Author: TeeJay

Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2013 2:32 am

Hey man. It sounds like you’ve experienced the general upward trajectory of opioid tolerance. I’ve found that it doesn’t matter what opioid you are on, whether it’s heroin, Suboxone, methadone, Oxy, morphine / whatever. Eventually your body / mind adjusts to the level of opioid stimulation you provide, and you feel you need more. Suboxone is perhaps slightly different because of its ceiling effect. At some level (between 8-12mg’s), taking more has no added effect. This doesn’t mean that you won’t eventually adjust to the dose and feel you need more, because eventually it happens. Heaps of people on 12-16mg’s come here wondering why they don’t feel that awesome buzz they once got from their dose. All it means is when you do take more, you don’t get any extra effect.

Methadone is a particularly nasty one for pushing up your overall tolerance. Doctors are all too willing to increase patient dosage, and given it only takes a week or two for your body to adjust and you stop feeling "stoned", it’s all too easy to ask for dose increases to get that feeling back. Next thing you know, you’re on 140 mg and STUCK.

As for that awesome feeling / buzz you got off Suboxone that you no longer find yourself feeling. I’m afraid to say it’s likely gone and won’t be coming back. When you were on your peak methadone dose, you were stimulating your opioid receptors at 3 x the methadone dose allowed for when switching from methadone to Sub. So your receptors have a fair bit of downregulating to do yet.

But give it time, because you will feel better. It takes a while for all the residual methadone to leave the body. When I came off methadone cold turkey, I was getting waves of withdrawals for months. Even though you’re on Suboxone, you’re still detoxing off methadone under the surface … or that’s the way I look at it. You will eventually feel better, but that awesome feeling eventually goes, and once it does it doesn’t really come back.