where do i go from here? methadone taper advice please?

[chance4reallife]

In the last 8 weeks I have done a taper from 75mg of methadone to 50mg I found I had a bit of a tough time going from 60 to 55 but from 55 to 50 I felt nothing I was busier that week maybe I didn't have time to notice. Anyway I have decided I would stay at 50 for a month to stablelize and figure out my next plan since my origional plan could be too fast and I would rather not find out the hard way. My goal being to get to 20 or 25mg methadone and switch to suboxone. Before I get ahead of myself can anyone advise Me on how I should now go about getting from 50mg to 20mg?? Any help is appreciated Ty! I should add that I did one 10mg drop right off the bat and stayed there 3weeks then droped 5mg a week for 3 weeks bringing Me to 50 do I keep making 5mg jumps? Or should I jump less now? I'm on liquid methadone. Direction? Anyone? Please! Ty!!

[newyorkgal]

Methadone is a tricky one to taper from. It has a long half life so the drops shouldn't go too fast. I tapered from 80 to 25 after being on methadone for over 30 years and I have to say, I had no problems. I did it slowly. I dropped in 5 mg. increments about once a month. When I hit 25 I stayed there for awhile then made the switchover. Remember this, you must me in full w/d from methadone before taking a sub which usually means 72 hours with nothing. It sounds worse than it is. Due to the half life, you don't really feel severe w/d til the last day. At least I didn't. Coming down too fast will only set you up to fail and raise your dose again. So, take you time. But it should be almost pain from from your dose. When you start the sub, start on as low a dose as possible and stay on as short a time as possible because sub is an addictive opiate also. If used right and tapered off of in a fairly quickly time span, it can do wonders.

[chance4reallife]

Great thanks for the advice! I don't know about only droping 5 a month tho that seems like forever!! But I have herd do it slowley!! I haven't had any major problems yet small thing doing a couple jumps like middle and upper back pain and a little soft stool nothing I couldn't handle. I'm a big baby too so what sucked for Me someone else probably wouldn't notice. I have been on mmt for only a little over 2 years so I'm wondering If I tried 5 every other week for two months bringing Me to 30 and staying there for a month? And doing the last 5 or 10 by 1mg weekly drops? I would love to get down to 20 before the switch. What's the difference between being at 20mg or 30mg when doing the switch??? Would I have to stay off longer than 72 hours? And is that 72 hours from the time I drink my last dose? Or from the time I wake up the next morning and skip my dose? I have herd horror stories about people who have waited 72 hours and still got sick! I would love to hold out As long As possible even after 72 hours If I could! But I couldn't be sick even 10 mins before!! I'm just hoping my time off the street and not knowing anyone would help Me in the situation! I have even thought about switching to oxys and going from there to sub. For now my plan is Methadone to sub If that changes ill let you know