I was on for close to 2 years, was initiated in at 30mg per day and worked my way up to around 90-100mg where I stayed for the majority of my experience, then moderately titrated by 2/mg a week to 30mg then jumped off. jumping off cold turkey was probably the biggest regret I have period when it comes to all my drug withdrawals. I can not stress how important it is to NOT jump off from any substantial dose for either subs or done. as long as you taper off PROPERLY and patiently you should reduce almost all risk of the horror story year long PAWS you hear about. also if you use it therapeutically an never take your daily dose above 50 or 60 mg, this will greatly help you in the long run.
I definitely used while for periods of time while I was in the methadone program. but it greatly reduced my demand and urge too, which is great. and it happened naturally, rather than by suboxone induced force, which psychologically definitely helped me realize I could overcome and there was infact happiness after opiates. I was able to save a lot of money and appreciate it more when I did use, progressively separating my emotional addiction from it further and further .
interestingly enough though methadone CANwork like a "ghetto" suboxone in certain situations. though it may not have naloxone or antagonist properties, at a high enough dose its affinity to the receptor and half life is so long and powerful that your receptors can be fully flooded at any given moment of the day, meaning sometimes if your dose is high enough, even short acting powerful opiates can prove to be much much weaker in effect than normal, you're basically stabilizing at full agonism and this even can take away certain pain managing effects over long periods of time. in fact I can recall the MOST painful tattoo experience I had was when I was on 90 mg of methadone and I even smoked heavily before and throughout the tattoo and it was SUBSTANIALLY more painful than what I'm used too, on opiates or sober. just as an example, this was after years of daily exposure to this dose tho.
when I was at 90mg I felt basically ZERO from BTH no matter how much I smoked, besides maybe slight potentation of the already present methadone slump, no real rush from the smoke atleast nothing substantial. . this isn't a white or black issue as it is for suboxone though so keeping a responsible dose is the make it or break it for this effect. after 50 or 60 mg is my guess on where the receptor starts getting fairly full.
methadone helped me much more than suboxone, with suboxone I wasn't able to stabalize and psychologically exacerbated my not yet ready to quit psyche while methadone allowed me to get into the groove of a dope free life while enjoying the chemistry of full agonism, so for me personally it was the only thing that possibility got me over that first year hump that we serious addicts have to suffer, though I did pay for it greatly with my withdrawals. it really depends on the situation, if you've been through this particular ringer a few times, methadone might be a good option. but consider the duration of time you plan on staying and if you ever plan on getting off before making a decision, for most methadone is only better because they dont plan on ever getting off. a MAJORITY of the people in my clinic were on the liquid handcuffs for life, and where well aware of it. depressing to say the least. but hey, life is too short , sometimes you gotta work with what you got.
wish you the best,
any questions let me know.
