Recovering From Severe Opiate Addiction
Buprenorphine & Naloxone (Suboxone)
Citation:   xdefeatsy. "Recovering From Severe Opiate Addiction: An Experience with Buprenorphine & Naloxone (Suboxone) (exp74216)". Erowid.org. Jun 26, 2009. erowid.org/exp/74216

 
DOSE:
    Opiates  
    oral Pharms - Buprenorphine (daily)
    oral Naloxone (daily)
  600 mg oral Pharms - Quetiapine (daily)
  150 mg oral Pharms - Sertraline (daily)
BODY WEIGHT: 160 lb
I have been a drug addict for the better part of 5 years. I have gone through the alphabet of chemicals, I think it's fair to say I have tried quite a variety. The last 2 years of my general addiction were the worst. I ended up with a $300-400 a day habit that consisted mostly of oxycontin, heroin, and cocaine. I went from being a recreational user to a full-fledged fiend; dealing, manipulating, and stealing to get what I needed. On top of this, I was also being treated for a mix of Avoidant Personality Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder. For this I was prescribed 600mg of Seroquel in conjunction with 150mg of Zoloft every day. Eventually life caught up with me and landed me in the emergency room with a lot of explaining to do. The least-painful option for me was inpatient rehab.

While in rehab I was put on 16mg of Subutex a day for the first 4 days of detox. I was then switched to its cousin, Suboxone (Subutex with the Naloxone craving blocker), as part of a opiate replacement therapy. I started out at 16mg and over the course of a year I stayed clean, reducing my dosage of Suboxone every few months by 4mg; this while maintaining my Seroquel and Zoloft dosages.

I can say now after finally getting off of it that it was a worthy investment, and I owe the Suboxone program my life. Not only did it kill the withdrawals instantly, but the Naloxone serves as a deterrent to using opiates again because if I use on it I am forced into withdrawals -- and anyone who has been through heroin withdrawal knows that it isn't worth it. It is very comfortable in terms of weening off, I suffered no withdrawal while changing dosages. Maybe a little irritability and headache at the end when I went from 2-to-0mg.

As someone who has tried to use methadone unsuccessfully in an attempt to ween myself off, I can honestly say that Suboxone was the drug that finally made it possible for me to quit the heroin and the oxy's for over a year now -- and hopefully, for good.

Exp Year: 2007ExpID: 74216
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jun 26, 2009Views: 29,443
[ View PDF (to print) ] [ View LaTeX (for geeks) ] [ Swap Dark/Light ]
Pharms - Buprenorphine (265), Naloxone (339) : Addiction & Habituation (10), Glowing Experiences (4), Medical Use (47), Hospital (36)

COPYRIGHTS: All reports copyright Erowid.
No AI Training use allowed without written permission.
TERMS OF USE: By accessing this page, you agree not to download, analyze, distill, reuse, digest, or feed into any AI-type system the report data without first contacting Erowid Center and receiving written permission.

Experience Reports are the writings and opinions of the authors who submit them. Some of the activities described are dangerous and/or illegal and none are recommended by Erowid Center.


Experience Vaults Index Full List of Substances Search Submit Report User Settings About Main Psychoactive Vaults