Questions about tapering off methadone

[Kristine715]

Hey guys and gals. I've been on methadone about a year and a half. Before that I was a very heavy daily iv heroin user. My methadone dose right now is 290mgs. I've been at this dose idk, maybe 6 months or so.
For reasons that are irrelevant, I just went a week without methadone and...it was BAD. I won't go into detail about my withdrawal symptoms just cuz it too is irrelevant.
But because I just went through that, and I have also been having thoughts about not wanting to be on methadone forever but at the same time being scared that I'll go back to using if I stop methadone, I've been considering tapering off. So my question is, can someone please give me a detailed experience of being tapered off? Did you still go through withdrawal? What was your original dose and how long did it take to be done?

 

[Vinnie77]

290mgs of methadone a day

 

[Kristine715]

290mgs of methadone a day

There are three clinics in my city. One of them has people as high up as 550-600. No joke. In my opinion it's excessive, though I can see it being tempting to go up that high knowing that all I'd have to do is ask.
The clinic I go to doesn't have anyone past 300 to my knowledge.

 

[Vinnie77]

Then your clinic is supposed to write down a long term detailed WD plan after doing such a high dose for such a long time.

Btw is the city where you live the Glasgow ?

 

[Kristine715]

Then your clinic is supposed to write down a long term detailed WD plan after doing such a high dose for such a long time.

Btw is the city where you live the Glasgow ?

I'm in the US. I haven't talked to my clinic about it yet, I'm wanting personal experiences. Hopefully I can keep the thread alive and get some.

 

[Vinnie77]

2 ways to do it:
1. tapper down as slow as possible. With such a high dose of methadone it will be few months. It takes a lot of discipline to follow the schedule, but withdrawal will be mild and you will be able to handle with over-the-counter meds. I would choose this option if you don't have access to prescription meds or drugs
2. Tapper down as fast possible (290-160-80-40-20-10) and prepare lot of these meds/drugs for heavy WD: kratom, pregabalin, valium, dxm, loperamide, favorite non-opiate painkiller
3. There is third way to do it if you wanna tapper down as fast as possible, you don't have access to prescription drugs and you want methadone out of your body as fast as possible, but i am not gonna share it, because it's little bit hardcore. I can send you a PM if you are interested.

 

[Kristine715]

I don't think I'm interested in #3. Lol. I don't necessarily have to do it fast but at the same time I don't want to prolong either. I'm just fed up with being dependant on it. The reason I got on it was daily heavy iv use of H. And that was my main motivation to quit-to not have to worry every day about how I'd get it, etc.
I recently had to go five days without methadone and the withdrawal was the worst thing anyone can go through. My daughter was almost 9 pounds when she was born (that's almost two pounds above average for those who don't know) I had no pain meds at all during her birth and would rather go through that again than methadone withdrawal.

 

[HeadphonesandLSD]

It's going to be bad no matter what dose you jump off at for at least a week or two. When I did it I got down to 10mg a day, stabilized there for several months, then finally jumped cold turkey. It was 8 days before I felt like I was starting to get over acute withdrawal and months before I felt normal again. What I would suggest is slowly working your way down over the course of several months and attempting to jump after the holidays. You'll probably want to take a week or two off work for this. Expect to spend at least the first couple of days in bed and having trouble with sleep. Plan for some way to force sleep for the first week be it benzos, z-drugs, or OTC meds if those work for you. Plan your meals for the first week so you don't have to cook anything. I locked myself in a room with pizza, 50mg of methadone and a case of water. I had the methadone because I figured if I couldn't quit with it in the room I wouldn't stay clean once I ran into opioids again in the wild. I would tell the methadone I was stronger than it was and after 8 days I celebrated by pouring it all on the ground.

Methadone withdrawal is the hardest thing I've every come off of but I promise after a week or two things start to get better. I would not jump at the dose you're on now. I would start working down to 5-10mg slowly. Try decreasing by 10-20mg every week until you feel stable on it. After a week of that decrease the dose again. If you have to go back up for a week or slip up don't get discouraged. You've gotten sick of it and that's a good thing! It means you're ready to work towards not needing to take it everyday.

I would not attempt to use bupe/subs to jump off. It will just complicate things. As for the fear of using again it's always going to be there. I've slipped up since I got off methadone and I'm currently using Kratom twice a day. I've used morphine once since leaving methadone behind two years ago. These things happen but I'm able to regulate my use now better than when I had a hardcore morphine/oxy/H habit. The main reason for that is the fact that I cut all users out of my life. I simply can't be around them if I want to remain clean. Just be honest with those friends and put your foot down. The few friends that still come around with active habits will not use drugs around me out of respect. I have walked in on people like that using and while there is an urge to partake it's nowhere near as strong as it was when I was using. The Methadone withdrawal I suffered through is a strong reminder of why it isn't a great idea to start back up.

Oh and if you're willing to try it I found DMT very helpful. I smoked DMT for the first time when I was on day 8 of methadone withdrawal. It was a great help and solidified my will to stay off opioids. I think there are several substances that would be useful for that type of healing; LSD, mushrooms, DMT, and DPT all come to mind. One time use of any of those while at the tail end of acute withdrawal would be helpful for most people in my opinion. If they aren't for you that's fine. This is doable without other drugs for sure. You just have to want to stay clean and enough will power to get through the worst of it. There have also been a lot of folks that have had great success using Iboga to remain clean. If you're interested search the forums. I plan on using it myself sometime in the near future.