Methadone Side Effects

[gaia227]

Hello all - I was a legal opium addict for about two years.  I say legal because all I had to do was get on Ebay or go down to the local flower district and purchase poppy pods, go home, break them up, steep them, drink and voila.  At the height of the addiction I was using about 40 poppy pods a day to make my tea and had begun using heroin on occaision.  Usually if I hadn't had my tea by around 10 at night I would start to feel the wd symptoms, by midnight it was anxiety, panic, pacing, sweating, puking, hell.  Needless to say I usually had my tea when I got home from work.  I live a double life.  I work at a highly successful real estate firm on Fifth Ave in New York and NO ONE has a clue about my addiction and they would drop over dead if they found out.
Anyway about a month ago I started methadone.  I am on 40mg a day, I need more than that but I am just trying to deal.  I have been taking xanax to help with the anxiety and to help me relax.
For the last three or four days I have been having chest discomfort.  It started as pain just to the left of my breastbone and now has subsided to an ache or a tightness.  This is accompanied by severe anxiety which is partly due to the fact I am freaked out by the chest pain and keep thinking about it and focusing on it.  Because of the anxiety it is hard for me to determine what symptoms are 'real' and which ones are a result of the anxiety i.e. light-headedness, stomach upset, is the continuation of this discomfort simply a result of me thinking about it and focusing on?  You know how you sit and think about your big toe it will start to feel weird?  That's what I mean.

I am only 27 years old.  I am a smoker(god, what opium addict isn't, right?).  I have read in my research that methadone can cause chest pain but I can't really find out why or if it is simply pain or if it is a pre-cursor to something else. I have a hard time accepting that at my age I could be having a heart attack eventhough that is all I can think about.  I have my routine monthly doctors visit tomorrow and I will tell him about this but I am scared he might take me off the methadone and I will be forced to go back.  I won't have a choice.
I am just looking for some insight, opinions, knowledge about methadone side effects.  

I know that a lot of people don't like methadone and everything but it is the right thing for me right now so I am not trying to rude but please, I don't want lectures about how addictive it is and how I would be better of an opium tea/heroin addict.

Thanks for reading this and taking the time to respond, if you do.

[bettie1976]

Towards the end of my addiction I bought some poppy seeds and planted them to make tea....
I also thought about buyint the pods off ebay but didnt have the money to waste if they werent real. I read about this in a hustler mag. seriously. methadone's a bi+ch to kick, have you heard of suboxone?
And your mind is powerful, tell it not to be sick, youll see. I have to tell myself to go to sleep and then breathe.....and i wake up next morning with sleep. huh. never woulda thot. Also there is a nasty bug going around, Ive had it a few days, some here had it longer, but i have bronchitis and my chest feels so tight and owww.....
try looking up suboxone treatment centers. If you can get away from work for 5-10 days thats my best advice. An inpatient detox. good luck

[korn69]

ok im not a doc in any way but i have alot of experiene with anxiety and i would tell you the chest pain you are feeling is an anxiety attack they happen in the chest to the left side sometimes and it feels like your having a goddamn heart attack thats what i thought when it was happneing ot me at 22 i knew it couldnt be a heart attack im healthy whats was wrong with me??? i went to the doc and explained the extreme pressure i had been under and haivng anxity most of my life the last few monhts had been the worst for me he explained hte tighning feeling like the heartattack feeling iwas having was a anxity attack... painful and kinda scary but controlled with xanax. go to your doc still chest pain should never be ignoered but my guess is it has to do with anxiety. i am also taking methadone right now for an exterme oxy addiction ive been in a methadone clinc for just over a moth now and it has saved my life i see alot of people on here have bad ideas about it but what works for one simply may not for another but for me i have found hope that ican actually beat this its been over a moth and i havent had 1 lousy mg of oc compaerd to doing 600 mgs or so as an addict. so good luck to you and i say if the meth is working let it just be careful all drugs can be addictive right... also i wanted to let you know u commented on addicts being smokers i wanted to let you know i quit smoking ciggs... that was around hte same time the anxiety attacks started gee i wonder y...lol but it is possible to kik butts just wanted to slip that in there everyone at the clinic is shocked i dont smoke i htnk theres like 2 other people that dont and thats it lol good luk!!!

[bettie1976]

the reason a lot of people are so negative about methadone is b/c of what its done to so many people. I myself, was in detox with a gurl w/d'ing from methadone, and she had such a freakin hard time. She actually got out same day as me, thot she'd be fine, ended up doing heroin a few days later (which she'd never done) just to get that meth high....thats why *I* hate it.

[Calzy]

As you can see alot of us have or had double agent lifes and you probable read that most who came clean about their issues with over doing the meds, most family and friends were right at their side to help, not that this is your issue here. I used opiates for over 13 years and went on Methadone for 6 moos and i may of had a few pains in my chest that always scared me, but i dont think it was the M'done. I think most of the time i had any pains in my chest were cause by getting stessed out and the muscle tension that comes with it and sometimes when your back muscles get tight it makes your chest hurt, even when you lay down. The dr can do an EKG and see whats going on and will probable tell you to quit smoking, which you might be doing more of lately,  than take you off the M'done. Let us know how you make out.