Suboxone and Anxiety: What Users Say

• Jus...
• June 2, 2019

For Opioid Use Disorder "So I promised the last time when I got off these things I would do a review because I read all the reviews and it scared me! But the first time I was taking Suboxone for about 6 years, so it took me a longer time to taper, but if you taper slowly, you will barely feel anything. You will be uncomfortable and not want to go hang out, but you can still eat and things like that. NOTHING like coming off blues or anything that miserable, nowhere near that awful. The only thing if you have something to help you sleep was the hardest, only one day though. The next time (yes I’m a dumbass) I’ve been taking it for about 6 months, but only a quarter, so it took me a month to taper and by doing that, I was only feeling like rubbish for one day, and it wasn’t even that bad. So as long as you taper and don’t come off when you're taking a quarter or more, you’ll be okay. It was mostly the anxiety about it all that kills you. You can do this! You got this!"

• Twi...
• May 27, 2017

For Opioid Use Disorder "My personal experience with Suboxone is good so far. I have been on a prescribed Fentanyl patch 25 mcg/48 hrs. I have dropped to this dose over the last year. (I also left the old patch on.) I have been on opiates for 12 years, full-time prescribed. At my highest prescription, I was using 180 mg of Oxycodone and 180 mg of morphine per day. I have had several adjustments on medicine, including extended-release doses. Five years ago, I was put on 50 mcg of Fentanyl with 3-10 mg of Oxycodone per day for breakthrough. I started leaving my old patches on to increase my daily dose. This last year, I tapered down to 25 mcg patches for 48 hours (still leaving my old patches on). I went to a doctor that prescribes Suboxone. Lucky for me, my insurance pays for Suboxone. He gave me the 8/2 mg strips. I take half a strip twice a day. I was checking every forum to see how long I needed to wait to start the Suboxone. The replies are all very different. Some say 16 hours, most say 24. Others say 48-36-72 hours. Yikes! How do I keep out of precipitated withdrawals? I already have withdrawals every other day on my patch! So, I removed my patch last night around 5 PM. (I already have my Suboxone script at home.) I started feeling withdrawal symptoms coming on around 11 PM. They didn't get super intense. I checked the COWS scale, as many articles suggested, but only scored mild. I had the stretching of limbs symptom, anxiety, so I took half of a strip, which was the suggested dose. I took it at noon today. That's only 19-20 hours. I was in withdrawals, but not the worst I have ever had. I was scared of the precipitated withdrawals I heard about. Ten to fifteen minutes after I took it, I felt a hot sensation wash over me. I thought I would get those withdrawals, but I took a quick bath, laid down for an hour, and I feel pretty good. It took my withdrawals away. I still have some muscle pain, but not the kind that comes from withdrawals. Suboxone stopped the withdrawals right away. No headaches or sick feeling. Not high, but even my regular dose meds haven't made me high for years. So, if you're guessing on when it's okay to take Suboxone after opiates, and Fentanyl seems to be the highest strength, then I say shoot for 24 hours. If you are not in withdrawals at 24, then wait until you are. If you are in withdrawals before 24 hours, then just wait as long as you can. You will know when it's too bad to wait anymore. You know your body. You can always take half the amount prescribed and see how it reacts if you're afraid of precipitated withdrawals. Trust me, it will stop the withdrawals within a half-hour. I have not gotten the precipitated withdrawals so far. Hope this helps someone. Good luck to you!"

• Ear...
• June 27, 2019

For Opioid Use Disorder "Suboxone is a crazy drug. I raced pro motocross and got introduced to pills because of being in the hospital a lot. Lol, anyway, I was taking around ten 30 mg percs a day for a little over a year. Well, I got on Suboxone from a doc. He told me I'd be on it for the rest of my life. (Don't do that.) The transition from pills to Suboxone was a breeze. Slept a lot for three days, and then I felt like I had my life back. (Wrong.) Four years on Suboxone. All I did was sleep those four years and couldn't keep any relationships. I was taking anywhere from 8 to 16 mg of Suboxone a day. I cold turkeyed off 8 to 16 mg of the strips because I was tired of sleeping all day. Luckily I am self-employed because I would have lost my job. I'm on day 26 and am still having diarrhea, very little energy, but I feel like I have my head back finally. Not saying there's no depression or anxiety, but I already feel better in my mind. The first three weeks were the worst and still are. Suboxone should only be used for two weeks to get off pills."

• Nas...
• Taken for 2 to 5 years
• January 7, 2020

For Opioid Use Disorder "Been on Suboxone for 4 years. Tried to quit a few times, but kept coming back. Hard to get off of. It really is the anxiety that makes it tough to quit. I take the 8 mg strip, the blue one. I take less than 1/8 of a strip, close to 1/16. I've tapered down. I used to take 3/8 of a strip. I feel like I will never get off, because in the morning all I think about is putting that strip under my tongue."

• Nan...
• November 11, 2018

For Opioid Use Disorder "I am and always will be in recovery from addiction to heroin, Xanax, meth, and pain pills. I've also been addicted to and went to rehab for Suboxone. I've been an addict since I'm 19, now 31, on and off Suboxone programs. I absolutely hate Suboxone, and I'm currently on it. It makes me tired, lazy both physically and mentally, anxious more than usual. I was clean for 8 months in a halfway house and begged to get back on the program. I regret that after multiple detoxes off Suboxone, the most horrific detox that I still went back on realistically as a crutch. I'm in addiction all over again but from a drug that's 'made to help you get clean.' Well, I'm not clean. I have to, on a daily basis, take a medication to 'feel normal.' People say it's better than shooting up, why? People shoot up Suboxone. It's better than pain pills, why? This is prescribed just as pain pills are. I regret ever taking it longer than 2 weeks. You get sick from not taking it, and it makes me feel horrible."

• jen...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• August 3, 2015

For Opioid Use Disorder "Suboxone worked a miracle for me. I suffer from hydrocephalus and have a shunt in my brain. For 8 years, I had a neurologist tell me all he could do was treat me for pain. It didn't take long to realize they were addicting. I didn't know anymore if I was treating pain or the addiction. After all, I had an excuse. Then one day it hit me. I had been using the word 'excuse.' I tried to stop cold turkey. But each time, I'd get severe depression, anxiety, RLS, insomnia, headaches. I wasn't aware that my body was opiate dependent until I talked to a different doctor. He took my blood pressure, which was really low, and informed me that it was dangerous to quit like that after so long and suggested I try Suboxone. It works!"

• LaN...
• March 25, 2018

For Opioid Use Disorder "I have been addicted to opiates, opioids, or anything like it for the past 8-10 years. I recently was addicted to poppy seed tea, which I had a good supply of high potency seeds, so I was extremely dependent on the tea for the last 7 years or so of my life. I was spending $20-$30 a day on it, and it took 1-3 hours a day of my life away from my family to get and make the tea. Not to mention the embarrassment. After losing my good supplier, I switched back to codeine, which wasn't doing the trick. Needless to say, I was hooked and had no easy way out. Anytime I tried to quit, I went through horrible withdrawals, crushing depression, and anxiety. Even after a week of not taking, the depression was getting worse and worse. I had to use, just so I wouldn't kill myself, it felt like. Totally trapped. I made the decision to start taking Suboxone last week. Best decision of my life!!!"

• Bif...
• Taken for 5 to 10 years
• December 9, 2019

For Opioid Use Disorder "I am 50 years old. Suboxone was the only way I could get off of ten years of opiate abuse, and I am grateful to be completely free of addictive substances now. Some cautions: my entry into taking buprenorphine was rough. I take protease inhibitors for HIV, and one of them dramatically increased the effect of the 8 mg buprenorphine, so within 48 hours, I was totally out of it and scared enough to go to the emergency room. I felt like I had OD'd. It wore off in four hours, but I did experience a short blackout. Once we adjusted the dosage, it was okay, but my docs should have caught the possible interaction with the HIV meds. I eventually tapered the dose over a year to 1 mg or less until drug-free. I had some moderate withdrawal for a week. Mostly sleep difficulties, anxiety, restless legs, and lots more saliva and crazy yawning. Should note my testosterone levels really dropped during the period I was on bupe and started to come up again to within normal range gradually."

• Mau...
• November 14, 2016

For Opioid Use Disorder "My experience taking Suboxone was the complete opposite of what I thought it would be. I always viewed Suboxone as the lesser of two evils between methadone because Suboxone contains naloxone, so you technically can't get 'high.' Not that I have anything against people who choose methadone as their recovery route; I have actually tried methadone in the past to actually get high and, well... I succeeded, lol. When I started taking Suboxone, I got really bad side effects after the first month of taking it. I would severely sweat to the point I wanted to bash my head through a wall. It was so rough on my body. But my maintenance program doctor just said it was 'withdrawals' because when you take the pill every day, I guess you're technically withdrawing from the one you took the day before due to the long half-life on Suboxone. So his idea was to up my dose to 12 mg to see if the sweating would go away (I didn't see the logic in that idea too). Anyway, it didn't, so he tossed me some clonidine, which helped a little. But the side effects kept adding up, such as headaches, severe constipation to the point I had to use daily enemas (not normal), abdominal pains came too along with nausea and vomiting (every day). It just got to the point where my mind and body couldn't be on the medication anymore. I was on it for 7 long months, even trying to wean myself down on my own. That was a struggle too, seeing how the withdrawals from Suboxone are supposedly worse than heroin sickness, which my doctor and counselor kindly reminded me after I was already hooked. It was a messy time in my life. Suboxone gave me severe anxiety, which left me buying benzos off the street just to mellow me out. I went to a weekly Suboxone maintenance program on purpose. To get piss tested weekly and to have a doctor and counselor help me move forward. But instead, I felt I was moving 10 steps back. My only option to get off the Suboxone (which was my choice, obviously) was to get the vivitrol shot and have 3 bad days of sickness but be off Suboxone. It took me a week to build myself up to do it because I was terrified of how bad the sickness was going to be. Choosing the vivitrol shot had to be the best worst idea I have ever made. I did get violently sick after it, but it went away. Plus, my doctor who gave me the shot helped me out with some comfort meds, so it wasn't all that bad. That was in December 2015 that I received the shot and have been clean since. So my advice for any addict who's struggling on which route to take for recovery: just get the shot. They'll give comfort meds for the first couple of days, then after that, you'll be shackle-free from drugs. I'm telling ya, choose vivitrol if you need to detox. For others who take Suboxone for other reasons, such as pain or etc., power to you; but if y'all are struggling out there and want to get sober quick, vivitrol's the answer. Methadone and Suboxone will just make you sicker down the road."

• Nik...
• Taken for 5 to 10 years
• February 26, 2019

For Opioid Use Disorder "I have been on Suboxone for 7 years. I started out on the orange pill, then was switched to the film. I also was put on Subutex during my pregnancy, but I've remained on the film for the last 4 years, and now just today they have switched me to these white buprenorphine/naloxone generic pills. I hope I feel just fine. I work full-time, have 3 kids, and can't afford the anxiety and stress that would come from a bad effect of them. But I am worried after reading the comments which say it is rubbish. Any info would be great."

• Nik...
• Taken for 5 to 10 years
• February 26, 2019

For Opioid Use Disorder "I have been on Suboxone for 7 years. I started out on the orange pill, then was switched to the film. I also was put on Subutex during my pregnancy, but I've remained on the film for the last 4 years, and now just today they have switched me to these white buprenorphine/naloxone generic pills. I hope I feel just fine. I work full-time, have 3 kids, and can't afford the anxiety and stress that would come from a bad effect of them. But I am worried after reading the comments which say it is rubbish. Any info would be great."

• bee...
• May 13, 2009

For Opioid Use Disorder "Wow! That's all I can say. I had my doubts. Withdrawals-fever, cold sweats, chills, dilated pupils, upset stomach, shakes, extreme anxiety, loss of appetite. Should I say more? Well, I did not have one of them. Suboxone-a miracle drug."

• ede...
• January 12, 2009

For Opioid Use Disorder "This is the real deal. I was smoking a gram a day of heroin for about a year. I had tried to quit cold turkey-didn't work. I didn't even last two days before I went out again. Then I was prescribed other medicines to help with the detox. I gave these up after three days of insomnia and being anxious and depressed. Finally, I tried Suboxone, and it made all the difference in the world. I was super cold the first two days, but on day three, I woke up feeling great. I've been on one 8 mg pill a day for about three weeks now, and I feel better than I have in years. Even people who don't know I was a junkie have commented on how much better I look. The best part is I have no cravings, and I have money again."

• Jli...
• December 18, 2011

For Opioid Use Disorder "Started 8 mg of Suboxone 6 months ago. Tapered down over the last 6 months to 1 mg by cutting the Suboxone 2 mg film in half. Suboxone is amazing and does everything it says. Make sure you do it with a doctor. The withdrawal symptoms are not fun for at least a week, I am on day 5. Chills, flu-like symptoms, anxiety, insomnia, headache, nausea, loss of appetite among symptoms. First day I'm feeling better and haven't used Oxy in half a year. Take some Tylenol, some Ativan. All helped me, now I'm off it."

• edw...
• Taken for 5 to 10 years
• March 10, 2022

For Opioid Use Disorder "Day 6 without Suboxone. The first three days/nights were very difficult. RLS, insomnia, anxiety. I could not sleep. My doctor prescribed Trazodone and Neurontin. Trazodone helped on night 4. Slept 2 hours. Today I still feel the need for subs, but it is more mental than physical. Looking forward to being free of any kind of opiates."

• Tur...
• Taken for 5 to 10 years
• April 30, 2018

For Opioid Use Disorder "After using Norco, Percocet, Soma, Tizanidine, Morphine IR, ER, Kadian for my chronic pain syndrome, DDD, knee, finger, joint pain. I just started with the Suboxone 2.0-5 mg. I immediately suffered from a headache, shakes, and jittery feelings. Muscles got super tight. X is bad."

• Rea...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• January 17, 2021

For Opioid Use Disorder "I was taking tramadol for about a year for chronic pain, and it was time for me to come off of the drug. So I called up Spiro Behavior Health. Do not go to the one in Chattanooga, TN, they are extremely rude. So the doctor put me on Suboxone for a week and two days. I am agitated, paranoid, nauseated. I brought it up to the doctor. 'It'll be fine. Don't worry, and don't forget you can be on this medication for as long as you like. No side effects' while I am telling him about my side effects. After I went to the desk to schedule my appointments, the lady at the desk literally rolled her eyes because I couldn't do an appointment she wanted to make. Anyway, if you like not having control of your mind, feeling sick and paranoid, this medication is for you. Get off of it as fast as you can... just say no!"