Opioids Methadone Mega Thread and FAQ v 2.0

[willy33]

It always surprises me that people are so adamant bupe is better than methadone. I've been on both, and methadone is far better at pushing cravings away. Plus it makes you feel *mellow* while bupe is kinda energizing, in an annoying way....

 

[MMT]

^^^ this is very true. The bioavailability of oral methadone varies tremendously from person to person.

Agreed,but IMO potentiators may extend the BA but that doesn't translate into getting high using them,at least when it comes to the liquid Methadose that clinics use.That's why ppl use other,different classes of otherwise innocuous drugs when taken alone.Also,as much as they deny it,IMO and many others too there IS a difference between the liquid v. pills and the 40mg. wafers of old.Most everyone that has been on both would agree and that argument continues.Any thoughts from anyone on the subject,pills/wafers v. Methadose ?


BTW Eng74,Thanks for your compassionate response to one of my posts.I really appreciated it.After what you had to through it's obvious your chosen profession is your calling.If I lived in GB you would be my first responder of choice.

 

[BigG]

Thanks [MENTION=289008]MMT[/MENTION] that's so kind of you. I really appreciate it!!

I'm not sure exactly which post you mean but thank you anyway.

That's such a kind thing to say man!

 

[MMT]

Well, I've never been a benzo fan (except when I was into IV coke simply cause they knock me out) but I do know at my clinic after dirty urines for benzos they put you in group for that, take any take homes (same as any dirty). If you keep coming up dirty after 6 consecutive weeks they put you on probation til you have a month straight of clean ones. If you keep giving dirty ones then you get warning letters and they will administratively detox you if you don't stop. Some people they detox to like 25-30 then put into inpatient. I know one girl who's going thru that now. She's been flipping out about them detoxing her, but my god after 3 months straight and multiple staff meetings with her, she can't say she didn't see it coming....I still feel for her though. Don't like to see anyone sick. Especially cause I know she will go right back out there. And then, considering it's a non-profit clinic--who does that help??

Now, even if scripted from a doctor you still have to get off them. Which I don't agree with. Some people clearly don't need them (i.e. The person nodding in the waiting room daily prior to dosing...) but some people really have anxiety that needs to be treated. And just because their opiate addiction is being treated shouldn't make them automatically off their psych meds.

But I guess with all the ODs and people double dipping take homes and such, they cover their ass...

That is absolutely the Feds fault.They set minimum standards(ie,no requirement to test for cannabis) but leave the states and clincs to create their own harsher policies.2 yrs. ago my clinic allowed for TH clients 6 per week with a Benzo script.Out of the blue they changed it to coming 2Xweek(v.once before) for EVERYONE with legit controlled drug scripts of any kind,even long time TH pts. who had never caused a problem.But they have no problem with dirty tests as long as you show up everyday and they get paid.In all my years I have NEVER seen anyone tossed no matter what showed up in their UA/swab test.Yet I read daily how other clinics,same state or other,will throw ppl off regardless of the medical fact that relapse is part of,and accepted,when treating opiate addicts.They have to change this so MMT is the same,clinic to clinic and state to state,to remove the powertripping powertrippers.The system as it is now is ripe for abuse and detrimental to sustained recovery.

 

[My3sons]

Does anyone take vitadone? Mine just arrived today and it says it gives you energy. Does it affect being able to sleep if you take it too late?

 

[crzydiamond]

I've never taken it but I'm curious to know how it works for you as far as energy, sweating, weight loss, and constipation. Please share what your experience is after a week or two of taking it! Or longer too if you continue

 

[My3sons]

Ok. So far don't notice anything but it's only day 2

 

[mazda01]

Methadone dosage for heroin withdrawal

I have been doing H for about the last 3 weeks almost daily and when I don't dose any for about 10-12 hours I start to go into withdrawal. They are minor i'll admit but i'm a real baby when it comes to withdrawals. I mean i've cold turkeyed from 3 to 4 80's a day habit back when they were still the original OC's and that was by far my worst kick ever so i know this kick won't be bad. I use anywhere from 1/8th to 1/4th of a gram a day. I have an opportunity to get 8 10mg methadone pills, would those aid me at all in easing the withdrawals? What would be a good starting dose, would 5mg do anything?

 

[SKR]

I'm certainly not sure about what the lowest dose of methadone would hold that habit due to all the variable's like your H purity but anything, even 5mgs will help ease those withdrawals. Huh, and yeah I know all about 3 -4 80's of oxycodone (not contin) per day or even per dose for almost 2yrs daily but I recently jumped off onto Suboxone. Never got to try methadone for pain but I've been tempted.

And I've never allowed myself to fully withdraw in all that time, 25hrs was the longest I made it and that was back when I was easily getting good pain relief and euphoria from 40mgs per dose....i should have stopped there but didn't, familiar tale around here. Hope you get some answers from more experienced members. I always start by consulting opioid/opiate equivalency charts online when making transitions. Take care

 

[mazda01]

thanks for the reply. i was looking at some equivalency charts and they scare the shit outta me. i know what oxycodone dose is required to make me feel about the same as a bump of H, which is about 40mg, and it said a way higher number of methadone than what i was expecting. now i'm scared the methadone isn't gonna do anything. it's shit like this that always makes my kicks worse, i get into my own head. i make them worse inside my head. i gotta stop thinking so negatively damnit. lol
thanks again for replying

 

[Ignio]

If your withdrawal symptoms are minor I wouldn't take the methadone. You would probably just be prolonging the withdrawals.

So you have to ask yourself whether you can safely handle the withdrawals you are going through now? Otherwise you could attempt to take 10 mg methdone for 3 days, 7,5 mg for 4 days, 5 mg for 3 days and 2,5 mg for 2 days. After this you will have used up for 80 mg. I don't know anything about the purity of your heroin and have much you took, but 10 mg methadone isn't much though it might make your withdrawals slightly more bearable. But as you said, there is a chance that 10 mg will not do anything for you and then you will just be prolonging your withdrawals.

 

[Znegative]

If your withdrawal symptoms are minor I wouldn't take the methadone. You would probably just be prolonging the withdrawals.

So you have to ask yourself whether you can safely handle the withdrawals you are going through now? Otherwise you could attempt to take 10 mg methdone for 3 days, 7,5 mg for 4 days, 5 mg for 3 days and 2,5 mg for 2 days. After this you will have used up for 80 mg. I don't know anything about the purity of your heroin and have much you took, but 10 mg methadone isn't much though it might make your withdrawals slightly more bearable. But as you said, there is a chance that 10 mg will not do anything for you and then you will just be prolonging your withdrawals.

This is excellent advise. What type of heroin are you doing? I always found methadone was way more effective for kicking a powder habit then a tar habit, oddly. Anyway, I'm going to merge this into the methadone megathread.

 

[mazda01]

This is excellent advise. What type of heroin are you doing? I always found methadone was way more effective for kicking a powder habit then a tar habit, oddly. Anyway, I'm going to merge this into the methadone megathread.

it's powder. i'd say it's medium to the weak side H most of the time. I'm already waking up agitated and i'll normally have a tiny bit left over from the day before, so i'll take a tiny corner of a credit card bump and i'll still not feel well. Stomach cramps, anxiety, lethargy, sweats are to name a few of the symptoms. It's really the lack of sleep and having to kick my legs when i lay down otherwise this horrid uncomfortable feeling just starts at my lower back and it's unbearable IF i don't kick or move my legs. i've tried tonic water with quinine and haven't noticed much relief. my methadone connect fell through today so i may go get some immodium to help a little. i just hate that i do this to myself. everytime i tell myself i won't use consecutive days in a row and the next thing i know i'm high 24/7. like wtf is wrong with me. sighhh... been dealing with opiate addiction for almost half my life and i'm only 37.

 

[Runtoparadise]

I think the best advice I've received here on BL (not that I've completely adhered to it,- ten days & I turned to subs the final time kicking), was that we're adults. We've been sick with colds/flu/tum issues maybe 100 times by now.

Yes, take lope, lyrica, benzos...whatever you have to help out. You'll be sick 5-7 days. After that, it's all uphill mate.

Physically & mentally you'll feel like crap, but if you really want to stop you'll overcome this.

Rtp

 

[achemicalreaction]

I searched and came up with no results, idk if it’s bc I’m on a phone but here’s my question - do I need to or should I refrigerate take homes? Will it increase shelf life or hurt it? They are the orange wafer kind already in the bottle.

 

[sekio]

It would depend how long you're storing them for. I think a few days is fine, but better safe than sorry.

 

[exxplorer]

Hi, I ended here searching what was worse, heroine withdrawal or methadone.
I've stopped heroine cold turkey as @Runtoparadise said, it's not pleasant, you will be really sick, sweating like crazy, you will need to change your bed sheets many times a day for one week, muscle pain...hum, pain in all the body to say the truth.
No appetite, really poor appetite, you need to force yourself to eat, like a really really bad flu, you won't probably sleep the first 3-4 days, just having naps 1 or 2 hours, day after day it gets better, but you will be tied to your bedroom for some days.
But it goes away, after about 10 days, you begin to feel more comfortable, after 2 weeks, your depression will go away, it's the end, you are so proud of you.

I went into it again, a year later, and that time I got Subutex, but wasn't working good, but helped, finally the craving was too strong and took heroine again, so I got Methadone, 75mg, down to 60mg quite fast (2 months) then I was on 50 mg for a time.
I went to jail because of nothing, I did absolutely nothing, but yeah, life is not always fair.
When there, the first thing at the morning, you get waked up to go take your Methadone, so if you wanted a bit of extra sleep, it wasn't possible, and also, I woke my room mates to, so I wanted to quit really fast, even if the doctor in jail don't let you choose, I just refused to drink the entire bottle (50mg) and always let some in the bottle.
So the doctor put me on 45mg, because I asked, and again, didn't drank it all, so went to 40 mg, and again same thing, I refused to take it all, and asked to have less of it, even if the doctor didn't wanted me to go down so fast, after 2 weeks I went from 50mg to 30mg, the next week I was down to 20mg, the next week (so one month) I was on 15mg, I wasn't feeling too bad, you know, you feel so sad when you get locked in a fucking prison for nothing...with murderer, mad psychos, I went in another room, thankfully it was a really nice drug dealer, and we spent as much good time as it is possible (you are locked down 22h/24 if you have the "chance" to go out for 2 hours...so it's important to be with someone you can speak with, and laugh, smoking hash all day long, and yes, they give people so much medication (mainly benzos), just to keep us as calm as possible; so we were both completely fuck'ed day and night haha.
Now I think about it and don't worry any-more, but it's not a nice time, it's not a nice place to spend time...of course.
Almost everyone was smoking hash, and no one would say something, you can smoke in front of the chiefs, they don't have a fuck about that, if you stay calm and polite with them.
I had one last week to spend there, and I would be released, waiting for my judgment (still waiting).
So I spent 6 weeks there (but it seemed like 6 months : / ), and I was down to 10 mg Methadone, but to get out, I had to accept being watched by a psychiatrist and do exactly what he would tell me to do, like a guinea pig, (with urine tests...nice fucking system), and I had to go see so many different people to see if I'm OK, if I'm not dangerous, if I stay home (I just could leave to go to all these appointments, during 3 months, now it's over).
Just to say, when I went out, I was at 10 mg Methadone, I dropped my dosage fast, not in the best conditions.. so I could stop taking it pretty fast, but no, I had to take a treatment, 50 mg Methadone again (because it was the dosage I was on while getting into jail), + more benzos, + a good dose Quetiapine...(I had almost quit all these drugs, because at week 4, I got a letter saying I could be released if I go in a detox hospital, but I had to be cleen before that, and I really wanted to go out, as you can imagine, so at the end I was getting hash for my benzos and Quetiapine, I was trading it with someone who had just a low dose of Alprazolam (1 mg) haha he wasn't lucky, for half a gram hash I gave him 3 Quetiapine 200mg and 2 Lorazepam 2.5mg, sometimes I gave him an extra 2mg Alprazolam, so he was happy, and so was I, always having something to smoke, my room mate was doing the same, so yes, we where smoking a lot! The room was completely full of smoke all the time, that was the funny part of it.

Yes sad story, I'm still anxious because I know I will go to court, for nothing (too long to explain, and don't want to, it's not the topic of this thread).
So in 6 weeks I went from 50mg down to 10mg, without much withdrawal (maybe smoking was helping me, mostly for sleeping, and not going crazy).

Now that I'm out, (remember, they put me on 50mg again...haha really good idea-_-all these efforts for nothing), but now I'm on 25mg, and I sometimes take half of the pill (in jail it's in a liquid, so you can't trade it, but out it's in pills), and it's OK, so I never really had withdrawal on Methadone, so I don't get it when some friends tell me they can't stop Methadone.
At some point I had minor craving for heroine, but it went away, now I feel "fine".
Also I think LSD helped me to, when I got out of this fucking jail where everything was in ruin, they let people rot there like shit, I really needed to get that out of my mind, because I was getting paranoid (the police to break into my appartment again, to the point I rent a gun from a friend, just in case, I told myself "if they want me to go there again, they will pay first", yeah I was really not in a "good mood", but don't worry, I had the gun just a few days and I leave it, I don't even know if I would have shoot...I was getting better, but that shit had waking up my "soft madness" I had years before, but I had no more crazy idea, I was fine, almost like everyone, a "normal person"; they really destroyed a long time working on myself.

All good people, stay strong, and leave medications if you can, do your best, now I feel really better, I'm not drugged any-more, I have better memory, more energy, more motivation, I smile more, get more confident, talk to people more freely, but only down side, I have sometimes really bad insomnia..I think it's mostly related to my benzo reduction.
I wish people to realize how bad heroine brings you to be, you are just another person, your personality get somehow destoyed, because the only thing that matters is getting heroine, and you leave all your friends, and some leave you, because of fear.

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

I went down from 60mg methadone by 1-2mg per month until I got to 39mg, where I didn't feel high anymore. I was only "sober" 2 days, the clinic was gonna induce me to bupe and thankfully it went well, I was pretty paranoid about the "no higher than 30mg" orthodoxy I read about here and elsewhere online a lot, but they weren't worried at all at my clinic.

Now, for those completely getting off methadone, I recommend doing it this way, especially when getting to 10mg and less, it's where it's the toughest I hear, just like it was for me with suboxone under 2mg. I switched because 'done made me gain 100 pounds and crave sugar like mad. I think I would have found it easier, but I'll never know I guess, but from my years of reading other people's experience, that's my empirical advice.

 

[Nihilistic1]

exxplorer - Wow I don't know where you went to jail, Belgium? That sounds like the best jail experience in the world. I have been to jail in America multiple times in different states withdrawing off opiates and they do not give you shit here.. the fact that you were actually allowed to smoke hash and given methadone and benzos, sounds like a nice vacation. The co's (correction officers) here just laugh at you when you are sweating and shaking on your pad. I am blown away by that story. Going back to jail is something that I am super afraid of because I know how horrible it will be, but if it was like that here I wouldn't even worry that much. So in a way maybe that's the only good part of it being so bad.

 

[Branggen]

I went down from 60mg methadone by 1-2mg per month until I got to 39mg, where I didn't feel high anymore. I was only "sober" 2 days, the clinic was gonna induce me to bupe and thankfully it went well, I was pretty paranoid about the "no higher than 30mg" orthodoxy I read about here and elsewhere online a lot, but they weren't worried at all at my clinic.

Now, for those completely getting off methadone, I recommend doing it this way, especially when getting to 10mg and less, it's where it's the toughest I hear, just like it was for me with suboxone under 2mg. I switched because 'done made me gain 100 pounds and crave sugar like mad. I think I would have found it easier, but I'll never know I guess, but from my years of reading other people's experience, that's my empirical advice.

How many mg sub are you at now?