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Treatment Where to find Methadone Detox for heroin

C

cayuga7

Greenlighter
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
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4
I have a family member with a serious heroin habit. He wants to quit but the only in-patient detox facilities we have found all use suboxone which does not provide any relief for him. He winds up quitting 2 days in. The only thing he says will work is a methadone detox, either in-patient or out patient. We have no way of obtaining methadone for a home detox. Does anyone know of any facilities that still use methadone to detox from heroin? We live in the midwest but would consider any USA location.

Thanks for any help.
 
I hate to say it, but just want to be honest, if he cant handle quitting dope with suboxone, I don't see how hes going to quit methadone. Like a rapid methadone taper? That shit is still gonna be complete hell. I guess he just wants to be on a methadone program, like not actually detox?
 
d3athadone said:
I hate to say it, but just want to be honest, if he cant handle quitting dope with suboxone, I don't see how hes going to quit methadone. Like a rapid methadone taper? That shit is still gonna be complete hell. I guess he just wants to be on a methadone program, like not actually detox?
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The point of methadone is to stabilize the an individual on a medication that allows them to begin getting their life together. Quitting any opioid is more or less the same in term of discomfort and difficulty. In many ways, quitting methadone is a lot easier than quitting heroin or even buprenorphine, in the sense that it is a lot easier to taper something like methadone that is given out in a highly regulated clinic type environment.

But asking someone to quit using an opioid before they are ready to rarely works out well, so methadone can help enable someone to live a healthier, more productive lifestyle prior to actually giving up opioid use all together in a way that many people find works better than buprnorphine (as methadone is a bit more effective at managing cravings).

In other words, it isn't just about quitting opioids, but finding a way to manage life without having to worry about where the next fix is going to come from or any of the myriad of issues that comes with using an illegal highly stigmatized behavior like heroin and other opioid use.
 
toothpastedog said:
The point of methadone is to stabilize the an individual on a medication that allows them to begin getting their life together. Quitting any opioid is more or less the same in term of discomfort and difficulty. In many ways, quitting methadone is a lot easier than quitting heroin or even buprenorphine, in the sense that it is a lot easier to taper something like methadone that is given out in a highly regulated clinic type environment.
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Quitting methadone is rare and from my experience it's one of the most challenging thing I have ever done in my life. I have quit so many stronger opiates, including fentanyl and all of the above. Physically challenging is one thing. Psychological is another. Methadone will get the best of you and it won't be over in 7-10 days. I have seen people still in withdrawal after 30 days and the emptiness of the following months are overwhelming. Not at all like the others.
 
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You only see people really struggling from the withdrawal from methadone when the detox is not managed properly. When managed properly, and it is easy to do so, coming off of it isn't any more difficult than coming off of any other opioids. Certainly it presents its own unique challenges, but it doesn't have to seriously interfere with anyone's life. Of course, not doing it properly is just as disastrous as it would be with any other opioid. If I had been arrested and had to kick methadone because I was incarcerated while I was taking it would have been miserable, but that is a set of entirely other issues that have nothing to do with the way methadone works.

Quitting heroin other opioids was a lot more difficult than quitting methadone for me, because with heroin I had to hide the fact I was quitting it from everyone lest I wanted their judgment about the fact I had been using heroin. With methadone, one of the most helpful things was not having to hide what I was going through from people and getting more sympathy from those who didn't necessarily have any experience with addiction.

There is a difference between abstinence and recovery indeed. On may be abstinence and unable to make progress in one's recovery; and not all people require abstinence to make progress in their recovery from addiction (the harmful outcomes of substance use). Abstinence certainly is not surefire ticket to recovery, even though it can certainly add a particularly rich dimension to it for exploration. There are, however, no surefire one-size-fits all approaches to something as complex and nuanced as addiction.
 
I have done my detox in a hospital, with specialized doctors. Then continued my treatment as an in and out patient. And again, this is not something you see pretty often, statistically speaking. Not so many people are willing to quit methadone, not as many as in other opiates.

I have seen so many people quitting the recovery after a little more than a month. Of course this applies to heroin too, however atm I'm referring to methadone. I'm not an isolated case or else I wouldn't be sharing that.

Everyone is different we all have opinions, and obviously you've got yours. I've been on both sides of the isle. Besides, methadone disposal is legal and fairly easy for most people who want to quit other opiates. Methadone patients tend to use this medication for years and years and have a totally normal life. And that makes the entire process even more difficult, socially speaking as well.

That makes me remember when heroin was applauded because it was the cure for morphine addiction. Besides there are so many clinics available for methadone. Imagine you learn to live your life without many problems, out of the street, safe. Work and totally capable to raise a family. Disposal guaranteed. The effects 24/7 during 365 days a year. It's in your bloodstream for ever, not only just eventually few times a day or per week. Why would you want you quit? So there's clearly the motivation aspect too.

I agree that this is a very complex subject, no doubt about that. But I learned the hard way not to underestimate methadone.
 
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I don't know about that. Of course, there were a LOT of people at the clinics I have been to that have been on methadone for years and years, but the vast majority of people I met there were only taking it for relatively short amounts of time (it was rare to run into someone who had been on it for more than 2-3 years, and most people who had been on it for 2-3 years were either finishing a taper, in the process of tapering or had stabilized on a very low 4-20mg dose).

There is definitely a lot of stigma and fear among drug users of how bad methadone withdrawals are, but this is more a reflection is misinformation and fear mongering on the part of those who don't agree with the treatment or had a bad experience because their treatment wasn't managed properly and they ended up suffering for it.

In some ways it is easier to quit other opioids because it is less of a commitment to just deal with being sick for a week. Even though it isn't as acute in terms of withdrawal symptoms, the idea of having to deal with opioid withdrawal for a matter of weeks or a month is very scary after all. But at the end of the day opioids are opioids and withdrawal is withdrawal. It's just a matter of managing it properly.

Coming off methadone is more of a commitment than coming off heroin, but that is kind of the point. Methadone is a big commitment, but so is recovery. I find it hard to believe most people can really be serious about their recovery when they struggle to deal with, even if it is very significant in its own right, the relatively more manageable struggle posed in coming off methadone.
 
You say it was rare to see people using methadone for over 2-3 years? I rest my case.
 
Compared to the number of people who were on it for less than that amount of time. Perhaps rare isn't the right word, but the vast majority of patients at the various clinics I've been to seemed to have been on it under three years, most of them about two.

There definitely are a significant population that stay on it much longer, but that is part of the point of the treatment - to meet people where they're at goal wise. I've met some very interesting people who have been on it long term (over three or five years), doctors, lawyers, nurses, teachers, you name it. The stereotypical methadone use turned out in my experience to be just that, a stereotype.
 
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