My boyfriend was addicted to
Oxycontin for about 6 months before detoxing and completing a 1-month in-treatment rehab program. He relapsed and started using Oxy again a couple months later. He used for about a month, then started going to a
methadone clinic to replace his habit. He has been going there for about a month and a half and I believe is on 55 mg or so.
My concern is that he is not dealing with his addiction. He is simply replacing one drug with another. He says he is using methadone b/c it's all he can do right now to put his life together. He is amazing at practicing avoidance, and I think that is what methadone is helping him do.
I am trying to convince him to begin tapering off methadone in a couple months after he finds a job and feels more confident. I know and he knows it would be very gradual. He says he will try, but I highly doubt he means it. He says he'll get off when he's ready to not want to do drugs anymore. But if he never does anything more than go to the methadone clinic, how will he ever be ready? He says rehab didn't work for him and narcotics anonymous is not for him either. How will he ever NOT want drugs?
He says the people at the methadone clinic said being on methadone for a year is the best idea. Has anyone heard of that? I think it's BS and they just want his money.
I am desperate for him to be clean. I miss him so much. He thinks he is totally normal on methadone and I disagree. He lost his job b/c he slept late one day. He sleeps all day and can't sleep at night. He is always sweating. He seems to have muscle spasms, too. He has thrown up b/c of the methadone. Who knows what other side effects he feels that he hides from me.
I know he must come to a conclusion on his own, but he is killing me and his family in the process. I'm terrified.
Can I do anything to help? Can people offer him any advice on how to get off methadone or their experiences with it? I think the longer he is on it, the worse off he is.
He tells me he is getting better, tries to convince me this is his path to sobriety. His mom and I feel in our hearts it is not.
Please, any advice for me or my boyfriend is greatly needed and would be greatly appreciated.