Author: Diary of a Quitter
Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 2:10 am
Hi christin!
I see that you’ve already gotten a lot of good info and advice in here, and I just had a few thoughts that I wanted to share with you regarding your taper.
When I was tapering, I found the drop from 1mg to .5mgs was way too hard for me to handle. The withdrawal symptoms from that much of a drop were too severe for me to be able to get on with my life comfortably. And part of the reason why I was doing such a long, slow, taper was just to avoid feeling that way.
For me, dropping from 1mg to .8 mgs was MUCH easier. In fact, after trying to go from 1mg to .5, dropping to .8 was a piece of cake.
I dissolved 8mg of Sub in 10 ml of water to make my solution. Then each ml had 0.8mgs of Suboxone. I split my dose so I took half a ml in the morning and half in the evening.
I also found that (for me anyway), the half ml dose was a good amount of liquid for keeping under my tongue. A whole ml was too much and I felt that I didn’t get good absorption, but a half ml was perfect. I kept it under my tongue for 15 minutes at least, and then no eating or drinking for another 15 minutes after swallowing.
You can also try increasing absorption by adding alcohol (I used vodka) to your solution. Don’t use straight alcohol because it BURNS. I used half vodka and half water a few times and I think I noticed a difference, but then my husband drank the vodka and I never replaced it so I just went back to water. Of course, if alcohol is a problem for you, you shouldn’t do this. I think some folks have also reported that mouthwash will work for this purpose as well – like just rinsing your mouth out before taking your dose or something.
Once I got adjusted to the .8mgs and felt comfortable there, I decreased again. I think it was a couple of weeks – it’s been a long time and I don’t really remember. I must be getting old! Anyway, what worked for me was decreases of 0.1mg at a time. Some people do bigger drops, others do smaller. It will probably take some trial and error to figure out what is best for you.
I also had to stay at certain doses longer than others before dropping. I couldn’t do a reduction on the same week that my Aunt Flo was due for a visit, for instance. 
And I tried to time my reductions so the withdrawal would hit me on my days off. It took me about 4 months I think to go from 1mg to nothing.
Best of luck to you with your taper. Please feel free to ask questions – I will try to help you out in any way that I can. There are quite a few stories of successful tapers on the forum now that might be helpful as well. Take care and see you around…quitter!
