Opioids Super high Dose methadone...where to go from here?

[StratMan172]

I started using pain meds about 8 years ago due to knee problems that led to multiple (3) surgeries. slowly I built up my use and eventually started shooting dilaudid. I have been on methadone for about 3 years now and for the past year have been getting weekly take homes. I am supposed to take 100 mg a day, however, I'm an addict and am always trying to change the way i feel, always needing a buzz. my methadone intake has slowly progressed and I now take 400 mg on the day i pick up my dose and the other 300 mgs are gone within the next 2 days. Basically my question is, will I ever be able to get a buzz again? the only way i can get a buzz is by throwing a huge amount of benzos on top of my methadone dosing i dont know if its related but it seems i cannot get a good buzz from marijuana/hash oil anymore regardless of how much i smoke (at least to what i can afford, if i take a half gram oil rip, i do catch a buzz albeit brief)

At these doses of methadone am I just totally frying my brain? its really hard for me to accept that i may never catch a good nod again

 

[Swain]

methadone is barely recreational.. at those monsterous doses no you will never get high using like that lol. If you take a break then go back to short lasting full agonists like heroin, oxycodone, you will catch a not. Or switch from methadone to heroin and you will beable to get high.

Honestly I was on 80mg daily at the methadone clinic, and I would double up my dose and it never did jack shit. Masybe a little sleepy. In my eyes its barely better than bupe lol. I actually swtiched back to bupe after a year becuase methadone just sucked in so many ways.. one major one being that I was throguh a clinic.l

 

[cj]

Well the only real solution I can see is to start a slow taper off the methadone then in a couple years you will be able to get high again maybe....

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Yeah, using methadone in high daily doses does make it next to impossible to get a buzz. Your brain adapts quite quickly to methadone, and I worry that you will end up killing yourself chasing a buzz that isn't there. I know you might not like this answer, but I would tell your doctor. You could explain the cravings have been too hard for you and you've been taking more of it then you were supposed to and now are dependent to a much higher dose and need help to taper it down. He/she can prescribe you a higher dose, make you go to the clinic or pharmacy (depending on how it's done where you live) every day, so that you can't take more of it than prescribed, and then gradually taper your dose down lower. What are you doing on the days when you've run out of methadone? And what kind of clinic is this where they don't drug test you and they give you weekly take-homes when you are obviously not stable?

 

[tricomb]

Honestly, this is a horrible thing to have happen, but in that situation of such insane methadone doses, like seriously, how'd you let it get that high? , you need to work with your doctor on this.

I have heard in these situations that it's often best to switch to a much shorter acting full agonist with which to taper, as tapering with methadone is torturous. Of course, this works for some and not for others, I am not saying I recommend or condone this but if I were taking that much methadone I would probably switch to morphine and after induction begin a taper with that.

 

[ugly]

My mom takes huge doses of methadone and chases it with a couple bottles of wine and some benzos.

She gets fucked up. I don't know if she's high, because she's too fucked up to tell me... I can't understand her when she talks though. Her words don't come out of her mouth sounding ANYTHING like she THINKS they do.

She's a mess, that's a fact. Keep going like you're going, you're gonna be a big ball of mess too. It isn't pretty.

 

[tricomb]

Yeah I've heard people speak methadone before it's pretty unnerving.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

Im my opinion.. methadone is great for a short term detox, one or two weeks. But, when you start to prolong it, search for some kind of recreational value, or take such high doses for so long.. it really just does much more harm than good.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Honestly, this is a horrible thing to have happen, but in that situation of such insane methadone doses, like seriously, how'd you let it get that high? , you need to work with your doctor on this.

That's what I think too.

I have heard in these situations that it's often best to switch to a much shorter acting full agonist with which to taper, as tapering with methadone is torturous. Of course, this works for some and not for others, I am not saying I recommend or condone this but if I were taking that much methadone I would probably switch to morphine and after induction begin a taper with that.

Tapering methadone from a high dose to a medium dose is not usually that torturous, the hard part is most often once people get down below 20-30mg per day and are trying to taper off methadone completely. I don't know if shorter-acting opioids would be such a good idea for the OP, it might be hard to control their use. And at least where I live it's extremely difficult to get prescribed shorter-acting opioids for an outpatient taper.

 

[tricomb]

Yeah I know, I've always had trouble getting down below 20mg, I usually switch to a full agonist at that point.

Around here, the "trick" is for people who are on high doses of MMT, or have tapered down to 20-30mg and can't go any further, to switch back to heroin then just CT off the heroin since the withdrawals are easier to handle.

I don't recommend it but I must say it does work to avoid methadone PAWS in my experience, I'd much rather go cold turkey off morphine, heroin, oxy, dilaudid, whatever (just not opana!) than attempting to taper below 20mg methadone.

 

[b4rd]

Not to be negative or anything; just for your well-being: you should taper and maybe try to set a goal like reducing yourself to 200mg per dose (with same amount of benzos) . I don't know specifics, but you need to taper yourself down.

Try to take just enough to not get high but to not get sick and keep doing this and keep reducing. Then when you are back at 100-200 mg, alot yourself 2 or 3 days out of the month where you can "catch a buzz".

Meh, tell an addict to give themselves 2-3 days of let-loose a month... good luck right?