Is it possible to get a buzz off pain pills if you took a suboxone?

Answer 1

No, it is IMPOSSIBLE. No doctor will give you opiate pain meds if you are on Suboxone (or have been on it), regardless of how badly you are injured, or how much pain you are in.

Unfortunately, there are (to my knowledge) no effective non-opiate pain relievers for short term severe pain. There are some for long term severe pain (as opiates do not work long term). But there aren't really any effective, non-opiate pain relievers for short term severe pain (such as the kind that follows a serious injury or operation).

If you are badly injured or having a painful operation/procedure, do NOT tell the doctors you take (or have taken) Suboxone. That is absolutely the LAST thing you should EVER tell them. They will send you home with NOTHING. They'll just tell you to take Advil or naproxen, which is a joke. These are NSAID pain relievers, which are useless for severe pain. You will be in agonizing pain, and your doctors won't care. They don't wanna hear about it. They just care about their liability.

They may also tell you that "your Suboxone already works as a pain reliever." This is sort of true, but not really. Not for an opiate addict who takes Suboxone regularly. It may provide a bit of relief, but not much.

Trust me. I have been on Suboxone for 8 years. Eventually I wised up and stopped telling the doctors, because I got tired of screaming and crying in pain after injuries and operations. I also learned how to successfully transition from Suboxone to pain meds and back again.

If anything, tell them you are allergic to naltrexone. That is what they'd give you if they gave you too much morphine in the hospital and you stopped breathing. You'd be in agony if they gave you naltrexone while you're on Suboxone.

If this is an injury or illness that you've received prior treatment for, and they ask something along the lines of, "The previous doctor didn't give you any pain meds?" just shrug and say they told you to just take Advil. You have no idea why. Also, if they ask if you've ever been prescribed Vicodin or Percocet (or whatever they're planning on giving you) before, the answer is, "yes."

Once you are prescribed the Vicodin or Percocet or whatever, you will have to replace the Suboxone with it. The Suboxone will block the effects of the pain reliever, so you can't take both. It may take 3 days to fully feel the effects of the pain meds, as that is how long Suboxone stays in your system.

You probably won't feel any pain relief at all until about 36 hours after your last Suboxone dose (when the withdrawal starts to kick in), so wait until you are feeling withdrawal from the Suboxone before you start taking the pain meds. It doesn't have to be full-blown, severe withdrawal, just the beginning stages.

This will be tough, but you have no choice. You have to suffer through those 36 hours. Taking the pain meds less than 36 hours after your last Suboxone dose will have virtually no effect, so it's just a waste of medicine. And you will need that medicine later on.

Here's why: since you already have an opiate tolerance, the pain meds will not be as effective for you as they would be for a non-opiate addict. You may have to take twice the prescribed dose to get the same effect a normal person would, which means you could easily go through a 30-day script in 10 to 14 days.

So be very stingy with yourself; take as few pills as you possibly can. No doctor on earth will refill your 30-day opiate script after just 2 weeks (or even 3 weeks). Don't even bother trying. The doctor will just think you're abusing the meds, and unfortunately, you cannot tell him/her the real reason you're going through the pills so fast.

However, even though Suboxone blocks the pain reliever's effects, you may still need to give yourself a tiny dose of Suboxone every day or every other day. Why? Because the effects of Suboxone last so much longer than other opiates (such as morphine, heroin, Percocet, Vicodin, etc.). You don't start feeling withdrawal from Suboxone for about 36 hours. With other opiates, you start feeling withdrawal in 4 to 6 hours.

So, to prevent withdrawal, you'd have to take a dose of your pain meds every 4 to 6 hours, whether you're in pain or not. You'll go through the meds SO fast this way. But if you take just a LITTLE bit of Suboxone, you won't have to take the pain meds as often, as the little bit of Suboxone will be just enough to keep you out of withdrawal.

Take just a teeny, tiny bit, just a fraction of your regular prescribed dose. For example, if you normally take 8mgs of Suboxone every 24 hours, cut it to 2mgs every 36 to 48 hours.

Once you are done with the pain meds, wait a minimum of 16 hours before starting your full dose of Suboxone again.

I just want to add that it is generally not a good idea to lie to your doctors. However, in this specific instance, you really have no choice. There is simply no other recourse for a Suboxone patient who gets injured or needs a painful operation. They will not prescribe you opiate pain meds, and no comparable non-opiate pain reliever exists. Unless you want to spend the next few weeks/months screaming, crying, and praying to God to just kill you...DON'T TELL THEM ABOUT THE SUBOXONE.