Hello. I am on oxycodone and I have to quit it. I have been taking anywhere from 40-90 mg at a time at various times. However, my prescription says 50 mg every 4 hours. I just tried to start my taper and tried with 35 mg every 4 hours but no-no. The withdrawal symptoms started right away. So I went to 50 mg.
I plan to stay on 50 mg for a few days and then reduce by (how much?) this is where I need your help. How much should I taper and how often?
Also, when I start my oxycodone withdrawal, do you recommend any supplements?
Another question is does methadone get you high AND is it SAFE with klonopin?
Thank You
In your situation, I would be looking at a veery slow taper. But then, I'm not you. And there's no one size fits all here.
Way I see it, the two big deciding factors here are first, how fast do you want to quit, and to what degree are you willing to tolerate withdrawal?
Methadone can absolutely get you high if you take enough of it, and honestly, with your level of usage, which to me doesn't actually sound that high, I'd probably be looking more in the direction of subuxone than methadone if you're highly adverse to withdrawal. The main concern I'd have for you with methadone is that it could be very easy for you to wind up with even greater tolerance on methadone. Methadones pretty strong all in all.
On that note, if you intend to use klonopin or any benzodiazapines with, most any opioids actually but especially methadone. Be VERY cautious. I won't say don't do it because I don't think telling people that's is realistic. But there's no question that it's very dangerous. More so for people with smaller habits. And while your habit is certainly not nothing, it's a long way from many others.
If you can manage it, tapering down probably is the best course of action. If you can't, if it becomes too uncomfortable, you might wanna look at substitution therapies. I probably wouldn't start with methadone in your case, but subuxone an option. There's also kratom, which I have never used and don't know all that much about, but I mention it anyway because it might be worth looking into as well.
But if you wanna try tapering down first, which I think is a good idea, I would suggest going very slowly. As I said different people have different experiences, but unless you're dead set on getting clean sooner than later, and are prepared for and understand the withdrawal symptoms, I'd highly recommend going slowly. As slow as you can, shooting for being completely clean by 6-12 months. Exactly how long to taper is something I'd work on as you go based on how you feel. But I would recommend anticipating that you may have to significantly slow down the taper when you get closer to being clean.
In other words, getting from say, 5mg to 0mg could be a lot more challenging than 60 to 40.
Good luck man, I hope some of these tips help, just remember that you gotta find the method that works for you. Tapering might work out great, or it might not. The important thing so long as you wanna get clean, is to remember to take any failure as a learning experience to help find better approaches in the future.
Good luck man.
EDIT: Apologies, I didn't check out your more recent posts close enough. As far as substitution therapies go, the "right dose" for indefinite use is whatever dose keeps you from experiencing withdrawal symptoms. When don't feel like you wanna use, you're on the right dose. If you still think about using all the time, it's probably not enough.
You mentioned depression and anxiety. It's well worth remembering the subtle symptoms of withdrawal as well. Of which depression and anxiety both are. As are drug cravings. You can experience any or all of those even if you aren't in enough withdrawal to even really notice any physical symptoms. And depression will of course increase the likelyhood of continuing destructive drug use. Never let yourself or let others tell you that you're weak for not toughing symptoms out. That's just not good advice for stopping addiction. I know you didn't mention anyone telling you such things, but it's something that comes up and often we are our own harshest critics so I just wanted to mention it anyway.
If depressions gonna fuck up getting your life on track, and if you find a taper eventually results in depression no matter how slow you go, I'd say that's the right time to evaluate the possibility of longer term substitution therapy. It's not perfect, but it's better than continuing a destructive addition. And longer term doesn't have to mean forever.
