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  • TDS Moderators: AlphaMethylPhenyl | paranoid android

Venting Rehab is bullshit

Chronic and high dose methadone can lead to serious side effects. Most methadone clinics ignore this as it would cut into profits. Methadone maintenance patients should be on a high quality multivitamin and the recommended high dose of vitamin D. They should also see a endocrinologist at least every six months. IMHO people should stay at or below 40mgpd. Methadone can lead to significant health conditions if taken without doing these things.

neversickanymore said:
Methadone side effects, separating fact and fiction.

Low vitamin d status of patients in methadone maintenance treatment.

Methadone

Neuropathic Pain: Causes, Management and Understanding

Hypogonadism and Low Testosterone Levels as a Side Effect of Methadone and Buprenorphine
Hypogonadism in men receiving methadone and buprenorphine maintenance treatment.

Opioid-Induced Endocrinopathy
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Skimming over that first link made it seem like most of the problems are with male methadone users.

Woo! Guess I'm in the clear. :)
 
From the links I provided that is a fair assumption, but why are females experiencing significant symptoms that may indicate hormonal balance disruption? Heavy opiate use can clearly and significantly disrupt a woman's menstrual cycle. I understand getting high and getting fucked without that worry, but their are other significant issues on the table.
 
I don't wanna come off as aggresive but knowing how to make $ it's the basic lesson in life? How old are you? If you don't have money ofc you can't enjoy life, right, it's you know. Life's worth living, look at all these beautiful places we have on Earth, from nature hidden secrets to man-made ''jewelries'', Surf, ski, climbing a mountain, jumpin from plane, even gettin naked and having your music blastin off on 100% volume with your coffee, it's beautiful. Life's worth livin, if you don't know how make the suffering to seem more easy start with yourself, ask yourself ''Who am I?'' - What do I want -, basic questions again. Make an acceptable realm, you have one life as everyone else, don't waste it, don't waste it.
 
Every ex user experiences the loneliness you describe I think.
It’s part and parcel of letting go of your old life.
Now you need to create a new one.

Don’t give up, you’re almost through the worst of it believe it or not

You really should still be on a maintenance dose, that’s pretty unfair after all you have been through. Maybe see a psych, tell him all this and see if he can get you on a script for naltrexone if you haven’t already tried it
it’s the same thing they give alcoholics, and is often used at the end of the methadone program to take the edge off as you adjust to sober living.

It doesn’t work for everyone but my gf used it to come off fentanyl and is still clean 8 years later
 
psychetool said:
I quoted a blog I wrote back in 2017 that apparently didn't get posted as it was set to 'private'. I've read so many books on addiction, been to far too many useless classes where I see the same broken people who may be sober but have switched just switched from one addiction to another ('sobriety addiction?'). They're not happy. They're just sober. Detoxing is easy. It's the psychological pain the comes afterwards that fucks you. Knowing that you're just a shell of what you could be.
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oh my god why am i falling onto this topic tonight i have far too much to say, but to sum it all up, THIS IS WHAT SHOULD BE THE NORM, drugs don't hinder anyone unless they allow themselves to be by them, but have had more of an enhancing outcome on my general self and i'll be damned i'd be fucking miserable without my chemical routine or at the very least not close to as comfortable with my reality as i am, i feel as though, i'm fine an so is the world so why the fuck does that have to change if its done in a safe and moderate manner, people don't even look twice at antibiotics, and now we have resistant viruses that'll probably set off a zombie apocalypse, ofcourse i'm joking but you get the idea, or say the use of a muscle relaxer, how it using one any different to using an opiate to sedate, but you know at te end of the day, it comes down to the individual but in all of human history, it's never been scrutinized by what we decide to consume as we are and it shouldn't be as bad as made to seem, some folks will have a drink at the end of the day, but thats totally acceptable if they;re not getting butt-naked wasted, meanwhile a dose of whatever pain med/opiate to alleviate a shitty mood/relax or even treat 'non-major pain' is reflected in a totally negative fashion............there's too many people who have based opinions on a lack of experience, i'm waiting for the day all the anti-pain med folks have some form of injury and need them or get fucking tylenol for a crushed bone or severe injury that leaves them in agony but 'not absolutely necessary' to take a pain medication even though, that pain be it a smal amount or large, has major life changing impacts.
 
neversickanymore said:
From the links I provided that is a fair assumption, but why are females experiencing significant symptoms that may indicate hormonal balance disruption? Heavy opiate use can clearly and significantly disrupt a woman's menstrual cycle. I understand getting high and getting fucked without that worry, but their are other significant issues on the table.
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Is disrupted menstrual cycles really a significant symptom? Far as I know there's no known long term health consequences from it outside of the obvious potential fertility issues. And even those such as they might be generally disappear once the drug disrupting the cycle is stopped.
 
Well, you guys convinced me to get on a maintenance program. Ugh, really not looking forward to copping again. I realize methadone has it's own set of drawbacks, but I've used it before (recreationally for over a year) and while kicking it was definitely a pain in the ass, I was a much more normal less depressed/anxious person when I was using it. I guess sometimes you just have to make those trade-offs ? I really wish I could just feel that way sober, but after much too much time in sobriety and counseling I just don't think my brain was made correctly ? It needs some kind of dopamine stimulation or whatever it is that opiates offer. My GP is gonna be so pissed...
 
JessFR said:
Is disrupted menstrual cycles really a significant symptom? Far as I know there's no known long term health consequences from it outside of the obvious potential fertility issues. And even those such as they might be generally disappear once the drug disrupting the cycle is stopped.
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I think it is, disruption of hormon levels so significant that it disrupts one of the systems that life ranks so important is significant. Yes with discontinuation of the drug things appear to stabilize. But we are talking about maintenance, which is constant prolonged dosage. We are also talking maintenance of a drug that is quite difficult and miserable to get off of. What other health issues may be linked to long term methadone or opiate use.. chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia / neuropathic pain syndromes, irritable bowl, sexual dysfunction, depression or bipolar cycles are a few that come to mind.

Methadone is a significant drug and certainly has a place in treatment, but people paying all that money for such a cheap cheap drug should get the comprehensive care they need and deserve included from the clinics. As most don't they need to find it on their own.
 
Methadone been in use for quite a long time now. I doubt if there's much in the way of long term side effects that haven't already made themselves apparent.
 
Quere said:
I'm the same as well, i was never that into getting smashed on opioids and/or nodding, they have always just given me the energy and I guess 'lust for life' to feel like an actual human. I can actually socialize and feel relatively happy.

And before someone tells me that those effects won't last and soon I'll be regretting using opioids etc I have been on opioids fr a decade and on maintenance for half of that and I still get all these positive effects, sure they do reduce a bit as you get tolerant but IME the anxiolytic and energy enhancing effects never develop complete tolerance.

Getting on MMT definitely worked for me, and has allowed me to make huge progress in the rest of my life
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+1
Yeah, I have a similar experience.
 
No unusual symptoms that match what i'm talking about. That's good news. That was not the case for me and others. Though my case was complicated others I have talked with are not. As the studies I posted indicate some have these unintended consequence while others do not. I feel their is easily a large enough group of people who esperance unintended endocrine and nutritional side effects that maintenance should include services to address this population.
 
I'm not trying to suggest that methadone is without side effects. I'm not even really trying to suggest that there shouldn't be services provided in case of those side effects.

I guess more than anything what I'm saying is that based on my knowledge and experience, I don't feel I have sufficient cause to think of methadone as a particularly dangerous drug as far as its side effects are concerned.

Especially not compared to the health risks of continuing opioid abuse. Which for many methadone users was the alternative. Or at least felt like the only alternative at the time.
 
You're just describing opiate side effects with methadone. They suck. But they pale in comparison to the side effects of 'sobriety', for people like me. At least it's controlled and safe. Hard to tell what you're putting into your body anymore. Thanks GOV.
 
psychetool said:
You're just describing opiate side effects with methadone. They suck. But they pale in comparison to the side effects of 'sobriety', for people like me. At least it's controlled and safe. Hard to tell what you're putting into your body anymore. Thanks GOV.
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Well it is an opioid, just one with a much longer half life compared to oxy or heroin, so it will have many of the same side effects. It's use definitely doesn't come without risk, including abuse and/or relapse on other opioids. It's longer half-life doesn't make it any safer than other opioids, as far as I know- in fact, pretty sure the longer half life makes an overdose a lot more dangerous. It's also a NMDA antagonist, which I'm not familiar with the risks involved with that, but I believe memory problems is one of them. This would be something I'd look into more if I was considering it as an option still.

But having government regulation and allowing a legal market for it does make it safer than street drugs, that's for sure, and many people find it much easier to manage cravings compared to other opioids, so in that sense, it is a lot safer. I think neversickanymore is just trying to get the point across that just because it's "safer" doesn't mean it's without side effect or risk.

That said, I also see where you are coming from and wouldn't try to talk you out of your decision, so long as it's an informed decision. But if it keeps you off the other stuff and allows you to function with your condition, I'd say go for it. Best to have a plan in place to get off it at some point unless you are ok with being on it indefinitely. I'm not totally familiar with your condition, so that may or may not be something you want. In the end, you'll have to live with whatever decision you make, not me or any counselor at a rehab or even your family, so do what's best for you.
 
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Methadone, like virtually all drugs, has risks. But for many people, and I count myself in this group. Methadone was nothing short of life saving.

I truly don't think I would ever have escaped heroins influence in destroying my life without it. And given how little if any side effects I've experienced, for me at least, that's an excellent deal.
 
Can you get codeine over the counter? Here of you test for codeine a maintenance program would help
Its hard at first but getting off heroin then methadone i feel 1000% better now
 
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