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G'day (sorry, but that's what you expect from people in Australia, yes?) I've just started on a MMT (methadone maintenance treatment)program
I'd appreciate and look forward to your comments and advice. I don't know much about methadone, apart from WD problems, but I really would like to find out from BLers who've used it, how it works, whether, like all opiates, you develop a tolerance and need more and more....which just leads to "the nod".
Have I made the right decision, in your opinions?
I had to do something about my supposedly legal opiate abuse, ie. I didn't use the street to buy my drugs. They were prescribed by the same doctor: that's right, not even doctor shopping!I realised that I had a BIG problem when I went thru' my 1st major WD. Because I ate my oxys (200 mg daily for chronic pain) early and my doctor was on leave. I live in a
small city in Oz and impossible here to see another doctor for controlled drugs. So from ~ 250 - 300mg OC to nix for 5 days. I obviously got thru'it, but I never ever want to go anywhere that living hell again.
From then on I reduced my OC use by 5mg daily week by week, until I reached 20mg bd. But it meant I started buying OTC stuff with enough codeine in it to make the diff. Liver and kidney damage is a definite possibility when you're desperate enough to go down this path.
Finally I took control of a situation which reminded me of my slide 4 years ago into the oblivion of alcohol. I am now on a low dose MMT which actually works.
You can't imagine what a relief it is after 40 years of low (and high very high) level opiate abuse which started with Palfium tablets washed down with brandy for period pain when I was 14!
Some of the stuff I've read here on BL makes me think I'll be considered stupid to swap one opiate for another, but as I've lived for this length of time with an addiction that was never going to leave me and I'm not brave enough to face the world without my "opiate veil", I made the decision to use methadone and don't intend to change/taper/WD or anything else for the forseeable future.
I just need the advice of some of you advanced BLers out there please? I'm on 25mg dose and have been for 4 days now. Will the slight, but vaguely pleasant feeling stay with me for at least the 12-15 hours after I am dosed? I'm having trouble sleeping, but that's cos I stopped the 10mg Diezepam I was taking before. I also have 150 mg Lyrica for chronic pain. I was told by a D&A nurse that Subutex would've been a better option, but my research indicated that for a longterm user and abuser of opiates, like myself, who is 54 this year and "looking forward" to more knee and hip replacements (I've had 2 already) due to a rare and painful autoimmune disorder, MMT would give me the slow buzz I have always needed (obviously I'd prefer the euphoric buzz of OC, but those days are over) and control my pain.
Cheers, Kanaffa from Oz.
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G'day (sorry, but that's what you expect from people in Australia, yes?) I've just started on a MMT (methadone maintenance treatment)program
I'd appreciate and look forward to your comments and advice. I don't know much about methadone, apart from WD problems, but I really would like to find out from BLers who've used it, how it works, whether, like all opiates, you develop a tolerance and need more and more....which just leads to "the nod".
Have I made the right decision, in your opinions?
I had to do something about my supposedly legal opiate abuse, ie. I didn't use the street to buy my drugs. They were prescribed by the same doctor: that's right, not even doctor shopping!I realised that I had a BIG problem when I went thru' my 1st major WD. Because I ate my oxys (200 mg daily for chronic pain) early and my doctor was on leave. I live in a
small city in Oz and impossible here to see another doctor for controlled drugs. So from ~ 250 - 300mg OC to nix for 5 days. I obviously got thru'it, but I never ever want to go anywhere that living hell again.From then on I reduced my OC use by 5mg daily week by week, until I reached 20mg bd. But it meant I started buying OTC stuff with enough codeine in it to make the diff. Liver and kidney damage is a definite possibility when you're desperate enough to go down this path.
Finally I took control of a situation which reminded me of my slide 4 years ago into the oblivion of alcohol. I am now on a low dose MMT which actually works.
You can't imagine what a relief it is after 40 years of low (and high very high) level opiate abuse which started with Palfium tablets washed down with brandy for period pain when I was 14!
Some of the stuff I've read here on BL makes me think I'll be considered stupid to swap one opiate for another, but as I've lived for this length of time with an addiction that was never going to leave me and I'm not brave enough to face the world without my "opiate veil", I made the decision to use methadone and don't intend to change/taper/WD or anything else for the forseeable future.
I just need the advice of some of you advanced BLers out there please? I'm on 25mg dose and have been for 4 days now. Will the slight, but vaguely pleasant feeling stay with me for at least the 12-15 hours after I am dosed? I'm having trouble sleeping, but that's cos I stopped the 10mg Diezepam I was taking before. I also have 150 mg Lyrica for chronic pain. I was told by a D&A nurse that Subutex would've been a better option, but my research indicated that for a longterm user and abuser of opiates, like myself, who is 54 this year and "looking forward" to more knee and hip replacements (I've had 2 already) due to a rare and painful autoimmune disorder, MMT would give me the slow buzz I have always needed (obviously I'd prefer the euphoric buzz of OC, but those days are over) and control my pain.
Cheers, Kanaffa from Oz.
