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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Do I have to be in withdraw at my first methadone clinic visit?

.DOC.

Greenlighter
Joined
Feb 21, 2011
Messages
3
My husband and I have been addicted to heroin for many years and have high tolerances. Tomorrow morning at 5 am is our first visit to the methadone clinic. They said to not use for 24 hrs prior. We will be in withdraw after 6 to 12 hrs depending on how big our last shot was. Will they refuse us if were not in withdraw? I was thinking we would do less than normal tonight so we are sorta in withdraw but not terrible? Anyone have any insight on this? Thanks!
 
They want you to wait 24 hours for safety reasons, to make extra sure you don't have any heroin in your bloodstream when they give you your first dose in order to to avoid the risk of ODing. It's not like buprenorphine (Suboxone/Subutex) where you have to be in withdrawals when you take it to prevent being thrown into precipitated WDs.

If you take some tonight then they give you a dose which is designed for someone who has abstained for 24 hours, the dose might be too high, so it would be better to abstain if you can manage it..

I'm not sure if asking you to wait 24 hours is the norm for methadone clinics or not, sorry..

Good luck!
 
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So if I start feeling withdraw after 6-12 hrs, wouldn't that be sufficient? I've tried to get off dope by myself with the 10 mg pills and took 60 mg and it barely took withdraws away all day. I've heard from different people that it takes a few days to work good. So I guess I'm just nervous to feel any withdraw. I'm also afraid that they are going to start me on a way too low of a dose because I'm a small girl!
 
Hmm.. I don't really have enough experience in this to say for sure I'm afraid! I would have thought that if you are feeling the withdrawals theoretically it would be okay but I am very hesitant to go against the advice of the clinic..

Maybe someone else here knows more about this?
 
Heroin has a short half life. 12 hours later, you'll be more than fine, and if your anything like me you'll already be in full blown dt's. Besides, it's your first visit, they aren't going to give you a heroic dose! (I hope) they titrate your dose accordingly, though for every good Methadone clinic, they're is a shitty one...

( And BTW, I am 5ft9, FIRST THING OUT OF BED, and currently weigh 127 pounds, yet at my highest tolerance 60mg was not a large dose. So again, if they are not completely ignorant, they will know that size honestly doesn't matter ;)
 
I never went in sick before first dose of methadone, if u can handle shooting dope u should b Ök to go in well.
 
So if I start feeling withdraw after 6-12 hrs, wouldn't that be sufficient? I've tried to get off dope by myself with the 10 mg pills and took 60 mg and it barely took withdraws away all day. I've heard from different people that it takes a few days to work good. So I guess I'm just nervous to feel any withdraw. I'm also afraid that they are going to start me on a way too low of a dose because I'm a small girl!

my advice would be to contact the clinic directly and ask their procedure for starting you on the maintenance. from personal experience and a lot of anecdotal posts over bluelight indicate this is the best option - you find out their regulations from them directly.

the common requirements i found was evidential withdrawal (why effie said) and ID for obvious reasons.

I never went in sick before first dose of methadone, if u can handle shooting dope u should b Ök to go in well.

do you mean that if you're fine to be shooting dope you'll be fine to start the methadone/bupe right away? not true at all - sorry if i've misunderstood you. if you want to go into precipitated wd's go ahead and pull the sneaky going in high, it's generally not a great experience overall and if your habit is huge... and talking of huge habits, go in with one of them and get started on methadone and it might just be enough to put you into OD territory, it'd sure make a good first impression on your will to recover too;)

a few hours of withdrawal is sweet fuck all in the scope of the picture.
 
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If you are in the US they will generally start you at 30 mgs. You can go up 10 mgs. at a time, but how quickly is up to the nurse. Good for you for getting into treatment, BTW! I got so sick of rushing here and there, and then waiting...waiting...nose running, constantly swallowing excess saliva, desperate...
 
Just go in and tell them the honest truth. If you have a high habit, they will adjust accordingly. If it is not enough, they will adjust. I think most addicts have a tendency to self diagnose, and contemplate beforhand every single way things might go wrong. This comes from years of depending on other people and our own appetites to avoid feeling sick. Telling the full story and trusting in the clinic to help is the best idea. Not recommending it, but its not like you cannot find dope later on if you are sick again. Treatment is a good option because it should take away your need to think about how you will avoid feeling sick.
 
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