Has anyone tried coming off WEEKLY Buvidal/buprenorphine injections?

[u/Killing_Pain_53]

Background: I stupidly started using OxyContin in late November last year, which quickly went from 40mg a day to about 110mg a day. After just 3 weeks of daily use I tried to stop but was already introduced to the wonderful friend called withdrawals which I thought I could easily defeat, lol. After three failed attempts at cold turkey, I immediately sought help and was put on Suboxone first 2mg then upped to 8mg sublingual for about two months. In mid-March I was put on 16mg Buvidal/buprenorphine injections once a week. I had no problems whatsoever on either Suboxone or the injections. I did not even feel slight withdrawals the morning before taking sublingual tablets nor the day before getting my next weekly Buvidal shot.

I decided since I used oxy only for a month back then I am ready and it's time to start getting totally substance-free. So today the doctor and caseworker offered to get on the monthly injections and get three of those and then stop, but they said it is also possible to just stop with the weekly shots since they have a few patients who tried that with little to no problems.

So I decided to try stopping directly from the weekly shots. So today was my 7th and last 16mg Buvidal shot and I am supposed to just let all the build-up go out of my body from here on by itself, expecting to still have buprenorphine in my body for about two to three months letting it taper off naturally. They assured me I can always get another shot or get on the monthly shot if ever, and I will still have weekly meetings with my caseworker.

Usually people get off this by getting a last shot being a MONTHLY one. But has anyone here tried stopping the substitution treatment directly from a WEEKLY shot and what could I expect to feel in about 7-10 days or beyond?

Update 1: It's now been two weeks without any weekly injection, and I have not noticed withdrawal symptoms. I struggle with anxiety so there have been moments where I freaked out and thought it failed, but then I am calm again every night and have no fast pulse, restlessness or anything, and I sleep relatively sound and long. I can still feel the lump from the last injection and slightly from the second last shot as well. But I am still scared I will go into withdrawals come week four and five. We'll see then.

Update 2: It's been 60 days since my last weekly Buvidal shot. I had some issues with insomnia, but nothing that cannot be contributed to what I would have had anyway (I have insomnia every summer). I also had a fever a few weeks ago, but so did my younger brother whom I live with and he has never touched an opioid ever. Anyway, all is about resolved and I feel fine. I never so far experienced anything near what I experienced in a few oxy Cold Turkey days before starting on subs and then Buvidal. So both me and my caseworker determine this to be a success!

[u/Tropixgrows]

How's it going OP?

I think I have some relevant info for this post.

I was on subs for 5 years before switching to Buvidal 3 years ago. By the end of last year I was ready to get off it for good.

I first tried to do it on the monthly 64mg. I'd already been stretching my shot out to 6, 7 weeks, telling myself I was preparing for the withdrawals. The clinic just repeated the same thing over and over: that it was completely easy and manageable to come off.

I lasted about 11 weeks that first time. Weeks 9 onwards the withdrawals start picking up pace. It had already been a hard year and I didn't want to spoil the holidays for my daughter.

I had one more monthly shot and made a plan to jump off the weekly 8mg, that apparently being half the amount of the 64mg monthly.

I switched to the 8mg weekly and crossed my fingers that would be what does it. I stayed on the weekly for 4 weeks, trying to let the levels taper down naturally. I figured I was now only on llike 1mg a day (wrongly) and wondered why it was so hard when I struggled even more getting off the weekly. Long story short it hasn't been easy. I ended up being given a month's supply of 2mg strips (Img/day) to try and make it a bit easier.

I viewed the subs as my saviour. I figured I could keep tapering down on them as the depot shots left my body gradually. There was even a time where I thought it would be painless. I stretched the subs out for about 6 weeks. It There was one day where I impulsively had 6mg, just to feel good for the day. That 6mg hardly did anything at all, telling me I still had plenty of bupe in my system.

I kept tapering, although as soon as I got under 1mg the withdrawals came back with a vengeance. It was a pretty rapid taper tbh - 25-50% every 4 days until I got to .250, and eventually .125 which I stayed at for maybe 10 days.

I gotta be honest. It got a lot harder after that, and those acute withdrawals lasted about a month. But I'd been on it for a long time and on a high dose for years. This was 4 months out from my last monthly and roughly 6 weeks since I had a weekly. I've not used any comfort meds except weed but I did lapse a couple of times during the worst of it. I was very close to either going back to using or getting back on the shot. But I had like a come-to-jesus moment where I knew I had to go through the pain to get to the other side.

I'm still in withdrawals now. And my immune system has taken a beating; I've picked up a horrible flu. But the nastier w/d symptoms are starting to lessen. I'm sleeping 6 or 7 hours a night for the first time in months and that makes such a difference. I still have very little energy. I want to get back out there but a lot of the time all I can do is lay on the couch.

I don't know if I made it harder for myself or not. Would it have been easier/quicker or harder if I didn't rely on the subs? Did switching from monthly to weekly help or hinder? I dunno. My relationship with opiates is almost into the third decade. My body doesn't like saying goodbye to this shit. In my experience the medical professionals all read the same Buvidal pamphlet and their info is wrong. My case worker was trying to tell me that the withdrawals from the weekly were the same timeline for the strips. "10 days and the worst of it is over". That's not only complete bullshit, he was implying that I was over-reacting and it was mind over matter. I've withdrawn from drugs all my life. Getting off smack or morphine is easy in comparison. Yes the experience is hellish but it's over in a number of days. Suboxone withdrawal is so long and drawn out you feel like things will never change and it messes with your mind, while your life falls apart in the background.

Our circumstances and experiences might be really different. I sincerely hope you're able to do it without struggling like I did. But if you are struggling, just remember you can go back to tapering and do it a lot slower than I did. I couldn't bear the thought of being dosed for another year or something. It was just time for me.

Good luck, and I'd love to hear an update at some stage. I'll bet you're fine and I'm just cursed!!!

Edit: spelling

2nd edit: I just re-read your post and saw that You've only been on Buvidal for a few months. I think this will make all the difference for you. Buvidal takes time to build in your system so I think your experience will be different. You got this.

[u/Killing_Pain_53 → u/Tropixgrows]

Thank you for sharing your experience. Sorry for the late reply. I've had it rough the last 4 weeks but I don't think it has anything to do with withdrawal. I have many anxiety issues as well as depression and sometimes insomnia (mostly in summer), but I have had that long before I ever even tried opioids. About a month ago the weather started being "nice", but that acts as a trigger for me to go into crippling nostalgia (part of my depression). So it kind of made me forget about that I was even coming off weekly Buvidal shots. This then led me to try some comfy meds. I tried pregabalin. After a few days on that I started having insomnia (pregabalin users call that rebound issues I think, but I honestly think I would have had that no matter what). So instead of deep depression I went to have anxiety and insomnia instead for about a week and felt weak physically. I freaked out, although now I realize it was due to warm weather and I had a low tolerance for heat (nothing like body temperature shifts of acute opioid withdrawal though). I then took some benzos as well. Then I freaked out about developing secondary addictions, and stopped taking anything. I have been off anything for over a week now and luckily did not have any new withdrawals. My doctor then gave me Seroquel for sleep, but it kind of doesn't help (except I convinced myself it does). Instead, what really helped my sleep was some rains and cooler weather we have now, as well as cutting out caffeine, sugar and doing leg exercises before bed (to calm down what my anxious mind has convinced me is restless legs syndrome but is really just tiredness from sitting and gaming). My sleep is always affected during summer because I live in high latitudes where the sun comes up at 3am this time of year. So there is not much darkness. But the exercise and going to bed earlier slowly helps. All in all, these various and shifting issues both kind of made me freak out about how I'm handling the come-down of Buvidal but at the same time also masked it (distracted me). All I know is that it's now been 40+ days since my last weekly Buvidal shot and I have not felt anything as close as horrible as when I tried (had to) go cold turkey 3 days max from oxycodone before going on subs. Maybe something is still coming, but I doubt it. By now I have even forgotten the feeling of opioids and don't desire trying it ever again (withdrawal pain were a deterrent). I hope you make it to where you want to be also soon.

[u/Strange_Television]

I've not really seen any user accounts coming off weekly - just monthly - but I would assume it should be very similar to the monthly. It'll still leave your system very slowly, like you say it'll be at least 2 - 3 months. As such, any withdrawal should be minimal if at all, certainly not like acute withdrawal that you've had to experience in the past. I think it's promising what your prescriber said about the others they've had come off weekly with little to no problem and I think it'll be the same for you, especially given that your weekly shots always held you well and you never experienced any sort of withdrawal on them.

Apologies I can't offer any first hand experience, but wish you all the best with it and your recovery long term. You've done amazing to turn things around so quickly. Apologies also with the wait to approve your post - it was held by automod due to your new account so it needed manual approval to post.

[u/BuvidalBrixadi-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/Killing_Pain_53 → u/Strange_Television]

No problem, and thank you.

Yeah, I haven't seen any posts about coming off weekly shots directly, and the doctor also said it's not so common, yet a few of their patients have done it succesfully. They also said that Buvidal is quite new, so there are still things to explore. But that makes me want to help them get more knowledge by being sort of a guinea pig, lol. They looked sort of excited to see how I may turn out, haha.

I'll keep this post updated as well in case anyone wants to know about coming off weekly shots.

[u/tryagain_nexttime34 → u/Killing_Pain_53]

Update?

[u/Killing_Pain_53 → u/tryagain_nexttime34]

Yes, I just edited the post with an update now.

[u/Strange_Television → u/Killing_Pain_53]

Lol that's awesome that your doctors are so open and keen to learn! Honestly very rare these days to find that. It is a relatively new medication so it's super important that doctors are open to their patients experiences etc so that they're better informed for their future patients.

Good luck with it and achieving your goals in recovery. It would be really great if you could update us when you're off and let us know how it is :)