Suboxone - Living on the Edge
Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2014 8:04 am
My severe RLS is now totally in the hands of Suboxone at 4mg a day taken at about 5:30 pm each day. It is probably more like taking 8mg a day though, I will explain what I mean further down the page. I have been keeping a calendar of the amount of sleep I have been getting and it averages to a little over 5 hours a night now. That is terrific for me except for one negative, a big one that I will also mention below.
The Doc started me at 1mg (half a strip) and then to 2mg, and then to 4mg. I was about ready to ask the doctor to increase it to 6mg when I did some searching on the web and found that there are better ways to take Suboxone that allows one to get more of the medication per strip. The directions just say to place it under tongue and wait until it is dissolved. I found some interesting articles online that work!
This is how I take it now. I put one strip under left side of tongue and one under right side starting with a very dry mouth. I don't drink water before. After it is under tongue for a few seconds I begin moving the tongue all around my mouth. This includes the inside of the mouth the top of the mouth, even along the tops and bottoms gums. All over the place and I do that several times during the 15 minutes before I swallow. I have actually been doing this up to 20 minutes. By that time there is a lot of saliva in my mouth but I am still moving my tongue around once in awhile. Then I swallow. After that I do not eat anything for at least 15 minutes. During this 30 to 40 minutes I do not talk at all.
The reason for doing it this way is that Suboxone must be administered sublingually, which mean under the tongue. Swallowing it destroys most of the drug, it won't absorb correctly into the bloodstream so it is just wasted. What the articles mention, and I now know for a fact works, is that only about 15% of the medicine on the strips are absorbed, the rest ends up being swallowed and not used. That is just the way it is made to be used...but it is not just absorbed under the tongue, Suboxone can be absorbed through most of the skin in the mouth so if one "paints" it all over the mouth with the tongue, more of it is absorbed. Also if you don't swallow for 15 minutes then all of it is still in the mouth and has a better chance of absorption. The 15 minutes of no eating is because the meds are still sitting on the skin in a kind of film, some will continue to absorb, but if you eat it will most likely wash off the skin and the rest of the meds will go down the throat.
This is only the third night I have done this and I can feel the difference within even 45 minutes after taking it. Not only that but I am sleeping over 6 hours a night. The night before last I slept 6-1/2 hours! That is like reaching the Moon for me. It takes 10-14 days to totally ramp up and some have told me up to a month at taking the same dose. So I have only been doing this 3 days. It will be interesting to see what it is like after another 10 or 11 days.
If you take the strips, the directions tell you this, but who reads directions? lol You need to fold the one end over that has a dotted line. On one side is a pre-cut slit on dotted line then you can just rip the aluminum pouch all the way down and take out the strip and place under the tongue. I couldn't get in the dang package, was using scissors until I got a magnifying glass out and read the directions duh!
Addicts usually take it in the morning, but I am a RLS guy so I take it in the evening when a little bit more of the med is just that much better. After a few weeks it probably doesn't matter that much. The half life is very long like 36 to 42 hours, I forget exactly but it stays in your system for a long while. I have also talked to others addicted to opiates, even kratom, and they can get off any opiate with Suboxone, some do use it to get off kratom. I have stopped taking kratom from the suggestion of several addicts because it will disturb my sleep when taking it with Suboxone.
Now I am also pretty sure I am dependent on kratom, methadone, and Lyrica. Suboxone makes it so I don't even have cravings for them. I have also read that people who try getting off Suboxone after months of use find that it is very difficult. The reason may not be that Suboxone is so strong, although it is strong, but because when they stop taking Suboxone their addictions for the other drugs they were taking it to get off of in the first place are still present. So they are not just stopping Suboxone, but also, in my case I would be stopping Suboxone, Lyrica, methadone, and kratom. Sounds like a terrible mess, but I am pretty darn sure that is the case with me, as many who take Suboxone. It is just that Suboxone happens to help severe RLS too! Who knows, maybe RLS is some kind of body addiction - yeah that sounds pretty weird
The downside. I got really angry at work the other day. I won't go into details but I almost lost control. I have talked to others taking Suboxone, addicts, and some of them have had similar problems but it seems to go away with the more one uses it, so I am hopeful within the next few weeks that I will be able to better control my temper. My wife was surprised when I told her about the work incident because she said I seemed much better since being on Suboxone so I can only hope it will get better.
The Doc started me at 1mg (half a strip) and then to 2mg, and then to 4mg. I was about ready to ask the doctor to increase it to 6mg when I did some searching on the web and found that there are better ways to take Suboxone that allows one to get more of the medication per strip. The directions just say to place it under tongue and wait until it is dissolved. I found some interesting articles online that work!
This is how I take it now. I put one strip under left side of tongue and one under right side starting with a very dry mouth. I don't drink water before. After it is under tongue for a few seconds I begin moving the tongue all around my mouth. This includes the inside of the mouth the top of the mouth, even along the tops and bottoms gums. All over the place and I do that several times during the 15 minutes before I swallow. I have actually been doing this up to 20 minutes. By that time there is a lot of saliva in my mouth but I am still moving my tongue around once in awhile. Then I swallow. After that I do not eat anything for at least 15 minutes. During this 30 to 40 minutes I do not talk at all.
The reason for doing it this way is that Suboxone must be administered sublingually, which mean under the tongue. Swallowing it destroys most of the drug, it won't absorb correctly into the bloodstream so it is just wasted. What the articles mention, and I now know for a fact works, is that only about 15% of the medicine on the strips are absorbed, the rest ends up being swallowed and not used. That is just the way it is made to be used...but it is not just absorbed under the tongue, Suboxone can be absorbed through most of the skin in the mouth so if one "paints" it all over the mouth with the tongue, more of it is absorbed. Also if you don't swallow for 15 minutes then all of it is still in the mouth and has a better chance of absorption. The 15 minutes of no eating is because the meds are still sitting on the skin in a kind of film, some will continue to absorb, but if you eat it will most likely wash off the skin and the rest of the meds will go down the throat.
This is only the third night I have done this and I can feel the difference within even 45 minutes after taking it. Not only that but I am sleeping over 6 hours a night. The night before last I slept 6-1/2 hours! That is like reaching the Moon for me. It takes 10-14 days to totally ramp up and some have told me up to a month at taking the same dose. So I have only been doing this 3 days. It will be interesting to see what it is like after another 10 or 11 days.
If you take the strips, the directions tell you this, but who reads directions? lol You need to fold the one end over that has a dotted line. On one side is a pre-cut slit on dotted line then you can just rip the aluminum pouch all the way down and take out the strip and place under the tongue. I couldn't get in the dang package, was using scissors until I got a magnifying glass out and read the directions duh!
Addicts usually take it in the morning, but I am a RLS guy so I take it in the evening when a little bit more of the med is just that much better. After a few weeks it probably doesn't matter that much. The half life is very long like 36 to 42 hours, I forget exactly but it stays in your system for a long while. I have also talked to others addicted to opiates, even kratom, and they can get off any opiate with Suboxone, some do use it to get off kratom. I have stopped taking kratom from the suggestion of several addicts because it will disturb my sleep when taking it with Suboxone.
Now I am also pretty sure I am dependent on kratom, methadone, and Lyrica. Suboxone makes it so I don't even have cravings for them. I have also read that people who try getting off Suboxone after months of use find that it is very difficult. The reason may not be that Suboxone is so strong, although it is strong, but because when they stop taking Suboxone their addictions for the other drugs they were taking it to get off of in the first place are still present. So they are not just stopping Suboxone, but also, in my case I would be stopping Suboxone, Lyrica, methadone, and kratom. Sounds like a terrible mess, but I am pretty darn sure that is the case with me, as many who take Suboxone. It is just that Suboxone happens to help severe RLS too! Who knows, maybe RLS is some kind of body addiction - yeah that sounds pretty weird
The downside. I got really angry at work the other day. I won't go into details but I almost lost control. I have talked to others taking Suboxone, addicts, and some of them have had similar problems but it seems to go away with the more one uses it, so I am hopeful within the next few weeks that I will be able to better control my temper. My wife was surprised when I told her about the work incident because she said I seemed much better since being on Suboxone so I can only hope it will get better.