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Opioids Methadone withdrawal after short-term use

RandomJoy

Greenlighter
Joined
Apr 28, 2008
Messages
17
Hey there bluelighters,

I have heard a few bad things about the prolonged withdrawal caused by methadone cessation, but will withdrawal still last 2-3 weeks if the user has only been on the stuff for 8 days, as I have? I have been through opiate withdrawal before - I know that previous experience is a factor - and had been taking about 40mg/day, which is about what it takes to keep me completely opiated 24/7. To be honest I have never been through withdrawal after such a short stint with any opiate. Can you give me some idea of what to expect? Is the withdrawal from methadone just as prolonged from a small amount of use, and just less intense?

Many thanks in advance, all the best.
 
40mg daily is not a hell of a lot but if I were u and wanted to stop using methadone and all other opiates. One make sure u really are gonna do it before you
stop, I dont know how many times I have been on meth stayed off other opiates and used again. Its a pain in d ass... Not thyat u will use again just be sure
before u stop the methadone. Two and most important i think is reduce the dose. 40mg is as I said not a great dose but will give ya some bad wd. Reduce it
over a week r two. Try get it down below 10mg daily if you can.

Just my opinion do k :) best of luck.
 
Do you really think that it will be all that bad after only a week of use? And more importantly will the withdrawal really be twice as long as theamount of time that I was taking it? Unfortunately I won't be able to resupply for 4 to 5 days, and wasn't planning on doing so, but I can't get benzos for that amount of time either. I was hoping that it would be mild enough that I could just tough it out.

With most other opiates I find that WDs peak after 2-3 days of use. Is this also true with methadone?
 
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I don't wanna say it it would be ok and u would push on threw it no problem because I really dont know. There is no correct answer. A week and 40mil is a low enough dose and a short
period of use but really I cant say for sure. If it was me & it looks like u have to stop the mdone id say just get what benzos u can and plan to be about a week no feeling the best! The benzos
will def help!! Like the 1st 3/4 days will more then likely be the worst after that u should be ok?!?! So do try get some benzos for the 1st few days of wd after that u should b grand.


Long term methadone use I have heard people been sick for a month r more.. but on doses that can be anything up to about 150mil daily so... i hope ul b okay pushing on with it k.
 
You will likely get some sort of withdrawal symptoms, especially because you have been dependent on opioids before. How bad they will be or how long they will last is highly variable. Please do not use the fear of withdrawals as an excuse to keep taking it though! It will only make it worse and it will probably be easier than you assume it's going to be.

With methadone, because it is so long-lasting and builds up in your system, the withdrawals peak later and last much longer than with other opioids. Again it varies, but the worst is usually around day 4-7. Since you have been using it for only 8 days, and I don't know what your metabolism is like, I can't really predict what will happen. Everyone is different. If you are being kept "completely opiated 24/7" off once a day dosing, then that seems like a likely sign that your withdrawals will peak later. But I don't think they should be too severe - it will be a cakewalk compared to if you keep taking the methadone for months before going off it. My best guess is that because you have only been on it for 8 days, your withdrawal symptoms will be both less severe and shorter in length. The people I have talked to who were in a similar situation to you said their WD symptoms were mild and mostly psychological. Check out the withdrawal threads for some tips to help with any symptoms you get and keep yourself busy - the mental aspect is the hardest. Good luck!
 
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The people I have talked to who were in a similar situation to you said their WD symptoms were mild and mostly psychological. Check out the withdrawal threads for some tips to help with any symptoms you get and keep yourself busy - the mental aspect is the hardest. Good luck!

I just wanted to reiterate this point. A lot of withdrawal is mental. If you expect it to be bad and keep thinking about it then it will be worse than if you don't expect it to be bad and don't think about it. Of course some of it will happen no matter what, but try not to think about it. If I am in a place where I know that getting more drugs is not feasible, then the withdrawals aren't as bad as when I'm in an area where I know that I can easily get them.
 
^you are right Tommyboy, during one of my dry spells when i was a massive H addict ($200 to my junkie friends $60), I just remember actually having a "flu" thinking it was the flu, and my WD's were over in one day after 6 months straight of 2-3+grams a day( only time that happened) i was so convinced it wasnt WDs, good luck
 
Your withdrawal will be 100x worse if you sit there waiting for it to happen. I don't know how many times I've sweated a 75mcg fent patch off and not noticed it for 48 hours. Leg kicks would set in after 18 hours but nothing like knowing a patch has expired and not being able to refill for 3 more days. Psychological wd can be as bad as full blown wd if you let it be. Try and ignore the fact you're off your meds and don't dwell on when is it gonna start. No benzo's suck but what are you gonna do? Small dose for such a short duration shouldn't be to hard on ya.

Good luck and don't think about it.
 
Thanks for your responses, I feel a little reassured after reading them. And in response to what most of you said: don't worry, I am not going to be getting any more opiates (especially not methadone; one scare is enough) and probably won't even get benzos, although I'll see how things go regarding that.

Thanks for your comment Swimmingdancer, I'm reassured that someone else thinks that the *length* of the WDs will be a good bit shorter than typical methadone WD because of the short duration of my use. It just didn't make sense to me that I'd be in for 15-20 days of physical WD from a week of use, but I do not know a lot about methadone. And to clarify, I wasn't "completely opiated 24/7" from ONE single 40mg dose. I was dosing 20-25mg and then supplementing with small doses throughout the day, adding up to 35-40mg by the end of the day. Typically I'd dose 60mg oxy orally at one time if that gives you some idea of tolerance.

I do have 10mg methadone and a *tiny* little bit of H (not my normal drug but this is a miniscule amount), but I figure I won't touch any of that until around day 5 of WD, and only if it's really unpleasant at that point maybe take 5mg, which would only be enough to mitigate WD without resetting it at all.

Anyway thanks again for all of your responses :)
 
I didn't have the time to read through the whole thread, so forgive me if someone else mentioned the same thing, but yes, you can certainly become addicted to long acting opioids such as methadone and buprenorphine in a short period of time. You can even become addicted to these drugs hypothetically if you were to take them once week, as even though you might have not consumed the given substance for a few days, due to the long half life, there is still a decent ammount of it left in your system. I'll try and give a brief example:

DAY 1: 40 mg of Methadone consumed

DAY 2: nothing consumed. Given methadones 24 hour half life, there is 20 mg left

DAY 3: still nothing consumed. 10mg Methadone left.

DAY 4:40 mg of Methadone consumed with 5mg left from the dose on day 1.

I don't know, perhaps this is confusing things but it gives an idea of how even though your not high or actively taking the drug daily, if it is long lasting like methadone, you can still develop Dependancy even with occasional use. With daily use, for a short period of time, it is also very possible. I'd wager you'd have a better chance using oxy for 8 days without catching a habit than you do with methadone or buprenorphine.
 
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I have experienced the WD symptoms after around 13 days at 30 mg of methadone oral 10mg 3times a day.it was not what a cold t off months of high dosage oxy which i personally think is the worst. Someone mentioned the psychologic WD and it seems that the more your anticipate it the worse it is ...like that for most things in life...anyway after 13 days doc said no more and gave me 10 .5mg xanax and told me only if the wd was bad. So to me that indicates that a doc seems to think that 13 days could make me uncomfortable.which they were for about 3-4 days. What helped the most was taking the benzo at bedtime and getting a nights sleep, I felt a lot better after that about the 3rd day. Hope that is of some good for you...M
 
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