When starting suboxone how long do you have to be in withdrawal?

It depends on a number of different factors - the patient's tolerance to the opiate, the strength of the opiate taken, how long it's been used, how big the patient is, etc. Since each person is different, the amount of Suboxone that will be effective to get through it will be different for each person as well.

It's better than a shot of Narcan - nothing worse than major league cold turkey.

If you're actually taking a prescription drug, it's actually easier to do an incremental dosage reduction over time. Having been dependent on opiates for many years, and having had to increase and decrease my dosages many times over that period (10 years), I've used incremental dose reduction many times to lower my dosages. Usually it takes about 4-6 weeks depending on the drug. Since I use the strongest dosages of strongest opiates, it takes a bit longer for me than it might for someone using less for a shorter amount of time.

In incremental dose reduction, what you do is cut the pill in half or in quarters. First try taking half your normal prescribed dose, and see how you deal with the withdrawals. If it's too strong, then start with only a 1/4 reduction in dosage. Take it for a week, then drop another 1/4. If the withdrawals are too strong still, then stay at 1/4 dose reduction for another week, then try again. When you can tolerate the withdrawal, then reduce by another 1/4, and repeat the weekly process. Keep doing it until you're completely off of the drug.

Since I'm retired on disability, I have the luxury of being able to sedate myself heavily and remain in bed when dealing with large dosage reductions and withdrawals. Since most people don't have that available to them, it might take longer or shorter amount of time to reduce the drug to the point you can stop taking it.

It also helps to take an OTC med to compensate and ease the withdrawal pain. Two of my favorites are Tylenol Rapid Release Gel-tabs, and Bayer Back and Body Aspirin. I also use them frequently when I don't fell like using any Percocet for breakthrough pain. Bayer works better for withdrawal pain though.