Opioids Oh God..175 mg methadone daily cold turkey...how am I gonna do this?

[Bomb319]

My pharmacist told me that my regular delivery of methadone didn't arrive today as scheduled, so I'm going to have to wait until late tomorrow at the least - and I'm already a rapid metabolizer and have withdrawal symptoms as early as 12 hours after dosing. I asked if she would substitute it with any of the other methadone formulations available, but she won't do that without hearing back from the clinic doctor - who doesn't work today. The pharmacy closes in a few hours anyway, so the odds of them not faxing her back tonight are very high.

What am I gonna do?? I'll be climbing the walls...

 

[negrogesic]

Get some loperamide. It might help.

You go to a regular pharmacy for methadone?

 

[GetMeOutOfThisCRAP]

Doesn't methadone withdrawal take a long time to peak?

I know this situation sucks and no one likes the start of the withdrawal either, but I thought the drug's half life makes the effects linger in the body for an incredibly long time. Even if you have a fast metabolism I feel like you'll be feeling a lot better than you expect.

I could be totally wrong though, really.

 

[Bomb319]

Get some loperamide. It might help.

You go to a regular pharmacy for methadone?

Yeah, that's how it's done in Canada. At least here in BC, not sure about other provinces

Doesn't methadone withdrawal take a long time to peak?

I know this situation sucks and no one likes the start of the withdrawal either, but I thought the drug's half life makes the effects linger in the body for an incredibly long time. Even if you have a fast metabolism I feel like you'll be feeling a lot better than you expect.

I could be totally wrong though, really.

It won't be at the level of diarrhea and restless legs, but certainly anxiety, sneezing and throwing up.

 

[negrogesic]

Yeah you get surprisingly sick surprisingly fast without methadone. I used to take 240mg in the morning and 140mg in the late afternoon and still wake up in mild withdrawal (yawning, feeling cold).

 

[burn out]

The best thing about withdrawal is looking forward to finally getting that next dose. For me, enduring withdrawal was always much easier if I knew when and how the next dose was coming. The worst is when you have no money and you know soon you will be too sick to be able to do anything to get money.

 

[kaosisallwesee]

I'm not sure how it works in Canada, but in the UK if when it comes to dispensing your medicine the pharmacy is out of stock they can basically print a script that you can take to any other pharmacy. Could you not do something similar and just go to a chemist that has your usual formulation in stock? I find it odd that you're bound to using just one pharmacy, what if you're out of the area or like your situation the chemist doesn't have it in stock. Surely they're obligated to fill it within a certain time frame or find an alternative source for the patient. Especially when it comes to drugs that possess withdrawals.
What if it was someone's benzo script, would they still have to wait for the pharmacy to have stock and risk a seizure? Seems odd if that's how they do things.

 

[kaosisallwesee]

Failing that, I used to just sleep through WDs while waiting on scripts. Can you get any zopiclone, or any hypnotic benzos? While some people do I've never found actual benzos too useful for sleep, but zopiclone will have me passed out for 14 hours within an hour of taking it.

 

[supersonic89]

How are you doing @Bomb319 ?

 

[GetMeOutOfThisCRAP]

I agree with the above posters. We know at this point in time what happens when people don't receive their methadone dose. Even with all the people working the system who have some deep-seeded vendetta against junkies, there has to be some kind of back-up way to avoid this situation.

But by this point I'd imagine you aren't withdrawing because let's hope.. life in the peak of a methadone withdrawal is very trying. As far as all the things that happens to addicts go, that probably is the biggest nightmare scenario

 

[OpiateKiller]

I can’t recommend you trying to obtain other opiates but I’m sorry for the situation you are in.

When I would run out of methadone early I would drink myself to sleep. Not recommended or a healthy habit to overcome onset of withdrawals but for me it got me to sleep through the night.

Hang in there

 

[supersonic89]

I can’t recommend you trying to obtain other opiates but I’m sorry for the situation you are in.

When I would run out of methadone early I would drink myself to sleep. Not recommended or a healthy habit to overcome onset of withdrawals but for me it got me to sleep through the night.

Hang in there

I sometimes do the same, when the insomnia is too much. It works almost the same as a benzodiazepine. But I only have 1-2 drinks.

To OP, the only thing I can think of is loperamide or kratom. I have read from several users here that they always have a little of kratom on hand in case of these situations.

 

[Dextro .45]

I’m in Canada and use to go to a clinic weekly for carries. Now I go to a pharmacy monthly to pick up a sealed bottle of 100 tablets of Methadone

I MAKE SURE the pharmacist orders in WEEKS before I run out. I actually call several times to remind the staff to order in my script until I speak to head pharmacist and get a 100% confirmation my stuff is in

Also....I would “skim off the top” of daily carries before and stock pile them in the fridge....for any emergencies lol

on long term Methadone you can go a full day and be ok, more of a mind $#*& than physical withdraws.....2 days I’ve never experienced but would be itchy lol, Thankfully I have hundreds of HydroMorph Contins I could bang in a pinch lol.

side note....endocarditis (inflammation of heart) skyrocketed as Hydromorphone (HydroMorph Contin) script rose after OxyContin script decreased. After banging HM Contin for months I had chest pains and went to hospital. It was endocarditis from I.V. HM Contin.....Jesus H Christ. I read this article years after it happened to me. Injecting tablets is obviously dangerous....but those easily dissolvable OxyContin tablets were never an issue.....those HM Contins caused thousands of endocarditis cases from people I.V them cause Hydromorphone orally has piss poor oral BA

Sorry to get off topic..... Next time if you can, make sure they order in your Methadone a week before you’re out....and call them every day or two to make sure they’re in, so you can all your doc to authorize emergency measures .....and keep an emergency stockpile of Done if you can just for these cases.

Cannabis & Benzo could help for a day or two,,,,

 

[JessFR]

Here in Australia (we also use community pharmacies as one of the dosing options) you would generally be able to get dosed at a different pharmacy if something like this happened.

You'd also be able to lodge a formal complaint against the pharmacy, and if something like this happened I definitely would. They shouldn't be waiting to the last minute to restock.

This is especially unacceptable because the covid crisis should have prompted them to be stocking more than usual anyway. And I know for a fact that some pharmacies here have been doing exactly that out of concern for possible supply delays)

I'm sorry this has happened. Shit like this is something of a nightmare of mine and like a lot of people I keep a small backup supply of methadone just in case.

I know that doesn't help you right now. I would recommend googling your local regulations on opioid treatment programs to find out exactly what your rights and options are.

EDIT: I see now you posted this several days ago. I hope you're OK.

You go to a regular pharmacy for methadone?

This is actually how most non-retarded western countries do it.

Here we have 3 options, public clinics, where you go if you're broke cause they're free. As well as private clinics, and ordinary pharmacies.

I've been in programs at all 3. And pharmacies are by fast the best. More takeaways, barely any wait time. But they also cost the most (although still pretty cheap). I don't even get drug tested. It's awesome.

 

[negrogesic]

Here in Australia (we also use community pharmacies as one of the dosing options) you would generally be able to get dosed at a different pharmacy if something like this happened.

You'd also be able to lodge a formal complaint against the pharmacy, and if something like this happened I definitely would. They shouldn't be waiting to the last minute to restock.

This is especially unacceptable because the covid crisis should have prompted them to be stocking more than usual anyway. And I know for a fact that some pharmacies here have been doing exactly that out of concern for possible supply delays)

I'm sorry this has happened. Shit like this is something of a nightmare of mine and like a lot of people I keep a small backup supply of methadone just in case.

I know that doesn't help you right now. I would recommend googling your local regulations on opioid treatment programs to find out exactly what your rights and options are.

EDIT: I see now you posted this several days ago. I hope you're OK.



This is actually how most non-retarded western countries do it.

Here we have 3 options, public clinics, where you go if you're broke cause they're free. As well as private clinics, and ordinary pharmacies.

I've been in programs at all 3. And pharmacies are by fast the best. More takeaways, barely any wait time. But they also cost the most (although still pretty cheap). I don't even get drug tested. It's awesome.

Even though im an american i actually went to a methadone clinic in Australia for abit. It was called Warranilla and it was in Adelaide. I was there for a number of months to be with a girl i met on here interestingly enough and had run out of the 3 months of 380mg/day of methadone i had brought with me from my liberal US clinic. The max they would give me was 180mg/day which was a harsh adjustment from 380mg.

It wasnt a pharmacy but a clinic in which i had to wait in line. They gave me some take homes. Me as an American getting on methadone as a visitor was an interesting process.

Love Australia, I have an affinity towards it. There is something about it, particularly the night air.

 

[JessFR]

Even though im an american i actually went to a methadone clinic in Australia for abit. It was called Warranilla and it was in Adelaide. I was there for a number of months to be with a girl i met on here interestingly enough and had run out of the 3 months of 380mg/day of methadone i had brought with me from my liberal US clinic. The max they would give me was 180mg/day which was a harsh adjustment from 380mg.

It wasnt a pharmacy but a clinic in which i had to wait in line. They gave me some take homes. Me as an American getting on methadone as a visitor was an interesting process.

Love Australia, I have an affinity towards it. There is something about it, particularly the night air.

Interesting. The clinics I used to go to didn't do takeaways. I didn't get them till I switched to pharmacy dosing.

They also drug tested us at least once a month and the staff mostly sucked. Whereas the pharmacy staff is great and I never get drug tested now.

The only conclusion I can draw is you get what you pay for.
Cause the quality seems directly proportional to the cost.

 

[negrogesic]

Interesting. The clinics I used to go to didn't do takeaways. I didn't get them till I switched to pharmacy dosing.

They also drug tested us at least once a month and the staff mostly sucked. Whereas the pharmacy staff is great and I never get drug tested now.

The only conclusion I can draw is you get what you pay for.
Cause the quality seems directly proportional to the cost.

To be frank it felt like as an exotic American they gave me a degree of preferential or at least rule bending treatment.

They couldn't get over my 380mg/day dose but said the state maximum for public providers in southern australia was 180mg/day. I actually tried a private physician and he denied me. A strange guy he was, and it was quite a drive. He requested to examine my American methadose 10mg tablets, where apparently aren't available in Australia.

 

[JessFR]

To be frank it felt like as an exotic American they gave me a degree of preferential or at least rule bending treatment.

They couldn't get over my 380mg/day dose but said the state maximum for public providers in southern australia was 180mg/day. I actually tried a private physician and he denied me. A strange guy he was, and it was quite a drive. He requested to examine my American methadose 10mg tablets, where apparently aren't available in Australia.

Yeah they're not. There's a separate brand here called physeptone which are essentially 10mg methadone pills. But they're not authorized for subsidy for opioid treatment. Which means if you do have to use them for some reason they cost a lot more.

Generally the only reason you'd be prescribed them in an opioid substitution program here is if you either were going away and needed more than 10 days worth of doses, or some kinda emergency supply problem.

Also I feel gypped now. I'm American, I never got any special treatment :D
Maybe cause I live here? Or cause I'm Australian too? Or cause the staff at my clinic were assholes? I dunno. All I know is I demand free stuff!

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

Get some loperamide. It might help.

You go to a regular pharmacy for methadone?

I always got my Methadone from Boots. Doesn't everyone get it from a normal pharmacy?

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

One/Two days shouldn't be terrible. I stopped cold turkey (at only 60mg, but I simultaneously quit a moderate heroin habit). I actually felt pretty much fine for like 10 days (apart from jitters and sometimes needing to masturbate every 15 minutes).
If you're a fast metaboliser is your Methadone not split into two doses? It definitely can be because most people who are prescribed it for pain take it every 12 hours.
Do you have anything sedative in nature to help?
Any of these will help:
Benzodiazepines
Other opioids (even if you just do a CWE on co-codamol it'll help A BIT)
Barbiturates
Z-Drugs (Zolpidem, Zopiclone, Zalepon)
Beta Blockers
Muscle Relaxers
Atypical Anti-psychotics
Clonidine (be VERY, VERY careful)
Even First Generation Anti-Histamines help
Alcohol works just as well as benzo's and barbs if you don't have any of the above. You'll still feel SOME withdrawal but anything like muscle cramps, sweating, anxiety, insomnia, boredom etc will be much helped. And the symptoms you DO still have you won't really notice or care about anymore because you're pissed lol, kindof like when you're given morphine for pain and you still HAVE the pain, but it feels very distant and you don't really care anymore.