Tapering Methadone taper, remaining functional

[benjyman.]

Anyone got any advice on that last drop of methadone to 0mg
Tldr:
I have been researching SR-17018, BC when I get to that transition of 0 mg I know it's going to be difficult, even with a water taper, even considering Sao or medical intervention...

Some background

Hi I've been in and out of here and other forums for decades, just under accounts that are now defunct


When I started visiting these forums, I was a meth, amphetamine user, this progressed to heroin and crack...

After 20 + years I decided the lifestyle was no longer my thing, so switched to methadone matience .

These last couple of years I've been stable and tapering at my own speed, I've used various techniques like pulse doses before a drop, zig zag doses, timing doses , like taking a lower dose earlier in day then over next couple of days extending that time by an hour each day at same dose...needless to say it's slow, but it does give body time to adjust slowly so paws hopefully will be less severe.

Ive also tried various other methods, like high risk methods which leave you opiate free but if you're habit has been long doesn't mitigate the need for your body , brain and psychology needing to adjust to being sober .

I stumbled upon Agmatine sulphate recently and this has helped me pick up the pace again being more aggressive in my taper without any notable side effects. (15mg dropped to 13mg this week)

 

[puke]

Oh dude I went from 100 mg either to 15 or 10 and just stopped going and didn't get at all sick and if I did I didn't notice. If ur at 13mg it's just the fear and dread of what's gonna happen that hurts. You should be fine, at least I was and have been off methadone 15 years now. The sickness is all in ur head now.

 

[Rabbit]

There isn't any way to avoid the inevitable. I will always contend that acute withdrawal is actually a good thing if your plan is to stay off methadone long term. The fear of having to go through it again certainly keeps me from going back even though it would be a cheaper habit than consuming substances like kratom. We aren't supposed to discuss prices here but it would cut my weekly spending down by 1/3rd compared to what I have to take in a week to maintain a light kratom habit.

Anyway, what I suggest you do is taper down to about 10mg. Once you're stable on 10mg start pushing dosing later into the day if that is possible. Extend by an hour each day for a few weeks. If you can bear it start skipping days. Once you're stable on 10mg every other day you can jump off any time you please. Take a week off with no work or family activities. A week where you can lay around all week without any worries.

Keep a dose (or 10) in a bottle with you. This is to test your own will power. Stock up on a case of water and easy to prepare food. Then take the plunge. The first two days will not be that horrible. Try to get all the sleep you can during those first two days. Late into day 2-day 3 acute withdrawal effects will start to set in. Then will ramp up until they reach their peak around day 4-5. Then they will slowly start to taper off around day 7. Lay around watching television or anything else to distract you. IIRC I watched the entirety of Star Trek DS9 when I jumped. I just kept Netflix on at all times and tried to get sleep when I could. I'd get a few hours here and there.

On day 7 push yourself to go outside and do something active. I went hiking. This is why I suggest jumping off in the summer. The sun light, heat and ability to be out in nature will do you good. It is much harder to kick when it's cold out and you can't enjoy those things. For me dealing with the cold is much harder than dealing with extreme heat when it comes to all the painful parts of acute withdrawal. Pound water and sweat as much as possible. That will help you burn off the methadone stored up in your fat and quicken detox.

By day 8 you should be able to return to work. Some people might need to wait until day 12-14 but I was able to return to normality without much issue by that time. You can use some confront meds like benzos if you really need them for sleep but you shouldn't use them for longer than 2-3 days at a time. It's easy to replace one addiction for another. For general pain use the usual OTC stuff (I prefer aspirin). You'll still feel pretty awful but it will be much more bearable than it was for the first 7 days.

After this each day will be better than the last. You'll have a strong desire to use opioids again by week 2-3. You'll start getting the idea that you've beaten it and you can allow yourself the one-time treat because "I have it under control". Don't do it. It will quickly descend back into everyday use and you will only have stronger effects on the first night. By the second-third day your tolerance will be back and you'll have to start all over.

The above is why you should get rid of the small bit you kept around to test your will power on day 7. Pour it on the ground/down the drain/whatever. You'll feel really good about it. Don't let anyone talk you into gifting it to them. Treat it like you don't want to pass the demon along to another victim. Telling friends about pouring it out is a good way to figure out who you should be hanging around with in the future. If they say "you should have given it to me" instead of "good for you!" cut that person out of your life. They'll only drag you back into addiction eventually. They're the people that will be calling you up 6 months from now asking you if you know where they can score.

It isn't going to be as bad as you're expecting but it'll be worse than you think all at the same time. Just treat it like you're going through a bad flu for a week. If anyone asks tell them you have the flu. All the typical easy-to-make stuff like chicken noodle soup will really help you along during the first week. You need to eat and warm soup will really help you keep things down without nausea. At the same time you might want to consider skipping meals because a bit of a fast helps move things along quicker. When I kicked I was only eating a proper meal once per day and maybe having a little snack in the night.

How showers multiple times a day and orgasms are very helpful. Don't be shocked if you easily start having wet dreams again and can't go longer than 2 minutes when it comes to sex at first. Everything is going to feel really sensitive until you adjust to life without an opioid in your system 24/7.

If you partake of DMT it can be really helpful on day 7. It doesn't have to be a breakthrough dose. A sub-breakthrough will help you feel much better about your situation without getting too wacky. Worked for me along with the hiking trip.

After you've kicked stay off all drugs for at least a month (including cannabis and alcohol). If you do take something like a benzo use it purely for sleep and not in an attempt to chase euphoria. I suggest staying away from any friends/family that actively use substances for at least the first month.

PAWS is real but I think it's something not worth worrying about. A lot of people use it as an excuse to not quit. Others mindfuck themselves thinking about PAWS. If you get through the acute withdrawal you'll be okay. The desire to use is never going to go away for the rest of your life. That's just how it is now that you've had a taste. You will think about it less and less as time passes but it'll always be there. For me for a long time seeing a straw would set the gears turning in my mind and give me the urge to use. Took many years for that to go away. Being around people using obviously isn't a great idea for the same reason.

If you can get through the first week you'll be fine.

The methadone is doing far more to you than you realize at the moment. It's like living in a fog even at lower doses like 10mg. You'll have a mood boost once you're through acute withdrawals and the world will seem more colorful. Methadone blunts all emotion and makes the world seem like a darker place than it really is. You'll know what I mean once you're past acute withdrawals. You're probably being a bit of an asshole to people without realizing it in day-to-day life. It's due to the blunted emotions.

Existing chronic pain will return hard in the first week. You'll feel every injury you've ever had. Right down to your bones. But it will mostly pass. You have no true baseline to compare to because you've been masking the pain with methadone so long. This is also true of emotional pain. You'll need some time to adjust and figure out how to deal with it like normal people have to in day-to-day life.

At 10mg or so methadone withdrawal isn't pleasant but it isn't as bad as the horror stories you hear from people that got kicked out of the program and were forced to quit 100+mg a day cold turkey. It's more like a protracted withdrawal from a short acting opioid combined with more emotional symptoms due to the non-opioid receptors methadone tickles. Days 3-6 are the hard days. Everything after that is easy-mode compared to that 72 hours. Don't get discouraged if you aren't starting to feel better on day 7 like I did. My metabolism has always ran fast so I can see it taking a couple of more days for most people. Trust me around a week later you'll be feeling much much better. Once you cross that threshold every day is better than the last was.

 

[puke]

That's a good point I forgot, I was also not drinking all of my take home bottles so I had a bunch of left over that I decided to swig one day after being off for a while and got messed up, first time I can remember getting high off my perscription methadone. I did get a little sickly after that experience and I remember thinking see dude this is why u put urself on the done in the first place because of this feeling. Now I fucked all that up because I'm now on Kratom, should've known better. I'm waitng to see what these wds are gonna be like when it's time for full force stopping this. Hopefully not too bad but compared to some of the posts I've read on here my dose really ain't that high, we'll see,

 

[chugs]

Who in their right mind jumps at 10mg of methadone???

Methadone tapers are easiest fuck. All you need to do is get yourself a syringe that works at one mls and simply tape it down one mil every 2 weeks. You won't even notice. Put it in an excel spreadsheet and you can track it easily.

The worst thing I noticed with my taper was how I got really bad high blood pressure. Although I was tapering at a much faster rate because I had a major travel event that precluded being able to travel with methadone.

So slow and steady wins the race with methadone.

It's such a dodole. Compared to Buprenorphine coming of methadone is like quitting light beer vs a bottle a day of vodka

 

[puke]

It wasn't that difficult for me. I hated being locked into that sh though, having to get rides to the clinic and knowing that sh can't be good for me physically and I'm not even getting high off it.

 

[Deleted member 593549]

Oh dude I went from 100 mg either to 15 or 10 and just stopped going and didn't get at all sick and if I did I didn't notice. If ur at 13mg it's just the fear and dread of what's gonna happen that hurts. You should be fine, at least I was and have been off methadone 15 years now. The sickness is all in ur head now.

there is no way in hell i’d cold turkey 10 mgs.

stomachs is fucked. can’t sleep for a week.

i usually go down to 1 mg and even then it isn’t any fun