Author: Icaras
Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 4:56 pm
There could be 2 possibilities here. First one is that bup never really produces intense pshycal withdrawals, for many people when they jump off from doses such as 2mg, 4mg 6mg etc or only taper for a little while/fast taper- the stacked half life tends to cover the toughest of acute withdrawals, we call it the stacking affect, well my doctor does. So maybe that’s why you haven’t had it too rough, because the half life of all the built up sub does over the years is covering your receptors thus covering the worst of the withdrawals…It’s the PAWS you should look out for and worry about.
Second possibility is that the withdrawals may not reach their peak until 2 weeks, yes 2 weeks, I have known many people who felt the brunt of their withdrawals at the 14th day, these people were also on sub for 4 years and over and did not do much of a taper or stopped at 2mg, but again they weren’t hardcore acute withdrawals, but they felt some symptoms reach their peak few weeks after their last dose.
We really need to put things into perspective here, it’s the mental games that affect sub users the most, Many would rather trade mental withdrawals/PAWS for acute withdrawals, because acute withdrawals would not last for 6 months or few years as do the mental games/PAWS from stopping the suboxone or the text (subutex).
I cannot see how a 2-3 week taper from 4mg by a 7 year sub user could have made any significant impact in regards to withdrawals, maybe you still would have felt the same as you are now had you never tapered? most probably in my opinion.. Hell long term short acting opiate users can take 3 or 4 months taper their short acting drug/opiate let alone doing a few week long acting opiate taper, just does not make sense, what am saying is that since it takes years to feel the sub has stopped working or building up tolerance then imagine how long it can take to undo all that? so doing a couple of week or 1 month taper from 4mg to 0 if your a long term sub user just does not seem to bear any impact to lessening any withdrawals.
Maybe it’s a good thing you never tapered long and slow because judging by the reports it can extend misery and produce more brutal symptoms, low sub doses tend to behave as short acting opiates. These reports and stories are becoming more and more common now, even my doctor can jumped on this theory.. So perhaps it was better that you jumped in what it seemed cold-turkey, so to let the stacking affect taper the rest of the sub off in your receptors and body. But like I said it’s the PAWS you need to think about and prepare of…I don’t think tapering has any bearing on PAWS, whether one tapers or not they still need to deal with PAWS.
Good luck anyway.