Date Posted:20:53:09 02/13/08 Wed Author:Asha Subject: Re: I am 2 years clean & on Methadone In reply to:
Jolene
's message, "Re: I am 2 years clean & on Methadone" on 19:46:08 02/13/08 Wed
Thanks for the advice but I do not agree that being on methadone is at all like still using! If you found that you were getting at all "high" off it you were probably on too high a dose. It should ONLY keep you from being sick. My body processes methadone extremely fast so it's not even keeping me from being sick now. Say if most people are fine for almost 24 hours after taking their juice I am sick after about 5 hours. It definitely gets worse the lower my dose gets. I have been lowering my dose by about 2mg/week & the sickness is getting unbearable & lasts way longer than withdrawal sickness for dope. I can't sleep, even if I take some methadone before bed. The fast metabolism is NOT in my head, doctors have varified it & my body is like that with all medications. I have tried split dosing which helped when I was at a higher dose, but now I feel sick no matter what I do. I have already been through counselling & N/A style groups etc. & am not worried about using again, the only thing that makes me want to use is being sick & I thought the point of methadone was to not have to feel this way. When I first got on it I was told that if you taper off gradually you will not feel any withdrawal symptoms, but I have a different doctor now who says that is totally untrue, that everyone feels some sort of withdraal symptoms once they get down to below 30 or 40mg (or less depending on what your habit was to begin with), mine are just particularly bad. I do want to re-itterate that it is not as bad as coming off of dope cold-turkey & my time on methadone has allowed me time without using to get my life back to "normal" & gain the skills to deal with things without using, plus like I said I'd rather be on methadone forever than go back to using. However I would really like to get off the methadone, not because it's at all the same as using but just so I am not physically dependant on anything, so I don't have to go to the pharmacy every week, so I could travel, etc. etc. How did you deal with withdrawal from methadone? Any tips?
