Hey guys so I've been on methadone for about 15 months, the first 11 months I was at 75mg and stabilized and these last 4 months ive been going down 5 mg each time I see the doctor and I am now at 45mg since the beginning of february. The entire 4 months I was perfectly fine no withdraw, up until about a week ago and now every morning that I wake up I get horrible nausea, zero energy, its not complete withdraw, its just uncomfortable. I just had my drink 4 hours ago and for the past hour im having hot sweats throughout my whole body and extremely cold toes. The nausea went away for now, but it will be back throughout the day as it usually does. I'm guessing the methadone that was built up in my system for the 11 months is now getting lower with my reduced dose, I don't want to go back up because I want to eventually get off the juice which is why I am going down. So anyone with experience know if i'll keep getting these side effects from now on? My prescription runs out at the end of March so there is a while to go until I go down again, I'm just hoping this will subside once my body gets used to the lower dose.
Opioids Reducing methadone dose
- Thread starter Dinkus123
- Start date
Mr.Scagnattie
Bluelighter
Yeah, this is how it usually works. Everything is all fine and dandy when one is stabilized on a dose of methadone... however, when it's time to start coming down...those 5mg jumps will leave you feeling a little shitty as your body is having to get used to less and less methadone because there isn't as much built up.
It's possible that once you get down to a certain dose, you wont feel as sick for a bit, but it usually just happens again at some other point further down the taper, for example getting from 20mgs to 0. Not fun.
It's possible that once you get down to a certain dose, you wont feel as sick for a bit, but it usually just happens again at some other point further down the taper, for example getting from 20mgs to 0. Not fun.
I'm wondering if maybe I should stay at 45 mg for another month after this one and and than you would think my body would be somewhat stabilized at the 45 mg's since it'll be approximately 50-55 days. I'm guessing the slower the better, like you were saying it gets pretty bad at 20mgs - 15 - 10 - 5 - 0. So essentially the longer I wait before dropping that 5mg the better it's going to be for me because it allows more time for my body to get used to the dose, right?
thelastclubkid
Bluelighter
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below 30 you should really be doing 2mg decreases and below 15-20 doing 1mg decreases...
i would be concerned with having these issues at 45mg though... while i have heard of this happening to a few people it is very uncommon and could mean that there are some other underlying medical issues (e.g. such as liver dysfunction causing impaired metabolism of the methadone). when i tapered off of methadone i was able to do 5 mg decreases all the way down to 30 without *any* symptoms whatsoever... i did not really feel partial WD's until i got below 10mg and even then my body adjusted within 1 week. you might consider going to your doctor and getting a workup to see if anything else is going on...
I felt the effects for probably 3 days and the only effects were sweats coming from the body and low energy/lethargic, I actually do think that i have low testosterone caused by the methadone I have gained alot of weight since I've been on it, even got my own set of man titties. But i've also been hibernating all winter and gotten little exercise, so its pretty much my fault. How did you feel after you took your last drink? How long did it take to start feeling bad wd's, or was it not bad?
walterdini
Bluelighter
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- Aug 28, 2012
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Wondering the same myself. On 140mg/day and stable, but thinking about starting to taper down to get off this stuff. I was thinking the w/d woldnt set in until I was at 30mg or below, and def not happening out of the blue if I was stable on a dose, even if it was a low dose I had tapered down to....
My only suggestion would be to try a potentiator to help keep the methadone in ur system longer so the mornings aren't so rough...
My only suggestion would be to try a potentiator to help keep the methadone in ur system longer so the mornings aren't so rough...
I have been on methadone for a good few years but was still using heroin daily on top of it.
Now I haven't used heroin for just over 6 months,I was taking 40ml methadone daily and asked my doctor to start reducing me.
He has dropped me by only 2ml so I am now on 38ml daily and haven't noticed any problems. I guess if there is no reason to rush your reduction then slow and steady is the way to go.
Now I haven't used heroin for just over 6 months,I was taking 40ml methadone daily and asked my doctor to start reducing me.
He has dropped me by only 2ml so I am now on 38ml daily and haven't noticed any problems. I guess if there is no reason to rush your reduction then slow and steady is the way to go.
SAMCRO
Bluelighter
Wow I can totally relate to all of this. Damn Methadone is the stone cold worst medication ever invented IMO. I was on up to 90 mg's/day and decided I looked like shit and felt like the walking dead so I tapered down to 45 mg's. Then I used my take homes of 45 mg to reduce by half each week until I got to 11.25 mg/day before using a suboxone detox of 8 days. I did get some precipitated W/D's cuz I didn't lower my done dose slow enough but I just wanted off so I wasn't patient with a slow done taper. Being on 90mg/day for 2 yrs caused long major changes in my brain/body chemistry so I ended up goin on Sub maintenance of 1mg 2 X daily since I couldn't handle the PAWS. Now I'm down 50 lbs since my done days and feel a million times better so I'm going to be trying to taper and jump off the subs again. GL with the journey, it won't be easy to get off but it's so worth it.
Mr.Scagnattie
Bluelighter
Yeah, the slower you go the less painful it will be.
thelastclubkid
Bluelighter
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- 542
i was the same way.. 10 years on methadone caused me to gain 55 pounds... about 3 years ago i made the decision to completely overhaul my physical health... i dropped the 55 pounds plus another 20 and started walking alot to get in better health... the last part was quitting methadone...
methadone did the same things to me.. decreased test which in turn made me lazier and less interested in sex. when i started to taper down i noticed alot of these issues started to resolve at different points... i would say it was when i got below 20mg was when i started noticing physiological changes. below 10mg i noticed big changes (being more irritated with people, less sleep, GI tract issues, etc. but nothing really bad.) i got all the way down to 3mg which was when i noticed every day i would go into partial WD's towards the end of the day and that was when i decided to quit.. my last dose was a friday and i remember waiting around for saturday morning to take my next dose, feeling like crap and saying "fuck it.. im done..." even quitting at 3mg kinda sucked... i mean its nothing like the precipitated WD's you get quitting a full blow addiction like heroin but its still pretty unpleasent... i basically didnt sleep saturday, sunday, or monday... i got so bored/crazy i decided to go out clubbing on saturday just to do something. on monday night the worst of it passed; i got pretty bad stomach cramps that lasted a few hours and then everything got better little by little... by the 7th day everything was better except for the insomnia and RLS... the insomnia went away another week or so later (kinda i still dont sleep 8 hours straight but i do sleep enough) and the RLS took 40 days to subside.
add in some lyrica or gabapentin to your methadone to you feel more comfortable when reducing your dosage. lyrica and gabapentin work really really well for withdrawal symptoms, physical and psychological, and almost completely take my mind off the withdrawal. also, lyrica and gabapentin do not depress your central nervous system as much as benzodiazepines do, so they are much much safer to combine with methadone than combining the 'done with a benzo like valium or klonopin.
also hydroxyzine also helps with symptoms of withdrawal, and induces sleep while reducing sleep latency (helps you fall asleep and makes you go into deep sleep quicker). like lyrica/gabapentin, hydroxyzine is sedating, but does not depress the CNS as much as benzos or alcohol or other opiates.
loperamide can also help with physical symptoms of withdrawal especially diarehha.
sooo things to look into - pregabalin and/or gabapentin, hydroxyzine (or diphenhydramine if you cant obtain a vistaril script), and loperamide.
absolutely fuck the idea of implementing a benzo into your methadone regime, i know people who took their normal dose of methadone with literally 0.5mg xanax and overdosed. not even worth fuckng around...
also hydroxyzine also helps with symptoms of withdrawal, and induces sleep while reducing sleep latency (helps you fall asleep and makes you go into deep sleep quicker). like lyrica/gabapentin, hydroxyzine is sedating, but does not depress the CNS as much as benzos or alcohol or other opiates.
loperamide can also help with physical symptoms of withdrawal especially diarehha.
sooo things to look into - pregabalin and/or gabapentin, hydroxyzine (or diphenhydramine if you cant obtain a vistaril script), and loperamide.
absolutely fuck the idea of implementing a benzo into your methadone regime, i know people who took their normal dose of methadone with literally 0.5mg xanax and overdosed. not even worth fuckng around...
Swimmingdancer
Bluelight Crew
In my experience you might. Have you been feeling this way for a month, since the beginning of Feb when you lowered your dose last? Once I got down below a certain dose no matter how small the dose decreases or how long I waited between decreases I was in near-constant mild (to eventually moderate) withdrawal. Now, do you feel these symptoms most of the time, or just when it's getting close to your next dose and for a little while after you dose? If it's the latter, switching to twice a day dosing may help. For a while, at least it can buy you some time until you get down to a significantly lower dose.
Reaching a dose where the taper becomes difficult is VERY common. The exact number of mg this happens at varies greatly from person to person, but is most commonly around 20-30mg/day. (I used to work at a methadone clinic, ironically).
My experience was that once I reached that point it never got any easier, and I think I really did myself damage by trying to taper super-slowly like most people recommend and just made myself sick for so long that my brain now thinks that's it's normal state. I now feel that a better idea would have been to taper much faster and just bear the withdrawals.
I disagree, for me at least. Maybe it's less painful for a while, but then - for me - it wasn't really any less painful than times I'd tried a much more rapid taper in the past and it just lasted a whole lot longer.
Probably only a good idea is someone is going to get off methadone pretty soon - if they're going to spend like 8 more months slowly reducing their dosage, that brings up whether the risk of dependency to the gapapentin or pregabalin is worth it.
That is not what sleep latency is. It reduces the amount of time it takes to transition from being awake into the light sleep stage. I don't know of any sleep aids that increase deep sleep or the onset of deep sleep
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In my experience you might. Have you been feeling this way for a month, since the beginning of Feb when you lowered your dose last? Once I got down below a certain dose no matter how small the dose decreases or how long I waited between decreases I was in near-constant mild (to eventually moderate) withdrawal. Now, do you feel these symptoms most of the time, or just when it's getting close to your next dose and for a little while after you dose? If it's the latter, switching to twice a day dosing may help. For a while, at least it can buy you some time until you get down to a significantly lower dose.
Reaching a dose where the taper becomes difficult is VERY common. The exact number of mg this happens at varies greatly from person to person, but is most commonly around 20-30mg/day. (I used to work at a methadone clinic, ironically).
My experience was that once I reached that point it never got any easier, and I think I really did myself damage by trying to taper super-slowly like most people recommend and just made myself sick for so long that my brain now thinks that's it's normal state. I now feel that a better idea would have been to taper much faster and just bear the withdrawals.
I disagree, for me at least. Maybe it's less painful for a while, but then - for me - it wasn't really any less painful than times I'd tried a much more rapid taper in the past and it just lasted a whole lot longer.
Probably only a good idea is someone is going to get off methadone pretty soon - if they're going to spend like 8 more months slowly reducing their dosage, that brings up whether the risk of dependency to the gapapentin or pregabalin is worth it.
That is not what sleep latency is. It reduces the amount of time it takes to transition from being awake into the light sleep stage. I don't know of any sleep aids that increase deep sleep or the onset of deep sleep
Actually I was only feeling bad for about 4-6 days I am still on 45mg and surprisingly I've been waking up not feeling bad, only feeling the laziness from my low testosterone, but I was like that when I was stable at 75. I ate some pizza that tasted like absolute dog shit and didn't taste right, im wondering if the pizza was left in the car baking in the sun for a while and gave me food poisoning or something. But it seems to have subsided for now. Thanks for the replies guys, it's helped me alot to prepare for this taper.
sl1p609
Bluelighter
I'm on 170mgs per day, does anyone have any questions, 8), This shit is making my life so much more stable and reality is kicking in.
Swimmingdancer
Bluelight Crew
^^Oh I see, a week of feeling crappy after a dose decrease is very normal and does not mean you've reached that point where the taper becomes really hard 
. You might still have a decent ways to go. Or you might even be one of those people who find it the same all the way through. Good to make the dose cuts smaller when you get down lower though. Best of luck to you and good for you for sticking with it
. You might still have a decent ways to go. Or you might even be one of those people who find it the same all the way through. Good to make the dose cuts smaller when you get down lower though. Best of luck to you and good for you for sticking with it 
I came down from 205mgs and felt fine untll I got to 60mgs then I started having pretty bad withdraws all the way untill I jumped off at 4mgs and still had a rough time for about a month. I did not have any underlying medical issues. Everyone is different does not mean by far that anything is wrong w/ him!