Methadone side effects - any advice?

[sherryb39]

I am 39yrs old and have been on methadone for approx 12-15yrs. This has proven to be the biggest life changing mistake i have ever made. I have not touched heroin for approx 10yrs,but between then and roughly a year ago,i also was addicted to valium,temazepam,and finally crack cocaine. Dont get me wrong i have had many periods in my life when i have been stable for up to 6 and 8 months at a time,totally drug free apart from my methadone,and ive loved it,being and feeling like a "normal" person. Then for whatever reason i start on a 3-6month binge,and everything turns to ****. During these times it was a case of the Doctor saying to me "we could put your meth up,just 'till you recover from your binge". Keep in mind ive not had heroin for years. It was offered as a solution for my addiction to diazepam and temazepam. It was also offered as a solution to my addiction to crack cocain. WHY? At these times of recovering from these binges i do not think i should have been offered bloody Methadone as a quick "this will help you get over your binge". But stupidly i just went along with it because i obviously felt like **** and could not cope,and just wanted to feel better. I wish i had never been offered Methadone. I never noticed any side effects up untill about 2yrs ago. I have every known side effect,but the worst one of all at the moment is excessive sweating. My quality of life is zero. I sweat from head to toe most days all day. I sit with ice ,cold can's of juice sitting on my cheek's,my breasts and my wrists. Ive put on 4st in weight,and i know this wont be helping the situation. I don't know what to do anymore. I won't even hardly go out at all. If i can avoid going out i will. If i have any appointments i start sweating even more and get really paranoid and anxious. This happens all the time,and 90% of the time my mum drives me there and back. I get my methadone in the mornings after my Mum and I drop my wee boy at school and that freaks me out totally as the chemist is just down the street from my son's school,and i start panicking in case any parent's from the school see me going there regularly,and suss what im doing. I can't remember anything these days. Only for my mum,god love her,i would miss any appointments etc ive got. Methadone has totally ruined my life. TOTALLY. So to anyone who reads this and is thinking of taking Methadone,DON'T. Does any one have a solution for these side effects? If so please let me know.

[ready2bfree49]

methadone would have helped me alot if the clinic I went to had actually wanted to help you....wouldn't let you stay "forever" ( that is , as long as you pay..) I was on it for 7 yrs .............It was all good until I tried to come off of it I was on 90 mgs a day tapered down to 20mgs with really no problems then I went to 10mgs and it all changed.....long story short....I just took my first suboxone film.......addiction *****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[atthebeach]

hello sherry and welcome. good for you wanting to reclaim your life. what dose are you at now? methadone is a slow taper. please tell the chemist that you want off the methadone. they will start to taper your dose. it is going to take months to get off it. if the dose gets dropped to much and to quick you will go into withdrawal. the detox from methadone is very rough and long.
methadone definitely causes weight gain and the sweating is another terrible side effect. have you been to counseling and or support groups ?
do you have an exercise plan in place? how is your diet?