Author: tinydancer

Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 12:25 pm

Hi Robert,

Yeah, I read a lot of those stories too. It’s pretty scary seeing that stuff, huh? I had to stop reading anything online regarding suboxone well before I started to taper and jump. The info I was getting wasn’t worth the fear and anxiety. So, you’re already down to .75mgs? That’s great! It’s well below what I got to. I wouldn’t pay ANY attention to the stories that claim acute and post acute withdrawals are harder for people who taper lower. Of everyone I know who has gone through the jumping process, the exact opposite is the case. The lower you go, the easier it is and you’re in a great place. I do believe there comes a point when you have to weigh the pros & cons of tapering really low. Tapering really, really low can prove to be more of a headache than just jumping at a certain point. This is just my opinion because i didn’t have the patience or discipline to get that low. For me, it was easier to just stop. My husband got down to about .2mg and had barely any withdrawal at all. He was low energy for a couple weeks and had a couple restless nights in the beginning, but no one could have guessed he was going through anything. He hasn’t had any PAWS what so ever.

I was at a higher dose when I jumped and had a rougher time, but even so, I did it. LOL. At 5 months, I remember having to deal with feelings of anger and sadness that seemed to come out of nowhere. It would just hit me out of the blue and I had a hard time dealing with that, but luckily it was brief. I have to imagine that was part of paws.. I dont know. Motivation is something that’s taken a while to get back on track but there is a gradual trajectory that’s at an incline.

So, today, at 10 months off suboxone, I can say that I don’t believe I am dealing with PAWS and I don’t believe I have been for several months. Is life perfect? Nope.. but my "bad days" can all be tied to either an event that’s happened or a conflict with someone in my life. I’m just dealing with every day stuff that would cause anyone to have a bad day. I will admit that navigating through anger, frustration and sadness, without anything to take the edge off, is tough shit sometimes. Truly. That’s when cravings can pop up. The good news is that I have mostly good days and have been learning as I go, how to deal with the bad days. So, to answer your question, I don’t really have any random bad days for no reason. The days where I feel off or a little down, out of the blue, are directly related to my fluctuating hormones. It’s like clock work every month so I know it’s not PAWS. I’m willing to bet that for some people (women,) who aren’t in tune with their cycles and how their hormones go up and crash each month, and how that directly effects our serotonin levels, probably would mistake it for paws. Simple things like this probably cause people to make this process out to be much worse than it actually is. Does that make sense?

Motivation is the main thing I struggle with these days, but I think it also has to do with my life style change after moving from the east coast back to the west coast. I’m working on improving my diet and exercise as we speak and feel that alone will help me a lot.

So, there you have it. If you have an specific questions I didn’t answer let me know. Hang in there, it’s really not as bad as you think or you hear. I’m not tough, actually, I’m a fucking pussy when it comes to this stuff. If I did it, I truly believe anyone can do it. It’s just staying clean that will prove to be a challenge, not actually getting off subs.