DOSE:	8 mg	sublingual	Pharms - Buprenorphine
	2 mg	sublingual	Naloxone

BODY WEIGHT:

175 lb

I am a 50 year old male. I've been a drug addict for the past 20 years, with off and on use for most of those years. What I mean by that is I've used many months of the year, but also gone through numerous periods where I've been totally clean, or what I call on-off cycles. I've struggled with depression for most of my life and when I discovered opiates in my early 20s, I was amazed at what they could do for emotional pain. However, I really didn't become an addict with life changing problems until about age 45.

The last couple years were my worst in terms of opiate abuse. I had a family member fighting cancer and ended up stealing from them to feed the habit. They were getting 300 10mg Oxy tablets per month plus the extended release variety as well, so I was stealing and taking a lot, 100mg+ per day or more.

In April 2017, I entered an outpatient program, primarily because my therapist suggested I try it. He explained the benefits of a drug called suboxone. When I entered the program, I had been clean for about a month, so zero tolerance.

On day 1, I am given 2mg of suboxone sublingual. It is a little amusing to think back on this as I was told that I needed to sit with the prescribing doctor for 20 minutes to be sure I would tolerate the medicine. I felt nothing and drove back to work. An hour later, it hit me and it was a rather intense and long lasting effect. That first day on suboxone, I experienced sensations that were similar to other opiates, but I could clearly tell the difference. As is usually the case when I'm on a good opiate ride, my depression goes away and my mind wants to take on the world. Needless to say, I did not get to sleep that night because of this. I usually work during the day, but that night I stayed at work until 3am, because my mind was too busy wanting to get things done. This is the reason this drug is smuggled in to prisons so often. I take the tablets, but the strips are apparently easy to smuggle in to a prison compared to other contraband. If you are clean and take suboxone, it can be very intense.

I am now on 8mg per day. It has been very difficult to take this drug as directed. I find myself wanting more of it because of the ability it has to combat my depression. Because I was discovered as someone who was adjusting his own dose, my doctors have not been willing to up the dose, which is probably a good thing. The problem is that I'm running out every month. I have to supplement with other things like tramadol or kratom if necessary.

I think this is a great drug to help with opiate addiction, but can present its own set of problems for certain people. I'm now back to my on-off cycles of drug use (with suboxone). I'm contending with the effects of withdrawal when I run low or out all-together. If you get on this drug to treat your addiction problems, then be careful about using too much and running out. The withdrawals from this stuff are bad, worse for me than other opiates.

Exp Year: 2018	ExpID: 111442
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 50
Published: Jan 15, 2018	Views: 7,641
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Pharms - Buprenorphine (265) : First Times (2), Retrospective / Summary (11), Depression (15), Addiction & Habituation (10), Not Applicable (38)