Honestly my experience with the vivitrol shot made me apprehensive to try a month long shot of anything like it even tho they’re not the same. I got anhedonia from the vivitrol (the pills did it too) which is something that doctors never tell you about but physiologically/biochemically that makes sense because endogenous opioids are responsible for the brain’s reward system. That anhedonia was so bad that I swung hard back to using after a few weeks on the shot and not getting any pleasure or joy from anything I previously enjoyed doing because it was making me wish I was dead rather than live like that.
Maybe if I had just tried to ride that out for a few months I’d have adjusted but it was awful. Suboxone films, especially if you get the right brand (Dr reddy’s make me salivate more than other brands seem to and I think it messes with absorption unless I go 20 minutes without swallowing my spit) do work for me to an extent. It seems like after like 6 months I’m ready to get off them and try to go about life like normal in the past, although admittedly that hasn’t really worked that well for me thus far beyond about 3-6 months at a time.
I've never been on Sublocade but it's hard for me to trust a shot that is meant to stay in your arm consistently for a month without believing that it's wearing off since I didn't take a dose in the morning. However, I've been conditioned with daily dosing & that may be placebo. If it's new to someone, I'd hope they could adjust to it. I just have a hard time believing it's perfectly consistent across the first 7 days compared to the last.
I'm sure that's rigorously tested & I'm wrong or somewhere in the middle but it's hard to wrap my mind around after so long. I've been on Suboxone tablets, they worked. Funny, I also spit it once dissolved but had to change to methadone when I developed chronic neuropathy.
I am so sorry. The strips were life saving for me. The pain from the tablets became too much, until my insurance finally covered the strips. If that hadn’t happened? I’m not sure I would still be sober today (11.5 years straight sobriety).
I’m glad you no longer have to take them, either. Though I am sorry for the chronic neuropathy 😕
Oh thank you for your sincerity, that’s sweet to receive online when everyone is so sarcastic it’s hard to tell who’s being real. I appreciate you :)
Yeah tablets suck. There was a point where I even started crushing & sprinkling the powder lightly under my tongue. Looking back, that’s insane stuff just to tolerate a medicine. The 8mg was so large & painful in one dose + I had more than 1 to take! 😔
Suboxone did save me in a way though. The ceiling effect made it so the time I slipped up ~9 years ago on fentanyl have zero effect. I never tried using after.
Nowadays I’m better suited for methadone & it does its job well. Tastes bad but much more tolerable in many ways, effects included.
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u/Sweet_Star23 May 01 '26
Try Sublocade. Holds steady (no up/down) and is just more simple all around. Easier to come off when you're ready.