Opioids Methadone Mega Thread and FAQ v 2.0

[hatrix]

I'm on 350mg's of Methadone, split into 3 doeses of 120,110,@120mgs. I also take 4 2mg does of Klonipin. I have sever chronic pain,am 43, scared if anything else goes wrong pain wise, there won't be a thing that can be done. Anyone else have this problem?

That dosage is insane, and combined with a benzo is extremely unsafe. I'm sure you've built up a tolerance to the benzos, but still be careful mixing two CNS depressants.

You should really really try to taper down your dose of methadone. It's probably going to be hellish with your crazy tolerance and dose, but it's for the better. There has to be better options for your pain than methadone.

 

[stivsmegg]

think of the crime if there was no opiate replacement therapy....

 

[SubDude]

think of the crime if there was no opiate replacement therapy....

I first went on MMT in 1971 and don't think it was widely available in USA before that... at least not outside large cities. I was in Miami at the time.

 

[stivsmegg]

Yep! Wow!old timer. So you kno
w the ins and outs, the what have yous..so on. So many addicts these days

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

Alright i'm starting to be worried, Very Worried about methadone's effects on my heart. I'm struggling with the idea of going to the ER tonight...it has proven so useless to go in the past (might be free, but sometimes it's really what you pay for - fucking student doctors). Anyway, there is a sort of sometimes pinching, other times like now lightly throbbing sensation on centre-left part of my chest. Sometimes I get like whole body electric shocks, they don't hurt or anything, but i think it's my heart that's really not liking methadone anymore.

I'm supposed to start tapering my 60mg dose starting feb 20th and eventually switch to suboxone...i'm afraid the switch might have to be done quicker and have to be put into heavy withdrawals soon to do this. That feeling hasn't stopped since about 2 weeks, it feels like the electricity around my heart area is fucking up, i know you can't prove it like that, but my pressure is already very high if i don't take clonidine daily. Even when my pressure is normal my heart rate is pretty high, rarely anything lower than 90bpm. I get the weirdest sensations where my heart supposedly is (I always get conflicting info, like it's in the centre of the chest or no, it's to the left, or slightly to the left). Right now I just feel some tension, no skipped heartbeats, no tachycardia, but a feeling like a tube in there is clogged and struggling to get unclogged ?


When do I start to panick and call an ambulance ? I get all that for free btw even the ambulance ride. I just don't want to go over there for nothing. I'm also worried at the fact they have never given me an EKG since i'm on methadone, they took one before, but I know I was supposed to get an EKG during treatment at once of my appointments (every 2/3 weeks) at the clinic with my doc.

 

['medicine cabinet']

Hell if its free then go for it. I often think about the whole long qt thing with methadone and it makes me worry sometimes...esp bc i sometimes take triptans for migraines which can be rough on your heart. Matter of fact had to take a maxalt the other day and it felt like someone was standing on my chest at times. Scary side effect for sure. Might as well go for an ekg and get it checked if its free.

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

I got an ambulance to come to my house so I could get an EKG on the spot....their EKG machines aren't as good as the ones at the hospital but i'm sure something common when we think of electrical problems of the heart like qt elongation would have been detected by a machine paramedics carry around. Turned out they told me nothing alarming was going on, my blood saturation was 98% (for somebody paranoid about his lungs like me that was very effective at calming me down). So I thought well, if your machine isn't finding about qt elongation related to this medicine I take that can cause it, i'm probably stressed out. One of them was really mad I didn't want to go to the hospital, but it would have served no purpose. My taxes (well my parent's) taxes paid for the VERY SHORT RIDE to my apartment. I hadn't even been 1 minute on the phone with the ambulance techs on 911 and the paramedics were already there. I didn't feel bad for bothering them and/or abusing the system.

The dumbass didn't seem to believe me my doctor said that I have to take anything weird that could be cardiac as a emergency worth calling the ambulance for and it took a lot of insisting that since i wasn't havint qt elongation, my chest symptoms are not of any great concern, i've been on heart medication since late 2007 so I know better than him. He tried to make me feel bad cos he wasnt driving me to the hospital, which of course was gonna cost me more money if I had been.

I feel splendid this morning and I even nodded 30 mins after taking my methadone in my bed, very vivid day dreams, love when it somehow still happens out of the blue :D

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

Tomorrow is the day where I will start tapering and eventually land into suboxone land. Being at 60mg right now...is dropping by 5mg doable not too difficultly for most people right now ? I think I'll do fine dropping 5mg right now because since i got over 45mg a day I feel so tired, useless and emotionless everyday that i'm welcoming this process rather than fearing it.

 

[SubDude]

I was on long term MMT and switched to Subs about 3 yrs ago. Look for pluses and minuses... especially if you have other prescriptions like Benzos. I had to taper down to 1 mg to be able to move my bowels regular and get rid of other side effects like headaches, anxiety, and insomnia. At 1 mg I have cravings which unfortunately I relieve with alcohol in the evenings. Not trying to discourage you because it's a great move for most on MMT. Just providing my own experience and of course everyone is different on how it works for them. You have the right attitude so... GOOD LUCK!!

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

I was on long term MMT and switched to Subs about 3 yrs ago. Look for pluses and minuses... especially if you have other prescriptions like Benzos. I had to taper down to 1 mg to be able to move my bowels regular and get rid of other side effects like headaches, anxiety, and insomnia. At 1 mg I have cravings which unfortunately I relieve with alcohol in the evenings. Not trying to discourage you because it's a great move for most on MMT. Just providing my own experience and of course everyone is different on how it works for them. You have the right attitude so... GOOD LUCK!!

Sounds like you got hit pretty hard with some unpleasant side effects from the bupe. With all of those negatives, I'm surprised you stayed on it as opposed to getting back on methadone. What dose were you on where you experienced those problems? Does anything more than 1mg do that to you?

 

[WBROCKSTAR]

Im curious as to any suggestions from members on what drug I can take with methadone(100 mg dose daily) in order to get high like I did when I started taking opiates....Methadone doesnt get me high at all even when double dosing....Coc or meth does a great job for getting me high alongside methadone,but Im looking for my high to come from a pill combo....Its hard to find good coc plus its pricey....Any opinions???

 

[SubDude]

Sounds like you got hit pretty hard with some unpleasant side effects from the bupe. With all of those negatives, I'm surprised you stayed on it as opposed to getting back on methadone. What dose were you on where you experienced those problems? Does anything more than 1mg do that to you?

I was on 80 MG of Methadone and was admitted to VA hospital for the transition to 12 MG Bupe. They tapered me down to 30 MG in 5 days and then "Clonidined" me for 3 days. I pretty much slept during that 3 day period. I have thought about going back to MMT but would have to go back to day 1 with no takehomes where as before I had monthly TH's for done.

Also I would need to go to private MMT clinic and pay nearly $500 a month. I get the bupe free thru VA and 28 day supply. Was doing fine on 2 MG but was transferred to a new doctor who threatened to take me off small dose of 1 mg Klonopins. So we compromised and he dropped me down to 40- 1mg of K-pins and 1 mg of Bupe for each 28 days. Most all of the negative bupe side effects disappeared at the 2 mg level. But I had to change my diet eating much more fruit and vegetables daily which is a good thing. I also dropped my cig habit to about 7-8 on an avg day. Now if I could drop my alcohol intake in evenings to about 6-8 oz of vodka I'd be even better. Now I drink about 10-12 oz most nights...ugh

 

[BananasAndOranges]

Im curious as to any suggestions from members on what drug I can take with methadone(100 mg dose daily) in order to get high like I did when I started taking opiates....Methadone doesnt get me high at all even when double dosing....Coc or meth does a great job for getting me high alongside methadone,but Im looking for my high to come from a pill combo....Its hard to find good coc plus its pricey....Any opinions???

Here is Some very valuable information---If you still feel the need to use on Methadone you need to simply grow up and fix the problem you got instead of worrying about a nod or you may wanna think about not attending a clinic.

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

Before I get mocked, I want to state something. Yesterday I acquired some amount of my DOC before the methadone, dilaudid, which I used exactly only after waiting 27h after me taking my last methadone dose. And no here's the thing i am not relapsing, I got interested in opiates very late for your common druggie, but the dangers inherent to them were a turn off. But I developed a pain problem, all related to my left jaw and the nerves around there, I have 2 diagnostics related to this part of my body and the fact I went into doing IV dillies and eating all the orally potential opis i could was because of the incompetence of some docs and or dentists, specialists of the jaw too, giving me scripts of opiates like codeine 60mg pills/oxycodone 5mg pills and whatnot. But they scripted the shit to me in ways that was so damn inefficient, almost always i was left out in the cold at the end of my scripts because my script would end and I had no follow up appointment or if i did, it didn't coincide with when I would be out of the pills, when taken correctly too. So I went black market, but after all the medical process that is getting on methadone therapy, they've really did their best to have me meet my neurologist and they scheduled me an appointment with a pain doctor in the future, not yet, when I will be around 40mg of methadone for me to be switched to another opiate/opioid that is more used for pain than anything else.


Thing is, I hardly felt a 10mg shot of dilaudid i've done after waiting all this time after taking the methadone (~27 hours). Or wait no, I felt it very much, but I didn't feel much of the godly rush of dilaudid, take into account I might be scripted dilaudid ampoules for IV at home when this whole ordeal is done. Does this mean I can never get a rush again? Seriously before getting into methadone treatment I was taking yes 32 to 56mg of dilaudid IV a day, thing is I would never take more than 8mg shots, 4mg shots often gave me all the rush i needed and it was inteeeeeeeense.

So people who have been in similar situations as me, enlighten me, I do not want my 6 month methadone therapy (tops, I expect sobriety or being on a low dose of subs by this summer) to have ruined opiates forever

 

[orgone]

Oblivion, after a mere day of not dosing there is still a lot of methadone active. I got off the done (120mg a day at the clinic) after a year of being on that dose and didn't even start WD's til the 72+ hour mark. That's most likely why you didn't get a good bang off of it.

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

You went off 120mg cold turkey ? Oh the insanity.....I'm currently reducing dosage 3mg every 3 week, because now that i'm almost 5 month into treatment I can see how being on large dose of methadone everyday gets very boring fast. The shackles did their job as in I have stopped putting all my money on illicitly procured opioids and the trackmark on my right hand is finally starting to fade..and that's just from reducing from 60mg...i'm now at 54mg soon and i get very sweaty and get the cold sweats usually after 30 hours...maybe i should have waited for that but it doesn't matter anymore, being on methadone makes it so I could miss a shot and not care. Not going back to this anytime soon anyway it was to test myself to see where's my tolerance and be able to gauge for when the methadone clinic can switch over my care to a pain clinic.

 

[thelastclubkid]

Before I get mocked, I want to state something. Yesterday I acquired some amount of my DOC before the methadone, dilaudid, which I used exactly only after waiting 27h after me taking my last methadone dose. And no here's the thing i am not relapsing, I got interested in opiates very late for your common druggie, but the dangers inherent to them were a turn off. But I developed a pain problem, all related to my left jaw and the nerves around there, I have 2 diagnostics related to this part of my body and the fact I went into doing IV dillies and eating all the orally potential opis i could was because of the incompetence of some docs and or dentists, specialists of the jaw too, giving me scripts of opiates like codeine 60mg pills/oxycodone 5mg pills and whatnot. But they scripted the shit to me in ways that was so damn inefficient, almost always i was left out in the cold at the end of my scripts because my script would end and I had no follow up appointment or if i did, it didn't coincide with when I would be out of the pills, when taken correctly too. So I went black market, but after all the medical process that is getting on methadone therapy, they've really did their best to have me meet my neurologist and they scheduled me an appointment with a pain doctor in the future, not yet, when I will be around 40mg of methadone for me to be switched to another opiate/opioid that is more used for pain than anything else.


Thing is, I hardly felt a 10mg shot of dilaudid i've done after waiting all this time after taking the methadone (~27 hours). Or wait no, I felt it very much, but I didn't feel much of the godly rush of dilaudid, take into account I might be scripted dilaudid ampoules for IV at home when this whole ordeal is done. Does this mean I can never get a rush again? Seriously before getting into methadone treatment I was taking yes 32 to 56mg of dilaudid IV a day, thing is I would never take more than 8mg shots, 4mg shots often gave me all the rush i needed and it was inteeeeeeeense.

So people who have been in similar situations as me, enlighten me, I do not want my 6 month methadone therapy (tops, I expect sobriety or being on a low dose of subs by this summer) to have ruined opiates forever

im off methadone now for almost 2 months and i ended up in the ER for an unrelated reason (gallbladder; some of the worst pain i ever experienced btw..) anyway same thing for me: they shot me with 10 mg of diludad + another 3mg and all it did was take the edge off of the pain... this is one of the problems with such a potent mu-opiod agonist like methadone; i think it takes the body quite a long time to adjust down to normal opiates (if ever)...

 

[izzy66]

I was taking 60mgs of 'done and a friend got some 4mg D's n gave me 10. I stayed off 'done 36 hrs., did 16mgs, not much happened. So I put the remaining 6 D's away, tapered my 'done dose down to 30mg/day, and did the remaining 24mgs of D 48+hrs after my last dose of 'done. I had some minor w/d symptoms but once again, not much happened when I hit the D's. My friend said he thought the generic D's suck compared to the old K4s that Knoll made. Abbott was making brand name at the time this all happened.
I remember crawling and puking on just one K4 years earlier.
Idk if the receptors ever return to pre-'done condition which is both sad and worrisome in several ways.
-izzy

 

[ganeal]

I have been on MMt for a year and 2 months now. For financial reasons I am having to taper down off my 105 mg'daily dose. I do have a Dr who says he will Rx me 20 to 30 mg of methadone a month if I taper down to 60 mg at the clinic. he said pills are stronger than the liquid at the clinic and I should be fine...well tomorrow I am going down my first 10mg from 105 to 95 and wonder if I ever will notice going down..( I know this is wrong) but I usually double dose on the weekends not always but I did this weekend because I knew I was starting the taper...of course it's not worth running out but the addict in me can't handle seeing the 4 bottles laying up there staring at me. I know once I get a months' supply from the Dr I will be screwed if I don't lock them up and give them to my partner to give me or I would take them all up 2 weeks early.
Don't mean to blather on I guess myquestion is will I notice going down those first 10 mg's especially since I will have hone 72 hours plus without anything since I double/triple dosed?

 

[twgburst]

think of the crime if there was no opiate replacement therapy....

MMT has way too many negatives. I wish I never got on methadone and I don't know too many people that are happy they did. Liquid handcuffs, only way I was ever able to kick it was going to jail and that kick fucking sucks.

I have been on MMt for a year and 2 months now. For financial reasons I am having to taper down off my 105 mg'daily dose. I do have a Dr who says he will Rx me 20 to 30 mg of methadone a month if I taper down to 60 mg at the clinic. he said pills are stronger than the liquid at the clinic and I should be fine...well tomorrow I am going down my first 10mg from 105 to 95 and wonder if I ever will notice going down..( I know this is wrong) but I usually double dose on the weekends not always but I did this weekend because I knew I was starting the taper...of course it's not worth running out but the addict in me can't handle seeing the 4 bottles laying up there staring at me. I know once I get a months' supply from the Dr I will be screwed if I don't lock them up and give them to my partner to give me or I would take them all up 2 weeks early.
Don't mean to blather on I guess myquestion is will I notice going down those first 10 mg's especially since I will have hone 72 hours plus without anything since I double/triple dosed?

The pills are not stronger, they are the same shit. Your dr is full of shit. I was prescribed methadone for pain management, its the same shit only ones a pill and ones methadone in solution.