Question
I had 3 surgeries( replacements) last year,ongoing arthritis and physical therapy. I went from 25 mgs of oxycodone day to 250 mgs day in less than a year. I couldn't handle the meds or the lifestyle of being dependent on doctors who are sometimes undependable. I just finished detoxing using suboxone but I feel so lethargic. It is like all the energy and motivation has been drained from me. I used to be active big-time...pre drugs and during my use of drugs. Now I feel I can hardly get up in the AM? Is this typical for someone like me?

Answer
Brian,
What you are experiencing is very common. It can sometimes take a month or more for the body to recover from the detox and start returning to normal. There are several chemicals that the body stops making during long term opiate use because opiates imitate those chemicals. Dopamine is one of them. It just takes a while for the body to jump start producing those chemicals again. Also the endorphins the body naturally produces to deal with pain is chemically very similar to opiates ( That is why the brain has opiate receptors in the first place) so the body stops making those as well. It takes a while for the body to start producing those endorphins too so that is why you will have a lower tolerance for pain until the body starts producing those endorphins again.
I would like to add that it might also be the Suboxone that is causing some of the fatigue. I myself just detoxed off of about the same daily dose age of oxycodone as you were taking, using Suboxone ( except I had been on opiates for over 8 years). I did it for much the same reasons as you. I got tired of being dependent on having to take the meds and also of being dependent on unreliable doctors to get those meds. I have found the Suboxone makes me feel awful and gives me terrible headaches as well as being tired and unmotivated ( LOL, my house is a mess now). In a month or two this will all pass and you will be back to feeling more like your old self again.
Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions or just want to talk about detoxing off of opiates. My e-mail address is  [email protected]
Hope you are feeling better soon.
Tracy