Day 66 - 02/26: .25mg
Well, made it through yesterday. This cold is really hanging on. I’m on day 13 of it and still coughing up crap and blowing my nose constantly. So that can definitely tend to heighten any withdrawal symptoms that I’ve been feeling. It can also make me think I’m feeling withdrawal when, in actuality, I’m just feeling the effects of a cold. I think it’s important to be mindful of that.
I appreciate your response about my story. I think I haven’t posted about some of the negative things because when I’m feeling bad, that’s when I tend to want to write the least. I will say this. I don’t think suboxone is inherently a good or bad thing. I think it has the potential to be both. It can be so useful and good if it’s used correctly. But, it’s also a narcotic, which opens the potential for it to be a bad thing when used incorrectly. As with any narcotic, if you’re taking more than your doctor has prescribed you, if you’re not telling your doctor that you’re taking more than prescribed, if you’re running out before your refill every month, is it a good thing? I can say with certainty that is the same behavior that I practiced with prescription opiates like OxyContin. The purpose of MAT is to get off of drugs. To break the cycle. To stop the behaviors that we practiced during addiction. For this purpose, I think it’s incredibly important that suboxone be used the right way and with complete openness / honesty with the patients doctor.
I also think that, like every other addiction treatment system out there, MAT isn’t perfect. The manufacturer of suboxone has not published a titration method for getting off of it. I voiced concerns about wanting to get off of it to my doctor many times over the years with no real help on a solid tapering plan. So it was on me to figure out how to do it.
And I just want to say, I don’t think tapering off is for everyone. Some people will never want to get off and I think that is completely fine for those people if it’s working for them. I NEVER think that anyone should be forced off of suboxone before they’re ready. If a person is able to stay on suboxone and abstain from drugs for the rest of their life, then that sounds like a program that is perfectly sustainable for them. And that’s amazing and shouldn’t be changed.
However, if a patient is voicing concerns about wanting to get off of suboxone, there should be help from both the manufacturer and the prescribing doctor. I shouldn’t have had to scour the internet for a tapering plan. There should have been an official tapering plan set out by a medical professional.
Anyway, sorry. I don’t want to make this post a political thing about the goods and bads of MAT. This post is, primarily, about how the taper made me feel. So people know what my mind and body was feeling throughout the entirety of the taper and for a few weeks after I’m completely off.
So getting back to today and how I’m feeling. Going from .5mg to .25mg did produce a bit of withdrawal. Generally, this is how it goes for me: I lower my dose. I feel progressively a little bit worse every day for 4 or 5 days. Then, generally, on the 6th day I start to feel a lot better and renewed. So I’ve found that, for me, lowering my dose every 7 to 14 days has been effective. But that’s just me. Some people may need to go slower. Some people may need to go faster. I will try to never speak to someone else’s experiences, only my own.
I hope this helps people and I hope everyone out there is doing well today. If you’re reading this, make some time to smile and laugh today. Watch some comedy. Go outside if it’s nice out. Look on the bright side. Things could always be worse.
More soon.

- B