Some people say that you can’t be successful in recovery if you’re not ready. Others say it goes deeper than that, that you have to lose everything before you can fully understand how vital it is to get clean.

Personally, I don’t agree.

You Have to Need It

Maybe this idea of “hitting rock bottom” is true for some people, but not all. I don’t even think that you have to want to get clean for an inpatient treatment program to have some impact. Addiction, is after all, a chronic disease and everyone has to start somewhere. However, I do think that if you’re going to attempt an outpatient treatment like a Suboxone detox, you not only have to want it, you have to need it. You have to equate getting (and staying) clean with the other human needs (air, food, water, shelter). It’s that basic and that necessary. If you’re not on that level, if you’re still qualifying your choices and justifying “just one…” then you’re not ready.

You Have to Be “Over It”

If you’re still enamored with “the life” of using, if you’re still nostalgic about “getting high,” if you’re still interested in the drama that goes along with chasing a bag or pills, then you’re not ready. Don’t get me wrong: even those who have been clean for years, even decades, are tempted sometimes. You may even have a few funny or good memories of getting loaded. But if you don’t also remember how sick the drugs make you when they wear off, how miserable you were on the roller coaster of chasing a high, how miserable everyone around you was while you destroyed your relationships and yourself, then the nostalgia will win and you’ll end up back out there.

You Have to Have a Plan

Just saying you want to get clean isn’t enough. Getting on Suboxone is a great start because it covers the physical aspect of addiction, but you have to have a plan for how you’re going to occupy yourself. Getting loaded takes a lot of energy. What are you going to do with all your free time? What are you going to do when you feel tempted to use? Having a plan in place before you are faced with these issues is big part of a successful recovery from drug addiction.

What’s your plan?

Lortab, a combo of hydrocodone and acetaminophen like Lorcet, Norco and Vicodin, seems to be a supplemental drug of choice for those addicted to OxyContin and other oxycodone derivatives. Note: I have met a handful or two that somehow stumbled onto Lortab without realizing the addictive effects and ended up “strung out,” but more often I hear people say that they are addicted to other drugs and then couldn’t keep up with their body’s tolerance and so supplemented with Lortab.

Either way, this stuff is scary. A look at HealthBoards.com shows just how many people are struggling with their Lortab addiction. The side effects alone are devastating—blurred vision, nausea and vomiting, constipation, dizziness, fatigue—but on the other hand, withdrawal is so much worse. Constipation turns into stomach cramps and explosive diarrhea. Fatigue becomes overwhelming weariness but combined with involuntary leg movements and restlessness that amount to insomnia that is miserable. The intense craving for the drug combined with the irritability and vomiting, profuse sweating and overall achiness make this and every opiate withdrawal an absolutely miserable experience, one that makes the side effects look good.

A fear of withdrawal keeps a lot of people away from attempting to get clean, and it doesn’t have to be that way. While it’s uncommon for methadone or LAAM maintenance treatment to be prescribed for prescription painkiller addiction, it may be a possibility depending on where you live and what the regulations are. However, a more convenient option might be Suboxone and Subutex, the two pill forms of buprenorphine, a drug that is also an opiate but is reported to have fewer and less severe side effects.

The way it works is this: you stop taking the Lortab immediately and take Subutex for the first couple of days. After that, you take the Suboxone. You may choose it as a maintenance measure, taking as long as you need to detox. Or you may opt to slowly cut back on the drug at a measured rate so that you can be drug-free, sometimes in as few as six weeks.

Why take lower and lower doses of Suboxone instead of Lortab? Suboxone is reported to shorten the length of the detox and mitigate the withdrawal symptoms. Also, though getting high is rarely even a possibility for those who are using the drug to supplement another pain pill addiction, Suboxone definitely doesn’t have as much of an effect in that area, especially if you have a high opiate tolerance.

If you’d like more information on the effects of Lortab, why it’s prescribed and what to expect while you’re taking it, check out MedHelp.com.

When the folks here at Suboxone Blog asked me to write a few guest posts, I was flattered and really excited. I also thought the writing would be easy. It’s easy enough for me to bang out posts over at Diary of a Quitter, after all.

But every time I sat down to write this introductory post, I froze. Even thinking about sitting down to write stirred up feelings of mild panic. I kept procrastinating until last night when I realized that this is exactly the kind of thing that’s always getting me into trouble. I can’t expect to grow, in my life or in my recovery, if I refuse to do anything new or a little scary.

I felt the same way right after I realized that I needed help with my opiate addiction - scared and panicked. After abusing prescription painkillers for over a year and failing repeated attempts to quit, I knew I was in trouble. Getting high wasn’t even part of the picture for me anymore. I just took the pills to keep from getting sick. Lonely and isolated, I grew more and more depressed. My online searches for a way out of my mess turned up information about Suboxone, but shame and fear kept me from taking that final step. Asking for help felt like the end of the world.

Lucky for me, a good friend started Suboxone treatment right before I did. Seeing what Suboxone did for her eased my fears, and we have been able to support each other through this experience.

I also sought support online. I started my blog about a week before I began treatment, and over the past months I’ve built a network of friends who are also in the process of addiction recovery. Everyone needs friends in life, and people struggling with addiction are no different. In fact, we probably need them more.

Suboxone Blog was one of the first that I read on a regular basis. I’m glad to be able to share my story as a guest blogger. I found information and support here, and I hope you will, too. Suboxone treatment saved me. I still have work to do, but looking back to where I was six months ago, and where I was headed…I know that this medication made it possible for me to turn my life around.

If you are suffering right now, make the call and ask for help. Believe me, it will be the best thing you ever do for yourself.

-bottlecappie