Methadone withdrawal verse suboxone.

[Cat0607]

I am on 8mg of methadone and looking to switch to suboxone to get off the methadone. Any advice? I'm afraid I'm moving from one bad to another. I'm a single parent have to work and can't be hurting for weeks at a time from withdrawal

[pillguy]

You don't need to be in a hurry.  A long slow taper will allow you to maintain your work responsibilities and be a good mom.  Opiate recovery is a long-term task.  It took us a long time to get addicted and it takes a long time to recover.

[pillguy]

I've used Suboxone.  I successfully tapered and have been clean for around 9 months.  With that said I'd probably stay with the methadone.  You are on a relatively low dose.  Subs are extremely powerful.  They are very hard to get off of.  

There are some things that make subs more convenient.  It's almost always easier to get take-home doses of Subs than dones.  Subs don't give you as much, if any, of the opiate glow, which aids in your reward system recovery.

You'll need to make your own choice.  If I was making the decision, I'd stay on your current treatment.

[VICourageous]

Hello & Welcome to the Forum.
I know it has been a few hrs since anybody replied. I just wanted you to know they we do come & go in waves here. Keep checking this same post and they will chime in.

I was prescribed my Methadone for pain for around 12yrs and before that was the oxys/hydos. I went c/t after I got down to 30mg with 2 other meds on top.
We do have some members on here that did go from the Methadone to the Subs. The Dr wanted me to do this and I did for only a few days and stopped. I just did not know enough about the Subs and did them SO wrong...BUT I made it without them.
We also have SO many who came off the Subs..Either way these 2 are very synthetic and do hang around for while. These 2 also hit the same Brain Chems and their are at least 10 I found so far, but I know their are more. This is why detox will take some Time and Patience for the Brain/Body to bounce back. Some come back faster then others. There are many factors that play here, like age, health, how long one has used, how many mg in a day, how many drugs one has come off of. A cocktail of drugs makes it a bit harder.

In my opinion, I would just try to taper down a bit more and then get off at a lower dose. The Subs are good if you want to work with a Dr under a maintenance program, but they also use Methadone for this too. Like, if you are going to use it to give you time, while you are working with some counseling, meetings, therapist or so forth.

Do you get the Methadone prescribed for pain and or the clinic?
I never went to the clinic to get mine for other drug use, but I did get help and still do with outside Support for Drug Abuse, as I have been clean for over 3yrs now.

If you decide to get off the Methadone and not go on Subs, we sure can help you get through each stage of detox. We have all kinds of Tips on things that will help a bit. However, w/ds will still be here, but maybe not as intense or long if you taper slow. Most of us could not do it this way. There are ways to get help on a Taper, however we can not give Taper advice, like how much to drop or so forth on this site.  I can tell you to let the Brain/Body adjust to each drop. Even at 8mg this is NOT a high dose. The detox state will also depend on how many yrs you have been on it. Either way, I do wish you the best. Stick around and keep checking your post here. If you stay in one for awhile we can follow you better. Welcome Aboard our Ship. Ha! You can do this!!!! Just try to stick it out and come off the Methadone.

PS. Start drinking tons of fluids and mostly water. This will help flush these chems out. Staying Hydrated is the thing. Also,set yourself up with some good vit/min and eat very healthy. Antioxidants are so important right now and so are Protien/Amino-acids. We sure can help you a bit more, if or when you check back and let us know what you have decided to do.
Bless
Vickie