Lyoness

I am currently doing a taper off of methadone which I've taken for about 1 1/2 years, before that I was in suboxone about the same amount if time. I also quit my antidepressant 2 1/2 years ago.

And I've been battling an intense and long bout of Depression and anxiety for over two years.

I have been trying to fight this depression unsuccessfully. One person I know says that it is solely the methadone causing my depression. Not my lifelong battle with depression, not my recent move, not the grief at losing two important friendships and being alone and lonely, just that one medication.

So I'm here to ask what others think about this, what your experiences might be. I've stuck to my taper because I've read repeatedly that going too fast off methadone can definitely cause depression but not the other way around.

So I'd really like to hear of other's experiences with this. Thank you.

Dee74

Actually the take away I got from your other thread was you will 'feel better' once the taper is done.

Feel better is a subjective term but that sounds like a reasonable assertion to me - although I stand to be corrected by others with more experience that I have?

I doubt anyone really meant to dismiss your history of depression or anything like that

None of us are doctors and we shouldn't be diagnosing you anyway.

I should know this but my brain is old - are you off anti depressants because of the taper or some other reason?

D

Lyoness

Hi Dee. I went off my antidepressant in the summer of 2013. I had just started suboxone a few months prior and wanted to get off everything. Plus I hadn't been badly depressed so I thought the antidepressant wasn't working or needed. In retrospect a bad decision. I was just trying to get off all the pills and just do the suboxone.

Depression started creeping back slowly then slammed me in Oct of that year. I switched to methadone with subs doctor and regular doctor's approval. I thought maybe naloxone in subs was causing depression. (I've since had this validated and run into others with same problem.) So I made the switch in spring 2014 and the depression lifted. But that autumn it came roaring back and has been here ever since. I've tried four meds so far, I thought the recent one was working but it seems to have stopped.

Sorry for long answer but that's how it's played out. And I guess I've been resistant to thinking methadone is the problem because this is such an old familiar depression. I have been exactly here so many times.

That's why I wanted to hear of people's actual experiences with lifelong depression and much shorter term methadone use. No medical advice, just experiences.

Aren't you glad you asked, lol?

Dee74

Yeah I am cos now I'm up to par

Thanks lyoness
D