Bomb319
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2011
- Messages
- 583
I'm on quite a high dose of methadone at 220 mg and have been at or near that dose for months. I usually take it anywhere between 8:30 am and 12:30 pm and it's usually good enough to hold me for at least that day and much of the night - and not give me many problems sleeping at night. However, mornings can become quite brutal relatively speaking, of course. It seems as if the first symptom to appear only 9-12 hours after my dose is yawning and sometimes very mild tearing and congestion. This can happen in the evening, but it's never bad enough by then to seriously concern me or cause significant apathy. Yet it's absolutely undeniable that I do feel it starting to wear off after 13 hours for sure, and always experience at least some very early withdrawal kicking in.
Like I said, the following morning is of the greatest concern to me - particularly on the days where I've taken it 24 hours or slightly more the day before. I can easily be apathetic and have low enough energy to put off walking down to the pharmacy to get my dose, even though it's literally a 5 min walk away. At this stage, I almost always am yawning excessively, tearing noticeably to moderately, and even have the beginning stages of chills and goosebumps/ There's no denying that there is a large psychological component to all this, as I've become almost deathly afraid of experiencing opiate withdrawal after my hellish years of pills and heroin in which I couldn't stand the pain of being alive and constantly sick. Despite this, there's no doubt that it IS physical as well, and I seem to metabolize it more rapidly than most. Other than some relatively minor cold sweats, goosebumps/chills, yawning/tearing and sometimes even sneezing, the low energy is what hits me like a brick wall. In fact, I had to give up a new job I was just hired for, simply because it required me to be at work for 7:30 am and not able to get my dose at the pharmacy until at least 10. After a couple days of this, it was already becoming unbearable.
In the interest of science, I decided to test myself to roughly determine how dominant physical symptoms were and how much my negative mood affected how I feel. After doing this, I have no doubt whatsoever that it IS in fact predominantly a physical issue for me. I get two carries per week, so on 2 occasions, I took my dose late the night before instead of early the next morning. What happened is that after an additional 8-12 hours without my dose, my pupils grew to the size of dinner plates, my sweating and chills increased dramatically in intensity, I even had sneezing fits - usually a late withdrawal symptom for me, I even began to have a stomachache with looser bowel movements (although nowhere near diarrhea), I noticed my sense of smell spiking dramatically - always a highly noticeable effect of moderate to severe withdrawal for me, and worst of all I felt a tremendous lack of energy, depression and the general miserable feeling of malaise that accompanies the onset of withdrawal.
Don't get me wrong - I know these symptoms would be laughably minor compared to what would happen if I stopped taking the methadone entirely or pushed it for another day or two. Still, it's bad enough to cause fairly severe depression and apathy which means I can't hold down any job that blocks me from taking my doses as soon as possible in the morning. It also constantly reminds me that I'm simply maintaining my addiction instead of heading down the path of a true cure. This keeps the negative experience "alive" for me long enough to still more or less constantly dwell on drugs and fixate on my next dose - obviously not a desirable outcome of my therapy. That said, it has changed my life so far for the better. I've manged to not only stop using illegal and Rx drugs entirely, but I stopped using cocaine as well as most tobacco (although to be fair, cocaine never had a strong hold over me because I gravitate much more to depressants and relaxation than stimulants - despite several somewhat positive experience with crack, but mostly agitation and negativity). I know I cannot give up my methadone anytime soon, nor can I increase my dosage. It's high enough as it is and my doctor doesn't like that. But mainly because I always seem to build tolerance to the new dose after only a few weeks. In other words, 50 mg was holding me back when I had that dose about the same as 220 is holding me know. If I could have foreseen that, I never would have increased. I do feel MUCH better and more talkative/social while on methadone and get a burst of energy in which I can actually accomplish most things I set out to do.
Does anyone else have experience with this and/or have rapid metabolism as well? Are there any tricks/tips I can use to weather the worst of the storm? I do suffer from sever insomnia and take Dimenhydrinate every night in high doses (at least 300 mg, but up to 1000 over the course of 8-10 hours if I'm really unable to sleep. I've heard that this drug which is essentially Diphenhydramine, can increase the effective metabolism of methadone, causing it to exit my system earlier. How much earlier is hard to say, but I can't give up my Diph either. Any input is MUCH appreciated, and I'm sorry for the crazy long post; I did not expect to have this much to say about it, so thanks for reading
Like I said, the following morning is of the greatest concern to me - particularly on the days where I've taken it 24 hours or slightly more the day before. I can easily be apathetic and have low enough energy to put off walking down to the pharmacy to get my dose, even though it's literally a 5 min walk away. At this stage, I almost always am yawning excessively, tearing noticeably to moderately, and even have the beginning stages of chills and goosebumps/ There's no denying that there is a large psychological component to all this, as I've become almost deathly afraid of experiencing opiate withdrawal after my hellish years of pills and heroin in which I couldn't stand the pain of being alive and constantly sick. Despite this, there's no doubt that it IS physical as well, and I seem to metabolize it more rapidly than most. Other than some relatively minor cold sweats, goosebumps/chills, yawning/tearing and sometimes even sneezing, the low energy is what hits me like a brick wall. In fact, I had to give up a new job I was just hired for, simply because it required me to be at work for 7:30 am and not able to get my dose at the pharmacy until at least 10. After a couple days of this, it was already becoming unbearable.
In the interest of science, I decided to test myself to roughly determine how dominant physical symptoms were and how much my negative mood affected how I feel. After doing this, I have no doubt whatsoever that it IS in fact predominantly a physical issue for me. I get two carries per week, so on 2 occasions, I took my dose late the night before instead of early the next morning. What happened is that after an additional 8-12 hours without my dose, my pupils grew to the size of dinner plates, my sweating and chills increased dramatically in intensity, I even had sneezing fits - usually a late withdrawal symptom for me, I even began to have a stomachache with looser bowel movements (although nowhere near diarrhea), I noticed my sense of smell spiking dramatically - always a highly noticeable effect of moderate to severe withdrawal for me, and worst of all I felt a tremendous lack of energy, depression and the general miserable feeling of malaise that accompanies the onset of withdrawal.
Don't get me wrong - I know these symptoms would be laughably minor compared to what would happen if I stopped taking the methadone entirely or pushed it for another day or two. Still, it's bad enough to cause fairly severe depression and apathy which means I can't hold down any job that blocks me from taking my doses as soon as possible in the morning. It also constantly reminds me that I'm simply maintaining my addiction instead of heading down the path of a true cure. This keeps the negative experience "alive" for me long enough to still more or less constantly dwell on drugs and fixate on my next dose - obviously not a desirable outcome of my therapy. That said, it has changed my life so far for the better. I've manged to not only stop using illegal and Rx drugs entirely, but I stopped using cocaine as well as most tobacco (although to be fair, cocaine never had a strong hold over me because I gravitate much more to depressants and relaxation than stimulants - despite several somewhat positive experience with crack, but mostly agitation and negativity). I know I cannot give up my methadone anytime soon, nor can I increase my dosage. It's high enough as it is and my doctor doesn't like that. But mainly because I always seem to build tolerance to the new dose after only a few weeks. In other words, 50 mg was holding me back when I had that dose about the same as 220 is holding me know. If I could have foreseen that, I never would have increased. I do feel MUCH better and more talkative/social while on methadone and get a burst of energy in which I can actually accomplish most things I set out to do.
Does anyone else have experience with this and/or have rapid metabolism as well? Are there any tricks/tips I can use to weather the worst of the storm? I do suffer from sever insomnia and take Dimenhydrinate every night in high doses (at least 300 mg, but up to 1000 over the course of 8-10 hours if I'm really unable to sleep. I've heard that this drug which is essentially Diphenhydramine, can increase the effective metabolism of methadone, causing it to exit my system earlier. How much earlier is hard to say, but I can't give up my Diph either. Any input is MUCH appreciated, and I'm sorry for the crazy long post; I did not expect to have this much to say about it, so thanks for reading