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Methadone addiction

d3Xo-fan

d3Xo-fan

Bluelighter
Joined
May 6, 2007
Messages
231
Location
In my head
Hi,

I'm in the process of tapering off of methadone, and I'm proud to say it's going really well. Right now I take only 1.25mg a day, and I used to take 40-60mg each day.

If I stick to this dose (1.25/day) for maybe a week, will I then be able to kick the methadone altogether without feeling the withdrawals? I'll rephrase: is it even possible to be addicted physically to such a low dose of 1.25mg a day? Because right now (I've been on this dose maybe 4-7 days) I still feel like crap when I wake up in the morning, and though the withdrawals are of course not half as bad as they used to be, I'm a little skeptic when it comes to attribute these as being purely psychological, as my doctor suggested.

And last but not least, do you have any advice as to what measures would be good to take in my situation to make it as easy as possible to kick the remaining 0.625 - 1.25 mg?

Thanks alot in advance.
 
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Are you meaning one, decimal point.. twenty five? or-one single dose of 25 mg? If the former, you should be super proud (if EITHER-SUPER PROUD-of your progress. Methadone is a bitch to kick). If you are taking just over a mg you can realistically stop NOW and deal decently with minimal w/d symptoms. People will tell you you're crazy to think you'd have ANY w/d but methadone is odd. After a prolonged use, at decent dose/s-and due to half life... you may indeed have discomfort. Again, however-minimal at this point. Check out the w/d thread for ways to ease these discomforts. You'll be okay! Keep it up.

EDIT-to better answer your post: Take B vitamins, create if you haven't already, a regular sleep schedule. Eat breakfast and regular small meals throughout the day. Exercise! These seem common sense but are crucial! Keep your mind busy. In my experience this is key. The mind can be your worst enemy-but also your savior. If you are creative use this tough time to tap into your abilities. Get outside. Move around! Keep yourself occupied... making sure to have 'me time' to rejuvenate and reflect. Give yourself slack/a break if you struggle. Don't compare your experience (too much) to those of others.
 
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Thank you very much for your most encouraging post. Yes, I mean one and one fourth (1 + 1/4 or one point 25 as you said) of a milligram. I get these 5 mg pills, and I cut them in half. Then I cut one half in half. Then I cut the quarter in half and take two doses per day, one when I wake up and one when I'm about to go to bed. In other words, I take .625mgs (5/8 ) twice a day.

I will definitely take your advice and exercise and eat and sleep properly. But like you said, methadone it a bitch to kick, so I'm considering an opioid with a shorter halflife. I was thinking either morphine or hydromorphone. I'm positive I can get my doc to prescribe me either one if I tell him my reason (he thought it was strange I wanted to leave buprenorphine and take methadone instead, but I just knew I couldn't taper off of buprenorphine (I've tried dozens of times) but I had no real trouble tapering off of methadone as you can see, and at the end of the day he complemented me and said I was right to ask for methadone). Anyway, my question is, is there any point in leaving methadone in favor for a shorter acting opioid, like hydromorphone for instance? It would be a very tiny dose obviously... something that would compare to 1.25mgs of methadone, only with the shorter half life... It's just that I'm very glad you said the w/d's would be minor at most but if I could feel crappy for 2 days in stead of a week I'd definitely prefer that, as I'm sure you can appreciate.

Again, thank you so much for your advice! I hope you are going to post in this thread again.
 
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methadone has saved peoples lives but i personally know 1000 downtown junkies that swear it is ten times worse that leaving behind heroin.methadone is a devil to some,an angel to others.good luck my friend.
 
I have heard the same, that's why I'd like a different opioid with a much shorter half life, like 2-3 hours instead of 24. I also get triazolam (halcion) by the way. I'm getting my next dose of methadone and triazolam tomorrow. I think perhaps today will be my last methadone dose if all goes well. Tomorrow I'll get stoned on triazolam and eat a hero's dose (found that expression in a report on Erowid; I like it alot :D) of seroquel.
 
Ohh man. I would really advise against hydromorphone. It is just too damn good. Tolerance builds rapidly and you'll find (perhaps... likely) yourself in a bad place-tolerance up and through the roof, dependency, and w/ds that are rapid and relentless. Do you have significant pain issues or something? Oxy IR is effective (dilaudid is no doubt as well... I waste literally thousands a month on it) but if you dont need opioids or opiates I would stay away. If maintenance is the goal-try or consider suboxone or subutex.. or bupe. Talk fo your Doc about all options as well as concerns. Just be careful.

instead of going for short acting opiates metioned above-can you just use some herb to alleviate symptoms of W/d? And/or SMALL valium (or whichever bezo you are comfortale with) doses for a couple days? In my experience this is a much safer option-in terms of a potential replacemet addiction.



Weed is often a Godsend for me. I woyld never have guessed it years ago-bad anxiety and panic attacks. BUT-helps me to sleep, numb cravings,'turn off my mind when need be... and relax. My benzos? Safety net.

I'd like to hear more of your story. Feel free to PM me. Going to sleep now. Good luck! Checking in on ya in the morning. *wink
 
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i would add some things too.

from what i understand each person has different strengths and vulnerabilities to start with.u will find people and their families swearing you that methadone saved their lives and you are going to find even doctors blaming that shit for turning junkies to junkies without a heroin habbit but a methadone habbit.i know myself people who entered their program back in 2001 and still they CANNOT get rid.i also know a man by my house who went smoothly and now he is totally clean.what im sayin is only your own body will ytell you how bad or how awesome is the situation u are right now.

myself i got hooked in methadone and after 3 months i said fuckdis shit im going back to junk.then i met a pill called subutex and that lil pill cleaned me for good.still others claim subutex and suboxone suck compared to methadone.

so go figure.again i hope u ll just have mild symptoms that can be cured with legal drugs.for instance running nose and eyes?take an antiistamine like Zirtek(here in europe).running asscrack?Imodium.and so on.
be strong.
 
woamotive: I will stay away from the hydromorphone, or any other opioid for that matter. I have no real pain issues other than pain from my w/d's. I woke up early today even though I ate my 'hero's dose' of seroquel last night (well, I only took 150mg but I usually don't take above 50mg). I believe I woke up early because my left arm hurt like a bitch; I have no idea why, the only reason I can think of is maybe it's because I used it to support my head when I watched TV in my bed last night, but I do that every night so I suppose it's the early stages of w/d's. Anyway, I have used herb before to relieve w/d's and it works truly well. Trouble is I don't like the THC-high at all and I have no money to acquire the herb even if I wanted to, but yes, it works very well. Last time I used it to get thru w/d's was when I was tapering off of subutex though and I could imagine it would be different (more difficult perhaps?) to get thru methadone w/d's than subutex w/d's.

andrikos1977: will any antihistamine, like promethazine or hydroxyzine, stop a running nose? Promethazine I can get OTC and the other my doc will surely prescribe me. Interestingly, I find the running nose/eyes AND the excessive yawning to be amongst the worse w/d symptoms, only 'bested' by the electricity in my limps. I don't particularly care for the diarrhea either, but that I can handle.

Again, thank you all for your quick and most useful replies.
 
d3Xo-fan said:
andrikos1977: will any antihistamine, like promethazine or hydroxyzine, stop a running nose? Promethazine I can get OTC and the other my doc will surely prescribe me. Interestingly, I find the running nose/eyes AND the excessive yawning to be amongst the worse w/d symptoms, only 'bested' by the electricity in my limps. I don't particularly care for the diarrhea either, but that I can handle.

Again, thank you all for your quick and most useful replies.
Click to expand...
Again, thank you all for your quick and most useful replies.[/QUOTE]im sorry man i cant really answer your question about antihistamines since i live in a country where drug policy and almost anything else is way different than where u live.since u can get both relatively easy i advise u make a lil stash of boxes with all them meds that cure litle annoying witdrawal symtoms.im sure its best for u to ask someone from usa fro your needs concerning antihistamines.

as for the rest you say.again every mans withdrawal is different mans story.i can handle yawning but if i do it in my work or infront of my family it would be like saying to them "yes im back to that shit again".So some symptoms are not only about discomfort but other reasons come into the whole story.from my gang of junkie friends the guy that chases the dragon will literally sneeze violently about 50 times in a row.so violently he ends up throwing up even though he has no stomach cramps.he says that his eyes burn like hell and when his withdrawal is on its peak he is not capable of driving cause of them symptoms.i shoot and my absolute worse is bone pain in my feet and the 4 days in a row insomnia.and another one swears his ass cant take no more shit.he says his asscrack burns so hard that he would prefer bone pain cause at least with plain pain in your feet u can still walk to the source and not walk like a raped man.

now myself and everybody else,we all experience ALL those symptoms together.It is just that if in me it is the bone pain that is worse,it means the pain is soo hard to bear that all the other symptoms are bearable compared to that pain in my feet.I say to myself "please let that pain in my feet go away and let me cry and yawn for a year,i dont care.But if i didnt have the extreme bone pain and i had yawning and sneezing i would probably say"please let tha yawning go away and let me then shit myself for a year."The most severe symptom makes other symptoms less severe when in fact they are in full presence.to conclude if u say your yawning is the worst symptom,and if you dont have extreme pain in your feet,then im glad for you cause probably you are doing good my man.antihistamines DEFINETELY HELP the yawning etc symptoms.And imodium will shut your ass crack for good.So i think once u clarify your questions about antihistamines u should do fine.

beware.i know many-many people that did wonderfull on their methadone reduction.but many of them simply cant take that last step.meaning they went from 5 to 2 to 1 to 0.1 smoothly butafter years they are simply stuck in 0.1Withdrawal also is psychological war my man,its nothing easy.educate yourself and ask here and there.good luck
 
And since i know have read also Woamotive's answers to u i confirm that he is telling you established,solid true things.i agree with him in absolutely everything he told you.
 
I'm on my way out so I need to make this quick, but I'll be back in a few hours. woamotive: I'll elaborate on my story when I come back.

andrikos1977: what you say regarding 0.1mg methadone and how you can get stuck at such a low dose scares the shit out of me, because I've been wondering if that COULD become a problem at some point in the future. But hey, I've cold turkey'ed off of heroin before, so if heroin w/d is like worse but not quite as long lasting, then methadone should be possible aswell, even though I may be in w/d longer. That imodium stuff interests me. Does it constipate your ass like opiates do? Because that would be REALLY useful I gather.

Man how I can't wait to get this over with. I've been longing to really accomplish something in my life for the past year, and now I seem very close to doing just that. If I could say 'I'm clean' to my doc during our next appointment, that would be awesome, I'd like to see the look on his face hehe :-)

Thank you both of you. I'm gonna go now.
 
withdrawl

i was on methadone for 11 yrs and i understand this drug fairly well. i really dont want to discourage you in any way but in my experience (and academic info) there is little appreciable difference coming off at 1 or 60 mg. shorter acting opiate is good strategy. just research "opiate conversion standards" on line to arrive at proper dose. there is an NDM named Dr david arneson in arizona who lays out a comprehensive guide to methadone detox. email [email protected] i have found L-tyrosine and 5-htp supplements very helpful for sleep and anx. due to w.d. again, i honestly wish you the absolute best and freedom from m-done is a true freedom. just be careful of unrealistic expectations about w.d.'s. they can be an ugly surprise .
 
2-vigilant: I appreciate you giving me the facts without sugar-coating them. I would rather know what I'm in for than be surprised by the gravity of my w/d's and then panick and resort to something stupid and desperate, like take a high dose of methadone. If I managed to get down to 0.1 - 0.2 mg buprenorphine per day (I can get 0.2mg Temgesic), would that help my w/d's somewhat? Last time I was on 0.2 bupe skipping a dose was fairly easy; I stayed up all night watching TV and the next day I managed to sleep and then I was basically clean... But I wasn't addicted for such a long time back then (I've been on methadone for over a year now), so do you think I would be able to repeat the success with perhaps 0.1mg bupe this time around?
 
Hey guys, this thread has exceeded the usual quick question + answer format we try to stick to in BDD.. but I don't want to close it as you seem to be giving each other a lot of help and support, so am going to send it over to Other Drugs and leave a redirect in BDD so you can still find it.

OD mods, if you think it would be better elsewhere, sorry for sending it your way!

BDD > OD
 
When I came off Methadone (I was taking 75mg) I got down to less than 1mg and everytime I tried to jump off I got sick still!! I can totally understand taking such a low dose everyday to get by. I ended up waiting about 5 days since my last does of Methadone to start taking Suboxone. I have to admit it still took about 6 days for me to feel OK but I didn't get any PWD's. I tried to take my Suboxone after waiting only 3 days but I did experience PWD's then and it was the most horrible thing I have ever experienced!!!!

Good Luck weaning off Methadone....I know it can be done but it is so difficult to do!! I am proud of you for getting this far! :)
 
Way to go! You are down to such a low dose that 1.25mg is probably keeping you in that constant semi withdrawl state and it would probably be easier to kick at this point than to taper any lower. Might suck for a week but it would be better than every day having mild withdrawls from that low dose wearing off. You're almost at the finish line sounds good.
 
It definitely sucks... I'm somewhat sick 90% of the time... Nose running, yawning etc., but it's not all that bad... I've decided to get the 0.2mg bupe pills and kick those instead of the methadone... Tried to kick methadone a few days ago, shouldn't have done that since I ended up taking a pretty big dose and yesterday I smoked dope once again, so I think it's definitely time to leave the methadone and start on a partial antagonist.

Thank you for being proud of me, it's nice and it helps.
 
I think you should switch to a short acting (5mg oxycodone) cut in half or even 5mg 2x a day will be easier, like you were thinking in yer' first post Use them until the methadone is out of you - give yourself a month or so, then taper off the oxy
It will be olot easier on you.
 
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