any councilors or nurses that can help with methadone withdrawal?

[Imdonewithit]

Hi, so i'm slowly weaning myself off of this nasty methadone that I've been off and on with for 12 years., the last 3 mos , I've weened from 5 ml to 2 1/2 ml. the 2 1/2ml started today. 1 in the morning and 1 1/2 ml at night. I plan to do it for 2 weeks then jump down to 1 total. is there a nurse or councilor that can help answer the questions if the withdrawal will still be severe or minimal since i'm doing it slowly? please reply, i'm on pins and needles just thinking about withdrawal.

[EasyE74]

Long story short here people: Tapering off methadone rapidly (beyond my control, other option is cold turkey). The facts are I am 41 years old, opiate addict, been on methadone 2 years. Coming off dose of 130, dose decreased 10 every 2 days. At 80 today. Feeling not so good. I'm scared as what is to come. I know what I'm looking at. I need to know what I can do to ease this oncoming hell. Thomas recipe, a month of suboxone (not certain I could attain either, possible though), amino acids, the otc withdrawal ease pills I've seen advertised, what works? Family no help, see addiction as weakness, character flaw, methadone just another drug. Think withdrawal is completely psychological and just me being selfish and all self pity. So yeah, all alone in a bad place. Facing many complications presently. This is icing on cake. I know I have many factors against me getting through this. Please help me with ANY and all options. From past experience, I know not sleeping from restless leg syndrome will be my biggest hurdle. What can I do? I've never truly felt hopeless before now. I live alone presently.

[atthebeach]

tapering under 5ml doesnt make the detox any easier..
just jump now and start your detox 2 weeks earlier.

[VICourageous]

I have to agree with all the above.
I retired from nursing but I had a 12yr ride with methadone and before that was other opiates..Before that..well lets just say I have been using recreational for over 40yrs off & on. SO this disease can hit anybody and anybody who has a great career too!
This disease does NOT care who you are, but some are lucky and do not have the Addiction brain chemistry.

I could not taper, but I did get the dones down a bit, but I was starting to go way back up. I jumped off 3 meds at once and one was illegal and off the streets. Got so bad that I snorted 2 meds together for the old crank days buzz. Took the 3rd one to come down..What a MESS!!!

Doing a taper should make it a bit less intense. Like Pillguy said, it all depends on your age, health, how many yrs of use and so forth. Make sure you drink lots of fluids and mostly water. Set yourself up with some good vit/min. We can explain which ones will help with sleep & anxiety a bit, and other uncomfortable detox issues we all have had, but like DS said you still will have some w/ds. Eat very healthy and try to build up a great immune system. This will help a bit, as it will help in ridding the toxins. The physical for me was way to long, so I do not want  to even scare ppl on here, but I will say that each day did get better then the day before. It was the Mental that took way over a yr or two, to find a balance. These type of meds change both body and the Chemical makeup of the Brain. The brain has to adjust back after we remove these pills or any substance. Outside SUPPORT is a must. The detox or physical part is over real soon, it is working on staying clean that takes the cake. The whole process of recovery will take some Time and some Patience. Even at almost 31/2 yrs I still struggle with that one.

Stick around and we will walk this road with you all the way. We can give you some more tips along the way too. I wish you the best!
Bless
Vickie

[dominosarah]

There is no easy way out of it, you just have to go thru it.  Dont fear the wd's as this part is only temporary.  Get yourself into some form of aftercare.  You will get thru this~

[pillguy]

I understand your interest in getting information from a trained healthcare professional but ...

In my experience healthcare professionals are woefully ignorant of how to withdraw from opiates.  Gnarly's comments are right on in my opinion.  The physical withdrawal is hard but it's short.  1 - 3 weeks, depending on length of time using, amount used, age and individual differences in people in general.  As for longterm recovery, I tell people to expect 1 year minimum for full recovery.  This was the hardest part for me - The ongoing work to deal with the lack of energy and sleep.  I'm one year clean from Subs and I still notice improvement.

I think the best info available is from those who have walked the walk.  Gnarly has literally thousands of posts written over several years based on his personal walk to sobriety.  As for advice about how to withdraw from dones, his advice is as good as it gets.

[gnarly_1]

Hi  welcome to the forum....well I was on the crap for almost 7yrs at 150mg  it took me 8 1/2 month to ween down to 0....the withdrawal was still tuff the phyical part lasted for around 2 weeks but the energy crash and the inability to sleep took months...it is not so much the severity of the withdraw from lower doses...but the length of time for recovery  it was about 90 days b/4 I started to get well  with a 12 yr habit it wont be ez but it will be so so worth it ...just know there is life after methadone we can help you threw it so keep posting  let me know if you have any questions I have helped a lot of people get off this drug...........Gnarly.......................