How easy is it to get prescribed Subutex? My brother is trying to get off the opies and would rather the Subutex due to seeing his friends struggle with depression from the Naloxone leading them right back into their habits. He has bought Suboxone off the streets and it just doesn't sit well with him either. He isn't a needle user (tried it a few times but didn't like it) or anything and has never tried abusing the Suboxone while he was on it. His habit consists of ~180mg of oxycodone a day ramping up for the past 4 years or more. His struggle with becoming clean has started a couple months ago. Starting with trying to wean himself off oxy, trying Suboxone, the Immodium/Benzo/Benedryl formula, and trying cold turkey none of which have been successful (obviously) and he is ready for professional help. He is completely serious about getting clean and is miserable with the addiction. It is tearing him apart. I have read that doctors are reluctant to prescribe Subutex and I am not sure why. I suppose because Suboxone is better against needle users but I wonder if pointing out the fact that he has never been a habitual needle user and has clean arms and the such to prove that would help sway the doctor to go ahead and give him Subutex. The overall point of this thread is how much success you have had being prescribed Subutex. Also, if you were originally prescribed Suboxone and wanted to switch how much of a hassle was it? And, what is the best way to go about being prescribed what you want. I know that doctors won't give you what you want just because you want it without a legitimate reason behind it but I believe he in fact has one. Personal experiences from his friends and many only claim that Subutex is way better to use to get off opiates for good. Many people swear by Suboxone but from my research and seeing people on it first hand, Subutex seems like a better alternative. Any information and thoughts about this are welcome and appreciated. I want the best for my brother and I want to make sure he gets proper treatmeant. I have struggled with opiate addiction myself until recently for a couple years now. I wasn't bad off but I am very strong willed and even though I was miserable for a long long time and lost a lot of work I got over it with Immodium, benedryl, Klonopin, Aleve, and Zanaflex (muscle relaxer). I started out weaning myself with opiates (and the other medications mentioned above) using this sequence (This was my second attempt and proved to be more successful for me): Day 1 30mg Oxy Day 2 0mg Day 2 15mg Day 4 0mg Day 5 10mg day 6-7 0mg Day 8 10mg Day 9-10 0mg Day 12 5mg Day 13-14 0mg Day 15 0mg Most of my physical W/D's were gone but I still felt off so I started a Kratom regimen. Ate one yogurt with two tsp and ate one whenever I started to feel wonky. My favorite strains are Red Vein and Green Malay. Within the month I was completely clean except for cravings in certain situations but it wasn't overwhelming. I believe opiates are like Cocaine; I believe they will never go away. Certain situations and activities triggered those cravings. My formula isn't for everyone trying to get clean like my brother. It didn't work for him. Thanks for any comments made about this situation. I appreciate your thoughts and ideas on the matter. I hope all this makes sense. I am exhausted and keep nodding out. If you have any questions to clarify anything said feel free to ask.
I got on Suboxone so easily it isn't even funny. All i did was told them I used opioids for headaches and started taking more than prescribed to self-medicate my bipolar disorder (true) and then I took a drug test and since i still had some Tramadol in there, i failed, so they handed me a script for Suboxone. Now, they don't even consider me an opioid addiction patient, just an off-label patient treated for bipolar disorder with Suboxone, which is a rare, but up and coming treatment. The doctor is not judgmental at all and agrees with me that opioids are the best treatment for severe depressive symptoms!
Yes it's very easy, a piece of cake. Just make an appointment, go into mild withdrawal, and make sure your urine will yield a positive result. When you go in front of the doctor, make sure you yawn a lot, shift positions in your chair constantly, play with your hands nervously, and if you are sweating this well help. Also, trembling limbs! If they can clearly see you are in withdrawal (i.e. don't hide your withdrawal symptoms), you will get your first dose either right then and there, or if on Friday before they close for the weekend, they will give you a bunch of 2mg prescription to go home and figure out your own dose. This depends on the doctor of course, but this is generally how it works. Subutex however I believe is a bit more difficult to get because it is a generic, and face it, many of these doctors are in this for the $$$
I didn't even have to be in w/d! Seriously. He just told me to start taking it a day or two after i was ready to quit my opioids haha. Very relaxed. Sometimes I swear my Sub doctor is high on opioids the whole time too. He is a very smart man and at the same time, oh so level headed and relaxed.
Same here! lol I went in only 12 hours after taking 60mg Roxicodone and around 30 hours after taking 130mg Methadone. I was beginning to become miserable, and mildly feeling sickness come on, but nowhere near full blown withdrawal. I totally failed the test, I had like 4 out of 10 or whatever they score that paper with. It was Friday afternoon when I had my first appointment, and my doctor gave me a prescription for 16 2mg Suboxone films and told me to start taking them at around 8:00pm that evening, or later if I did not feel like I was in withdrawal yet, and then to report back to her on Monday to determine what my dose would be. I took them the minute I got my prescription filled, around 6:00pm, and on Monday I came back and tested positive only for the Methadone, so she put me on 16mg and it's been that way ever since.
suboxone is over prescribed... it is a cash cow for the doctors and manufacturers. So it will not be hard to be perscribed. I'd strongly advise against staying on it for longer than 3-6 months. Its a temporary fix and can be just as addicting.
It is a temporary fix if your goal is to be entirely opiate free. This is not everyone goal, and being prescribed Suboxone indefinitely allow opiate addicts to function normally in society, given that they have the right intentions of course.
Exactly. Opioids actually improve some people's (like myself) overall life, so being opioid free is not my goal. The only real drawback to opioids is their tolerance build up, and Suboxone has not built any tolerance in the year that I have been on it. My life has never been better or more successful, so I'll stick with the Suboxone.
how do you come across the doctor for them, though? i just found a doctor on suboxone's website that is only a few steps from my place, i am sure they take my insurance... i know my now doctor will not.
Just call them. If you are nervous about it, or want guidance, call 866-973-HERE and the people from the Here To Help program will walk you through it, even put you on hold while they make the phone calls to see which close doctors in your area have room left in their patient quota. It is very simple. My insurance does not cover my doctor visit, so it costs me $175 a month go see my doctor. Before I ran into the trouble of my insurance requiring a referel to cover my medication, they would cover it sometimes, other times they wouldn't and I'd have to pay around $450.00 to get my medication on top of the $175.00 lol. They sent me a letter stating that they will cover it for 6 months, so I have 5 left.
Thanks, I was unaware that the site provided Dr names. Coincidentally one of the Dr's listed is the same Dr my B/F and Stepdad use. How common is it for a doctor prescribing Suboxone to prescribe anxiety medications such as Klonopin or Xanax due to pre-existing conditions leading to abusing opiates as a means of self medication?
i have 1 pretty good insurance and my mother's job just gave her another insurance provider so i have 2... so i am sure they would accept one or the other -- also on the website right now they have coupons for the prescription. that is a good question, i am prescribed xanax and would expect to be drug tested before the doctor prescribed suboxone and they notice benzos - when i got prescribed suboxone once i was not given xanax and they did not want me mixing the two...
It's impossible to say how common something like that is. But I have heard of it happening, in some circumstances the doctor prescribing the buprenorphine simply acknowledged the patient having a benzodiazepine prescription from another doctor and did not trouble them about it, and in others the doctor prescribing suboxone also prescribed something such as Valium, Klonopin, Xanax &c. My doctor, however, is very much against this and makes it a point to remind me on every visit specifically not to take any benzodiazepine. It really depends on how the doctors office you frequent is operated, for example, my doctor works in an office with one other doctor, a male and a female, and they are a pain medicine office. They are not necessarily pain management, but that is essentially how it operates. They prescribe narcotics for pain and suboxone for addictions; i.e. a circular movement overflowing with cash. There are hospitals that will prescribe suboxone and have therapy along with it, and there are primary care doctors that are lisenced to prescribe it as well. There are suboxone clinics, similar to methadone clinics, and there are methadone clinics which also prescribe suboxone, typically offering a more direct approach to helping people. As I said above, if you for whatever reasons have hang ups about doing this on your own, call the Here to Help people and they will literally do it for you while you wait on hold, they will schedule your first appointment for you, tell you where you can get the coupons (which expire this month, but new coupons are already being renewed) and set you up with a councelor to talk with you on the phone, something which some doctors require. By the way, those coupons are not like a typical coupon, it's more like a credit card in that you are only supposed to have one, they are numbered and if you lose it you normally are supposed to report it to your doctor in order to have it replaced. It's not like something you print out or cut out of a newspaper that expires in a few days, they are good for a certain amount of predetermined time. I believe that one that is expired this month was good for 6 months, I'd assume the next one will be as well.
My Suboxone doctor gives out benzos. He just never gave them to me since I told him how I already see a psychiatrist who gives me benzos, stimulants, and more. The only drawback is that he is expensive. But it is worth it because he gives no hassles.
When i first got on suboxone i just looked it up through google and called around, i got scheduled with in a month. I had the bright idea of obtaining ten suboxones from someone else and trying a 10 day plan i had seen online that appeared to have good results. I was starting my first year of college and i was two hours away from the doc. So i just blew him off, only to come begging back around the 14th day. He got me in once more with a pretty long lecture about how i made some other addict miss out on an opportunity to get clean that day. Which is very true i was surprised he still took me in. He was an awesome dood, down to earth, but certainly in it for the money. He said he took insurance and that they would send the checks in the mail for what they covered. Never saw one check but i didn't care i saw him every 2 months with 80 dollars an appointment and he put me on the generic subutex so that it would be cheaper in that aspect. I did that for about 5-6 months, until one day i go to fill my prescription and it usually costs $5 for 45 of the 8mg pills (5 dollars was awesome) but the pharmacist told me my insurance no longer covered the doctor i was seeing but the pharmacy had no idea why. I was pissed, had to pay out of pocket that time. I call around between my father, insurance company, pharmacy for two weeks straight (which sucked bc it just made my parents want me to just stop taking them at that point). I finally figured out why and it was bc my doctor was black-listed on my insurance for a white-collar crime he committed sixteen years ago.So, i was forced to switch which sucked b/c everyone was full. I finally got ahold of my old buddy who was seeing another doc in my hometown. I called him after a bunch of other failed attempts to get a doc in my college town, luckily he squeezed me in on his lunch break three weeks later. He was very hesitant to put me back on the generic subutex and his reasoning was that it was only for pregnant women. But he reluctantly gave in just b/c he knew my previous doctor and could contact him about the truth of what i was on and how i was doing. It's now 3-4 months later. I am down to 2mg a day finally. I have it arranged to be off by feb. Which really has worked out to be the perfect amount of time for me, since i didn't fully reach the point where i knew i was done forever and was okay with that until month 7-8. It took me realizing that if someone offered me an original oxy 80 with a hundred dollar bill and told me to blow the whole thing and keep the hundred. That i would tell them to go fuck themselves (not in those terms) b/c soon as i did that one line even after 9 months of not seeing the shit i would for sure be spending a hundred the next day, then the next, then the next. For those of you who want the short version: Subutex worked/works great for me, might take a few weeks to get a doctor, might be expensive without insurance but for those of you with no way out. It will be possibly the best investment you will ever make. Subs, family, therapy, will-power, has made me come back to reality, back to me, a me i thought had vanished. Their will be people who say to other sub patients that they are still just as addicted to subs as their DOC. I am a complete advocate of that being completely false. I have never been so driven for success as i am today. I enjoy the sun-shining again, running, family gatherings. If you can get on subs to get free of oxymorph,OC, dillys, or heroin i would suggest doing it if thats what you really desire. I know everyone is different but i strongly believe if you can manage to give yourself 7-9 months of freedom even while on the subs you will have a completely different outlook on every aspect of life. Good luck to everyone, I wish that you all receive the true peace and serenity you have been searching for.
My mom receives 3 8mg strips a day, 90 a month, for 16 dollars with her insurance. I went without insurance and it cost me 8 dollars a strip.
Yeah. Same here. My insurance won't bother prescribing something for dirty opioid addicts god forbid. Oh well. I lowered my dose to 3mg per day so it isn't that much money anymore anyways.
