What am I in for?!?!?

[Emerly]

Hi guys, this is my first time posting. I have spent many hours reading the posts, but finally decided to make my own and see if anyone has any tips or advice.

I am wondering how bad withdrawals from using methadone for 1 month may be. Most days I only take 10mg, but on some bad days I have taken 20mg. NEVER taken over 20mg in 1 day before.

I am a mother of 4 little ones and started taking the methadone after a friend gave me one for my back pain. I have in the past abused hydrocodone and other types of opiates... the wd from hydrocodone was not really that bad because again I've never taken them in large amounts, but did take daily. Anyway, about a month ago I started taking the methadone and have been taking it daily. The last week, I have only taken 10mg ... generally half in the am and half later in the evening. I want to stop taking them.. not only because of the cost but because I really just feel crappy when they wear off. I do have bad back pain, but I know I have been taking them now to give me a boost of energy. I am a tired worn out mom and just need a little boost sometimes..

Well, now after reading all these horror stories on the net about coming off methadone and the insane wds people have I am SO SCARED. so, tell me... How bad do you think this may be for me and what can I do to help myself get through this and be DONE!! I only have 9 left, but I do have my prescribed anxiety meds and some prescribed gabapentin (which I don't take).

Please any help, advise or tips.. I'm so scared I am going to go through awful mental and physical ads

 

[Mike93]

Hello Emerly and welcome to Bluelight! In my personal opinion, I don't think your withdrawals will be all that bad! Due to the time of use, (only a month) and the low dosage, I think you'll be able to get through it no problem. Gabapentin helped me tremendously when I went through my withdrawals. I took it every 6-8 hours at the peak and it helped so much! I also used anti-anxiety meds I was prescribed and it definitely helped me mentally as well! It might help (even though you're on a low dose) to taper down your current dosage. (Maybe use 5mg/half of the pill each day) and that way your body can adjust to the lower dosage before you stop taking them so the withdrawals would be even less than they already most likely will be. Especially if you have already gone through full-blown Hydrocodone withdrawals, this should be a walk in the park! However, due to Methadone's long half life, you might not even start feeling any withdrawal symptoms until 2 or 3 days after your last dose, so keep that mind. I know you can do this! If you made it through Hydrocodone you can conquer this! I'll be checking back on this thread frequently for your response and would be glad to help!

 

[Trabbamab]

I agree with Mike. I don't think you are in for too bad of a time. I would expect some insomnia, maybe some slight sweating, a slight decrease in appetite, etc. If you can take diphenhydramine for any insomnia I think you should be okay.

I am torn on whether or not to recommend a taper. In situations such as this, my worry is that right now you are actually not very physically addicted and starting a multi-month taper could actually get you more physically addicted leading to more WDs during the taper than you would feel now. Because of this, I would recommend trying to cold turkey it. See where you are at and what kind of symptoms you may experience. If it starts to get unmanageable, then consider getting some more to begin a taper down.

If you do need to taper, find a way to crush the tablets so you can have more control over the dose than just 5mg increments (although do not crush them if they are time released, but I am not aware of any time-release methadone formulas since it is already such a long-acting drug). If you happen to have a milligram scale, that would be very helpful but I understand that they are not super common and the accurate ones are very expensive and easy to break. Otherwise you would be crushing the pills and then splitting the pile of powder into as many evenly-sized piles as you can manage and put each pile into an empty capsule (available online or at many health food stores), keeping a good count of how many piles you got so you know how much is in each. And then find a taper that you are comfortable with, such as lowering 1mg a week or 2mg every other week, etc. The actual taper schedule is a very personal thing so we would only be able to guide you on what to try to see how you feel.

But I really do think you should try to CT first to see how it goes. You may be surprised that you don't have much disturbances that some diphenhydramine (Benadryl in the US) can't fix.

Best of luck and come back if you like to say how it went or if you have any more questions for us

 

[Pickledlemons]

It shouldnt be that bad. You might feel cold and have a runny nose. IMO dont do a taper. Just get off and fucking run. If you stay on methadone for a few more years getting off will be hell.