It seems many people are asking for help coming off suboxone. This can be accomplished by asking your doctor to taper you off as fast as you would like. Generally, the fastest one can get off suboxone is about one week. But be warned, it will likely be painful and you will experience typical opioid withdrawal symptoms.
Most Addicts should consider long term treatment with suboxone (buprenorphine). Getting off sooner will likely lead to early relapse and ever more problems. You should consider longer term treatment with suboxone rather than seeking help coming off suboxone if you have some (but not necessarily all) of the following:
- You have been opioids (narcotics) for longer than a year
- You have been unable to get off narcotics
- You buy narcotics off the street
- Narcotic use interferes with you work, family, or school
- You have legal problems from narcotics
- You use more than prescribed
- You inject, snort, or smoke opioids
- You seem unable to function without opioids
Medications for Help Coming Off Suboxone
Coming off Suboxone will always lead to some for of opioid withdrawal symptoms. Other symptoms such as sleep problems, irritability, and cravings may continue for many months. Some people never seem to be able to kick the cravings. Before adding medication to help treat the withdrawal symptoms, the suboxone dose can be lowered by 2 mg per week over a month or two. People seem to begin needing help coming off suboxone once they get down to a dose of 2-4 mg per day. It is at this time the
Doctors use a variety of medications for help coming off suboxone. Once of the longest and most widely used is clonidine. This medication is also used to treat high blood pressure. It will lower the tremors, sweating, anxiety, and heart rate of withdrawal. It will also cause some sedation which is helpful. This medication can cause dangerous drops in blood pressure and should be used under medical supervision.
Here is a list of some other medications used for help coming of suboxone and what they may help.
- hydroxyzine (similar to benadryl) helps anxiety
- promethazine helps nausea
- Mylanta helps with indigestion
- milk of magnesia is for constipation
- ibuprophen is used for pain and fever
- methocarbomol (Robaxin) muscle spasm
- loperamide (immodium) helps diarrhea
- trazodone (an antidepressant that is usually prescribed for sleep) for insomnia
- ranitidine (Zantac) acid reflux
Who Should Consider Getting Help Coming Off Suboxone Permanently?
Not every person needs to be on an opioid maintenance medication such as suboxone or methadone. You MAY be a person never needing to take these types of medication for the long term if you have the following:
- You have used narcotics for under a year
- You have been able to stop narcotics in the past
- You have a stable family and social life
- You have never had legal problems from opioids
- You have a very high motivation for a substance free lifestyle
- You have no other addictive problems (alcohol, marijuana, etc)
- You got hooked on narcotics for pain treatment and have not been using it to “get high”
Summary
Suboxone is used to treat opioid dependence and if you think you need this medication use our free suboxone doctor locator. True opioid drug addiction is likely best treated with opioid maintenance treatment. However, if one want to attempt complete abstinence from opioids, there are a variety of medications to help minimize the effects of opioid withdrawal and get help coming off suboxone.
