The Medicine That Steadied Me: Suboxone Recovery Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe Suboxone and other forms of buprenorphine used in treatment for opioid dependence. Writers came to it through prescribed pain pills, pills after surgery on a shoulder torn during deployment, twenty years of heroin alongside an auto plant job, a doctor who cut off prescriptions overnight, and seven rehab programs that did not hold. They include a warehouse supervisor, a plumber, a surgical nurse, a long-haul trucker, a school secretary in Cork, a hairdresser, a high-school English teacher, a touring bass player, a bricklayer, a hotel housekeeper who needed an interpreter, a man leaving jail with his medicine and a 20-year-old whose mother drove him to the clinic. A wife, a mother and a nurse practitioner who prescribes write too. Places stretch from Leeds to Tampere and Baltimore to Brisbane. Writers describe the first dose, a first try taken too early, constipation and the taste of the film, switching to a tablet or a monthly injection, weekly pharmacy pick-ups and empty shelves, a van on a street corner, telehealth apps, pregnancy, a letter shown to social workers, naloxone kits and an eleven-month taper. Several faced judgment from relatives, meetings or clinic staff, one woman relapsed and was kept in treatment, and some plan to stay on the medicine with no end date.

Who it's for

For people with opioid dependence who are considering or already taking buprenorphine, and for the parents, partners, employers and clinicians who want to see that treatment from the inside.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 283 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.