Methadone Withdrawal relapse

[KDogg8411]

I am on my 5th day of withdrawal off of 40 mg of methadone. I quit cold turkey and ended up relapsing today and taking 50 mg of methadone because i wasnt able to work due to my withdrawal symptoms. Does anybody know if when I continue my withdrawal if I will be on day 6 or if I will be right back at square 1? I would really appreciate it! thanks

[purpledog]

kdogg, purpledog here,
i hate to tell you this bro but you are back at square 1, jumping off at 40 is hard core, ive been on it for years, and that is not a good place to jump.
personally, i got myself over to subs, im 6 days off methadone, was dabbling averaging 30-some days, 130 others, got myself as low as, and had 2 days off, actually you were in the perfect time to try it.
i went into withdrawls, coz i hadnt let myself hang enough, you have to be really hanging, and if you are not the subs takes over your receptors and chucks the methadone off. it was not a happy place to be i can tell you, but after a day and a half i felt heaps better.
maybe you should try weaning down slowly instead of jumping
im hoping to do it on subs, and so far im feeling fine, this stuff makes you feel normal, not stoned, but not hanging, no withdrawls at all
well thats my little bit of advice
hope it is of some use to you
kiwi

[bev49]

kdogg, It is virtually impossible to get off methadone from 40 mgs. Too high. Are you taking methadone pills or the liquid? Do you go to a clinic or get it on the street? I was on meth clinic a long time and know it is almost impossible to get off. The only people that did went down slowly and got down to just 1 mg. liquid. Even then, it is very very hard to get off meth. Many who did, substituted the meth for something else like pills or even alcohol. A few actually did detox though. But you have to be very very strong. I switched to the suboxone and am down to 1 mg a d ay of that. If you want to get off the meth without sub you need to detox way down. If you are taking the liquid at the end you can go down 1 mg. at a time. Don't know about the pills though. It also depends how long you were on the meth. Think about switching to the sub and asking Robert or another of our helpers here how to taper from that

[intelmetal]

I have to say I agree with everything Bev49 just posted. YOU CAN"T JUMP OFF METHADONE AT THAT HIGH A DOSE !!! What are you trying to do, punish yourself ? I think you should taper down to approx. 20mgs and stay there for a couple of weeks, then switch to suboxone. You should not need anymore than 8mgs of suboxone during induction. I did this just recently and it worked like a charm. I was up to 360mgs of methadone per day for years ! It took years to taper down to 20mgs, to make the switch to subs. You need to reconsider. Best of luck !
IWANTOUT

to live my life and to be free !

[Robert_325]

I am on my 5th day of withdrawal off of 40 mg of methadone. I quit cold turkey and ended up relapsing today and taking 50 mg of methadone because i wasnt able to work due to my withdrawal symptoms. Does anybody know if when I continue my withdrawal if I will be on day 6 or if I will be right back at square 1? I would really appreciate it! thanks

The standard in the medical community is to reduce your methadone dose by 10% a month or thereabouts. I think that is a little too long but 10-15% about every two weeks even should be okay. So if you drop by about 6mg for a couple weeks, then drop again to 28-30mg for a week you'll be ready to make the switch to suboxone.

You still have to taper down on the subs but it's an easier taper than is the methadone. Stopping methadone cold turkey is not only difficult it can be dangerous at the dose you're at. Don't do the cold turkey like you're considering.

If you want to switch to suboxone I'll help you if you want the help. I do this every day. The most important part of switching is being in sufficient w/d from the methadone when you do the sub induction. That normally takes about 72 hours without any methadone. It has a super long half life, it just lingers and lingers. Don't mess yourself up and do it too quickly if you decide to switch.

Here is a link for the COWS (clinical opioid w/d scale) worksheet. You need to have an accumulative score of 26 or higher. The 26 is a minimum so that you don't experience precipitated w/d. Trust me you don't want that. Let me know if I can help.

http://www.suboxone.com/pdfs/OWR.pdf

You're very close to being able to do this successfully and without a lot of discomfort once you get past the 72 hours. This is the route I would suggest that you go. God bless.

[MattMason]

My GOD I cannt imagine 360 MG's of Methadone in ONE Day? Wow, I am on 40. Have taken 30 MG's - increased to 40 1.5 years ago for 14 years for pain. I take pills.
In what increments do you recommend weaning off?
Are intestinal cramps part of withdrawl?
My doc switched me once and I was horribly sick, vomiting, fever , colon was swelled? they thought it wa some west nile virus. Is fever part of withdraw?
God Bless You
Thanks

[bev49]

Matt, you don't say what your doc once switched you to. Was it suboxone? If so, it sounds like you didn't wait the requisite time after your last dose of methadone. You need to be in withdrawal totally, 72 hours with no methadone, and then the suboxone will work like a charm. Again, let me repeat, you will have every symptom in the book stopping methadone at 40 mgs. If you want to wean off methadone, wean off the little by little, slowly. But I would suggest you talk to you doctor about getting suboxone. Taper the meth to 30 mgs. Then stop taking meth for THREE DAYS then talk to Robert or Intel who both are now drug free because of sub (as Intel stated, he was on a lot more methadone than you and is now drug free but of course, he didnt drop off at 40 mgs.). Let me restate something. They are drug free because of themselves. The sub was just the vessel that helped them get there.

[intelmetal]

Matt, it's Intelmetal here. I worked my way up to 360mgs from 30mgs over a couple of years. One day I actually took 420mgs ( 10.5 40mg wafers ) and almost died. I did not go to the hospital which was stupid. I felt this hot flashy wave flowing up and down my body, started trembling and was scared to death ! It took me 5 years to taper my dose from 360mgs to 20mgs. I hovered around 20mgs for approx. 8 months. I took my last dose on May 2, 2009 and started subs 52 hours later on May 4, 2009. My doctor wanted me on 16mgs of suboxone. I decided to start at 8mgs per day due to all the reading of post on this forum. I read Robert's sub plan over and over before I took my first dose of sub. I probably should have waited 72 hours, but was anxious to get started on subs. Luckily I did not have any precipitated withdrawls. I think it was due to the fact that I was on 20mgs or less for so long prior to induction to subs. If I were you, I would wait 72 hours without methadone before taking your first dose. When you are ready to start, just let us know and we can get you off to a good start. Good Luck !
IWANTOUT

to live my life and to be free !

[Robert_325]

Matt ..... Intelmetal is correct. And if you will wait until you have a GOOD 72 hours with NOTHING before induction, not even an advil, you can start the induction with 2mg increments and stabilize on 6-8mg if you're like most. It's not that difficult, it just has to be done right. God bless.

[marilynj55]

Matt ..... Intelmetal is correct. And if you will wait until you have a GOOD 72 hours with NOTHING before induction, not even an advil, you can start the induction with 2mg increments and stabilize on 6-8mg if you're like most. It's not that difficult, it just has to be done right. God bless.

What if you are going to a clinic that won't let you wait 72 hours and considers it a breach of their protocol to wait that much time. They want to start me on Suboxone when I'm at 20 mg., 24 hours after my last methadone dose!!!!! I've already paid my last dime getting intake, etc., the expensive stuff, done at this clinic, and cannot change!

Have you ever heard of a clinic who listened to what you had to say and would alter their methods??

I'm scared of doing induction wrong, and actually considering tapering slowly off methadone instead, and jumping off at .25 mg or as low as I can go.