Opioids New to methadone... when will it "work"?!

[Piscesgirl81]

Hey, so I've had a look for other threads with the info I'm after but can't find anything recent.
Basically, I picked up a habit from 20 years ago at the start on 2021 and my usage has gone from one single point of heroin lasting me 3 or 4 days, up to HG a day. So needless to say it's not easy financially to sustain this and it's only going to keep growing.

I found a great doc who reluctantly agreed to put me on methadone as apposed to the subutex injection. I was on methadone from 2000-2002 and had really no issues getting off it hence why I wanted to stick with what I know. Plus it might sound stupid but I'm not 100% ready for a totally clear "straight " head and I remember methadone giving me that nice warm lull and i was slightly noddy when I was resting last time. My doc warned me I wouldn't be comfortable for the first few days at least of starting but I'm at day 7 now and I'm still experiencing bad withdrawals that I've eased by using. Which really defeats the purpose of being on methadone! She started me at 30mg and I've been allowed to increase by 2mg every 2nd day so I'm on 36mg now.
I guess what I'm asking is do I just have to wait it out until I am on a dose that holds me? I recall I think I reached about 75mg all those years ago.
What's the usual dose increase amount? I think I read somewhere the dose can be increased in 4mg incriments which seems the way to go. I don't want to be suffering and also having to keep using until my dose is right which won't be until well over a month!
Would I be right in saying my dose was increased slowly and due to been a newbie and now it's well and truly in my system I'll be able to go up in higher increments?
I'm finding it interesting for lack of a better word that when I started methadone in 2000 it worked from day one. I remember my dad taking me to the pharmacy then dropping me back home and by this time I was on the nod bad. Maybe because I was coming from using morphine and not smack?

I'm really considering the subutex injection but the issue there is I'm wanting to move back to my home state - Tasmania. It turns out the injection is illegal there so I'd be flying to Melbourne once a month to have it administered which is kinda not practical with border closures!

Any advice re doses or general tips for someone starting out would be greatly appreciated - I'm at a loss of what to do but I do know I don't want to be using anymore. Thanks heaps

 

[darvocet21]

Every day you're going to have more in your system because it builds. However ask them what is the max they can increase per day because 2 mg is pretty chintzy. Are you getting any relief in the first 6-8 hours? Everyday will get better. But don't expect to get high off methadone. By the time you reach 75 you will feel normal. Maybe a little warm for a few hours nothing major you remember. Not having to worry about getting money to score

 

[deficiT]

I haven't been on methadone maintenance but know a little about it. 2mg every second day seems really really small. I would ask the doctor about it and just tell them you're still experiencing bad withdrawals. I'm surprised they started you on such a low dose for the amount that you used.

 

[darvocet21]

I haven't been on methadone maintenance but know a little about it. 2mg every second day seems really really small. I would ask the doctor about it and just tell them you're still experiencing bad withdrawals. I'm surprised they started you on such a low dose for the amount that you used.

Does sound a little bit mean-spirited. Although even in the u.s. deficit the most you can start out on is 30 to 40 in divided doses on your first day. But they're real reluctant to do that because they don't want to chance it. But if you do get a 40 dose on your first day you going to be there all day long. They're going to want they're going to want to monitor you 4 signs of noddishness

 

[deficiT]

Does sound a little bit mean-spirited. Although even in the u.s. deficit the most you can start out on is 30 to 40 in divided doses on your first day. But they're real reluctant to do that because they don't want to chance it. But if you do get a 40 dose on your first day you going to be there all day long. They're going to want they're going to want to monitor you 4 signs of noddishness

Ah, I see. I thought it was a little higher than that starting off. I was thinking of switching to methadone the past few months but have staved off the idea and stuck it out with Suboxone, for now.

 

[darvocet21]

Any advice re doses or general tips for someone starting out would be greatly appreciated - I'm at a loss of what to do but I do know I don't want to be using anymore. Thanks heaps

From one Pisces to another (female Pisces are the most ethereal and otherworldly of all, without the craziness Factor of Gemini and Scorpio women) tell the counselor and the pharmacist I guess it's a pharmacist because you're in Oz exactly that you have been using a lot of Street dope and you're concerned about relapsing. Ask him to go up by 5 but whatever the most I can do. Put the pedal to the metal! Don't go out don't relapse we're rooting for you, too you, your tolerance will change.

I was on the methadone program many many years and stabilized @120 mg

 

[darvocet21]

Ah, I see. I thought it was a little higher than that starting off. I was thinking of switching to methadone the past few months but have staved off the idea and stuck it out with Suboxone, for now.

I had no idea. But it's like it doesn't matter here. It's just like you saying I had a cold 6 months ago. That's the level of acceptance and love here. Everything nobody is rejected because they made a mistake because they were in pain

 

[AutoTripper]

An addicted friend gave me 5 ml of Methadone early 00's. I liked it. It was a nice buzz.
And I am not a low doser in anything really.
It's the exact sort of effect and relief I would appreciate in life now, if no downside and all.

Heroin would really bu quite justified, for needs.

 

[darvocet21]

Ah, I see. I thought it was a little higher than that starting off. I was thinking of switching to methadone the past few months but have staved off the idea and stuck it out with Suboxone, for now.

I think methadone will be easier to taper off. Only it takes a while to earn up to the full I don't know what it is almost 2 weeks take homes. When I started my taper I had the full benefit of a lot of take homes and I would always squirrel like 10 mg out of every bottle so that I could blow off the clinic for the last month or so.

But I had been tapering for seven or eight months or more and still was only down to about 35 or 40 + I was a poly drug abuser so I had stimulants benzos and methadone that I was simultaneously deciding to go cold turkey from because it was 2012 and Terence McKenna said that the world was going to end in December anyway so what the hell! No surprise winding up in a hospital locked ward for my own protection. They didn't give me buprenorphine that I can remember because I had had a full box of Suboxone but nobody knew how to use it over 10 years ago and so I cluelede put an 8 mg strip under my tongue within 36 hours after my last time taking methadone. I had this amazingly bizarre thing happen where all the skin on my face exfoliated overnight like tiles coming loose literally across my whole face dangling and falling off

And I had probably the most demonic nightmare I've ever had and I'm convinced that it was actually completely an alien experience. Not from Aliens but from the people who do bad things the good people like me or so I believed. The dream literally seems scripted and was just a series of extremely gory scenes where I was being stabbed repeatedly and then worse and it kept getting worse and it kept getting worse.

I woke up with such a vivid memory of it and so instantaneously that I knew that it had been beamed into my head from you know harp in Alaska or whoever and I got on the phone to this doctor and told them what happened and that I thought that he was being used and duped he was from Africa I remember and he had a very thick accent and I told him look this is a plot against opiate addicts and you're just a pawn in their game. I tried to explain this to him and he cut me off after about thirty seconds and said that I needed to take my medicine. I said okay and hung up the phone and that was that. Only the box of Suboxone got saved and I found it a year or so ago to my great Delight

 

[Pigfist]

I hope this post still receives attention. I am almost 4 weeks into methadone treatment coming from a gram/day heroin (fentadope) habit for a few years. My state only allows 30mg of methadone for first dose, and a 5mg increase every other day. Needless to say it hasn’t been able to hold me. I’m currently at 65mg and can only go up 5mg every 5 days after 60. It’s early Monday morning now, I did a couple lines Thursday and again on Saturday. I am still craving dope all the time and it seems like my methadone dose only holds me for about 8 hours. Then I’m back to no appetite, just laying in bed obsessing over dope. When I go to the clinic later this morning I can bump up to 70mg and I am hoping it will make me feel better. I don’t get any sort of “high” from the methadone but wish I did. From the way I feel now it seems like I’ll probably have to get to around 100mg/day to not constantly obsess about dope. It definitely isn’t what I expected when I began, but I am glad to be close to done with dope. I hate that life and just want to be normal again. But at the same time I’m not ready to be “clean”. I feel like I need to be high to enjoy anything. But at the same time I am really fighting to stay away from heroin.

 

[darvocet21]

I hope this post still receives attention. I am almost 4 weeks into methadone treatment coming from a gram/day heroin (fentadope) habit for a few years. My state only allows 30mg of methadone for first dose, and a 5mg increase every other day. Needless to say it hasn’t been able to hold me. I’m currently at 65mg and can only go up 5mg every 5 days after 60. It’s early Monday morning now, I did a couple lines Thursday and again on Saturday. I am still craving dope all the time and it seems like my methadone dose only holds me for about 8 hours. Then I’m back to no appetite, just laying in bed obsessing over dope. When I go to the clinic later this morning I can bump up to 70mg and I am hoping it will make me feel better. I don’t get any sort of “high” from the methadone but wish I did. From the way I feel now it seems like I’ll probably have to get to around 100mg/day to not constantly obsess about dope. It definitely isn’t what I expected when I began, but I am glad to be close to done with dope. I hate that life and just want to be normal again. But at the same time I’m not ready to be “clean”. I feel like I need to be high to enjoy anything. But at the same time I am really fighting to stay away from heroin.

Thanks for checking in. Keep us posted,

 

[HKilo]

An addicted friend gave me 5 ml of Methadone early 00's. I liked it. It was a nice buzz.
And I am not a low doser in anything really.
It's the exact sort of effect and relief I would appreciate in life now, if no downside and all.

Heroin would really bu quite justified, for needs.

Oh there is a downside to methadone, it's a bitch to get off

 

[Meth_headAussieIV]

Im prescribed methadone 90mg daily, it should work as soon as you start if it isnt working then you need to increase your dose. Most people wanna get smashed but methadone isnt made to get u smashed when taken properly you should just feel normal and not in withdrawl. Consult and ask your gp/opiate treatment prescriber they know more than strangers on the internet. Big love

[-o-] love from Robbo , koori pride

Jail bird #639016#

Central west nsw australia rep

 

[darvocet21]

Im prescribed methadone 90mg daily, it should work as soon as you start if it isnt working then you need to increase your dose. Most people wanna get smashed but methadone isnt made to get u smashed when taken properly you should just feel normal and not in withdrawl. Consult and ask your gp/opiate treatment prescriber they know more than strangers on the internet. Big love

[-o-] love from Robbo , koori pride

Jail bird #639016#

Central west nsw australia rep

Hey Robbo Godspeed

 

[Meth_headAussieIV]

Hey Robbo Godspeed

Hey bruva may allah bless you inshallah all the best [-o-] #kooripride #jailbird
#methiv


Thanx for the reply

 

[darvocet21]

Oh there is a downside to methadone, it's a bitch to get off

No shit Sherlock