New poster- but reading the forums have helped me immensely. 4 yr opiate abuser, anything and everything. Self-detoxed a dozen or so times- 1 stint at out-patient program. 1 stint at in-patient 28 day. neither worked. Point of post is hope that someone thinking about going on
methadone "detox" 6 month tour will think twice and DO SOME RESEARCH. This is all just my opinion and personal experience; I am not a doctor, but I play one in the bedroom.
I made the rash (such an addict) decision on my latest "run" that I didn't want to go through heroin withdrawl again, so I made sure that I set everything up at my local methadone clinic before I was close to running out of my stash. At this point I wasn't even using that much around 1/2 gram per day. I figured that I would get on the methadone program, stabilize things in my life, and then slowly ween off the methadone painlessly. I had actually self-weened myself off
norco's (hydrocodone) with success once, pain-free, lots of will power though- so I figured methadone would be about the same. Wrong!
I was only at 40mg/ml liq methadone for approx 3 mos. and it worked great- besides usual side effects. I had started to ween down 1mg every three days until around 20mg. Then I naively said that I wanted to try doing it at 2mgs/day. I got sick of going to the clinic everyday and not feeling like myself. I didn't even feel the 2mg/day drop until around 5mg I finally hit "the wall." I had a sleepless night, sneezing, yawning, dull pain in legs, restless- I figured, "well here we go... it's time to soldier up." After my first night of hell I was the first person at the clinic that morning....should have brought donuts and coffee... first time i wasn't rushing in at noon to get my dose. So I got my big 3mg dose and grabbed a couple hours of sleep and then prepared. Hot baths, vitamins, immodium a/d, herb,
ibuprofen, unfortunately no benzos. I'm now on day 6 of no methadone. Only really had painful physical symptoms for about 24-48 hrs... nothing compared to physical hell of days 2 and 3 of heroin withdrawl. But here lies the methadone trap....... I haven't slept in a week. And I don't feel super awful, but still not "right." I guess no sleep will do that. From everything I've read it sounds like I'm looking at another few weeks with little to no sleep.
I would have never gone on methadone if I had known how hard the withdrawl is.
From what I've read it really doesn't matter a whole lot if you ween or just go cold turkey. It sounds like a real gradual ween helps, but you're still going to have to face a few weeks of feeling like ass. I know wah, wah, wah.... I don't mind facing up and going through the withdrawl, doing my time, but I'm only at a week and already thinking very seriously about getting benzos and i know where that road leads me... back to dope. My experience- heroin,
oxycodone (the quick hitters) withdrawal only lasts a few days and a couple weeks of disturbed sleep. methadone withdrawal= no sleep, irritable/restless most of the day and slightly less painful. I would only go on methadone again if all else fails and then it would be for methadone maintainence, not "detox." So I'd be planning to use methadone for a couple years, possibly forever. I just hope no one else falls into the suckers trap of jumping on methadone if you don't plan on staying on for awhile. Methadone treatment is great for allowing you to "get your life back together"; especially over the long-term when on a maintainence program. But I don't think it should be used as quick fix, like using gauze for a gunshot wound, quick trey ref. Which is essentially what the clinic's 6 month detox program is. Maybe it was just my clinic that sucked but I didn't even have a first appointment with a clinician until I was two months into taking the methadone, except for the preliminary before first dose. It sucks that these type of programs don't get the funding they need. So remember DON'T USE METHADONE AS A 6 MONTH QUICK FIX TO GET OFF OPES. AND VOTE DEMOCRAT- these programs need major funding. Your better off kicking the dope, OC, whatever.... and going through a few days of w/d rather than taking a month to recover. You can use the month you save by putting seriouse effort into outside programs, meetings, etc. So I'm going to battle and attempt to do this the "right way"- but jesus christ on ice skates, if i have to go another week with no sleep I'm going to find something, anything to help.... either healthy dose of benzos or God forbid back to the nasty opes. I have no idea how people get off of methadone after using it for years at 100+ mgs. Jah bless you warriors. Apparently methadone withdrawal also makes you babble, so I'll stop. But ****, if anyone has questions, wants to chat, just reply.... please do so. Jah knows that I'll be awake and looking for something to do.
The Methadone Trap 
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