What Helps with Suboxone Withdrawal? Here’s What I Did

Here’s what helps with Suboxone withdrawal.

Suboxone withdrawal can be seriously shitty because suboxone has a long half-life and lasts a lot longer than many other types of opioid withdrawal.

However, there are ways to deal with it.

This might be controversial, but I believe that Suboxone is a horrible drug, and I believe that the best way to come off it without it being totally horrible is to use other addictive drugs.

I look at it like this—opioids are about the worst possible drug you can get addicted to. They’re expensive, and they’re incredibly addicting, and getting off them is hard as hell because you go through horrible physical withdrawals.

That’s why I’m writing this—I want people to have a real method of getting off Suboxone instead of the bullshit most of these other posts tell you, like “hydrate,” and “have some blankets for the chills.”

In fact, the most fucking ridiculous thing I’ve seen is the recommendation that you have some movies to distract you from the pain.

I’m sorry, but fuck that shit, this is serious shit we’re dealing with here, and if you think you can get off Suboxone with some goddamn movies, you’re out of your fucking mind.

So this post is going to give you real info on what helps with Suboxone withdrawals.

Here’s what I did to get over them.

Suboxone Taper

This is stupidly controversial, but even though Suboxone is used to get off opioids, it is, in my opinion, one of the absolute worst opioids out there because it has such a long half-life and therefore has long-ass withdrawals.

The withdrawals are going to be shorter depending on how much you’ve been using and how long you’ve been using, so you’re definitely going to want to taper (if you can).

Tapering is hard as fuck if you’re an addict. The reason it’s so hard is that Suboxone gets you high, so if you’re not getting that high anymore, you’re going to want to use more to get up.

If you can taper, do it—it’s much safer than some of the other stuff I’ve used to get off, and it makes the withdrawals not nearly so bad.

Before I got off suboxone completely, I went from 16mg a day of Suboxone to 8mg, then 4mg, then 2mg, then 1mg over about a week and a half.

If you can taper, you’re going to have a much easier time coming off. I’m not sure how long you should taper. Mine was pretty short, but if you’ve been on Suboxone for a long time (years), you need to talk to a doctor to see what they recommend. You might need to taper for 30 days, or maybe even longer.

Benzodiazepines

Facts first—benzos will get you high, they are highly addictive, and coming off them can literally be deadly.

You can die coming off of benzos.

Why did I use them then? Because they work, and because, if you use them in small amounts and for short periods of time, they’re not very addictive.
That being said, I have an addictive personality, and it’s easy for me to get addicted to just about anything.

However, for me, it was worse to be on Suboxone than it was to take benzos.

Also, when you go into rehab and want to get off Suboxone, that’s what they give you—weak benzos.

I used Xanax, but that’s probably a bad idea because it’s so strong and so addictive, but it’s hard to get weak benzos on the street, so I took what I could get.

In rehab, they give you either Ativan or Librium—it depends on the rehab I suppose—but those are both low-level benzos, and they absolutely help with coming off of opioids.

I cannot stress enough how serious an addiction to benzos can be. Most doctors give them to people for 6 weeks max when prescribing it for anxiety, but obviously I’m not a fucking doctor, so if you have access to a doctor who is willing to give you good info, then do that.

Kratom

Kratom is an opioid, and despite what some idiots on the internet will tell you, it’s addictive, so once again, I had to ask myself about harm reduction—is it better to use a weak opioid like kratom to come off of another, stronger, worse opioid, like Suboxone?

For me, the answer was yes.

Again, just like with benzos, it’s possible to just end up switching out one addiction for the other. You get off Suboxone and end up eating kratom instead.

However, kratom is much weaker, is basically legal everywhere (for now), and is much easier to get off of.

I think of it as a bridge between a taper and getting off completely, just like Suboxone is a bridge between heroin and getting sober.

Sure, you’re not sober if you’re on Suboxone (despite what some people will argue), but it’s better than shooting heroin 5 times a day.

By the same token, it’s better to be eating kratom than it is to be addicted to Suboxone, so this is a pick your poison type situation.

Weed Seriously Helps With Suboxone Withdrawal

For some people, this might seem like a no-brainer, and for me, it totally was.

Nothing helps with opioid withdrawals quite like weed.

When I was coming off, I smoked a lot of weed.

If nothing else, it can help with nausea, but feeling high off something makes it easier to get through the cravings for the serious shit.

One danger of coming off of Suboxone is that you’ll go back to real opiates, like heroin or Fentanyl, opiates that can kill you, so again, for me, it was about harm reduction—smoking a little weed isn’t going to kill anyone (hell, smoking a lot of weed isn’t going to kill anyone), so I’d much rather switch out my Suboxone addiction for a weed addiction (this is, of course, a worst-case scenario).

In most cases though, and for most addicts, you’re just going to need the weed to get through the withdrawals, and you’re not going to become addicted to weed.

However, it is a possibility that you’ll just switch them out and end up smoking weed all the time, but is that really a bad thing?

Depends on how much you smoke, how often you smoke, and if smoking fucks up your life.

However, I’m willing to bet that weed isn’t going to have as bad an effect on your life as Suboxone.

Alcohol Surprisingly Helps With Suboxone Withdrawal

I also drank while I was coming off of opioids, but I had to be real careful about how much I drank because I didn’t want a hangover on top of Suboxone withdrawals.

That meant I was drinking maybe a couple beers at most, especially since I was on Xanax, which potentiates the alcohol, so if you’re going to mix the two, seriously consider just not doing that.

Why mention it? You might not be able to get your hands on benzos.

For me, the withdrawals were so bad that it was worth it to take the risk.

I don’t deal with pain well, and withdrawals are nothing if not painful, so I did what I had to do.

Be real careful about alcohol in general. It’s just as dangerous as benzos to come off of, and I know people who have died as a result of alcohol withdrawal, so becoming an alcoholic to replace your opioid addiction is a pretty serious thing to avoid.

Clonidine

I was able to get a doctor to prescribe this to me for sweats, and if you’re like me, you get some serious fucking sweats when you go through withdrawals.

The sweats are such a bitch, and while they’re not the worst of the symptoms, they’re one of the most annoying ones, so that’s why I took it.

How does it mix with the other drugs on my list? I have no fucking idea.

Can you mix them?

Only a doctor would know.

Again, before you try anything on this list, talk to a doctor and see what they think.

A doctor might be a jerk off and tell you they won’t give you any info, but some of them are cool and just want to help, so it can’t hurt to ask.

Imodium

This is another one that’s specific to one of the symptoms of Suboxone withdrawal—diarrhea.

The shits that you get from opioid withdrawal are seriously horrible, and for me, they lasted for over a month—and I was only on opioids for 9 months.

You gotta be careful with Imodium because it can actually get you high in high enough doses, and it acts on the opioid receptors, so again, not something to fuck around with, and the last thing you need is to suddenly find yourself eating fucking Imodium all the goddamn time.

But it’s either that or shit your brains out for a month, so take your fucking pick.

Rehab or Detox Probably Helps With Suboxone Withdrawal Most

Obviously, the safest thing you can do is to get medically assisted detox at a rehab or a detox center, and that’s what I recommend.

I’ve detoxed at home many times, but it wasn’t fun, and usually I just went back to OxyContin or heroin or whatever opioid I was abusing at the time.

The only time I’ve ever been able to get off dope and stay off was when I went to rehab.

I know it’s scary, but it’s worth it.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.

I hope you find that this info helps with Suboxone withdrawals.