Subutex withdrawal

[kitten1982]

Hi,
AFOAF came off subutex in November 2006, after taking heroin for 4 years and subutex for 2 years. AFOAF is now living a very nice drug free life, and wants to post this in the hope that it might help other people trying to kick the habit......



The detox went well in the sense that im not taking subutex anymore, and i havent taken up my heroin habit again. It was hard though, and if anything it has made me think of taking H more than when i was taking subutex.

I didnt take any other drugs to deal with the pain. I did go to see the doc on the second day, and he offered me sleeping tablets but said he didnt recommend taking them as i could get addicted to them, and basically said to just try without them and put up with not sleeping. So thats what i did.

I booked a week off work in advance, (which happened to be my bday week so not very nice!!), but had to have another week off too and get a sick note (he put general dibilitation on it).

The first two nights were rough, as it was hard to get used to not sleeping. The days werent as bad for some reason. Around about the third or fourth night, i hallucinated quite a lot, but also felt strangely euphoric, i can only compare the feeling to like taking ecstacy. This was also around the time i had rummaged through my house trying to find some subutex tabs, and managed to find one 0.4mg ( i think) tab, which i took, but didnt help me sleep.....

The cramps, and loss of appetite, and flu symptoms were there, and bad, but that has never bothered me.... it was the sleeping and foggy mind that got to me the most.

I managed to sleep after about a week, which was still rough but i was just grateful to shut my eyes for two minutes and get away!!!

I didnt leave the house for two weeks, which was helped by the fact that i have a lovely partner who supported me, and cooked me food, and made me lots of cups of tea and fetched me endless supplies of cigarettes from the shop

A little after two weeks i went back to work. It was really strange at first as nobody knew what i had been through, and i did feel a different person. So it was hard interacting with people, and trying to be normal.

I would say i probably felt normal ( but changed somehow ) after about a month..... and now i feel better than ever.

If you want advice on how best to get through the first two weeks of withdrawal, i would say:

Stock up on cigarettes(if you smoke) and anything else that could comfort you. But dont drink alcohol or take any other drugs, as this will just confuse your body and mind.

Dont leave the house, as speaking to people is scary and agitates you.

Accept the fact that you are not going to sleep, dont even get in bed and try to because your restless body will just irritate you even more.

Find something that you can do to pass the time, especially during the night time, as you will have a lot of hours to try and waste!!! I found playing games online and surfing the net helped pass the time, as it didnt make me try and use my brain too much......

Dont think of what you can do to make yourself feel better. Accept the fact that you are going to feel like complete shit for about two weeks, and just concentrate on what you can do to make those two weeks go reletavely faster.

Just sit it out(literally), and just remember all the time that it wont last forever. You have probably already wasted years of your life (like me) addicted to H. Just remember that you only have to waste at the most 3 weeks of your life, and then you will have your life back forever.

I was also fortunate that i moved to a different area entirely whilst on my subutex tabs, so i didnt have any contacts whatsoever whilst going through this. The area i live in is also quite quiet, so i wouldnt even have been able to go out and get anything. Just the thought that i had no other alternative but to go through with it, helped me a lot. And there was no way i was gonna go out feeling like i did and travel for 2 hours by public transport to get any H.


Anyway, AFOAF hopes this may be useful to anybody out there, and wishes all of you the best of luck.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Very positive
	thoughtful post to help OP through w/ds,good tips.thank you