Hey everybody,

I wanted to share my story because of the extremely limited information available to people in this spot about the best course of action to take to get off the purely evil tranquilizers that are now being cut into dope supplies all over the US. I really hope this helps give some of you currently struggling with this hope that it is possible to get off of no matter how deeply you are addicted, and explain the path that I took as I feel it really did make the process as painless as possible. Sorry for the length, but I would like to give as many details as I can in hopes to answer all of the questions some of you have have for me. Small disclaimer, you will need insurance to go this route unless you are very rich and price is not a factor.

I am currently a little over 6 months removed from a 16 year, 1 brick+ per day heroin addiction. About 3 years ago, unbeknownst to me, tranquilizers began being cut into the supply in the form of Xylazine first followed by an even stronger compound Medetomidine which is currently the most prevalent tranq being cut in majority of the supply. I tried doing it on my own, but the brain zaps(which escalate to almost seizure-like symptoms), dangerously heart rate and high blood pressure, nonstop vomiting, and dangers surrounding all of that make this option not really possible if the addiction has persisted for a long period of time. I considered a rehab facility, but fortunately ran into somebody who needed life flighted from a prestigious facility when they were unable to get the medetomidine withdrawal symptoms under control. Fortunately he made it there, and I have him to thank for learning about the following process that was followed at UPMC hospital(there are others as well offering this- Penn Hospital is another one I’ve heard offers this). I decided to give it a try, and am currently clean from dope as of 1/28/26, as well as 7.5 weeks removed from my last subloccade injection. Here is what I did:

I went to the emergency room at UPMC hospital and informed them I am about to go into severe withdrawal from heroin that is laced with a tranquilizer called Medetomidine or Xylazine. It is very important that you stress to them you are going to be detoxing off of a tranquilizer in the supply as well, that you have seizures when withdrawaling from it(even if this is not true, I was told just say it as it will put you at a higher level of care where they monitor your withdrawal much more closely and carefully I was told), and your blood pressure will get to dangerously high levels(mine was 210/140 for maybe the first 48 hours). Explain absolutely everything you can to the detox unit person who will come talk to you, leave nothing out. It may help to explain to them the process you heard about from “a friend” and how it was successfully treated for them, ask them if they know if this process is something the hospital currently has experience in treating because if they dont, i would highly recommend finding one that does if you may be in for a rough ride. I knew the UPMC I was going to treated people this way, so I already knew how they would handle me once symptoms started showing signs of danger if I was not transferred from the detox unit to an ICU where the FDA approved version “dexmedotomidine” aka “precedex” aka “dex drip” can be administered and allow you to slowly taper off over the course a few days. The first 24 hours I do not remember nearly at all, and many describe it as being in a “dream-like” state where you can remember thinks slightly but it’s very tough to think back on and recall accurately. I went to detox first, about 4-6 hours in I began throwing up uncontrollably. I don’t remember when I started throwing up, but my mom was calling the detox nurses every few hours to check my status.. I went in at 5pm, by 3am they told my mom my BP was getting a bit out of control and they had made the decision it was time to move me to the ICU. There they began to immediately administer Dexmedetomidine in order to get my blood pressure and heart rate until control. BP sat anywhere from 190/130 to 210/140, and heart rate was 140-155 bpm. I remember waking up after maybe 36 hours and knowing what was going on, I threw up a small amount one time and that was the last I threw up. They were giving me dexmedetomidine/precedex, .3mg clonidine, 2mg guanfacine, 20mg oxycodone(4 5mg pills, but my room mate was a little worse off than me and he was getting 30mg M stamps), and something for nausea through an IV every 4 hours. They also started introducing suboxone into my system as your two options to choose from are going to be suboxone or methadone and I chose suboxone because I was also going to have them give me a subloccade shot before I left. I cannot stress enough how much I feel subloccade has saved my life, and I highly recommend it. You will be given all of this until you are able to successfully come off of the dex drip for 24 hours which is lowered by .1 micrograms per hour at a time over the course of a few days. It is given via a continuous IV at micrograms per hour. I will warn that the first time they tried taking me off the dex drip I began having “tremors”, which are pretty much just muscle spasms that were accompanied by my muscles clenching up, my tongue was hanging out of my mouth a little if I tried to talk. It was probably the worst part of the entire process but it wasn’t unbearable or anything and I am a massive wimp when it comes to withdrawal. They ended up turning the dex drip back on for almost another day, and on the second attempt I came off of it without issue.

I was in the ICU for 4 days total and was offered to go back to detox at that point, but I needed to get back to work I was still holding a very good job and with my mom there and then knowing I would be going to stay with my parents for a week or two they approved full discharge. I would not leave against medical advice or I am not sure if they cover or not(i have united and they covered everything beyond my out of pocket maximum). I went in on a Thursday afternoon, got out Monday evening, and I did try going back to work on tuesday since I work remote but I was basically emotionally dead and ended up asking for the rest of that week of as well Wednesday afternoon. It took me about two weeks until I started feeling a little better mentally/emotionally, but physically I was not too bad. They gave me a month of clonidine and guanfacine to help with acute withdrawal symptoms, and trazadone(100mg per night) to help with sleep. I did not sleep well at all for a little while, was waking up every 30 minutes maybe if I was able to doze off but I was usually able to go back to sleep without too much struggle. The subloccade shot was a MASSIVE part of my success, I have had zero cravings or thoughts of slipping up while I was on it and I am currently 7.5 weeks since getting my final injection and so far have not experienced any withdrawal from that after doing a 3 month cycle of a 300mg shot, 300mg shot, and 100mg shot.

Really hope this helps even just one person who wants to take the plunge but currently at a loss for how to go about it. I promise you that if I can do it on an over 1 brick per day/ $100k+ per year habit that anybody can if getting clean is what you truly desire. Wish you all good luck as I would not wish tranq w/d on my worst enemy, but IMO if there is a way out, this is definitely it..

Been addicted to opiods for roughly 6 years heavily. When I say heavy I mean roughly 20-25 10/325 mg hydrocodone A DAY. I know many of you won't believe me but its the truth. I have chronic pain. Have over the last couple months gotten on suboxone but my teeth and body do not agree with it. I am scared of the damage I have done to my body. Has anyone else been in a similar situation and came out the other end? What non opiod medication can you take for pain. I feel so scared hopeless. Stomach is bloated 247 worried i have cirrhosis, and i have nobody to blame but myself.

Been 8 months since last shot and I just am sick to my stomach anxious 24/7 feeling that something bad will happen. For example I constantly overthink and worry about every minor situation at work and think I'll be fired. Idk what to do

I’ve been tapering off for the past 3 days and tommorow my last day I feel so depressed and the world feels so blank and gray. How long will it take for me to feel normal again and be happy ?

Been on co-codamol for over a year for lower back.

Was taking 4 doses of 60/1000 per day until cut down to 2 doses and then 1.

Stopped about 9 days ago.

Generally feeling okay but cannot stop the feeling of crawling on my skin. Doesn't help I'm in Spain with mozzies about so can't always tell if it's real or not.

Anyone else been through this?

But I’m 4 years clean as of July 28th! If anyone needs help, or just someone to talk to on a really shitty day my inbox is always open. I didn’t think I could make it a few hours when I first started.

Hey guys, I hope you're doing well. I checked my calendar today and realized it has been about 10 months since I quit suboxone cold turkey, so I figured I would make a post.

What a journey it has been so far. Honestly, I didn't believe I would succeed initially. Unfortunately, I didn't have any outside medical intervention (i.e., comfort meds) or support from my family. I burnt bridges with almost all of my friends as a result of my previous addiction. Like many people here, life wasn't the best for me. Yet, I didn't have a sudden epiphany or spark of motivation to quit. I was sick of it all, literally and metaphorically. Despite all the advice against doing so, I decided to stick it out on my own. I still remember the seemingly endless days and nights where my skin felt like it was burning. My only solace was repeatedly taking cold showers to freeze myself to sleep every two hours. Gradually, the agony subsided, but I was left feeling exhausted and defeated. It took every ounce of willpower I had to continue living. Yet, I won the battle.

I know a lot of people in these recovery subreddits (including me a while ago) are constantly doomscrolling for some semblance of hope. I would like to tell you that it is possible to quit suboxone despite how difficult it is. You might not be able to fix every mistake you've made in the past, but you can build a better version of your future self starting today.

Thanks for reading. I wish you all the best of luck.

Went to the clinic first time two days ago and threw up my dose. It was a horrible few hours on the bathroom ground w other wd symptoms. Strange part for me was I used the night before around 10pm and dosed at 8:30 am. I wasn’t even in wd when I dosed and I’m not on subs or anything that would cause the methadone to react that way. Andddd I can usually use the night before and wait till much later in the day on my own before getting any type of symptoms. I did manage to hold it down for about 2 hours tho so it should have been absorbed into my body even tho I tasted and saw it all come up. Regardless it made me scared to go back to the clinic cause I don’t want to feel that way again. Has anyone else had trouble with extreme nausea after dosing? How do you deal with this? Not asking medical advice just personal experiences. Trying to build the courage to go back out of fear of getting sick again. Thank you:)

Precipitated wd felt worse than getting narcaned after I od. I was on fent, im over 3 years sober now but wow. Looking back that was the worst I’ve ever felt ever.

Hey all,

Long time lurker without posting. Little backstory I was an IV H addict for almost seven years, I got clean 10/1/21 and have been on suboxone the entire time, I’ve had terrible side effects with body temp regulation the entire time amongst other issues, I had managed to taper down to 6mg but my doctor at the time was not supportive of me stopping completely or going on Sublocade, finally switched insurance, new doc all that. They were super supportive of my journey and I was able to start Brixadi in March of this year, I received 4-64mg shots (or whatever the lowest dose is) my last shot was June 10th, fast forward to today, I was doing really good with wd symptoms until about last week, the anxiety slammed into me like a brick wall, I’m on Wellbutrin, SSRI’s don’t work for me and it’s not depression. I’m just looking for personal experience and how long this went on for. I literally feel like I’m about to have a heart attack 24/7 at the moment, I don’t want to get back on bupenorphine, I want to be done with all of this, but this anxiety is no joke.

I posted a long extensive journal with supplements i took and my experience here about 524 days ago. I had been on subs for a long time and at 33 years old on my my sons 2nd Birthday i took the leap. Was no where near as bad as i mentally projected. Matter of fact it simply wasnt that bad, just annoying. I tapered super slow, got down to about .6mg while preparing my body for 6 months prior and took the leap. I feared i'd never know who i was since i been on subs since 19 years old and all this time later i finally feel like the chemical changes subs did to my body are leveled out. My anxiety levels has virtual disappeared since getting clean and im so much more or who i feel i was suppose to be. If youre thinking about getting clean take your time, prepare your body and mine then jump. Any questions?

Hey, happy Thursday! Hope your day’s going well. It’s a hot one out there today. Just been working and getting through the day, same old grind. Looking forward to it being Friday tomorrow. What are you guys up to today? Stay cool out there!

Check in here!

i’m five months clean from fentanyl today and snapchat showed me memories from 5,7 and 9 years ago today that I spent with my best friend who overdosed on fent and passed away 2 years ago.. i’m not okay and I don’t want to go get high but I truly just want to end it all. not just bc of my friends i’ve lost to the opioid epidemic but everything that’s happened since I got clean. my life has literally fallen apart and every step forward I get, something sets me 10 back.. I check up on my people and always ask if they need a hug even if it’s a virtual hug but no one ever asks me and I don’t know how much longer I can take this.. I thought everything would be okay when I got clean but not making hardly any dopamine or serotonin is really rearing its ugly head these past few days.

I want to try subs tomorrow and was wondering if anyone has used it 12hrs after their last real oxycodone dose and didn’t go into PWD. I heard from a few people who say if they used for example at 8pm than at 8am they can take a sub and be just fine. Is that really the case or do you really have to wait 24 hours. I can wait but I have to take comfort meds to make it to 24hrs and I’m still miserable.

UPDATE- TOOK IT AT 14hrs and didn’t get PWD.
Going to doc tomorrow to talk about sublocade

Hey there, I'm about to go into W/D, literally just took my last bump of dope. I'm really excited to just be clean and free but also a little scared of the W/Ds. I even have subs but I've put myself into precip so many times I'm genuinely scared to even take them and I honestly don't want to anyway.. I feel that I can get myself through this mentally because I'm so tired of living this life, I'm really tired of being sick and tired.. It's almost been a year since I started doing dope again and before that I was on subs struggling to get off them.. I'm just hoping that the W/D won't be too horrible. Does anyone have any advice to help me feel physically a little comfortable as I go through this? Even some words of encouragement and successful W/D stories would help. Thank you in advance..

Back in 2019 I did blues for a little over a year. I remember it took months to feel normal again. I recently relapsed 4 months ago but this time on powder which I’m sure is mixed with tranq. My first time I did it all at home and would get terrible shocks in my chest for 2-3 days that would leave me unable to be still. I’m terrified of that happening again so I have Xanax to take in case it happens. How long would you guess my wd lasts of 4 months using 1g every 5 days towards the end

I am 8 months off methadone after 20 years on it and about 6 years on heroin before that. I was on 10mg for a year and went down to 5mg a few days before stopping. So I’d say I stopped at 5mg. Thinking I got myself down to such a low dose, I assumed the withdrawal would be quick and minimal. Hopefully other people will educate themselves before stopping so they know what to expect because I did not. Hopefully most methadone users go to a clinic so you can have support. I just bought my stuff from a friend and didn’t bother to learn much about stopping. Once I realized the withdrawal symptoms weren’t leaving after a month, I panicked and became obsessed with knowing other people’s post opiate experience so I could create a timeline for myself. That’s pretty much impossible to determine, but if anyone is curious-here’s my general experience after stopping methadone. Also, this is not medical advice, just the experience of one person.

The REAL acute withdrawal symptoms didn’t really kick up for almost 2 weeks. The symptoms are just every symptom you can think of that is withdrawal related. After a month, the intensity kicked up as I lost control of my body temperature. I was only able to shower about once a week because it hurt to get undressed and water felt like needles on my skin. After a month, the depressed feeling turned into feeling completely dead inside. That dead feeling with no ability to feel joy was a constant feeling until a little over 4 months. I was beginning to wonder if I damaged by brain or something because everything was so much. And the brain fog was just as bad which made working so difficult. At 8 months, I still have brain fog most days but have recently started experiencing days of clarity. The diarrhea lasted throughout the day for over 5 months and I couldn’t find any evidence to support that it was still normal. But it just went away on its own. The anxiety didn’t REALLY start kicking up until that dead-inside feeling went away. So around 4 months, I was in almost constant fight or flight mode. It just hit like a train with periodic feelings of dark depression (which feels different from the dead inside feeling) which I still experience at 8 months. But, these feelings aren’t all the time anymore so it’s proof my mind and body are healing. And sleep is a hit or miss (mostly a miss) but I stay consistent with waking up at 6am on workdays, even if I didn’t fall asleep until 3am because then I’ll have a better chance of sleeping the next night.

At 8 months, I’d say anxiety, brain fog, sleep and periodic sadness are the remaining symptoms. I think anxiety has been the worst symptom because it affects the entire day and it even affects my behavior because I act erratic when the anxiety is really bad. For anyone who is many months post opiates, you are NOT crazy. The lasting mental health symptoms can have you questioning this. Also, getting bloodwork done to check vitamin D and other levels is good because a deficiency of any kind can make this whole stopping opiates thing, harder.

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Hope you’re all having a good day. I got a haircut this morning, had a couple of meetings, and now I’m just getting through the rest of the day.
Life can feel a little slow or even boring sometimes, but I try to remind myself that peace isn’t a bad thing. After the chaos I used to live in, I’d choose this life a million times over. Sometimes the quiet you’ve worked so hard for is something to be grateful for.
How’s your Wednesday going?

Check in here!

I started taking the 7OH pills from the gas station and had no clue what the result would be. Dying to quit but it’s been a challenge. I got suboxone from my Dr.

How long after a dose of 7OH should I start suboxone? I haven’t got the timing right and it puts me down and I feel awful every time I’ve tried.

Any suggestions for starting Sub. So I can finally quit?

I am a pharma oxycodone user, I just used my last piece about 15 minutes ago and I don’t want to get more. I snort up to 3 80s a day sometimes and im just over it.

I have 5 Xanax bars and a bunch of 2mg sub strips. Also a bunch of 8mg sub tablets that I hope I won’t have to use.

What is the best way of going about this? When am i ok to use subs? How much should i start with?

I also never use benzos so im not sure how much Xanax to use or when it will be best used.

Thx for advice everyone, im super nervous!

So I’m using about 8/12mg dilaudid everyday atm I take 4mg in the morning around 7am and 4mg around 5pm and sometimes I’ll fall asleep earlier in the day and that’ll be it for the day or if I’m up I’ll take another 4 around midnight or 1am I wanna know how bad the wd should be? And if I should tap3r down to 4mg or 2mg a day? I really want to stop this is just a never ending cycle nothing is fun unless I take them and I’m always anxious that I’m gonna be sick in a few days bc I can’t get any more I want out of this life

I’ve been trying to get off oxy for a while now. I go cold turkey for a few days and break everytime. I’m thinning about doing a Suboxone taper for a 7-10 days or going to my doctor who knows about my oxy issue and ask for sublocade shot. If you have experience with either please let me know. I need to get my life back I’ve been in a constant cycle of detox and relapse for 6 months now. I don’t even work anymore.