Methadone to Suboxin?

So I've been takeing methadon 110mg for about 4 years now.  I'm so sick of paying for it.  I spend 360 a month at the clinic.  I have really good insurance so i'm looking into switching over to suboxin.  Do I really have to dose down to get on saboxin (suboxone)?  I'm scared of the withdrawls.  Has anyone went through this?  I called and the doc said he wanted $1200 CASH and then he would use my insurance??? I need some advice guys.  I'm in Charleston SC.  Does anyone know of a good doctor or facility?  I'm kindof just calling around hopeing for the best.  Is this a good idea?  

[avisg]

you would have to get yourself down between 20 to 30 mgs of meth before switching over to sub .Sub is normally quite a bit more expensive then methadone .If you can get down to 20 or 30 mgs of methadone you might want to skip the sub and keep going down until you get off because if you get on the sub and some point you are going to
have to get off that as well.

[worried878]

agree with avisg...sub is not cheap..usually more than methadone

sub is stronger than methadone mg for mg by far...but due to sub's ceiling effect it will only cover up to 30 mgss of methadone due to the long half life of methadone...in itself/without the long half life..methadone is not a whole lot stronger than hydro or oxy..just sticks around for a while...hydro and oxy can usually be started the next day as ithey have a short half life...wds begin the next day often...a methadone user may have to wait a few days after dosing to go into wds///starting sub and not being in wds will cause u to be sick...sub will throw u into wds if u r not already in wd

doing this under a drs care is best...but if u taper down to 20 -30 mgs of methadone//why not just go on down...like avisg said...sub is just another narcotic that is hard to wd off of and more expensive than methadone,,,not sure why u got on methaone..but switching to another strong narcotic is not always the answer...there r lots of sub stories and methadone stories in the health pages..have u skimmed thru there yet?

keep posting

[salsinator]

Go to naabt.org - there is a list of suboxone docs.  Call around.  Most of them will charge some cash up front, but you should not have to pay any more than about $400 - $1200 is highway robbery.  Don't know about how much your methadone dose will need to be, but from what I have heard, your dose is probably to high to switch to suboxone, I think Worried is correct.