. So my doctor had this bright idea to use the buprenorphine. Welp I got dependent on it and I cold turkey quit taking it and just went through THAT for weeks on my own at home. It was fucking horrible and I'm convinced i had some sort of total breakdown. I wasnt myself for months. And that's when i had that god awful fling with Poofer of all people. I had marital issues before that and the buprenorphine was like gas on a fire.
So if you are gonna stay on.....please have a plan to taper off responsibility because that stuff is a whole other problem and nightmare on it's own. It's a good way to maintain yourself for probably up to a year but after that you'll start getting freaky side effects
Sorry for the long post. I know it helped me a lot in the early days when recovered vets of addiction talked about their recovery process.