Yes, 60mg codeine tablets would work much, much better for your purposes than Nurofen Plus. In terms of sleeping meds, I'd suggest zopiclone 7.5mg over nitrazepam or alprazolam (considering you're already going to be taking diazepam, you don't need to add another benzodiazepine to the mix). If you can, do try and get yourself some clonidine and gabapentin (those two meds help a lot for opioid withdrawal - there is literally no reason a doctor worth their license wouldn't prescribe them to treat the symptoms of acute opioid withdrawal).
Ideally this is what I would suggest (it will result in a pretty darn comfortable experience coming off the methadone):
- Continue your taper reducing your dosage at 1mg/week until you are down to 10mg.
- Discontinue your methadone completely and start taking 300mg of codeine once to twice a day for three to four days (you won't need any other meds when taking this much codeine, other than MAYBE seroquel or zolpiclone for insomnia).
- Make sure you don't take more than 300mg at a time; there can be a dangerous histamine reaction that happens to many people around 400mg.
- Do not take a second dose of codeine while you still feel the effects of the previous dose of it. It will make you feel "good" but don't try and chase the high, or else you risk a codeine OD - which is a very unpleasant histamine reaction (hives on steroids basically).
- Discontinue the codeine and begin taking buprenorphine, waiting to induct yourself on the buprenorphine 12-24hrs after your last dose of codeine.
- DO NOT take the buprenorphine on the same day/right after taking codeine.
- Wait until the following day to take it, at the very least 12 hours after your last dose of codeine.
- The longer you can wait to take the buprenorphine the more effective it will be, so if you can make it a full 24 hours that is grand.
- Take 2mg of buprenorphine intranasally or sublingually twice a day.
- If you have Subutex it is more effective to sniff the stuff, but if you have a sublingual only formulation like the Suboxone strips you can use an ethanol based mouthwash like Listerine to increase the bioavliability and make it almost as effective as sniffing it.
- Take the buprenorphine at the same time and in the same fashion (the same route/method of administration) each day. It is important to be as consistent as possible with this.
- Continue to take the buprenorphine for a minimum of seven days and a maximum of two weeks (the acute withdrawal of methadone doesn't last longer than 7-14 days).
- You don't need to taper off the buprenorphine. On the last day you are taking it just stop taking it. Ideally you should only really be taking it for seven to ten days, if you can get away with only taking it for a week it would be safer (in terms of making it easier on your body to transition to a state of existence that doesn't involving eating potent exogenous endorphins like methadone, codeine or buprenorphine).
- Each day you take the buprenorphine take 10mg of diazepam twice a day; 10mg diazepam with each dose of buprenorphine.
- At night take a Seroquel or zopiclone when you are going to bed.
- Take loperamide as needed for GI issues (you may not need any of this at all, especially if you make sure to eat a high fiber diet and hydrate, which which are both very helpful in withdrawal).
- When you discontinue the buprenorphine, discontinue all the other medication as well except what you need to help you sleep (so stop taking diazepam and loperamide when you stop taking the buprenoprhine)
- Continue taking sleeping meds to help you get through the first month off methadone.
- Be aware that you can become dependent on z-drugs like zopiclone, so be careful not to take the stuff longer than necessary - and if you struggle to sleep for a while when you stop taking it be aware that this is why.
- Non-gabaergic stuff like Seroquel and Trazadone may be more helpful to treat the insomnia during the PAWS, once the acute withdrawal is over.
- Avoid using benzodiazepines and z-drugs to treat insomnia any longer than absolutely necessary
The only symptoms you'll probably struggle with are going to be some minor RLS and hot/cold flashes/sweating (if you had clonidine it would prevent the latter). Remember that it will take your body a while to transition to life without opioids. It takes a while no matter how you do it. So expect a certain level of "natural" discomfort as your system acclimatizes to life without exogenous endorphins.
You can do this brother! Remember that a constructive/positive and realistic (not fatalistic, but practical) attitude is probably the most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to moving beyond the acute withdrawal from methadone and other opioids