Xanax

[Dan]

I have been on Xanax - 2mgs a day for 9 years.  In July of this year I started coming off this drug.  Today I am down to .5mgs a day.  But my problem is I can't seem to get any lower. I try to reduce (.37mgs a day) but the withdraw is so bad I go back to .5mgs. Any suggestions on how I can continue reducing the dose without the withdraw?

[Beanie]

Dan,
I don't need methadone myself, but I was wondering what the liquid tastes like?? is it nasty tasting?? I can't take my soma or xanax without drinking it with coke because the pills are so bitter tasting, don't know why they don't put a coating on them..anyways, how is methadone for treating chronic pain? does it work better than other opiates, like vicodin or oxycontin? or do you have to not be able to control your intake of those before you would even be considered for using it for severe chronic pain? Thanks, Beanie

[tom to Dan]

btw: sorry for calling you an sob in my previous post. I guess we're both passionate about the subject and don't hesitate to express ourselves. Besides, both being a ripe 47, I dare say we can handle a few spirited exchanges without wetting our pants. The good and the bad point of bulletin boards and e-mail systems is their fire-and-forget spontaneity.

One question on take homes: are they dispensed in little sealed beakers, like the little coffee creamers, in, say, a MacDonalds breakfast? Sounds like you have to guard those things with your life once you get your week's supply ... I still must admit to not liking the daily reporting aspect of the clinic. I know it's too important to let that stop me, but maybe it would be worth asking about LAAM to cut down on all the commuting. I certainly am looking forward to stabalizing my body chemistry and handling my pain with a safe, clean, reliable solution. I have a phone interview with the director of the Third Street Clinic in Santa Ana on Monday. I'll keep you posted. Take care.

[Frankinscense]

Not in Texas. I am trying to change that perception. I have gone down 75mgm's w/out difficulty just now starting to encounter and having to face issues that went unsolved for twenty years. Detox is no more tricky to myself than any other opiate withdrawal. I am just trying to solve problems that I have had but never truly faced. Dealing with life on its terms is what is tricky not the detox,
Dan

[tom to Dan]

apology acepted ... hey, this methadone detox really does sound kinda tricky. Not having been on a long-acting opiate, I have nothing to compare it to. Do I take it from your post that you can't be board certified in Chem Dep. if you're still on a maintenance drug?

[tom to "oxy" Tom]

the legal aspect of your problem is/was a carbon copy of mine: I had developed a scam for "legally" purchasing boat loads of Vicodin from reputable pharmacies -- all to feed my own habit (I've never sold a pill to anyone in my life). But the quantities were so high, the rx's so numerous that the DA refused to believe I was just feeding my own addiction and insisted on prosecuting me for felony possession with the intent to sell. Making matters worse, the judge said it was the most sophisticated small-scale operation he'd ever seen. In any other circumstances, I would have been flattered. Anyway, one reason I suggested the 90-day house-arrest detox and recovery program is because even some pretty hard nosed DAs will accept this in place of jail time. It kept my ass out of jail and, really, while I'm not the model AA member, in the physical and mental shape I was in at the time, anything less than 90-day residential with morning-noon-and night 12-step meetings just wouldn't have solved anything. I can truthfully say that, while I still have a long way to go, those 90 days taught me more about myself, my disease, why I used and why I had always failed to recover in the past. Those 90 days also gave me my first taste of true sobriety since I was a teenager. Up until that time, I thought sobriety was just withdrawal without the runs.

My heart goes out to you, Tom. With all this on your plate, you're also sole support of your family. I was in the same position and I kept telling myself that, regardless of how much help I needed, I had to "stand and deliver" to keep a roof over my family and milk in the fridge. But you know, it was just more than I could shoulder, no matter how responsible I felt or how much I blamed myself for everything. An hour after my wife left with the kids, I finally just reported to the detox ward, and four days later, the residential group home run by the court-appointed electronic house arrest outfit, and put myself in their hands. All the things I thought would fall apart without me somehow didn't. In my absence, relatives and friends came forward to help my family and I was able to focus on my immediate problem. Because it was an electronic house arrest program, after a few weeks I was able to resume work while living in the group home. Funnily enough, my employer never had a clue any of this was going on.

It sounds trite, but the way I got through that period was by applying the One Day at a Time" principle to everything I did, every single day I was in the program. I don't mean this just in terms of not using drugs, but in coping with all the other challenges I had in front of me. Sometimes, I got through the day by focusing on just the next hour, then the next, and so on. Repairing your life is like building a pyramid: impossible to do when thought of as a whole - but very do-able when attacked block by block by block.

Ask your lawyer about the residential program. Usually, if you don't have anything too bad on your record already, the DA will let you plead down to a suspended sentence with residential house arrest as part of your drug treatment plan. Good luck, my friend. Post anytime you want to talk. I'm usually around and there are plenty of other good folk here with lots of good ideas and more than a few words of wisdom to share.

[John B.]

http://cp.gsm.com/fromcpo.asp  

This is a good site to get drug info. Thanks to who ever posted that for us.


             John B.