Opioids methadone substitute or other options for vacation

[DattMavis420]

I'm currently on 10mg liquid methadone daily. I've tapered down from 110 to 10 over the course of about a year, 5mg at a time. I'm going on vacation in July for a week, and the nearest clinic is 2 hours one way. I'm not trying to spend my vacation driving back and forth. My clinic won't give me take homes because I smoke, and probably wouldn't even if I had stopped months ago. Last year I was able to get enough methadone to last me the week, but that route isn't available this year, and it's hard to find the stuff even in advance like this.


Ideally I would have tapered off completely by now, but going from 15-10 has been harder for me to get used to than the previous decreases in dose, and I don't see it happening by July at this point. I'm wondering what my best option is for a substitute if I can't find any methadone.


I've been clean off other opiates for over 3 years now, and don't really have a desire to take them recreationally or otherwise. I don't want to get high, I just don't want to be sick. I know about dosage conversions, the main issue I'm running into with that is the short half lives, I figure I'd have to get a shitload of whatever to last me. Id prefer something that I can take once, maybe twice a day at most, but It's been so long since I've done anything with pharms I don't even know where to start.


I do not want to switch to subs. I already swapped one addiction for an almost equally shitty one, not trying to do that again.


Another option I'm considering is just quitting outright. I don't want to spend my vacation seriously withdrawing, but I can put up with some discomfort as long as I can get some sleep. I usually drink and smoke a fair amount while I'm down there, and that plus time on the beach in the sun/water seems to have helped make wd much more tolerable in the past when I was still using. I don't know how that's going to go though, because some people say that coming off 10mg is just as bad as 100mg, and others say it's not. Then some people say the worst of the wd only takes about a week like dope, and others say it's like a month or more.


Honestly I'd rather just quit, but I don't want to ruin my vacation withdrawing the whole time. I'm out of school til August, and my plan was already to have quit by then, the drop from 15mg to 10mg kind of slowed me down on that though. I went down about a month ago, and haven't adjusted to it all the way yet, I dose about 9-10am and end up waking up about 8am and can't go back to sleep because I'm starting to withdraw. I guess maybe that's normal, but I used to be able to skip days when I was at a higher dose and still feel fine.


If I do go ahead and quit, would I be better off going down to 5 for a week or two then every other day for a week or two, or just stopping outright?


Any suggestions on what I should do/ how I should do it?

 

[Screaming_Skull]

Loperamide,AKA "Over The Counter Methadone". It WORKS for W/d's. I have read of people using for when they got on the lower side of getting off of Done/Subs...Note the dose is way more than on the bottle, like 50 of the 2mg(dont get gel caps!!!). I use to get it when nothing else was around and would take ridiculose doses of it, and it ended up raising my freaking tolerance, but great at not keeping you sick. If not that if you have the cash poppy pods, or if Seeds if you know a good brand, Kratom but it's very short acting...my best bet would be high doses of loperaminde or Pod/Seed tea. NOTE loperamide does have some long ass nasty w/d's itself.

 

[insidious]

I have no experience with methadone, but I do have experience with horrible vacations. I don't know your story or anything but methadone and suboxone are both still addictive; In my opinion they are not any better than other opiates/opioids. What I did in my past heroin addiction was find some low dose morphine XR, which held me over. They did not get me high, nor did I withdrawal. Keep in mind this is my personal experience that worked, feel free to disregard. I wouldn't count on quitting on vacation though.

 

[DattMavis420]

I don't know your story or anything but methadone and suboxone are both still addictive; In my opinion they are not any better than other opiates/opioids.

I agree. In hindsight that should have been obvious, but I wasn't thinking straight at the time, and my folks pretty much gave me the option of the clinic or the street. That and the clinics are a fabulous source of misinformation, and neglect to tell you you're swapping one addiction for another, or at least mine did. Great stuff at a time/situation where the vast majority of people are desperate and/or vulnerable.

But ya, the more I'm reading other threads on here the less I'm leaning towards outright stopping while I'm there. I tend to be kind of a puss when it comes to withdrawal, the elevated heart rate and anxiety get to me and I dwell on it, making it worse and giving myself panic attacks. I've got a serious fear of having a heart attack, despite being fairly healthy and no heart probs, I'd hate to work myself up into having one with the nearest hospital like 45 min away.

Sofar though the XR morphine sounds best, I don't want to have to take a handful of something. I wish they made a 5 or 10mcg fentanyl patch, that'd work great.

 

[tacodude]

Just use this vacation time to quit. It might affect your vacation a bit, but this sounds like the prefect time to just stop using. Maybe using some extended release morphine for the top five days to clear the methadone out so the withdrawals are off the morphine vs the methadone and less drawn out.

Edit : Reading your post again definitely just quit. It will only be as bad as you think it will be. There might be minor discomfort, but so many things can help. Lope was recommended maybe in the recommended amounts just to help regulate bathroom needs. Cough syrup at night in recommended dosages could be useful. Just don't stress on it or you'll make it worse. Getting drunk probably won't help a lot as it will affect your judgement, but smoking bud is more than ok. Like I said only use morphine in lowest dose to avoid methadone w/d and have morphine w/d instead, but honestly if your ready to quit why risk making it worse? I wish you the best and keep us updated.

 

[Screaming_Skull]

Methadone and Subs are not just switching one habbit for another, I mean yes you are still taking an opiate...do you still get that overwhelming euphoria, having to redose every 6-8 hours, stealing and all that shit? People always complain about it when coming off of it, I'm sure I will too but at least I know I would have been in a way worse situation if I didn't get on it. Just saying. In fact I wish I wasn't on this shit right now so I could have 10 30's today to put in my arm, but kinda glad I have my Sub instead, and Phenibut just cuz I'm really bored being sober right now...

 

[TheLostBoys]

If your vacation consists of hanging out at the beach & doing plenty of swimming, that should help with withdrawals compared to trying to get clean at home......

If you don't want to think about the withdrawals & want to enjoy your time on vacation with others around, then morphine ER is the best option IMO.....

From everything I've read about you, it seems your worst enemy is your mind......you tend to over think how bad a situation will get. Try to live in the moment & don't think about you get to g a heart attack......(that would drive me insane if I thought about stuff like that)

What other way can you relax/relieve your mind? I don't recommend using benzos with opiates, but 5mgs of Valium could relieve your mind of you think of heart attacks, etc......just make sure you use small amounts & don't use the Valium longer than a week.

 

[David Wooderson]

I would suggest switching to suboxone. If you're considering taking a painkiller as a replacement than you're crazy for not considering suboxone as a replacement. I found methadone hella more harder to get off of than subs, you can start at a super low dosage and you have time to find out if 2mg would hold you. I know there is allot of shitty info on subs and allot of people claim that it is crazy addictive but so long as you don't get on a crazy high dose and taper when you get back from vacation then you would be set. You would be trading methadone for something lighter. Paws from methadone is never ending and much worse imo.

 

[d1ahp]

I would suggest switching to suboxone. If you're considering taking a painkiller as a replacement than you're crazy for not considering suboxone as a replacement. I found methadone hella more harder to get off of than subs, you can start at a super low dosage and you have time to find out if 2mg would hold you. I know there is allot of shitty info on subs and allot of people claim that it is crazy addictive but so long as you don't get on a crazy high dose and taper when you get back from vacation then you would be set. You would be trading methadone for something lighter. Paws from methadone is never ending and much worse imo.

This. If handled properly, Suboxone is a way more forgiving drug than Methadone. I'm really stressing the "handled properly" part. If you're taking ridiculous amounts of Suboxone then it becomes as much of a liability as anything else is in the long run. This is coming from someone who has done both Suboxone and Methadone maintenance.

 

[tacodude]

He's not on a high dose of Methadone... That being said quitting will still have its discomfort after using for long term, but it's not like it should be so extreme an opiate is needed. That being said having some on hand to use at nighttime to get to bed only in lowest dose possible to help you sleep as w/d only become hell when you can't sleep and recover the energy needed to battle the w/d fatigue. Really though I wish you the best

 

[Screaming_Skull]

I always found Sub to be easy to taper from higher doses...like i can't tell the differnce between 32mg and 16mg, or 12 to 8mg....now once I get below 8mg, then especially 4, I notice, but getting Subs while your still on done..want that send you in Precipitated w/ds? I mean honestly if your not gonna make the drive to the clinic just go ahead and get some other opiates if you want to actually enjoy your vacation, or just make the drive to the clinic there...

 

[LilikoiMoon]

My friend takes 2 week trips to Colorado to see his family 3x per year.. What he does is take a dose, save a dose. Even if he goes through some withdrawals in evening, he doesn't take that 2nd dose, but saves it for vacation. He then weans himself down to about 3 mg a day.

We all keep methadone pills on hand here for emergencies. Only people who get liquid are those who go through clinic.

Good luck on your trip.

 

[TheLostBoys]

How hard is it to get off a 5mg of methadone habit daily for 1 month......always wondered if its really hard on a low dose for a month or 2 ......

 

[baubengal]

I've been exactly were you're at and it sucks having a vacation looming while knowing methadone is not an option. If you go the cold turkey route I'd def expect some WD's. Methadone may take weeks to void your system completely, but may not be that bad for you. Since you've dropped to such low dose your body's likely been able to release some of those toxins.

If it were me in this story, I'd stay on my norm dose until about 4-5 days before the trip. I'd start with 8-12mg of subutex a day and drop to 4-8 for the trip. If you're not familiar with Bupe at all..maybe this isn't a good route for your trip. Always good to get familiar before getting stuck on that island with no other options. If I went the suboxone route, I'd expect a day or two of being useless between that and the Mdone and plan accordingly. That nalaxone is a bitch at first imo. Hope it goes well for you...good luck.

 

[crzydiamond]

^^ that would not be the way to go if taking sub for the trip. When switching from methadone to subs you have to be off methadone for like 3-4 days to avoid precipitated wd (due to methadone's long half life)

I dont know, I went on vacation years when on methadone an I just drive an hour to the closest clinic and did guest dosing. You need to set that up ahead of time though. I wouldn't recommend cold turkey while on vacation unless all you plan on doing is laying around. Cold turkey methadone takes a few weeks to feel normal.

At your dose, can't you find someone willing to sell a take home? Most ppl dose at minimum 70 mg so that one takehome could be good for a week....

 

[Kara.april]

Ok so I'm having a similar situation... While you guys are on the topic... I wasn't a heavy H user, only used for about 3 months. On Sunday I cold turkey-Ed. Monday morning woke up feeling like total death--- contacted a guy who gave me 2 8 mg sub strips. I immediately took half of one of the strips (this was around 5:00 PM) and slept for the remainder of the day. Tuesday (yesterday) I woke up feeling totally fine, but out of fear I ripped off another small piece of sub (maybe 2 mg) around 2:00 pm. This was giving myself almost 24 hours in between the small sub doses. Then I didn't take any more, slept totally fine last night, and took another small (2mg) piece around 11:00 this morning. Am I doing this correctly as to be totally fine and not need them anymore? Or am I going to start feeling withdrawal AGAIN? I did give myself almost 24 hours in between those doses so I figured that was a good taper off the H. Any advice is appreciated people, I'm leaving for vacation in 3 days and need to know if/when this sub shit will wear off and I will know if I'll be okay or if I'll just have to get more.... I don't know how it works. Thanks guys

 

[baubengal]

Yeah, regarding suboxone strips, I'd wait at least 36-48 hours after taking my last Done dose.

If subutex is available instead, the transition can be much sooner for me. Usually within 12-24 hours. I've done this with Dones, H, oxymorphone and fent numerous times each. For me, the most difficult is fent by far, followed by oxymorph and MD. Honestly, with such a small daily dose of methadone, I wouldn't even be concerned about the transition to the bupe (as long as it's subutex and not the strips).

I agree with you tho crazyd, getting someone's take home would be my aim, if it were possible.

 

[baubengal]

[ Am I doing this correctly as to be totally fine and not need them anymore? Or am I going to start feeling withdrawal AGAIN? ]

Kara- sounds like you're on the right track imo. If it were me though, I'd bring along something just in case. If I was already down to 2mg daily, I'd like to have at least a full 8 for the trip, just in case. Idk though, that's just me. Everyone is different..so..tifwiw. GL

 

[mostly-human]

I know you ruled it out. But my vote is to convince you to go the sub route for your vacation, I really cannot think of anything else that fits as well - if you can get suboxone.. just make sure you leave a couple days between your methadone and suboxone.. And hey, maybe even switch to suboxone for the final leg / taper.. Most people I know in Australia taper off methadone down to 5-10mg, then jump to an equally low dose of suboxone and taper off that completely; it's an easier WD than methadone.

 

[romealone]

If you want this vacation to be even remotely enjoyable you will ignore the misinformed suggestions being made that you will be fine if you just stop for the week and will only experience "some minor discomfort", that one made me laugh. You've been on methadone for years and it's fantastic you've been able to drop down to 10mg, but unless you are some mutant, simply going CT from 10mg will leave you unwilling and probably unable to leave your bed for the entire week you are there.

I'm not sure when in July your trip is, but if you've got a couple weeks before the trip, I think using this time to make the transition to low dose suboxone is your best option. You don't want to try this right before you leave as it takes your body some time to adjust to a partial agonist, but if you can use the next few weeks to transition and then simply take some suboxone with you, I think that is your best option.

Minor discomfort....great stuff