What about Methadone???

    My wife is doing 3 40's Oxy's now and is waiting to go on the methadone.She has to wait til maybe june to get the methadone.Will this work for her,she wants to get off of all of it in a year.Can that happen or will she be on methadone for the rest of her life.She is 55 year of age and has been doing oxy's for three years plus doing Perts for the last 7years.The perts is getting from a doctor and get 75 a months.Please will someone give me some feed back

[ang_811]

I can tell u from my experience at the methadone clinic is good. I was out of control with my pill addiction. I got a sense living my life. Not always having to worry bout having enough of pills for the next day. I sorta got a normal feeling back.  Make sure she does her research on the methadone. I was on it for 2 years and when I started to get off of it I found it was Lot harder then anything I ever went thru so within the past 2 weeks I switched overto suboxone which works alot better for what I want from it. I'm already tappering from it and it's much easier then methadone.But everyone is different. Just have her do her research. That's what I did and that's how I found that suboxone was the right choice for me.

[nuredshuz]

i think going on methadone from doing oxys and percs is going from the frying pan into the fire... she ought to try to taper off of the pills or talk to a doctor about that... methadone is WAY stronger than percs or oxys... its also WAY harder to get off of... it will take her months to feel better from detoxing from meth rather than a few weeks of being uncomfortable from detoxing off pills... just my opinion and since you asked... i told it.. best of luck tho... :)

[ang_811]

I agree with nuro also. If I had all the info I have now ba k then I'd have done differently. But what's done is done. The clinic did help me get my life organized alot better. From my ezpereince I tried tapper off methadone and it was very hard. Much harder then when I tried to quit pills cold turkey. Like I said make sure she does her research.

[worried878]

she is doing oxy...120 mgs...and percs??? how many or mgs per day?

Not huge..unless the perc dose is huge.....oxycontine and percs are the same narcotic...just a slow acting and a fast acting with tylenol

Is she snorting her oxy????  Is she swallowing it???...lots comes into play
Methadone and suboxone can become a lifetime thing..or not..it can be used like sub to ease wds and stopped within 2-3 weeks..or used for months..tapered down and experience wds u woulda experienced in the first place from an oxy taper...or worse/and probabaly worse
Not much to go on..not sure if she is mentally or ohysically addicted?   alot needs to be from within her
but u r a sweetheart for posting here in here behalf...can she post?

[itsmeagainmargaret]

Pray for deliverance,
After several overdoses myself,  
I have come to the conclusion that dying from your Addiction will send you straight to hell.You live in that prison because you choose to.
Very near death I have seen the Demons come for me,I have felt their grasp,I called the name of Jesus and was saved.
I cherish each breath I take.I have been clean & sober for a good while now.
Methadone is just another Prison/
Find her a faith based REhab/Find a good church/Remember the next breath you take could be your last

[petroglyph54]

I'm no expert, but have an experience to share. I was taking up to 100mg a day for a year of Methadose, which some argue for or against it being methadone. It was prescribed for chronic pain and then the manufacture decided they didn't want it prescribed for pain and I was switched to oxycotin 80 mg with 5-30mg for breakthrough pain, I don't like any of it, including the pain. The wafer's of Methadose, I think can be dialed down or up very accurately if trying to taper whereas the oxy's are pill's and arn't supposed to be broken, and are a time release thing. People here say the wd's are worse from methdose, I don't know they are all kinda like hell to me?

[bmdad]

I don't think I have ever seen a post saying oxy withdrawals are worse. Most agree that methadone is one of the toughest out there.
Has she tried to taper off the oxy's? I have heard that we aren't suppose to give out taper advice but I think if I were in her shoes I would drop the oxycontin and use the percocet to taper. Has she talked to her doctor about tapering off the pain meds? There are meds out there such as clonodine to help with withdrawals once she is at the end of tapering.
Have her come on here and post on her own for support. She will get some wonderful advice and some outstanding support!

Brian

[bmdad]

I'm sorry...I misread your post...my bad. I see that you said most people say that methadone withdrawals ARE worse. I apologize for misreading. It's past my bedtime! I do agree all withdrawals are bad!

[Htownnofrown]

I was on up to 400 mg/day of oxy and I can tell you firsthand I am so glad I didnt go to any methadone or suboxone matainance plan. the wd's are bad but who hasnt had a bad stomach flu at least once in their life. I didnt want to have to go through years or more pills and wd's that lasted 2 to 3 times longer. also, I was just really ready to get clean. Good Luck to you and your wife!

[PoochieRachetToe]

Cold Turkey is quite doable. Uncomfortable, but very doable. I would not make that transition. Just prolonging your desired end result.

[gnarly_1]

HI...after being on methadone for 6 1/2 yrs I got to say I wouldn't recommend it to anyone
the withdrawals are horrific from it when its time to get off...your wife would be much better off tapering off the oxy then trying to get off the methadone when it comes time...methadone withdrawals are drawn out because of the long time it takes to taper off it....it took me 8 1/2mo to do it...even a bad pill habit can be done in a 1/3 of that time
methadone was designed to be used in a worst case only scenario after trying to break free from the pills on multiple attempts..im a day shy of 6mo clean and it took most of that time just to get back to normal...your body bounces back from the pills a lot quicker tell her to speak to her dr about tapering off...it will be uncomfortable but it will be much ezer then having to do a methadone detox..I hope this stears you in the right direction...good luck and God bless.....Gnarly  

[sickofit586]

       Yes she is snorting them,plus she is doing 120mgs. of the oxy's everyday. She gets the perts 75 per month and does them in 5 days. The doc. gives her the perts but the oxy's are of the street.We live in a little town but they are so easy to get.LoL its not funny but she as a delivery service.He comes every night and she pays him every two weeks.We are broke and I mean broke. Its started just to do our garden she has a Bulging dics and arthritis.So a friend said to her hell I know a guy that sell oxy's and their we were.She is 55 years old and didn't think that she would be a druggy. we have tried non medical detox but she only lasted about 2 the first time 2.5 days the second.I am telling you this because it just feels right to get it of my chest.She really wants this badly.She works everyday 6 days aweek.When she is on oxy's you wouldn't know,she is a hard worker into house cleaning + homecare.I want her to is her doc. but she is afraid of telling him so she went to another doc. to try a get in the methadone program and he is going to help her.But the problem is she as to wait til June to start and i think that she should try and taper down but she doesn't want to do that.So when she gets home I am going to show her what ya'll wrote and maybe it will sink in.Thanks again for the words of advice  Your new friend sickofit586

[sickofit586]

             Thanks for that you make alot of sense,I believe thats the best way, I am going to do some begging  Thanks again my new friend  Sickofit586

[PoochieRachetToe]

Your second to last post tells me she is just feeling the need to be on something and quite possibly afraid to be without. It appears through others post she is just going to get worse to try and start getting better. If you were to ration out her pills, its the same as a clinic tapering her. Now, can you get her to surrender control of the pills and can you realize that you need to kindly ask the delivery boy to forget your address? Those are two tasks that should be in your near future.

[mr.lucky66]

Methadone can stabalize her but know that this is harm reduction or replacement therapy. Her life will probably get much better on methadadone but it comes at a price, she could be hooked for life on methadone. It can work out for some people and be disaterous for others. all the best

[AKAmildred]

i am an advocate for methadone for some people but I think she should avoid it and taper off the pills first. methadone is really hard to get off of.i have  been on it for12 yrs. and see no future without it right now. It saved my life and i was down to 15 mm a year ago with out problems but went back to heroin and had to raise my dose again. Methadone mintanence should be used for only severe addicts that have failed many times to get clean

[mr.lucky66]

That's right. I don't really like to give drugs like methadone that much credit for "saving lives". These "replacement drugs" can be valuable tools but too many people get stuck on them for life.