Advice for quitting heroin cold turkey? methadone, benzos, lyrica, zopiclone to help.

[kace]

Hi there. I am sick to death of relying on the drug outpatient place I go to, they say I have to wait yet another month to get subutex or methadone. Now I feel mentally stronger, I think I'm ready to go cold turkey.

I'm currently smoking about a gram of heroin a day, I don't inject.

I have about 500mg of methadone (I'm not addicted and haven't taken any for months)
Plenty of valium, lyrica, zopiclone (sleeping meds), and 1, maybe 2 subutex pills.

Any idea on how much methadone I should take each day? I'm aware of the nasty wds from that, but am not sure how bad they are when taking them for a short period of time.

I'm sort of tempted to take a high dose of sleeping meds, and try and sleep as much as possible from day 1-5, but I don't want to overdose on them.

Any advice on what to take/ what not to, and what doses I should take will be much appreciated.

 

[ExInMil]

Well if you are going to be using methadone or the subs, I wouldint call that cold turkey exactly.
Stick to the gabapentin (lyrica), ambien( your sleeping med) and benzos.

It sucks, but its manageable. About to quit for the last time and move out of state the week after, so were in the same boat!

Stay strong my addict friend,

 

[kace]

My apologies, I just meant going from full on using heroin one day to none.

Yes I hope the other drugs will help me. Any idea of how much pregabalin and methadone I should take? I've done a bit of research and people seem to take around 30mgs-60mgs and go down 5mgs a day. On a higher dose, say 100mgs on the first day, would there be nasty consequences?

Good for you Ex! This is my first time quitting so I'm quite nervous. I've just made it to day 2 before without anything, the wds seemed to peak but then became manageable. Best of luck Ex.

 

[adder]

Hey!

If you're going to use methadone even for like 2-3 weeks doing a slow taper-off, you certainly won't suffer from long-term withdrawal that is associated with quitting methadone after long-term use and you may help yourself a lot. I took methadone for over 2 years and my withdrawal was a nightmare. However, before I began taking methadone regularly, I tapered off heroin a few times with it. When you finish your taper, you may feel some minor withdrawal symptoms but it's nothing like going through full-blown withdrawal.

I understand that you're smoking brown sugar heroin, right? How long have you been dependent on it and what was your dosage at the beginning? If you want to use methadone to taper down, then I think you shouldn't take any other drugs. Perhaps some hypnotic only if you really can't fall asleep but don't make it a routine because these are also very addictive. Also, your methadone dose should be as low as possible.

 

[kace]

Thank you so much for your insightful response. im so relieved that the withdrawals from methadone won't be too bad!! I can handle mild wds, the full wds are horrible. I've only been using methadone this week.

I can't believe how well I did, until this evening. I was clean from Monday to Saturday (today), and just took low doses of methadone, slowly decreasing. I never thought I could go a day without it. When feeling okay, this week I've been up and out, being active, working on a farm, taking care of my appearance, reading books, even got a volunteer job at an animal sanctuary. I feel alive again!! I can feel emotions!

Yep- I've been smoking brown sugar for 2 years in August. - (What a waste)- about 1g a day before this week.

I've been stupid and smoked earlier this night. It was a dumb mistake, but it's actually got me even more motivated and confirmed that I don't even like dark, and don't need this crap anymore!

I'm wondering what the wds will be like.. I had about 0.2, maybe less.
I have 75mgs of methadone to help. Do you think I should spilt it over 5 days?
Any advice is much appreciated!!

Thank you- sorry for messy post- on a cracked phone.

 

[azgaza]

Your tolerance seems similair to my boyfriend and they tapered him of at a detox facility just now the last two weeks with methadone and he smoked about a gram a day also I started on methadone maintenance therapy just yesterday and I also smoke heroin so I can give some dosage insights; he was put on 40 mg methadone each day and tapered with 5 mg daily, but the last taper was down to 2.5 on which he stayed three days and he's not 100% ok but by no means bad withdrawal. My situation is different as its maintenance yesterday I was given 20 mg, that was far too little, today 30 mg which I hoped would do it as that would be the equivalent of half a gram of heroin the doctor said which is what I used the past half year but I get withdrawal symptoms through this my pupils are large, my nose is runny, skin moist its better then yesterday but the later it gets the worse it gets so I think I'll try and ask if it can be higher if not I'm afraid of the temptation of adding heroin to get rid of the withdrawal it's annoying me but yeah either way 40 mg as a start, stabalising for a few days then 5 down each day worked for my boyfriend and I'd suggest like 30-50 mg for a gram a day or you can just use non-opiate sedation and sleep through the withdrawal I used to do that with fentanyl that was ok goodluck however you do it

 

[paranoid android]

I have never taken Methadone but i have used various benzos along with Lyrica and/or gabapentin and Zopiclone to get off Morphine and Dilaudid. As you have methadone i would say take the lowest dose you can to do a very quick taper. Remember Methadone has a very long half life so you only need to dose once a day as opposed to multiple times a day with short acting opiates such as Heroin.

 

[kace]

Thank you guys, very helpful replies. Yeah, azgara, 40mls managed to get me stable for almost 3 days! Instead of slowly decreasing, I have been taking it every 3rd day, or more days if I can stretch it. It's worked pretty well. I've only had very mild wds, such as restless legs, stomach aches, crazy eyes!, moist skin like az said, or sweating madly and flushing cold and hot at worst.. The benzos and Lyrica have really helped with the restless legs, constant shaking, which has helped me get out of bed and work.
At the moment, I've been clean from heroin for 4 days. No methadone for 2 days either.

 

[azgaza]

Well done I think you'll get there I'm on day 3 of no heroin myself and fuck i'm freezing this morning, and already late for picking up methadone well whatever sun is shining I'll go still better then smoking heroin all day :D

 

[BigNasty]

How did it go then Kace ? Did you manage to beat your habit at the first attempt ? I'd have thought there's probably a 90% chance you're still using now !

 

[kace]

More like 95%.

First attempt- stayed clean from whenever I posted this till July. (Something pretty shitty happened, I relapsed and became homeless)

Attempt 2-
Started in November.
I relocated, somewhere where I had no connections and got myself on a methadone and then subutex program.

I am going on 4 months clean, am the healthiest I've been in years and am working ( in a pharmacy, of all places, ha).