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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

First time Methadone user: Scared out of my mind.

J

jlc213

Greenlighter
Joined
Dec 24, 2012
Messages
13
I am sickle cell anemic, which gives painful experiences...i cant even describe it, but I have been on pain meds my whole life. Mainly Lortabs, but when I go to the hospital I get Demorol, Dilaudid, Morphine.. but on occasion I have gotten Oxycodone 80, Tramadol , Davocet, COdeine...etc etc etc

ANyway, my point.

I have been decribed Methadone 10 HCL mg for pain. I read about all the side effects and sudden death and I am terrifed. I am a twenty three 200 plus and 5'10 but still never having taken it before how should I take it.

SHould I take the 10mg or cut it in half. I was naive once in the past on oxy80 and took the whole thing...boy was that a mistake. I just dont want to die.

btw Im new here so forgive me if I posted in the wrong place or somwhere where this topic has alrdy been seen.
 
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Hey man, welcome to bluelight.

Methadone certainly can be a powerful drug, but I think that there is a slightly unfair reputation attached to it regarding its safety profile. Don't get me wrong, methadone is NOT a drug to fuck around with, you definitely dont want to mix it in with other CNS Depressants (other opiates, benzo's, Alchohol, Barbiturates, Sleep medications etc) nor should anyone use it for recreational purposes. It is very potent and its long half life means that daily dosing causes for an accumulation of methadone in the blood (so while you may take 10mg a day, you might actually have 15-20mg in your system at any given time once you are Stabilized on this medication). That being said, methadone is not really any more likely to kill you than other opiates as long as you take it in dosages that match your tolerance.

In order to really help you though, we would need to know what your current tolerance to opiates is. You mentioned that you have been prescribed mostly hydrocodone in the past...had you been taking that prior to being prescribed methadone? If so, how much? It's difficult to equate dosages of short acting narcotics with long acting ones like methadone, but its possible to come up with a rough estimate. I would recommend starting off with 5mg and see how that effects you. Methadone can take up to three hours to cause any noticeable effects, so I would make sure not to redose until a good four hours have passed since taking the 5mg.

I imagine that you would be fine to take the ten milligrams, but since you're nervous, and I don't know your current tolerance, so its better to be safe rather than sorry.
 
Znegative said:
Hey man, welcome to bluelight.

Methadone certainly can be a powerful drug, but I think that there is a slightly unfair reputation attached to it regarding its safety profile. Don't get me wrong, methadone is NOT a drug to fuck around with, you definitely dont want to mix it in with other CNS Depressants (other opiates, benzo's, Alchohol, Barbiturates, Sleep medications etc) nor should anyone use it for recreational purposes. It is very potent and its long half life means that daily dosing causes for an accumulation of methadone in the blood (so while you may take 10mg a day, you might actually have 15-20mg in your system at any given time once you are Stabilized on this medication). That being said, methadone is not really any more likely to kill you than other opiates as long as you take it in dosages that match your tolerance.

In order to really help you though, we would need to know what your current tolerance to opiates is. You mentioned that you have been prescribed mostly hydrocodone in the past...had you been taking that prior to being prescribed methadone? If so, how much? It's difficult to equate dosages of short acting narcotics with long acting ones like methadone, but its possible to come up with a rough estimate. I would recommend starting off with 5mg and see how that effects you. Methadone can take up to three hours to cause any noticeable effects, so I would make sure not to redose until a good four hours have passed since taking the 5mg.

I imagine that you would be fine to take the ten milligrams, but since you're nervous, and I don't know your current tolerance, so its better to be safe rather than sorry.
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Thanks so much for your reply.

I can't lie I have abused lortabs, currently and in the past. I didnt mean to but as a Severe Pain patient, they only give you meds and fluids. The doctor would prescibe me 300 plus lortabs at a time.

I can take up to 5 tabs 10. So 50 hydrocodone which I know is not good. But i take it once a day...

I havent taken it since the day before yesterday. So would I be okay for the Methadone.
 
Yeah you will be fine. Be very careful increasing your methadone dosage over time, because the amount of it in your body builds up over time, like Zneg explained.

Monitor your breathing/blood pressure, and if you aren't noticing huge drops you'll be fine.
 
You should be fine taking a whole 10mgs, but as Znegative stated: if you are anxious about it then start w/ half, wait, and take more as needed. The golden rule is: you can always take more; never less. And the less methadone you have built up in your blood stream the better, as this drug, as mentioned has a very long half life. Indeed, it is one of the worst opioids to kick for this reason.

It is good that you are being so cautious and leery w/ a new medication. Really, the doctor should be helping you better w/ the dosing information, it seems.
 
motherofearth said:
You should be fine taking a whole 10mgs, but as Znegative stated: if you are anxious about it then start w/ half, wait, and take more as needed. The golden rule is: you can always take more; never less. And the less methadone you have built up in your blood stream the better, as this drug, as mentioned has a very long half life. Indeed, it is one of the worst opioids to kick for this reason.

It is good that you are being so cautious and leery w/ a new medication. Really, the doctor should be helping you better w/ the dosing information, it seems.
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How long should I wait before I take the other half.
 
jlc213 said:
How long should I wait before I take the other half.
Click to expand...

Great question, especially considering the drug you are dealing with. Methadone can take a really long time to peak, and although this may seem like a long time to wait, I recommend a good 3-4 hours before considering taking more. Once you get a feel for the drug then you can adjust that time accordingly, but in the beginning you need to wait a while.

Basic dosing questions belong in BDD, so I'm going to move this for you.

OD --> BDD
 
According to this Narcotic Dose Equator, 50mg of hydrocodone is equivalent to an acute(one time) dose of 5mg of methadone. However, other conversion charts I've found have stated that an acute oral dosing of methadone was approximately 3x the potency of hydrocodone (but lasts much longer). Either way, you should start with the five milligrams.

Or of the reasons these conversion charts have a hard time giving accurate numbers for methadone is because its such a long acting drug relative to most other narcotics. In a way it's kind of like an extended release medication, because since it has such a long duration of effect, you only need to take a dose that's equivalent to one of your dosages of a short acting agonist (I know you said you usually take all the hydrocodone at one time in a day so you're an exception, but most people on opiates will 'fix' throughout the day. So say someone was shooting 50mg of methadone 4x/day.... They would only need to take a dose of methadone equal to 50mg of morphine, because the methadone will last about 4x longer than the morphine would.)

One thing I would like to say about methadone is that while it is very potent, and stronger than most painkillers mg/mg, an equivalent dosage of methadone will not necessairily give you the euphoric effects that and equivalent dose of say, oxy would. IME, methadone is not a very euphoric narcotic, and the amount that it takes to get nicely stoned is way higher than the amount needed for proper analgesia, or for eliminating withdrawals. Since this is the case, I feel that methadone is really too risky of a drug to take recreationally, as many will find that the dosage they need to get a good buzz going, is simply way too high for safety.
 
Znegative said:
According to this Narcotic Dose Equator, 50mg of hydrocodone is equivalent to an acute(one time) dose of 5mg of methadone. However, other conversion charts I've found have stated that an acute oral dosing of methadone was approximately 3x the potency of hydrocodone (but lasts much longer). Either way, you should start with the five milligrams.

Or of the reasons these conversion charts have a hard time giving accurate numbers for methadone is because its such a long acting drug relative to most other narcotics. In a way it's kind of like an extended release medication, because since it has such a long duration of effect, you only need to take a dose that's equivalent to one of your dosages of a short acting agonist (I know you said you usually take all the hydrocodone at one time in a day so you're an exception, but most people on opiates will 'fix' throughout the day. So say someone was shooting 50mg of methadone 4x/day.... They would only need to take a dose of methadone equal to 50mg of morphine, because the methadone will last about 4x longer than the morphine would.)

One thing I would like to say about methadone is that while it is very potent, and stronger than most painkillers mg/mg, an equivalent dosage of methadone will not necessairily give you the euphoric effects that and equivalent dose of say, oxy would. IME, methadone is not a very euphoric narcotic, and the amount that it takes to get nicely stoned is way higher than the amount needed for proper analgesia, or for eliminating withdrawals. Since this is the case, I feel that methadone is really too risky of a drug to take recreationally, as many will find that the dosage they need to get a good buzz going, is simply way too high for safety.
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What does buzz or euphoria even mean.
I have been on pain meds my whole life and all they do is make me calm/sleepy/ or feel numb ... like I will be in pain but I have this weird "mind thing" where I know im in pain, but its less intense and in the back of my mind, but I never been happy and jumpy and stuff... and I was born with sickle cell so I dont know.
 
I only too 5. I took it around 10:45 and its 11:50 now, so hopefully I will be fine.
 
Its not rlly working and I took the first dose( half of pill) at 10:45 so should I take the next one(other half) at 3:00
 
I would say at least 3 oclock, maybe even 4oclock. The main thing to remember is to listen to your body with redosing and also that methadone will proberly not give you the same rush or high that the hydrocodone did. You will make yourself sick first if you try for that. Just take it slow, give your body time to acclimatize and experiment a little when youve a little more experience with it.
 
I decided not to talk the other half. So question, can I take my hydrocodne now, since its been 24 hours since i took the 5mg of Methadone?
 
How much do you plan on taking? What is your tolerance like to opioids?
 
Ok so three days ago I took half of a ten mg tablet. AKA 5mg.

So today I took a whole 10mg, because it didnt rlly do anything for me, but now im scared. I am not new to opiates. I been on pain meds my whole life because im sickle cell anemic, and I can take up to 5 hydrocodones at a time. but I been reading how just one 10mg can kill you, and im afraid as hell.
should I go to the hospital, because I feel kinda sedated. Im not nodding off yet or anything but I do feel...sedated a bit. I took it at 5: 20 and it's not 7:45, will I be okay. I saw a vid of where one guy died from just one 10mg pill.

I know ima flush all of them after this. Im too scared of this medicine to take it.

I am 5'10 and 200 plus pounds if that matter.
btw I took a half on the 24th, and some lortabs on the 25th(24 hours later) nothing on 26, and I took the pill today.

Will I be okay.
 
jlc213 said:
Ok so three days ago I took half of a ten mg tablet. AKA 5mg.

So today I took a whole 10mg, because it didnt rlly do anything for me, but now im scared. I am not new to opiates. I been on pain meds my whole life because im sickle cell anemic, and I can take up to 5 hydrocodones at a time. but I been reading how just one 10mg can kill you, and im afraid as hell.
should I go to the hospital, because I feel kinda sedated. Im not nodding off yet or anything but I do feel...sedated a bit. I took it at 5: 20 and it's not 7:45, will I be okay. I saw a vid of where one guy died from just one 10mg pill.

I know ima flush all of them after this. Im too scared of this medicine to take it.

I am 5'10 and 200 plus pounds if that matter.
btw I took a half on the 24th, and some lortabs on the 25th(24 hours later) nothing on 26, and I took the pill today.

Will I be okay.
Click to expand...

We can't know for sure of course, but death from 10mg when you haven't taken other drugs/alcohol recently is very unusual. How are you feeling now?
 
I feel a little sick to my stomach/nauseaus and somewhat sedated and woozy, but other than that im okay i guess.
 
I just wanted to re-iterate Zneg's caution about the long half-life of methadone. I was on methadone for 10 years and learned a lot about it, in fact, it was something I came to know more than I ever wanted to about...

I live in Washington State where methadone, in the last ten years has gone from rarely prescribed to handed out like candy. I'm not sure if the docs aren't explaining half-life to their patients; maybe they just assume all patients will take as prescribed ONLY and not experiment...my point is that methadone builds in the system over time, so if you take 10mg at 8 a.m., twenty-four hours later you will still have half (5 mg) in your system;. then when you take your next 10 mg dose , you will now have 15 mg in your system (not 10 mg as you would assume) and this compound effect continues--think of it multiplying exponentially in your system...this is why it typically takes about 3-4 days for the methadone to become stabilized in your system and will not create highs and lows as other short-acting opiates do (unless you take extra and continue to compound the amount in your system...
Like I said I just wanted to thank Zneg for the caution to jlc213. Washington State has one of the highest methadone overdose rates in the country--I'm not sure if it's the lack of education by prescribers on how this drug differs from short-acting opiates like Hydrocodone or if all the rain in Washington just makes us a little more prone to stupidity and a desire to relieve the 9 months of rain with something---anything---at any cost.
 
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