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Methadone tapering - how fast is possible?

pema

Bluelighter
Joined
Feb 15, 2012
Messages
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How fast is tapering possible without feeling any withdrawal symptoms?

I tapered down to nearly zero some times and the last step then actually was easy. But I had a lot of time when I did this.
As I was stable on methadone and had no cravings for heroin anymore and did not take any heroin beside the methadone, I started tapering. It took 20 weeks.

I started with 100mg methadone.
1st week 100mg
2nd week 90mg
3rd week 80mg
4th week 70mg
5th week 60mg
6th week 50mg
7th week 45mg
8th week 40mg
9th week 35mg
10th week 30mg
11th week 25mg
12th week 20mg
13th week 15mg
14th week 10mg
15th week 7.5mg
16th week 5.0mg
17th week 2.5mg
Then I stepped to a little subutex and tapered further down with this.
The last step was so easy there I didn't feel any withdrawal symptoms at all.

This time, it is different. I want to get clean as fast as possible.
But I also want to have a withdrawal as easy as possible.
I need to taper because I am dosed too high now.
I don't want to feel withdrawal symptoms during tapering. This would lengthen the withdrawal process. I dont't want to feel a little withdrawal over a long time. Then it would be better to feel heavier withdrawal but only for a shorter time.
So ... How fast can I taper without feeling symptoms? What do you think is possible? I know that every body reacts i a different way. But I would be glad if somebody could tell his/her experiences.

A friend of mine was in a detox clinic. He was there nearly 2 weeks and they gave him methadone. Tapering was very fast and he was in withdrawal all the time. This is not what I want. I want to taper as fast as possible without feeling bad. How much time should be calculated?
 
Fear of withdrawal symptoms are usually worse than the withdrawal symptoms themselves. Quit worrying about it. I was on methadone for 3 years, went from 100mg to 0 overnight. I survived. You can do it too. You make it worse by thinking about it too much.
 
Nsauce put it very well. You're going to be afraid of the WD symptoms no matter what, but you will need to be patient with tapering. Faster it happens, the worse the WDs will be. If you go slow and steady, then you can get rid of them. Do you have any reasons in specific that you want to finish the process so fast?
 
I know. I think you are right that fear of withdrawal symtoms can make everything worse.

But this time I got a problem.
I have to get clean as fast as possible. I nearly have no time.
And I have a lot of thing to do. A good friend of mine is in hospital and will stay there at least for the next two month. I have to take care for her six year old son. I have to bring him to school and I have to cook for him. Help him with homework and a lot more.
It impossible for me to stay in bed for a week and feel bad.

But I also have to get clean if I do not want to go to jail. The judge forces me to become clean...
So I need to get clean as fast as possible with withdrawal symptoms as low as possible.

So what do you think? How fast is tapering possible without feeling bad?
In the end I have to try by myself and have to take a little more if I took not enough.
But are there any suggestions how fast I can reduce the doses?
I started with 100mg. Now I just take 90mg and split this into three doses of 30mg (in the morning, in the afternoon and before I go to bed).
When I take every day 100mg then I can take nothing for one day and do not feel bad. From time to time it is possible to skip one day when I take this dose regularely.
So this makes a little bit tricky with tapering because that stuff is so long acting.

For example it surely will be too fast when I reduce the dose daily for 10mg. Then I surely feel bad.
Any experiences what is possible?
 
Switch from methadone to suboxone then off suboxone. You might want to go inpatient for this, but you don't HAVE to. The bupe will knock the methadone off the receptors so easily. This could still take a few days at least though.

If you areally don't have any time, I don't see why you're even going to quit. You should have planned ahead. How is a judge forcing you to go off methadone btw?
 
like dexter said find a sub drug which brings the same effekt just lighter. Dont get me wrong but i heard from my nabor (shes avery strikt and intelligent police officer) that kokain would stop the WD's of corse i can not prove this. Be carefull with thinking about it cause like everyone says thinking about it makes it worse. You can d it:)
 
You are almost there bro! Just take the final step and be as strong as you possibly can, you'll look back at this one day and laugh! Best of luck bro!!
 
I started with 130mg methadone daily. I reduced 130mg too 100mg and kept this for some days. No problems.
Then I went to 90mg and splitted my usual dose from one time daily to 3 times daily (because I wanted to reduce the doses and to increase the time spaces). No problems again.
But then I changed from 3 times a day to 2 times a day. Don't know really why.
From 90mg I tapered down to 60mg in 6 days. Every day I reduced the dose by 5mg. Until now, it was no problem.
Last time I reduced the dose weekly and did not feel any withdrawal symptoms. This time, I reduce the dose daily and it's OK, too - until now. But although I took my methadone daily, I know it is possible to skip one day when I am at daily amounts of around 100mg. It sure will not take too long until I start feeling bad. Actually I did not believe that reducing the dose by 5mg every day was possible. And still have no withdrawal symptoms. I thought that it will start with cravings or that I will feel I loss of energy.

27.2. 130mg (in the morning)
28.2.-1.3. 100mg (in the morning)
3.3.-13.3 90mg (in the morning and in the evening)

14.3. 90mg (45mg in the morning, 45mg in the evening)
15.3. 85mg (42,5mg in the morning, 42,5mg in the evening)
16.3. 80mg (40mg in the morning, 40mg in the evening)
17.3. 75mg (37,5mg in the morning, 37,5mg in the evening)
18.3. 70mg (35mg in the morning, 35mg in the evening)
19.3. 65mg (32,5mg in the morning, 32,5mg in the evening)
20.3. 60mg (30mg in the morning, 30mg in the evening)

Because I split my dose to 2 doses it's not really a 5mg reduction but more a 2,5mg reduction. Every day I take 2,5mg less in the morning and take the same amount in the evening.

I will continue that until I reach 45mg. Then I will probably keep this dose for some days. Actually I'm surprised that I felt nothing until now. I wonder how long it will start that I feel something...



EDIT (Addendum):
Maybe there is already an effect of the tapering. But I'm not 100% sure...
I took really big amounts of heroin for a really long time. Because I sold that stuff, I always had enough and so I probably injected 5-10 grams daily.
I was really hard to switch from heroin to methadone. I nearly wasn't able to manage that. So I first started to inject my methadone but still there was always the wish to get some heroin. After some time it got better but I am still often thinking on heroin. Of course I haven't taken down how often I thought of heroin. But I believe it got more often the last days.
I was sure not to use heroin again and that I will taper down with methadone until I'm ready to withdraw.
But in the last days I was thinking of using heroin again one time before withdrawal. That's not good. I believe it's probably a reaction of the decreased methadone dose.
So in at least 3 days I will stop and keep the dose for some days so that body and mind can get used to it a little more. I don't want to provoke a relapse.
 
Altough it is OK the way it goes - my question is still not answered...
How fast is tapering possible without feeling withdrawal symptoms? Would be really interessting to know. Unfortunately I haven't found any studies on dose reduction.
So I would be glad if some people could tell about there own experiemces with dose reduction.
 
I was sure not to use heroin again and that I will taper down with methadone until I'm ready to withdraw.
But in the last days I was thinking of using heroin again one time before withdrawal. That's not good. I believe it's probably a reaction of the decreased methadone dose.
So in at least 3 days I will stop and keep the dose for some days so that body and mind can get used to it a little more. I don't want to provoke a relapse.

That's exactly why you went back to heroin--you're dropping your methadone dose too quickly.

Sorry no one can give you a definitive answer here, everyone has a very individualized experience that depends mostly upon how long they have been taking methadone.

Why is that the judge wants you off methadone? I take it you are under the care of a methadone clinic. Why not taper off the drug under their care?
 
Why is that the judge wants you off methadone? I take it you are under the care of a methadone clinic. Why not taper off the drug under their care?
I got busted by the German police near the Dutch frontier - with 2kg Hashish. Fortunately they had no evidence for drug trade.
But 2kg were enough. Three years on parole and I have to take no drugs. 4 drug tests per year.
I told the judge I wouldn't use any other drugs than cannabis so I am not under the care of a methadon clinic. Would be not easy to explain... Getting methadone the legal way would be the prove that I took opioids. So I have to get clean now as fast as possible.



Reduced dose now from 60mg straight to 45ml per day. Actually I wanted to reduce the dose daily by 5mg but then I realized I had not enough methadone left to take 60mg. Later I found another bottle of methadone but I did not increase the dose then because I felt it was possible this way.

22,25mg in the morning and 22,25mg in the evening. It's OK. I was freezing a little bit after I woke up. For a short time I thought I would feel withdrawal symptoms. But then I first had breakfast before taking my methadone. No urge to take it immediately. So it goes better than I thought.
Because I was afraid that I reduced the dose too fast, I took 375mg DL-Phenylalanine 3 times daily and 500mg Nigella sativa oil capsules.

Phenylalanine's D-enantiomer shall inhibit the enzyme enkephalinase which is responsible for the degradation of enkephalines (and maybe also endorphines).
And Nigella sativa is said to help with opioid withdrawal symptoms. It will not do wonders but there are some studies that say it alleviated withdrawal. So I began supplementing with DLPA and Nigella oil. I cannot tell if it would be worse without that stuff but I was able to reduce the dose faster than I thought and faster than I wanted.
I hope that DLPA perhaps can help with my mind. I have no real mental problems. I don't feel anxiety or depression but I am thinking more often on heroin.
I was 100% sure that I will not use heroin again. I'll taper and quit. But last days I was thinking on taking heroin on more time before withdrawal. That seems too dangerous for me. Until now I think that's a bad idea and better this attitude does not change. Maybe higher enkephalin and endorphine levels can help.
There are studies that DLPA really is an enkephalinase inhibitor and I often read that it will also inhibit endorphin degradation but I don't know if this is true. I couldn't find a scientific prove and maybe some authors just confuse enkephalins and endorphins. Has anybody more knowledge or experiences?

I now will stay some days on my 45mg dosage before further reduction.
How long with it take until the body gets acclimated (habituated? customized? What's the right English word?) to a certain dose?
 
Last edited:
I see what your dilemma is now. You could be called for a screen at any moment. I'm afraid I can't answer your question about how long this will take. I hate to say it, but you will probably have to do this with a great deal of discomfort.

You may want to send a PM to a Dark Side moderator and ask them to post your thread in the Other Drugs forum where you might get an answer to your question.
 
Pema

I have successfully tapered off methadone at 10 MG every 5 days without any notice until I got down to the 10mg threshold there i felt some wd symptoms but not bad so I decided to slow down and go 5 MG every 10 days, methadone has a long half life so it takes about 3-5 days for your body to even notice the change and by then you should allready be used to the new dose. That being said even if you taper all the way down to 0 you will still be uncomfortable for a while depending on your body and length of use. So not sure if that helps but I think dropping any faster than 10mg/ per 5 days is guaranteed wd symptoms not extreme Hut like you said extended
Altough it is OK the way it goes - my question is still not answered...
How fast is tapering possible without feeling withdrawal symptoms? Would be really interessting to know. Unfortunately I haven't found any studies on dose reduction.
So I would be glad if some people could tell about there own experiemces with dose reduction.
 
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