Opioids How to deal with the extreme anxiety of methadone withdrawal (without benzos)?

[Bomb319]

I'm on 175 mg methadone with 6 take-homes. Once a week, the night before I pick up again, I often have varying degrees of WD already, as I'm a fast metabolizer. The biggest problem by far for me though is sitting around, getting worse or waiting to get worse, not knowing if I'll be throwing up too much to take my dose by morning (which happens maybe 1 in 3 weeks or so). It's counting down the time until morning when I can go to the pharmacy, knowing I'm not gonna be sleeping for a second that drives me crazy. Maybe I'm just being a baby, as I know perfectly well that I won't have WD as severe as I did when I IV'ed H and pills, but going through it regularly for about 11-12 years now has just totally sapped my ability to deal with so much as excessive yawning (again, because I know what's coming). The time goes by sooooo slowly, and essentially, I'm most anxious about my upcoming anxiety . And I mean BAD anxiety sometimes to the point where I'm literally screaming and tearing at the walls. A big part of the problem is the variability. I can be almost totally fine, or have advanced WD with sneezing fits, puking and diarrhea. I've tried splitting my doses, but found I was just in a slightly less worse state all the time instead of once a week.

I know the best advice is to "distract myself" by doing something else, but that somehow often makes it worse because it's still there building up subconsciously until it gets worse while doing something rather than doing nothing - at least for awhile.

 

[negrogesic]

Man you need more methadone if you are sick enough where you actually might throw up a dose because you are so sick. That is crazy.

I was once on 380mg/day methadone. Id take 240mg in the morning and 140mg in the afternoon and still wake up in slight methadone withdrawal. After i woke up and took my dose Id be cold and uncomfortable and just counting down for it to kick in. And it kicks in slow.

You need more methadone if you are throwing up. Vomiting is not a mild withdrawal syndrome.

If that isnt possible (ie they wont give you more) then is recommended getting a prescription for fluvoxamine somehow (an antidepressant) which makes it more powerful. Even with it id wake up in withdrawal (though pretty mild).

Good luck! FYI I got off completely believe it or not. At a dose like that almost no one ever gets off.

You might think about getting off if you are ready. Heavy daily exercise (weights) helped me taper off of that massive dose.

You should be splitting your dose most likely too.

 

[GetMeOutOfThisCRAP]

I am someone not normally prone to anxiety (more depression prone) and even I cannot stand the anxiety from opiate withdrawal. There's a sense of impending doom and nothing helps.

I know it doesn't sound very good right now but each second you spend in withdrawal counts towards lowering your tolerance. Methadone is just about the strongest opiate I can think of (?) and there's nowhere up to go from here. It's probably for the best if your tolerance lowered a bit. I know withdrawal sucks, but so would methadone not having any effect because of prolonged tolerance over time.

If it's really that bad anxiety-wise some recommend phenibut. I suppose people are addicted to phenibut now lol, but really if you can use it for the short term it would help.