[dianimalover]

hi all I previously entered this in another forum and didn't get much help so now I pose my dillema to you all. I am curently on a mmt program for three months now and I need to detox by two years end. The problem is my clinic has informed me that their policy is to detox i mg. every two weeks. I have done the math and I have found out if I decrease ata rate at three mgs a month I can finish intwo yraers, oh by the way I started at 65 mgs. of the meth and have maintained that with no dirty tests. Can I please have someone's opinion on if I am being realistic or not. If my counselor says no, Iplan to ask her to send ny request to the doc anyway, and if I get no action I will ask for a formal complaint form(which is in the handbook for mr to do if I have a problem, and THEN if I still get no action there is another level I ca lodge a complaint to above their heads. Do you think this will label me a trouble maker and they will find a way to kick me off the clinic? Oh and the main reason I need to finish in two years is I have bought a house in Idaho which is one of the states whew metadone clinics are illegal. Thanks for any advice you can offer.

[steve sponaugle]

You should be able to taper to 30 milligrams methadone daily, in less than a year, then convert to Suboxone.

Suboxone does not build an increasing tolerance and does not appear to decrease testosterone drastically. Suboxone is considered to be less than ten percent as addictive as methadone.

A much higher percentage of Suboxone patients, than methadone patients become opiate free. Suboxone will be off patent and should be available as a less expensive generic medication,in less than two years.

I think the taper schedule they have recommended is a practical one, which might avoid the worst methadone withdrawal effects. You should be stable at least a week, on a methadone dose, before reducing it, if you are not receiving clonidine, muscle relaxers, sleep meds and other detox medications.

Hormonal testing and treatment for testosterone, estradiol, progesterone and DHEA might also help you, with your detox and taper.

Try increasing magnesium, to reduce your need for methadone.

This 2003 Yale School of Medicine study revealed oral magnesium megadoses increased pain relief and reduced opiate use, in methadone patients. Magnesium appears to be reducing overfiring of NMDA glutamate receptors, which are involved in pain memory, and can also relax muscle spasms. Prolonged constipation produced by opiate use may also be reduced with magnesium supplementation.

J Addict Dis. 2003;22(2):49-61.
A preliminary, controlled investigation of magnesium L-aspartate hydrochloride for illicit cocaine and opiate use in methadone-maintained patients.
Margolin A, Kantak K, Copenhaver M, Avants SK.
Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Substance Abuse Center, New Haven, CT 06519, USA.

Based on pre-clinical studies suggesting that magnesium (Mg) reduces cocaine self-administration and potentiates the antinociceptive effects of morphine, we conducted a preliminary randomized clinical trial investigating Mg for the treatment of illicit cocaine and opiate use. Eighteen methadone-maintained patients who used illicit opiates and cocaine received either Mg (732 mg/day) or placebo for 12 weeks. Overall, findings showed that the percentage of urine screens testing positive for opiates in the Mg group (22.6%) was half that of the placebo group (46.4%), p = .04; the difference was even greater in the "medication compliant" sample (Mg: 16.3%, placebo: 47.9%), p = .02. Cocaine craving was lower in the Mg compared to the placebo group, but there was no difference between groups in cocaine use. These preliminary findings suggest that Mg may have a beneficial effect for reducing illicit opiate use. It is possible that a higher dose of Mg than was used in this study may be needed to decrease cocaine use.

[badfishsmoke]

dianimalover,

When I went to the methadone clinic, they started me out at 30 mg. I went up to 80 mg. after about 1 1/2 monthes, and stayed there for just a bit. When I deceided to start coming off of it, they were going to take me down 5 mg. every two weeks (i believe...). And like yourself, i thought that was ridiculous. I wanted to be clean, and as quick as possible. I did what your thinking of doing, and went over the doctors head, and instead of going down 5 mg. every every two weeks, I went down 5 mg. every 3 DAYS! So.. you can do the math on how long that took, but it was faster than the clinics way. Once i got down to 5 mg., I took that for about 2 weeks before going cold turkey from that.

Now, having said that, I was sick from the methadone for roughly a month. I never threw up, but some semi-bad cold chills, sweating, loss of apitite, constant bathroom emergancys... But you know what its like being dope sick...

The first two weeks, for me, were pretty bad. But the last two, I got my appitite back, my sweating kinda cut in half, and I started getting out of the depression. I still had cold chills, (it may be just me, but I get the cold chills the worst out of any symptom) for about a week or two.

I was only attending the clinic for approx. 4 months. But once I was finished and sober and the widthdraws were gone, you feel like a Billion bucks! I promise you that! Hang in there man. I know its hard, getting off drugs was the hardest thing ive ever done, hands down. But I have so much respect for people who want to help better themselves.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions or just feel like you might need someone to talk to for support or anything. Good luck!

[gulfcoastbella]

look, I admire anyone who can "white-knuckle it" and just live with withdrawals----I don't believe I can....I was on mmprogram for almost FIVE years, all the way up to 80mgs, and I took myself DOWN to 50mgs....Now, I should also mention I'm bipolar/borderline personality disorder...or, in short, Dual Diagnosis. I've got ALL the above symptoms and this CONSTANT f**king headache that NEVER stops. For the first week, my psych dr. placed me on clonipin<sp> and another little , itty-bitty orange pill----WHAT was that pill? B/c for the first week, while being medically detoxed, it didn't SUCK quite SO BAD. I'm serious----I'm afraid to let my 16yo backtalk ME for fear of ME going into a black rage(part of my disorder) My appt. is at 9:00am tomorrow and I want the name of the little orange pill....or is it Klonipin<sp? that was keeping me .....not dope- sick???? PLEASE......dear God, someone ANSWER ME. Thanks, Bella

(taking lithium 900ms a night and Seraquel XR 400ms a night)