Methadone question. Withdrawls

[johnnyboy187]

Hello I am a 32 year old male currently on methadone. I started taking methadone about 7 years ago after my whole youth (15-25) addicted to heroin. I am trying my very hardest to get off this. I started my dose at aprox. 70ml daily. I am now down to 11ml and I am starting to feel the withdraws and cold sweats more and more.I have went from 40ml to 11ml daily in last year.Drinking half at 9am and half at 9pm. Drinking it all at once i start to feel sick at bedtime. Some days it is extremely bad and others i feel fine 100%. Lately I am out of shape and have been getting no exercise. The pain in my back and stomach  are unbearable at times. I am very constipated with bowel movements once every 2 weeks or so. The bowel movement is small at the least. Could the constipation be making the methadone not absorb properly on days? Today in particular I feel like I haven't even taken my dose. I even drank a little more than i am supposed to.15ml today.Leaving me short for the end of the week.I have taken dose sometimes at half strength and i feel fine all day.

My main question is how can i make my life better with no symptoms. I was wondering if i went down to 5ml day, quit and then took some other kind of opiate for a few weeks might this help? I am not to keen on what to ask my methadone doctor for what type of sleep or prescription drugs to ask for. I have been taking urine samples every 2 weeks for the last 2 years and nothing has ever come up besides a benzo i took from the dentist. I really hate feeling this way and i dont want to slip one day because i am feeling too sick. IF i quit would taking 25mg morphine a day for a few weeks get me off this?. When i was on heroin before and i did quit for 9months. I was taking Methadone, Morphine,Valium and every other drug i could find off the street and just sat home for a month and it worked. Then i quit when the pills. I didn't use again for nine months. Circumstances and people i was still hanging around made it difficult to stay clean. I have moved location 3 years ago, not associating with anybody in the drug scene and I have a better attitude. I need this addiction to be gone. I cant goto work on it. Money is getting scarce and the job I have waiting I need to be away for 3-9weeks at a time. Doctor tells me he cant give anybody carries that long due to law on a regular basis.Even though I seen people on 200ml day get week carries and my carry for 3-9weeks wouldn't even top that amount in their bottle by half. It is a new year and my last year resolution was to be off this drug.I wanna kick this fast this year.

thank you for taking the time and reading my horrible grammar. I would appreciate if somebody would answer one or all the questions I have listed in my post.Have a happy new year

[dominosarah]

I just want to say hi.....i dont know the answers to your question but there is a few on here that will.  Your grammar is just fine.......dont worry about that.  sara

[christos24]

unfortunately w/ methadone there really is no way to get rid of the wd symptoms...the only way to have minimal discomfort is to slowly over a period of months at your own pace and medically supervised like a program plan and taper off, thats the only, yeah benzos, clonidine, soma, baclofen, and anti-nauseas meds will aid the wd process but done wds are by far way way worse than any other opiate ever...going to another opiate is playing with fire and asking for a relapse i wouldnt risk it....and you would still have discomfort ive tried it many times....just slowly taper down your mls really really slwoly like every few days or once a week dont go to fast go at your own pace even if it takes a year the less wds the better...if you got down to 20 mgs you could not take a dose for 24 hrs. wait 6 more hours and start suboxone treatment that will get rid of all physical and mental wds and its a little easier to get off of since it has ceiling dose 32mgs a day which i was at and last longer generally 2 days and you get a months prescription from a doc so thats nice instead of a clinic everyday...thats an option,..the constipation wouldnt cause problems w/ absorption, its all in your head or it could be a OTC med you forgot that you took some OTC or even prescription meds decrease the elvels of the done and make it weaker and last shorter..let me know if you have anymore questions-christos

[kim715]

Hi and welcome to the forum.I was on methadone for a little over a year.I went cold turkey off of 25 mgs and I now have a little over 300 days clean.I couldn't do the taper.I tried twice,but I stayed so sick for so long,I went back up both times.The third time I got to 25 mgs and just jumped.I'm not going to lie,it was rough.The first 2 weeks were the worst.The third and fourth week were better.By week six,things were starting to be good.For how rough the detox was,it was 100 times more worth it to be completely drug free and have my life back.I don't have an answer for you about the things you could ask your doctor for to help.I didn't use anything.And the problems with constipation you are having could very well be directly related to the methadone.Thats one of the more prominent side effects.Try a stool softener for that,not a laxative,a stool softener.
You have come to a great place for help and support.If you ever want to talk,I'm here.All the best.....Peace...Kim

[worried878]

best to taper off of the methadone and like said..there is no painless way to quit drugs...u are doing great...some do switch over to another narcotic to get off methadone but u would have to be so careful as our history would tend to lead us to abuse the narcotic u taper with..some switch over to sub..either way or any way you do this u will have to taper and get off of narcotics eventually in order to be clean..the narcotic u switch to could become a new problem and u could go in circles if not careful..what does your dotor think?

[johnnyboy187]

Thank you for all your wonderful advice. I am happy to see people will help. i am actually interested in this suboxone treatment someone mentioned. I asked my methadone doctor tofor some ativan to help me sleep. I have in this time completely halved my dose.I am doing this without doctors knowledge. Going from 10mls to 5mls makes me feel just as uncomfortable as drinking 10.  For the last 3 weeks i have just drank 5mls in the morning and usually an ativan 2mg(benzo) to put me out all night. Some nights i will not take an ativan but a Tylenol 3 instead. I try not to use the benzo or the codeine pill every day. I will off  suit 3days with 1 day benzo/2nd day T3 or 2/ 3rd day i will smoke half a marijuana cigarette. I have never really been a big pot smoker in my life. Ive always hated it, but i have noticed around bedtime when i usually had mt other half my dose it takes my mind of the WD symptoms and then i can fall asleep. Usually when i do smoke some marijuana (around 10pm or so) ill fall asleep around 12 and wake up at about 6-7am feeling very sick. I try to hold off till about 9am to drink my does to keep it scheduled. Now that i am at 5mls per day(with help) how long should i stay at this point. Also if i get down to 1mls daily for like a month will the withdraws from 1mls be just as bad as when i tried 120mls cold turkey.
thanks- john

[joe979]

IVE BEEN TAKING METH EVERY OTHER DAY, OR TWO DAYS, FOR TWO MONTH, 50MI, HOW LONG WII IT TAKE FOR ME TO BECOME ADDICTED

[joe979]

how many days would it take to become addicted, takeing 50mim, every other day, or two days

[kim715]

If I had to take a good guess I would say about a month ago.Methadone has a really long half life,so even if you don't take it every day,it's still in your system.Why are you taking it?I assume since you're not taking it everyday that you're not going to a clinic.Are you getting it off the streets?Are you taking it solely for the high or are you trying to overcome an addiction to something else? Either way,you're playing with fire here.I hope you stick around here and read as much as you can about this drug.I was on methadone for almost 2 years,trust me you REALLY need to know what you're getting yourself into here before you regret it dearly.Keep posting....Kim

[setyourselffree77]

Good luck with methadone, it is one of the trickiest of the opiates. I was on it for 3 months out of the scheduled 6 to try and deal with an addiction to vicodin. I was physically dependent within a week. I was so sick the whole time I was on methadone, bowel movements once a month and vomiting every day. For this reason I attempted to come off of 60 mg/day cold turkey. If you must come off, taper off at no less than 3 weeks because the cold turkey was HELL. I had mild w/d symptoms the whole tapering process and for several weeks after. Klonopin helped me to sleep, but before long I was back on vicodin to deal with lasting repercussions from methadone use. Again, I was only on for 3 months, and in my opinion I traded a dependence on vicodin for a dependence on (synthetic) heroin. Still struggling with opiate use, but in my experience methadone treatment should not be entered into lightly. I will regret forever putting that into my system. I had already finished my detox and withdrawal from vicodin when I was put on methadone, and wish everyday I had just stuck with it instead of being lulled into a false sense of recovery by the people at the methadone clinic. Please tread carefully here, methadone use is VERY hard on your body. You will not come out of the experience "better" or "recovered". Again, only my opinion....

[KLM_81]

Just wanted to extend my best wishes that you reach your goal of quitting Methadone entirely. I can say that while taking another opiate could possibly help, it's not the best idea in the world. You would have to be SERIOUSLY committed to weaning off of it as well. If done right though, the withdrawls wouldn't be as bad as Methadone. Morphine is short-acting, and w/d's off of it aren't as lengthy and horrible. It's still dancing with the relapse demon though.  Time has proven that the best way to detox off of MMT is do a long slow taper. I don't know your whole story, but you may be setting your goals way too high, and putting too much pressure on yourself. Possibly setting yourself up for a letdown. I'm on Methadone replacement also and plan on trying to stop entirely. (I was up to 140 mgs, and have slowly worked my way down to 80 mgs. When I went down to 60 mgs too soon, I had terrible night sweats.) But I have also realized that I might need to bee on it for a very long time. I have really worked the program the way it's intended, and also go to NA. I have no desire to get high and don't on my dosage, but I think I may the type that will just always crave opiates if there's not any in my system. And right now my will may not be enough. I was clean completely for nine months, but one day I just couldn't fight it, and started using again at twice the rate as before I quit. But hopefully you're a stronger-minded person than I. It's wonderful that you have so much desire to be completely clean, and because of that you do stand a chance of doing it. I can't tell you how though. But you'll always be able to come to this site for support. We all can relate to each other, because we've all been there. Best of luck to you, friend!

[steveo30]

i agree completely

[amzy22]

For almost 2 yrs I did meth every day from age 16-17, and one day it caused me and my bf to get into a really big fight, so we flushed about a gram of dope, and never did it again. I've always been the "experimental" type so it wasn't soon after that I realized, hey, I can take prescription medication, and its not as dangerous or addictive, to get that speedy feeling! So I started taking methadone, 10-30 mgs a day. Not as much as you, and only for a about year. I woke up one morning and I decided that I didn't want to take it anymore. I just wanted to live my life normally, and have natural energy again. I lasted one day. I was 20 years old and I had to call my mother to help me. I went 8 days, no work, sweating, shaking, I had horrible muscle spasms, very weak! I thought that since I could quit taking meth like THAT, that no little prescription pill could ever hurt me. I lost a lot of things bc of methadone. And there's no easy way to get over the side effects and withdrawls. I was lucky...I was taking a low enough dose that doctors said to just quit taking it and deal with the withdrawls. It took me 2 or 3 months before I actually felt like I had my own energy!

I feel for you...and I wish you the best of luck. I know a lot ab medications bc I once messed with it here and there. Weining yourself off of the drug is the best way to go with methadone. You could even try something like hydrocodone or purcs. They are also opiates but not as strong as morphine and all that. But horrible for your liver, of course, like everything else. You could literally make out a written plan to how much each day you are going to take, and slowly lower the dose. It could take a while, but Im the type of person that would have to have a "getting off of methadone calander" or something of that nature. That way you can also see you progression in getting better. Dont taper too much too fast.

You sound like you know what you need to do to get yourself better.

*Believe you can do it, and you can do it*