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Opioids What is the least painful way to come off Methadone

SummerTaylour

SummerTaylour

Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 28, 2021
Messages
30
So.... what’s the best way to come off methadone? I’ve been on 85mg for the past 3 months. I can’t stand being on it any longer, the weight gain is killing me. I want to go back to subutex. Any advice is appreciated, feeling desperate, but I heard methadone withdrawals are some of the worst so I need to know how to do it right.
 
Least painful way is time consuming, tapering off slowly, over time. For me, heavy exercise made the tapering off process easier.

To switch to buprenorphine you'll want to taper down to a lower dose of methadone and use the following method. You could show it to your doctor if they are unfamiliar with this:

Microdosing of Buprenorphine for Induction (the Bernese Method) | BC Pharmacy Association

www.bcpharmacy.ca www.bcpharmacy.ca

There aren't really any shortcuts when it comes to stuff like this but there are paths of lesser resistance.

I know people probably roll their eyes when i mention exercise but it is especially useful when tapering down opioids. For instance I wouldn't really mention it to someone trying to come off of benzodiazepines because nothing really helps that.

But tapering-associated opioid withdrawal (and post acute opioid withdrawal) responds very well to exercise (plus it helps with the weight gain). Hot baths help too. I sort of got addicted to taking hot baths since i took them daily while tapering off of methadone (it was a long road, 380mg to zero), and still take them frequently. Exercise does far more than the baths, you can probably skip those
 
For only 3 months use I would imagine a faster taper would be the best.
The longer use the harder to get off ime.
You could drop 10% every 3-5 days and not feel bad. When you get to 1/3rd your regular dose start dropping 5%.
Try not to think of it to much. The more you focus on it the worse it is.
But 3 months should be quite manageable
 
All of the above sounds like good advice and I couldn't give you better; I mean you 're supposed to use methadone to get you off the junk, but I've been known to use junk to get me off methadone. XD

What I wanna know and want you to think about though is, once you've put yourself through the process of coming off the methadone, what the fuck d'ya wanna go back onto ANOTHER substitution drug for??

... Like really what is the actual point ? Your body gets habituated to an opiate, yes, and integrates it into the metabolic function, and will react when you withdraw it ; but it's not as though your body needs an opiate the way a diabetic NEEDS insulin.
It's not replacing some vital function that the body can't do without. The body will readjust to its normal state.

You don't talk as though you're still craving a high from it. And the only two sensible reasons I can see for taking any opiate is either for medical pain relief or for personal pleasure. If it's not either then just detox off the damn methadone and get on with your life FFS!

Why shackle yourself indefinitely to a purposefully maintained physical dependence when this provides no pleasure and relieves no physical issue? Why complicate your life that way? This makes no sense to me. Unless you've formed some psychological attachment to the idea of being a patient who constantly needs to be on SOMETHING.
 
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The UltimateFixx said:
All of the above sounds like good advice and I couldn't give you better; I mean you 're supposed to use methadone to get you off the junk, but I've been known to use junk to get me off methadone. XD

What I wanna know and want you to think about though is, once you've put yourself through the process of coming off the methadone, what the fuck d'ya wanna go back onto ANOTHER substitution drug for??

... Like really what is the actual point ? Your body gets habituated to an opiate, yes, and integrates it into the metabolic function, and will react when you withdraw it ; but it's not as though your body needs an opiate the way a diabetic NEEDS insulin.
It's not replacing some vital function that the body can't do without. The body will readjust to its normal state.

You don't talk as though you're still craving a high from it. And the only two sensible reasons I can see for taking any opiate is either for medical pain relief or for personal pleasure. If it's not either then just detox off the damn methadone and get on with your life FFS!

Why shackle yourself indefinitely to a purposefully maintained physical dependence when this provides no pleasure and relieves no physical issue? Why complicate your life that way? This makes no sense to me. Unless you've formed some psychological attachment to the idea of being a patient who constantly needs to be on SOMETHING.
Click to expand...

You used heroin to get off of methadone? Seems like it could work in theory. Yet I once developed a nasty tar habit on top of a large daily methadone dose. Its mind boggling to think you can go through severe heroin withdrawal while on 380mg/day of methadone. The only time I've ever experienced opioid withdrawal that caused open eye hallucinations, I frankly thought that was a myth. In any event combining the two can lead to multiple habits.
 
Ah you see, it was like this :

In the hopes of getting me off junk I was being put on the maximum 'blocking' dose of methadone - like where IF ya try to take junk on top of the methadone, ya won't feel a thing.
(Talk about blatant behavior modification, ffs, yet they like to pass that off as 'treatment'. )

So I spent a couple weeks just buying a load of junk with whatever cash I had and just storing it up. At the same time was reducing the methadone intake (I'd played the system well enough by then to be given the take - home option).

I would simply decant any methadone I wasn't using into a spare bottle but keeping it all strictly measured, ie the amount of what I'm PRESCRIBED to use and what I'm actually TAKING.

I sold off the spare methadone to buy more junk from the proceeds.

And I just gradually replaced the percentage of methadone with an equal percentage of junk, then less methadone but more junk, in an overall 'opiate equation' bit by bit to balance out the effects.

This went over 4 months and involved a lot of mathematics for keeping the dosage straight, but it worked to take me off the methadone with a minimum of discomfort.
The most difficult part in fact was foregoing any recreational use of heroin (ie I did not get high once inside those 4 months) in favour of treating it as just a balancing agent.
 
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