Partners Methadone addiction - how do I help??!

[emmie23]

My partner has just admitted to me that he has been taking methadone for the last 2 months. He says about 70mg a day but I'm not sure if he is being honest about that, it may be more. He wants to stop and tried to go cold turkey at the weekend. He lasted a day and caved in. He said the pain was too much. I've said I won't stay if he doesn't stop but he says he has to cut down slowly to give him the best chance. I'm so worried about him, his ashma has come back and he has difficulty breathing, he says he will try cold turkey again this weekend but I'm worried that just stopping could be dangerous? I don't know what to do to help?

[Penelope14]

My personal opinion is that 70mgs or more? Is much to high of a dosage to be trying to go cold turkey off of, this is why many fail at their attempts to get off methadone, not all, but some. I recomend that he titrates down to a lower dose, then try to break free from methadone. This is a hard drug to come off of, it takes way longer to detox off methadone versus other opiates & can be quite a challenge to recover from, but can be done, many people including myself have made it off methadone & got their lives back. Making verbal threats that your gonna leave if he doesnt get off methadone wont help him, it actually may make things worse, so let him know that you are gonna be with him & fully support him, it is a well known fact that people who have a strong support system in place have a much higher chance of getting clean, & staying clean. Also, this forum is a great place to come & talk to others who are in a similar situation, so maybe you should recomend him joining this forum? Good Luck To You, Penelope

[shelly750]

There are a lot of people that go cold turkey I myself have tried more than 10 times (vicodin) 30 plus a day.  I could never make it past a few days and the withdrawals got the best of me and I'd go score some pills just so I wasn't sick anymore.  I ended up doing a 5 day stay at a detox center and I've been clean for 14 days today which is a real record for me!!!  Theres a lot of people that have done it on their own I'm sure some of them will be around to leave a comment for you.