Opioids Can short term methadone still give you withdrawals?

[Gordon]

Ok so Ive taken methadone for 3 weeks (skipping many days in-between). I've never gone above 20ml. I take it in liquid form. My questions are will I really get withdrawals from 3 weeks low dose methadone treatment? i've tapered down everyday to about 5ml.

Also will any onset of withdrawals come on earlier i.e. 2-3 days?

thanks.

 

[The Doc.]

Can't say for sure have you been addicted to opiates before? If so then it's very possible you could get some withdrawal symptoms for a couple weeks but if you've never been addicted to opiates prior to this you may be able to stop without much discomfort. Either way its still pretty likely you'll get sick when you stop since methadone is such a long acting opiate. Shorter acting opiates such as oxycodone and heroin wouldn't get you dependant quite as fast as methadone or Suboxone would since they leave your body quicker.

 

[Gordon]

Isnt the whole point of long acting opites that they leave your body gradually hence mild withdrawals? am talking about short term low dose methadone.

Has anynody been on meth for about a month and not had bad withddrawals?

thanks.

 

[tricomb]

First of all its confusing to call methadone meth because most people associate that abbreviation to represent Methylamphetamine.

Second, I would expect to feel withdrawal symptoms after a month on methadone, even if I tapered down. But I've kicked opiates so many times my WD symptoms are probably more violent and apparent and rapid onset compared to those who haven't been through opioid WD that much, since Opioid WD is often reportedly worse the more times you've been through it. Especially with methadone. This phenomenon is one I've observed over and over, time after time, and is most pronounced with methadone.

$0.02

 

[The Doc.]

The whole point of long acting opiates is they are easy to taper with since you don't have to redose multiple times a day like you would with shorter acting opiates. The withdrawal from methadone is considered by many addicts one of the worst if not the worst drug to withdrawal from if its not tapered properly. The withdrawals last such a long time and can be quite severe but your not taking very high doses so it wont be very severe but you will most likely feel some discomfort. I can't give you a definite answer because everyone is different and it depends whether or not you've been dependant on opiates before which you haven't told me still. The longer you stay on it the more chance you have of getting withdrawals at the end. I recommend getting off the stuff instead of worrying about how you will feel without it because if you keep taking its certain you will develop a nasty addiction/dependancy. You will most likely feel cold, mabye a bit of nausea, along with sweating, anxiety, restlessness, and maybe some bowel troubles. Again I can't say for sure which symptoms you will get but you could get them all or none I can't say for sure everyone is different. In my experience using long acting opiates I felt I became dependant at about 1-2 weeks in. But again everyone is different I know you want me to give you peace of mind and tell you everything will be fine but I can't say for sure no one can. All I will say is the withdrawals won't be bad at all very minor so get off the stuff while you still can. The longer you continue using the worse your addiction will get and the more severe yoir withdrawals will be when you try to stop.

 

[Gordon]

Ok thanks for that...Ive used opiates recreationally but hardly have gone through withdrawals, not hardcore ones anyway

Ive skipped days during this month and didnt feel anything for 5 days, i dont think it takes 5 days and over for wds to hit if your a low dose short term methadone user right?

I may switch to Dihydrocodeine, and then do a Subutex taper.

 

[The Doc.]

Withdrawls should start 2-3 days after last use. Why don't you just stop the methadone and see how you feel in a few days. If you can cold turkey it then that would be best cause you don't want to get even more addicted. Subutex is even stronger than codeine and bout the same as methadone even though you don't feel the same high from it so it may make things worse. The dihydrocodeine may be a good idea if you feel like shit after stopping the methadone because its very weak and can help symptoms without jacking up tolerance but if you use subutex after the dihydrocodiene then you'll jack your tolerance up again unless your using microgram doses of subutex such as 0.2mgs a time but I don't see the point of bringing subutex in.

 

[Gordon]

When I quit meth 2 weeks ago for 5 days I didnt feel withdrawals , now either wds could have come after 5 days or I simply didnt take meth long enough to get wds? the shorter the duration of meth the quicker the onset of wds right?

ive had luck with subutex in the past, low doses though, to get of H, and had no phsycal withdrawal, did get some mental issues but they gradually subsided.

I cannot aford to be in wds as I have to work and other errands....I just wanted to know if anybody else has had experience with short term meth, and how did the withdrawals go.

 

[purplehaze147]

Yea I'm pretty sure you will get withdrawals from taking methadone every other day. Probably not too bad if you stop ASAP. It has a very long half life & therefore stays in ur body much longer than heroin & most other opiates. It could take a week or more for the withdrawal to really kick in, after 5 days you should have felt some withdrawal though. Stop now while it's not bad.

 

[rhun]

If you weren't using daily, used low doses, and went 5 days without withdrawal you should be fine. But everyone is different, only way to be sure is to stop the methadone and see. If you get any WD symptoms try and ride it out, if there's any major discomfort dose a small amount of methadone. Switching to buprenorphine is just needlessly complicating the issue, imo. You weren't using daily, you should have little to no withdrawal. Google the Thomas Recipe if you're that worried but you need to just stop the methadone, the longer you wait the more likely the odds of experiencing withdrawal.

 

[Gordon]

Can one take time release Dihydrocodeine to get of methadone? if so how long can I take DHC/DFFs for? would I be better off chewing them or taking them orally or chew few and take 1 or 2 orally?

can anybody guess the time frame of withdrawals from 1 months (with top gaps of 2-4 days) usage of Methadone?

Lastly is it true if you use methadone for 1 month then withdrawals should come on the next day or the 2nd day? speacially if its low doses such as 15mil-mil?

p.s whole idea of using Subutex was to get past the pshysical methadone withdrawals. Ive never really had issues coming off Subutex/Buprenorphine before, and I was on that for 8 years. Came off few years ago by tapering to 0.4 for 2 months...So a hoping I can use the sub for 2-3 weeks with a taper of course, and that will starve off the methadone withdrawals?

 

[rhun]

I'm confused.

How do you even know you're going to have withdrawals? You haven't been using daily and it's been small amounts. Were you dependent before starting the methadone?

Don't take your methadone for a couple days and see if you notice anything. There's a very good chance you'll be totally fine.

IF you get withdrawals come back and I'll help you with a taper. But I'm not going to complicate this whole issue if we don't even know yet if you're physically dependent.

 

[SteeleyJ]

I used to love using methadone to come off heroin. It is such a long acting drug that I could dose like 100mg day 1, day 2 - 100mg day 3 40 day 40 night day 4 - 25 day 25 night day 5 - 25 day 10 night day 6 10mg to sleep at night. Followed by pot, benzos, amps, immodium, and lyrica. Everytime this got me off easy as pie.

 

[LilikoiMoon]

The most I have ever dosed is 15mg then 10mg to 5 mg then off, over the course of a few weeks.

I get a little anxiety for a few days after quitting, body aches a little, but no serious withdrawals.

Everyone is different. Because I work full time and have a serious mental job, I go through dry out spells once in a while.

 

[Gordon]

My plan was to see if I will not go through withdrawals from Methadone! but if I did get withdrawals I would use Dihuydrocodeine and/or Subutex.

One thing I don't get is when folks talk about using Methadone to come off Heroin or other short acting opiates and having either no withdrawals or mild withdrawals-then isn't that it too easy? wouldn't every addict do that without suffering hard withdrawals? for instance people say that you can do meth for 1 week to 2 weeks to get off your original doc, and when you don't have money to do your doc then your still fine as u are not in withdrawal, so my point is that is there a catch? or is really that simple of using Methadone to come off your doc without hardcore withdrawlas? and doing this regularly i.e whenever the individual or individuals have funds to do so.

 

[Gordon]

I have a serious mental job.

Does your job entail being mentally unstable? unelss you mean you are retarded? can you elaborate? just that in the UK mental job refers to someone being mental/retarded/wanna-be who does a job that suits them..We put 2 and 2 together and say its a mental job for menta people....Thats why its better to get some education, a better well paid job, contributing to society through a job that entails skills, talent, traits and qualities one has.

thanks!

 

[The Doc.]

Does your job entail being mentally unstable? unelss you mean you are retarded? can you elaborate? just that in the UK mental job refers to someone being mental/retarded/wanna-be who does a job that suits them..We put 2 and 2 together and say its a mental job for menta people....Thats why its better to get some education, a better well paid job, contributing to society through a job that entails skills, talent, traits and qualities one has.

thanks!

What?? She's not retarded she means that she has a job which requires using her mind. Why are you being such a jerk?

Your really complicating matters way more than it has to be and I don't understand a lot of how your wording your sentences I don't know if its because English is not your main language or what but I don't understand what you don't get?

Methadone is not an easy way out It has its own set of withdrawals which many say is worse than any other opiate to detox from. The only reason someone would go on methadone to taper is because the long duration it carries makes it easier to taper because you only need one dose per day instead of dosing multiple times a day. It also has the benefit of letting your serum levels be stable throughout the day whereas short acting opiates tend to cause your levels to up and down due to the short duration.

Methadone is easier to come off only if you taper it properly down to a low dose, if you stop at a high dose without tapering the withdrawals will be just as bad as heroin if not worse. You can't just tske methadone or subutex/suboxone for a week then stop and be home free. Its still certainly not a easy task to get off methadone even tapering you still suffer withdrawals at the end but you can make the symptoms more bearable if you taper the methadone PROPERLY. The same applies to Suboxone/subutex you can taper Suboxone easier than heroin because its longer acting but if you stop it without tapering the withdrawals will be horrible. Believe me there is still no surefire way to completely avoid withdrawals from opiates and if there was somebody would get very rich off the product.

Suboxone/methadone are tools to make it easier to taper but they are still powerful opiates themselves which carry strong withdrawals themselves. Another reason we have Suboxone and methadone is to stabilise heroin/opiate addicts so instead of doing crimes to fund their habit they get methadone or Suboxone prescribed daily to keep them away from street drugs. You already know this though don't you ? You said you were on Suboxone for years earlier. By the way that was a pretty big thing to not tell us in the beginning because that has a big factor in determining whether or not you would have withdrawal from short term use of methadone. At first you said you had never done many opiates but then you say you were addicted to subutex for years If you've been addicted to opiates at some point in your life then every time you use again after getting clean the chances you'll become dependant again are huge.

 

[Gordon]

Hey I didnt mean to come across as a jerk! I honestly did not understand when that person said mental job, because here its a slang term used for folks who work in mental wards or institutes, didnt't mean to come across in that way, so my bad...And yes English is my first and only language ( am of Northern Irish heritage sprinkled with English and Cornish-and oh am a Female..Gordon is my surname hehe). I just tend to type a bit too fast hence spelling errors and wording issues, so I do apologise for that too.

Ok so about my opiate history, I meant to state after I got off Subutex I did not have issues with opiates after that, its only recently I've dabbles in some dope, not for long though, just few weeks.

I know Methadone is a long acting opiate but my query was whether I should taper or just stop as I only took methadone for a month in low doses, if I taper I worry I might just be accumalating more Methadone because it hasn't reached plasma levels and what have ya.

I also wanted to know if anybody has experience with short term methadone.

P.S there is a close enough cure to withdrawals, thats called Ibogaine/Iboga...I have actually got a flood dose worth, but need a sitter...If all else fails I will do the Ibogaine with a sitter or practioner...

 

[LilikoiMoon]

Does your job entail being mentally unstable? unelss you mean you are retarded? can you elaborate? just that in the UK mental job refers to someone being mental/retarded/wanna-be who does a job that suits them..We put 2 and 2 together and say its a mental job for menta people....Thats why its better to get some education, a better well paid job, contributing to society through a job that entails skills, talent, traits and qualities one has.

thanks!

Lmao

I'm quite stable, thanks.

I meant that I have a job that requires a clear, non opiate - zoned out mindset, especially in summer. Thus, when I feel I am stoned, nodding, going beyond my usual dose .. It's time to back off, dry out for a period of time, and focus. Methadone helps me do that.

Again, I have been on the opiate train 20+ years and take opana on a daily basis. As the other poster said, the roller coaster ride from taking opiates long term kinda messes with your critical thought process...hence, why I go through dry out periods tapering off with a low dosage of methadone for a short period of time.

And I am not an "it", I am all female.

 

[smackydowners]

hey. why are you so keen to know? dontcha like surprises?

sorry....you need to stop freaking out and thinking of taking dhc tabs, which will only make matters worse.
suvh a small and infrequent dose will mean qny wds you get will be mild as fuck. unless youve been a junkie for years, in which case theyll be intensified a bit.

are you still taking the opana? if so, i doubt 5ml of green would give you many problems.