Author: tearj3rker
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 10:11 pm
| Golden1 wrote: |
| The brain is accustomed to processing full agonists or antagonists. To this day, no one is entirely sure of the effects of a partial-agonist, 30 times more powerful than morphine on the brain long-term. |
That’s kinda true, but also largely not. The 30 times more powerful than morphine argument doesn’t mean much as there are many agonists more powerful dose to dose than Suboxone. It may be 30 x more powerful than morphine dose for dose, but this is compensated by a significantly reduced dose (imagine us taking 110mg Suboxone a day!) and the ceiling effect. Also, the brain ISN’T accustomed to processing antagonists at all! It’s only accustomed to processing the relatively low level endogenous opioids that are used to modulate our pain and reward pathways. If anything the problems begin the moment we start introducing exogenous opioids. These drugs are 1000’s X more powerful than our endogenous opioids, and our brain is hardly accustomed to processing them AT ALL. Hence the brain gets rewired (some even call it "damaged") to be able to remain alive with these molecules floating around. The damage caused by pounding our brains with agonists is much more profound than any partial agonist / antagonist.
Where I agree with your statement is that because bupe has such a long half life, traces of it can linger in the body fat and in the brain for weeks even months. This is why PAWS lasts much longer for bupe than for morphine/heroin. Because these tiny traces seep out of the tissue and latch onto the receptors again before being metabolised and excreted, the opioid receptors are prevented from downregulating fully. Not just that, but the antagonist effect of bupe can also kick the natural opioids that are coming out of hiding off the receptors as well.
It’s interesting but with PAWS, the moments where you don’t feel it is when there’s these residual bupe molecules attached to the receptors. It’s the periods where you feel withdrawal symptoms return when there’s no bupe attached. Gradually less and less bupe molecules seep out into the body and your brain better adjusts to having no trace molecules present.
The best way to speed up this process is to do whatever exercise you can. Sleep well, and sleep at the same time each night. Eat well. Don’t take ANY opioids whatsoever, not even codeine preparations. Even small amounts of opioids can cause the receptors to up-regulate because they’re so sensitive at this stage, and will remain sensitive long term. Most importantly, DON’T GIVE UP. IT WILL GET BETTER. Trust me. With Sub it can take up to 18 months for the brain to normalise. Give yourself time, and the rewards will be huge. Good luck!@