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On methadone clinic for 5 years, want off, and am so lost in what to do and no one has been able to give me answers!! i NEED help!
I have been on a methadone clinic now for 5 years. I was at my highest does of 215mg and i am now down to 52mg but i am having a very hard time going down any further! i have done everything i am suppost to do on this clinic i havent used any illicit drugs in 5 years and have done my biweekly counseling and everything that implies! I want to get off! but the clinic doesnt want you to get off so they tell you what they can to keep you on. I have called alot of places for detox and i havent been able to find anyone who will accept me into there programs. now i have a few questions. Do you know of any place that will accept methadone detoxs? Have you heard of Rapid detox and what do you think? I am 26years old and have a 3 and 1/2 year old son. I want another child but dont want to be on methadone! i am so depressed with myself that i was stupid enough to use in the first place to get myself in this situation! i want to be able to wake up everyday not sick and live a "normal" life! i know i am ready to live a life without methadone but need some serious help on what the heck to do! please help!!
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Rapid detox has been largely discredited-- although you would never know it from the advertisements. For ten grand, you miss a tiny amount of the misery of detox. They put you under general anesthesia, and infuse naloxone, then implant chips of naltrexone before waking you. Studies have looked at the misery rating scales of people with rapid detox vs simple 'cold turkey withdrawal', and found that the difference was completely insignificant. The reason is because even after that first day, the person still has a month of misery-- even if naltrexone was implanted on the first day. It simply takes time for your body to come back to normal, with or without the 8 hours of naloxone infusion.
The main thing to be aware of is that relapse rates are high after maintenance therapy with either methadone or buprenorphine (Suboxone). That is why both are usually continued for a long time; nobody things they will relapse, yet almost everybody does.
If you are older than thirty, your risks of relapse are lower. If you have NO using friends, no using contacts, no way to find junk, a non-using spouse, a good job, plenty of hobbies and good things in life... your chances for staying sober are higher. If the answer to any of those things is no, then your risk of relapse is higher.
You can apply pressure on your center to get them to keep working you down. Or you can change over to Suboxone, which is often tolerated better, and the rules for taking it are looser (I give stable patients scripts for a couple months at a time).
Bottom line-- if you go off opioids, you will experience withdrawal. Go to my profile and check out the forum I produce, where everyone is committed to to educating each other.
Good luck!
The main thing to be aware of is that relapse rates are high after maintenance therapy with either methadone or buprenorphine (Suboxone). That is why both are usually continued for a long time; nobody things they will relapse, yet almost everybody does.
If you are older than thirty, your risks of relapse are lower. If you have NO using friends, no using contacts, no way to find junk, a non-using spouse, a good job, plenty of hobbies and good things in life... your chances for staying sober are higher. If the answer to any of those things is no, then your risk of relapse is higher.
You can apply pressure on your center to get them to keep working you down. Or you can change over to Suboxone, which is often tolerated better, and the rules for taking it are looser (I give stable patients scripts for a couple months at a time).
Bottom line-- if you go off opioids, you will experience withdrawal. Go to my profile and check out the forum I produce, where everyone is committed to to educating each other.
Good luck!
Oh and I experienced no WITHDRAWALS at all just the weakness,which just made me sleep..they sent me home with some meds and I was able to call the doctor all hours of the night and he would talk to me no problem...even though i have relapsed i will NEVER touch methadone again.
I actually did the rapid detox,paid over 10,000..I was supposed to be on maintence for 6months with a taper...everyday i went in they kept telling me i had to go up,even threatned to throw me off the program..no dirty urines, i was comfortable..my counsler kept saying up,up til I was 120mgs a day...next thing i know almost 3yrs went by...my brother looked into rapid detox and said to do it...there are ups and downs...i mean i was so weak i couldnt get out of bed for a month. My mother had to do everything for me..I had gained weight on the methadone so my body felt even more heavy because the methadone numbed me...but i have to say i personally would choose to be weak,and tired for a month or so than feel withdrawal symptoms...I have had clean time,relapsed..and Ive used suboxone and never had a problem getting off the suboxone. But everybodys different.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Dear nervouswreck, if you want to know more about Rapid Detox, please look at my blog, or my expert page. It has a lot of information. My partner and I have seen success after success and I would not put my medical license, my patients, my morals and ethics in jeopardy if I did not believe in the process and its success.
i was on such a high dose 4 years ago when i was pregnant.. i was at only 30mg until i had to keep increasing my dose because of my pregnanct. its been 5 years since i have used anything and altough methadone maintence has helped me so much i am def ready to get off and rapid detox not getting off of methadone quickly it is a treament that you undergo thru general anestetia.... but today i decided to speak to my counselor again and i decided to drop 5mg every week for 10 weeks unless i am uncomfrotable and in that case i can stop my dose at anytime until i am stable. i want to be off of everything atleast a year before having another child and that is why i want to do this the right way and not take it fast. my son is going to be 4 and i have continued to be stable and do the right thing not only for me but for him as well! i know i made a good choice for myself at the time i went in the clinic i just wish i knew all the info before starting the clinic so i wouldnt have been so blindsided when i wanted to get off! well thanks for ur support and info!
Hi
I certainly understand your dilemma but have u really thought this through? Why were u on such a high dose to begin with? Well first of all a clinic can't force u to stay on they can give u excuses out the wazoo but in the end its your life and u just have to stick to your guns. If they refuse u just tell them I don't want to but if u will not comply with my wishes that u will have to contact CARF or in my state of Ohio ODADIS. Carf is the accreditation committee if u get nowhere with them u go to the state level. What u don't want is a rapid detox u don't want to end up using again. I've been clean 20yrs and still on MMT and I know as strong as I am coming off to fast would cause me to relapse. Don't let the fact your feeling fine today influence your thinking for tomorrow the lower u get the more you may or may not feel the effects of with drawl. I would take my time coming off the 52mg the slower u do it the less u will feel the with drawl. If u want to have another baby I would make sure u are off and will not relapse. U have 1 child u need to make sure u are stable before u have another. I know of no place that would take u at 52 mg for detox sorry. I wish u all the best if u need to talk I'm more than glad to give u any input I may have. Again GOOD LUCK ......Lindsay
I certainly understand your dilemma but have u really thought this through? Why were u on such a high dose to begin with? Well first of all a clinic can't force u to stay on they can give u excuses out the wazoo but in the end its your life and u just have to stick to your guns. If they refuse u just tell them I don't want to but if u will not comply with my wishes that u will have to contact CARF or in my state of Ohio ODADIS. Carf is the accreditation committee if u get nowhere with them u go to the state level. What u don't want is a rapid detox u don't want to end up using again. I've been clean 20yrs and still on MMT and I know as strong as I am coming off to fast would cause me to relapse. Don't let the fact your feeling fine today influence your thinking for tomorrow the lower u get the more you may or may not feel the effects of with drawl. I would take my time coming off the 52mg the slower u do it the less u will feel the with drawl. If u want to have another baby I would make sure u are off and will not relapse. U have 1 child u need to make sure u are stable before u have another. I know of no place that would take u at 52 mg for detox sorry. I wish u all the best if u need to talk I'm more than glad to give u any input I may have. Again GOOD LUCK ......Lindsay
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