Opioids methadone blues

[the milk man]

I am 26 years old and have been on 185mg of methadone for over fours years now. I have no health insurance. I owe over 2400$ to my clinic. I am completely lost. I no longer can function as a productive member of society. Cold turkey is not an option for me as I can't handle even 2 days without it and such a large dose has got to be a death sentence to just drop. I need help. I need options. My clinic does arbitrary titration at a rate of 5mgs for five days then 15% of remaining dose every day following. My living situation is unstable. I need advice. Encouragement... Success stories..i need an out...

 

[Znegative]

I cold turkeyed off of 90mg of methadone(for one year). It was not pleasant, but it was in the setting of an extended care rehab. All I was given was phenobarbital. For me, the acute withdrawals were not as bad as heroin, but they were much longer, and my sleep was fucked up for months. The real killer, that ended with me relapsing after 6 months, was the post acute withdrawal syndrome. It was truly horrendous.

On a brighter note though, after my relapse, I then managed to stay clean for 9 months, and it seemed the depression from the paws ended around 7 months.

It is not going to be easy, and everyone responds to withdrawal differently. However, you are still young, so you have a pretty good chance of getting back on your feet if you wait it out. I've known much older addicts that did very slow tapers, and succeeded, so it's definately not a hopeless situation, though it may seem like that now.

 

[flyonth3wall]

Christ, so they're gonna 'rapid taper' you down from 185mg/day to zero in like 2 weeks. That sucks man It obviously is not as bad as Cold Turkey, as 2 weeks tapering is better than no taper at all, but it honestly is going to be hell for you. I don't mean to try scare you, but you obviously know this already. I feel for ya man, really do, withdrawal is the worst thing on earth IME. Are you on any benzo's? Do you have access to some? Check out the Withdrawal Mega Thread on what you can try obtain in the mean time, so that when the time comes that withdrawal is imminent, you are covered, and at least have something to help you through the next extremely tough few days. Can any family member help you with the bills if you explain the situation to them and let them know how urgent this is? Can you not try obtain some financial help elsewhere? Have you considered Suboxone? ( or is that chargeable too? )

If it comes to the crunch that you do indeed have to quit the methadone, and cannot arrange any financial help or other Opiate Maintenance Therapy, then all you can do is prepare for the withdrawal, and this means getting all the OTC meds that will help the symptoms, and try get some benzo's and/or any other weaker opiates if you can get your hands on some. I dunno what else to suggest dude.. You haven't really put much info about yourself that gives me any other ideas.. Good luck, I wish you the best.

 

[mrflowers00]

if you can get some bupe

 

[Keif' Richards]

^Agreed

Buprenorphine is great. It's dirt cheap, long lasting, and pretty powerful.

 

[Fire&Water]

Careful w/ the bupe'...It affects patients on methadone different than any other full agonist - Dont mean to scare ya' but taken too soon can be alot worse than full blown withdrawls.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Yea, I'm not sure that bupe is really a good or even viable option for the OP. I can't believe people are put in this situation. The rehab/clinic "industry" really disgusts me.

OP, if you can afford it, which it doesn't sound you can, but anywho, PPT might be of use to you if you're abruptly cut off from your done. Loperamide, which is probably a lot more available/cheaper than PPT could also be a big help, albeit at 200mg doses (this will kill nearly all if not all of your w/d symptoms and won't give you much more problems shitting than such a high dose of done). Wow... Just, wow...

It really makes me at once angry and at the same time it hurts me in my heart to hear stories like this. My heart goes out to you OP! You might want to check in with the nice people at The Dark Side for support, while (ab)using us folks here in Other Drugs for w/d aid advice/techniques.

What's your living situation like OP?

BTW, hot baths/showers are undoubtedly gonna become you new best friend sooner than later