If you are considering using suboxone to assist with your recovery from opioid addiction, you may have heard some myths that have caused you to worry about this form of treatment.
One common myth about suboxone is that you aren’t really in recovery if you are using the medication. The reality is that you do not have to be completely free of medication in order to be in recovery. Rather, when viewing addiction as a chronic condition, using suboxone to aid in your recovery is similar to using insulin to address diabetes. Of course, the goal is to one day no longer need suboxone, but using the medication to aid in your recovery is just one step along the path to being free of your addiction.
Another myth is that people frequently abuse suboxone. While it is possible to abuse the medication, suboxone is different from other opiates in that it is only a “partial” agonist of the main opiate receptor. In other words, it causes less euphoria than other opiates. Therefore, addiction to suboxone is quite uncommon, though some may use it in ways other than prescribed in their effort to manage their withdrawal symptoms from other opiates.
Along these same lines, another common myth is that it is as easy to overdose on suboxone as it is to overdose on other opiates. In truth, it is more difficult to overdose on suboxone because of it being only a partial agonist of the main opiate receptor. This creates a built-in “ceiling” that limits how much the opioid receptors can be activated by suboxone.
To learn more about suboxone and how it may help you or a loved one with opiate addiction, contact Advance Spine & Rehab today!