Pease post if you can help!

[eliminnopee]

I have been taking prescription pain killers for some time now.  About a year ago I decided to quit for good, but to ease myself off with the use of methadone.  I sorely underestimated the power of this alternate drug.  I did not go through the proper channels to get this drug or info. on it.  Now I am trying to leave it in my past but find it quite difficult to do, more so even than the 8-10 lortab 10's a day.  I am on my fifth day without it.  However, I learned of subuxone just before I started my detox.  I was able to get 5 - 8mg tablets.  I know how to take them as far as dissolving under tongue.  I started with half of a tablet on the start of the 3rd day (4mgs). It works quite good for easing the withdrawal symptoms.  My concern is that I have not done enough research on this med and am going to be dependent on it.  I had weened myself down to 10 - 20 mgs of methadone a day before starting detox and am also worried that I am taking too large a dose of the subuxone.  Can anyone help with how much I should take for how long.  I really need a strong, proper regime to help save my life from this addiction.  Please Help!

                                                             Eliminnopee

[Hopeless27]

You need to talk to hillary5, shes been on subuxone for quite some time. Just go to the message board, find her name in blue, and if you click on it you can send her a personal message.She'll take the time to help you out.

[bettie1976]

ten days of sub. no longer. i started at 4mgs every 12 hours also (i was w/d'ing from percs and vics but a girl i was in detox with was wd'ing from methadone and they gave her the same as me) for a few days. Then 2mg every 12 hours for a day or so. Then 2mgs 24 hours later. If you can figure out a way to make those last 5-10 days and do it like they gave it to me you should be ok.

[bettie1976]

you dont wanna be on sub for more than 10 days. otherwise youll get hooked.

[eliminnopee]

I am off of the methadone now for 6 days.  On the third day I tokk 4mgs of the sub and have done that for two days.  I don't want to be dependent on that either, I was lead to believe that it would ease the w/ds and be a lot more mild to come off of.  I just don't know how many mgs of the sub I should be using and how and when to lower it , then quit all together.  Thank you, any suggestions help.  I know self medicating is a bad thing, just trying the best I can without losing my life (job, family, etc.)  Again thanks for helping you don't know how much it means to have someone help you for the right and not the wrong reasons.
                                                            El

[eliminnopee]

OK... I was starting day 3 when I took 4 mgs of the sub. (half of a tablet).  It is now day 6 and I have taken 4mgs on day 5 and today.  I have 2 - 8mg subs left.  I do not dose in the afternoon just in the morning, so 4mgs is all I have taken all day for the past 3 days.  What dosage should I follow with tomorrow?   Thank you so much for helping me!!

                                                                         El

[beachtowel]

I think what IBKleen is trying to say is your a patient treating a patient and your in troubled waters that may get a little deep to handle.........
Before you take any type of drug you should research or speak with a doctor before you start your own self medicating process.......

As for someone here to help correctly with suboxone treatments FLaddict is probably the most knowledgeable.........

Be very careful and get some answers before you act the best policy I have found in my life is "If you don't know what to do about something do nothing until you do".........

[Savas]

One comment I'll make, is there's no drug substitution you can do (unless you've got the time and money to go somewhere...special...and even hen...) that will spare you the withdrawals totally. Everything you're doing is switching one opiate for another, and think about it logically;

If you're addicted to an opiate, and you take another opiate instead to get off the first...where do you think you'll be in the end?
Addicted...to opiates. Sub's, methadone, vic's, oxy's, codeine's...loratabs...etc...etc... they're all opiates. So you can keep switching back and forth,,,but it's pointless. (Okay, the one exception is most people say that using other opiates to get off methadone is helpful, and I won't agree or disagree with that on. Methadone is...*special*).

Anything you decide to try you should research carefully. I'd advise spending a week or two answering questions about here, reading threads that are relative, and taking it a step further and following up with further research on-line. Question EVERYTHING. Trust NOTHING. Assuming everything is wrong, and then make decisions on what might work based on what feels and seems logical to you. But...be realistic in your conclusions. I meet SO many addicts who rage over what seems like *unfair treatment* due to an *unfair situation*. And right or wrong...it doesn't matter. What matters is you come to terms with the reality of your situation and what you can and can't get done.

I'd guess the only treatment option you can use that you can probably afford time or money wise is a clonidine taper. If you're interested in that, we'll give you the information.

But this WON'T make it discomfort free. It will help alleviate, but not take away the withdrawal symptoms. But it IS better than nothing. I've spent six months researching this, and unless you've got some special source for med's/ money/ travel no one else here has, that's really your only choice.

[wait2long]

i transitioned from methadone to sub, 10 days will not cut it...it takes 30+ days for methadone to rid your body, after 10 days of sub, and the sub is gone from your system, the methadone withdrawals will still be there, i recomend about 3-5 weeks of sub treatment in order to bypass methadone withdrawals, and i think Fladdict  has agreed with me on this one before, and savas is right, methadone is specail, it is not like any other drug you will take or detox from...if you have any questions let me know...

[RRivers]

First of all, I want to congratulate you on your decision to stop taking methadone.  You have made a very important and wise decision.  Being addicted to any drug, and having to depend on it for happiness is not a good thing, because addiction causes the brain to associate happiness with satisfying the addiction.  Hence the mind is fooled into believing that there can be no happiness without the drug that satisfies the addiction.  I can tell you their is happiness without addiction, and that when you experience it, you will know the difference.  By making the decision to stop taking methadone, and go on with your life, you have made a decision that will benefit your body, mind and soul.              

That said, I don't want to burst no bubbles, but I speak from experience.  You need to know what you are facing, because you'll have to face it for some time to come.  I went CT off methadone after taking it for five years for chronic pain, on June 7, 2007. I considered sub, but decided that it was just another addiction that I might have to deal with, and I didn't want to be addicted to anything anymore.  That has been over 120 days ago, and I am still not fully recovered from all of those years I took methadone.  The path has not been an easy one, but I have and never will look back, I know what I choose to do was the only real choice I had.      

If you do some deep research you will find out the truth about methadone, but it will not be on any of the pamphlets put out by the drug companies. here is a couple of links you might want to check out,  http://www.narconongulfcoast.com/heroin-stories.htm,
and this one  http://www.dpeg.org/treatment/methadone_withdrawal.htm

Methadone is a terrible drug, with a very long recovery time.  It is very cheap to make, and then it is sold for several times it's cost.  Said bluntly, it is a big money maker, with a very strong addiction.  Any good drug rehab center will tell you that methadone was the most addicting drug created in the 20th Century.  I have talked with several heroin addicts, who had previously went through heroin withdrawals,and all said that if they had it to do it over, they would have went off the heroin CT,  instead of going on methadone and then having to go through withdrawal from methadone..

Withdrawals usually last 18-20 days, and then you begin to realize that normal is still a long way off.  I recommend that you seek medical attention to help you with this effort.  You need to realize that methadone, has done terrible things to your mind and body, and that recovery will be slow, painful, and at many points along the way very depressing.  Methadone is like no other drug when it comes to withdrawing, and recovering.

I realize that this may all sound very discouraging, and that it may even make you question whether you want to quit or not,  If you think about giving up on quitting, now, then everyday you don't quit, the more damage the methadone will do, and the longer your recovery will be, when you do decide to quit.  So its better that you do it now.  Since your length of time taking methadone is much shorter than mine, I would hope that your recover time would be less, but it isn't going to be easy, and it will most likely take several months for you to feel normal again.

I would again encourage you to seek medical attention from someone who is knowledgeable in methadone withdrawals, you will find their support very important for you in your recovery.              

If I can answerer any questions, be of any assistance to you in your efforts or offer any support as you go through this please feel free to contact me.

I wish you the very best,
as always,
Ren      

[wait2long]

awesome post, i like what you have to say, and i am going to check out the links posted, even though i am no longer on methadone, i still want to learn.

the only thing i have to disagree with you is the withdrawal time, i am sure it is longer than what you said.. iknow a few people that have gone anywhere from 30- 56 days of withdrawals...what do you think?  just curious....

[eliminnopee]

Thank everyone for your help.  I feel I may be a bit misunderstood about my knowledge on the subject.  Just a little background to shed a little more light on my situation.  I, like many others, began my addiction with doctor prescribed meds (120 hydro 10-500).  I found after the pain was gone I still enjoyed the High, so I continued and the abuse began.  Online pharmacies, local dealers, and selling extra scripts to pay for my disease.  I quit cold turkey from 8-10 10s a day and the withdrawals sucked for about 5 to 6 days.  Made it 46 days and went out with some old friends and allowed myself to take one, thinking it would be the only "one".  Before long I was dating the same beast.  I knew a person that was on methadone and they told me they were sympathetic with my situation and wanted to help.  They said methadone would be great to take for the first 5 days to get through the hydro w/ds.  They were right, but through not researching the drug and not getting any info from the "man" I found the methadone was twice as hard to release.  The merry go round went on for the past year.  Now I have to quit, for myself, my health, my state of mind, and generally because this is not supposed to be my life, right?  So, to the suboxone, I am trying to do as much research as I can.  I have found a lot of info from you all.  I am 110% comitted to this as I, as well as all of you, have so much potential to be extraordinary people and I want that.  I am simply using the sub to make the worst part of the withdrawals manageable as I know a w/d free detox is only imaginary. Today, day 6, I took 2 mgs of the sub at 10am and plan to take 1mg @ 7pm.  I will follow tomorrow with 1mg in the am and 1mg in the pm and mon. I will do the same.  Tues. Half in am, half in pm... so on until saturday then I will be done with that and face the remainder of my recovery head on.  Thank you all for your concern and trying to help with the different options.  But to day is still day 6 w/o the methadone and I still feel the aching muscles, the joints that feel like my hands are being filled with warm foam, the restless legs theloss of sleep.  I couldn't imagine how bad this stage would be without a little relief with the sub.