Bomb319
Bluelighter
I've been taking methadone for a long time now - about 4 years. My dose is high - 370 mg daily, although I sometimes take closer to half that. Anyway, methadone does NOT produce significant euphoria on its own for me unless I take a lot and precede that with several days off. That's not the point though.
After I've taken my normal dose and it's had time to kick in, I get a distinct and sometimes surprisingly good opiate feeling when I inhale from my vape. It comes on quickly and passes just as quickly...about 5-10 seconds or so after drawing on it. I have enough experience with these drugs to know I'm not mistaking a normal nicotine buzz for an opiate one; it's absolutely there and what's more, it usually happens every time I inhale for at least the rest of the day, and sometimes well into the next! If I have little methadone left in my system after a break of several days, this does NOT happen at all. It's certainly not psychogenic either, because I often totally forget about it and am reminded once I inhale.
My question is, how does this possibly work? Does the nicotine potentiate the methadone over the very short term? Or does the dopamine normally released by nicotine have an additive but temporary effect with it? I'd really like to know what's going on here on the level of neurotransmitters. Second, does doing this cause a more rapid depletion of the methadone in the body, causing a quicker onset of withdrawal symptoms? It seems intuitive that getting "extra highs" constantly throughout the day might be using tiny amounts of methadone each time, resulting in this. On the other hand, maybe the methadone stays fixed attached to the mu receptors (causing some degree of dopamine release) while the nicotine releases still further amounts that go above a certain threshold, giving the opiate feeling without using up the drug. I really have no idea. If anyone has ANY insight about this at all, I would really appreciate it. Also your personal experiences would be very helpful to share...does this happen to others? Everyone? etc.
Thanks a lot, all!
After I've taken my normal dose and it's had time to kick in, I get a distinct and sometimes surprisingly good opiate feeling when I inhale from my vape. It comes on quickly and passes just as quickly...about 5-10 seconds or so after drawing on it. I have enough experience with these drugs to know I'm not mistaking a normal nicotine buzz for an opiate one; it's absolutely there and what's more, it usually happens every time I inhale for at least the rest of the day, and sometimes well into the next! If I have little methadone left in my system after a break of several days, this does NOT happen at all. It's certainly not psychogenic either, because I often totally forget about it and am reminded once I inhale.
My question is, how does this possibly work? Does the nicotine potentiate the methadone over the very short term? Or does the dopamine normally released by nicotine have an additive but temporary effect with it? I'd really like to know what's going on here on the level of neurotransmitters. Second, does doing this cause a more rapid depletion of the methadone in the body, causing a quicker onset of withdrawal symptoms? It seems intuitive that getting "extra highs" constantly throughout the day might be using tiny amounts of methadone each time, resulting in this. On the other hand, maybe the methadone stays fixed attached to the mu receptors (causing some degree of dopamine release) while the nicotine releases still further amounts that go above a certain threshold, giving the opiate feeling without using up the drug. I really have no idea. If anyone has ANY insight about this at all, I would really appreciate it. Also your personal experiences would be very helpful to share...does this happen to others? Everyone? etc.
Thanks a lot, all!