About Suboxone-that little orange pill

A lot of you have emailed me asking about suboxone and how it works. This is what I observed from my daughter when she started taking it. 

My daughter was 17 when I found out she'd been shooting heroin everyday in parking lots for a year. Yeah, she was an addict. One of her friends called me to let me know she was in trouble [addicted bad]. Luckily, she was already undergoing therapy for anger, anxiety and depression from a psychiatrist who also specialized in addiction therapy [seboxone]. 

She was really sick. I drove her to see her psychiatrist and he took one look at her, asked if she was sick and then gave her a 4mg seboxone. In about 20 minutes she was laughing and happy. That was the beginning of a year of seboxone use. Yep, she messed up twice within a two month period but other than that she took her seboxone regularly. If she didn't take it she was very, snappy and angry. I could always tell. 

When she started taking the suboxone she was taking 8mg once a day. It made her very sleepy. So she broke it up and took 4mg in the morning and 4mg at night. Sometimes she would just take 8mg at night. She progressed to only needing 4mg a day...again she broke it in half and took 2mg in the morning and 2mg at night. At about the 9 month period she was taking 1mg in the morning and 1mg at night...at about 10 months she was taking 1/2mg...then reduced her dose to just a few crumbs each day....then to nothing.  She was okay for the first couple of days and then started to experience slight flu-like symptoms, slight leg cramps, backache, headache....She didn't even realize she was going through withdrawals. She thought she had the flu. She's perfectly fine now. A happy, healthy 18 year old. 

One important thing about suboxone is that its really important to take it everyday. I can't stress that enough. You may think you don't need it but you do. Don't stop taking it...honestly, I think it's your brain trying to sabatoge your recovery. My daughter went through the same thing at about month 4. She was convinced that she was fine and didn't need to take it any longer. Suboxone is also very nasty tasting and because you have to let it dissolve under your tongue...it's pretty bad. Her side effects ranged from hot flashes, some nausea and slight headaches. She took alot of advil and motrin. She seemed pretty happy with the suboxone as far as cravings were concerned. If you think your dosage needs adjusting talk to your doctor about it. Her doctor told her it was very important to make sure she was taking the right dose because every person is different. Some may need 16mg twice a day while others only need 8mg once a day....

There are many sites about suboxone. Here are a couple of places to start.

www.suboxone.com 

Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals website has a physician locator and loads of information

www.naabt.org 

A non-profit organization formed to help people find treatment for opioid dependency with suboxone. They offer loads of information about seboxone and  links to an online forum. They also have an online physician finder by State. 

suboxonetalkzone.com

If you have specific questions about suboxone ask the Suboxone Doctor. 

She Keeps in Touch with Her Heroin User Friends

May 6. It was almost time for her counseling session...We were standing in the parking lot when her boyfriend mentioned that someone called and asked my daughter for some of her suboxone... he barely got the word suboxone out of his mouth when she hauled off and slapped him in the face. I felt so sorry for him...he looked at her and his eyes were full of hurt...I mean it broke his heart. I asked her why she slapped him and she said it was because he told me. Actions without consequences!

Of course, our entire counseling session was focused on anger, anger management and the reasons why people do the things they do. I think she actually felt bad about slapping her boyfriend which to me was a good sign. She is sometimes very ugly to her boyfriend and I told her counselor that it seems to me that she tries to push people away that stand in her way of getting to heroin. My daughter actually agreed and sadly said she thought that too...because he's always nice to her and she really has no reason to be mean to him. Her counselor seems to think she needs to be put on a long acting anti-anxiety medication. Her counselor also talked about her ID driven personality. It was very fascinating. The id is driven by the pleasure principle and strives for immediate gratification of all desires and needs. If these needs are not satisfied immediately, the result is a state of anxiety or tension. That's her exactly. If she doesn't get what she wants, when she wants it ...she gets edgy and mean.


May 21. She meets me at her counselor's office at 12 noon. We are standing in the parking lot getting ready to go in and she tells me that she just drove by someone's house to say hello. I asked her why she did that...she's not supposed to be dropping by that person's house. She's supposed to be staying away from him. She said that person was standing outside and she stopped and gave him a hug, asked him how he was doing and then left. That was it...she just wanted to make sure he was okay. She said she doesn't think he's clean. In the counseling session she proceeds talk about all kinds of things jumping from one subject to another. It's a good session I think the counselor is beginning to notice things that's she's probably never noticed before with her behavior and in general the way she thinks.

Later that afternoon, she drops her boyfriend off at work and then goes to a girlfriends house. [Of course her girlfriend lives just down the street from the person she stopped to talked to earlier in the day] At the girlfriends house most all of her user friends show up. I don't know if she called them or if they just showed up. In the meantime her boyfriend is calling her to pick him up from work. She tells him that she's at her girlfriends house and its not time to pick him up. Long story short she's not very nice to him...and what's worse she's not very nice to me either. I told her to come home ASAP. Her girl friend called me back and said " Why does she have to come home? Why does she have to bring the car back?" I responded to her directly by saying "I realize you girls just think you can talk disrespectful to your parents without consequences because I've heard you screaming at your mother...she needs to come home because of the way she was talking to me on the phone"...Her girlfriend said that she would talk to her. Her boyfriend called and said that she was on her way home.

She told me last night that she had taken zanax. I knew it. She always acts that way when she takes zanax. She has been told over and over what can happen to you when you use zanax and suboxone together. She doesn't listen.

May 25. Things seem to be going pretty well. Her user friends have been calling again asking for money. She knows [thanks to counseling] that they just want the money for drugs...and she also knows that if she cares about them at all she will not give them any money. So far she hasn't ...she put all of her money in the bank and doesn't have access to it... So far so good!

If You Want to be Addicted to Heroin, You Will

I guess if you want to be addicted to heroin, you will. If you don't you won't...She's had several opportunities to go back. Of course with the help of her boyfriend she's staying on her suboxone and on course to a life without heroin. I tried to let her handle her friends but when she couldn't tell them to stop calling or texting...I called one of them.

I've known these boys since they were young children. They have suboxone prescriptions too. Of course they sell it or trade it for heroin. They are off and on again-not really making any headway. I called one of them and simply told him until he was clean that he was not to contact her. She was doing really well and she didn't need him to pull her down again. His parents are trying to help him...Its the people he's hanging out with. I told him I loved him, get back on the suboxone and that if he needed someone to talk to.... to call me. I also told him to stay away from people who use or sell...his so-called friends. So many kids are dying from overdoses in our area...its very scarey. I told him I didn't want to see him dead. I thought he was going to cry on the phone. What can we do to help these kids?

Help for Drug Addiction

You've been searching for answers haven't you....I did the same thing 3 months ago. If you need help with your drug addiction. You're not alone. My teen daughter is a [recovering] heroin addict. She's been on seboxone for 3 months now and is doing great. I was terrified. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't even think straight. If you or someone you love is struggling with an addiction...please visit the suboxone help spot...they can help you. The link is http://www.suboxone-doctor.com/

Suboxone-Information

Visit http://www.suboxone.com for information about suboxone and to find a physician.

http://www.myspace.com/addiction411
Addiction 411 was launched in August 2007 by Reckett Benckiser Pharmaceuticals, Inc. This MySpace site was developed to educate the public about dependence on opioids. Opioids include commonly prescribed painkillers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, and methadone as well as heroin. To receive a free education Resource Kit on opioid dependence treatments, visit TurnToHelp.com or call 1-866-455-TURN, both provided by Reckett Benckiser Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Additional websites such as the non-profit patient advocacy group NAABT-National Alliance of Advocates for Buprenorphine Treatment website is http://www.naabt.org or Substance and Mental Health Services Administration http://www.bueprenorphine.samhsa.gov are wonderful resources.

Just a note, the 2mg tablet per day is still working for my daughter. She's been clean for almost a month now.