Fancie

Hello all,

I am new to this forum but so far I have found it extremely useful. I have been on a MMT for about 2 years now and feel like I am ready to be done with it all.

I was able to complete college, grad school and a great job all throughout my days of using. Once I get on methadone I guess you can say I abused it as I continuously increased my dosage until I got to 20 mgs. It was then that I lost my job due to "nodding out" at work and my life fell apart. As a result my family and friends hate the program and strongly discourage it. Honestly, had I known the level of difficulty of getting off would be so high, I probably would have never started. I was looking for an easy way out to not have to experience any w/d symptoms.

Dummy me, right? lol Its been 2 years since I started and am now down to 31mgs. Everyone told me that it gets brutal once you get below 40mgs and so far it has not been bad at all. Other than the fact that I always seem to be extremely HOT and get cold chills all the time. That I can live with though.

My doctor is giving me the option to continue to taper or switch to subs. I can not afford to take a lot of time off of work to detox. I do have insurance and I work for a bank so it is really conservative. I would not want to let them know about this. I do have sick time and 2 weeks vaca if I needed to take a short amount of time off. I recently started dating a guy who does not know about the program and I would rather him not, at least right now so I would prefer to not have to use all of my vaca for this.

I know everyone is different and we can not give out medical advice, but I would like to know based on ppls personal expriences which is the best route to take, a slow taper or switching to subs. I am leaning towards to slow taper bc common sense tells me that would be better than trading one for another- not my ultimate goal. My sister also uses subs and I know she is still getting high and just using them to keep her from w/ding when she is out of her DOC.

Some people have told me switching is the best way to go though and others said they immediately got kicked into withdraw when they switched from done to subs and it was a nightmare. My doctor just keeps saying the choice is mine without any real guidence. I use the doc at my program and while he encourages exercise and a healthy lifestyle, I am not sure why he will not give me more information on my decision. Any thoughts, experiences or words of encouragement are welcomed and greatly appreciated. I know this is a long post so I appreciate your time.

Thanks in advance,

Fancie <3

Fancie

I meant Taper- not "Tamper" in my subject line...

Dee74

Hi Fancie - welcome

I'm not sure why your doctor would basically leave you to make an uninformed decision.

Is there anyone else, a professional, you can talk to?

We can share our experiences here, but as you've noted we can't give you medical advice

D

HeyYa

Personally I did a slow taper (though probably not slow enough). I was on methadone for about a year and a half, I think my dose was 80. I took about 6-8 monthes to slowly taper and felt pretty good untill I got completely off. I struggled a lot with sleep and anxiety for several months, but its hard to say how much of that was withdrawels since I was smoking absurd amounts of weed at the time, which, in case youre wondering, was a terrible idea. I wasnt working during this period but I'd imagine it would be pretty damn difficult to hold down a job.

So, since you dont want to take a lot of time off work I'd suggest tapering your methadone dosage to about 15 and then switch to suboxone, and then ween off that slowly, just because Im pretty sure suboxone has a significantley shorter half life.

Just keep in mind that the real withdrawels wont start untill your completely clean. So even though you may feel alright now, just remember to take it slow or else they may kinda hit you all at once like they did with me. Dont worry though, detoxing is not as bad as some people make it out to be (I think us addicts like to be dramatic). Ive been off methadone and all other opiates for almost 2 years now and my life is immeasurably better.

Best of luck, and I'd suggest joining a recovery group and going to meetings if you havent already. It really helps to have people you can talk and relate to, even if they may not be recovering methadone users themselves. Believing or not, netorking with people will help with the mental and physical withdrawel symptoms.

I remember I felt so accomplished and happy when I finally got off that stuff, even though physicaly I didnt feel so great. It was truly a "natural high" that stayed with me for quite a while.

Fancie

Yeah my doctor just keeps saying that it's a decision I have to make. I do understand that, but like you said, do not have adequate information to make such a decision. I was moreso looking for others to tell me about their experiences that have gotten them off of methadone with minimal side effects. I apologize if that was unclear.

Julzz

Fancie I have joined this group today because ,I have realized subs are no better than taking the real deal if on to long .Its been six years for me on subs . I am feeling like the same old addict ,I use to be before switching .Except I have my wits about me once again. Good Luck in whatever you choose . I am now on a journey to stop the subs also as ,I feel myself slipping backward not forward any longer . I am also realizing why people say subs are good in short term .

Fancie

Thank you HayYa and Julzz. I really appreciate the feedback! Especially hearing that it is no where near as bad as people make it out to be. I know it is different for everyone, but it is comforting to know it can be done and you are really an inspiration to me. I have always looked at going to meetings as another way to meet addicts and I know they save lives for some people, but I kind of feel like I just need to stay away from other influences like that. Maybe I will have to learn the hard way, and maybe its just because I do not trust myself enough to be in a situation where someone offers me something, that I couldn't say no. All I know now is that I have a great job and just met a great guy and have an incredibly loving family and I just want to live a normal life, off of methadone and free from any chemicals in my bloodstream.

Thanks again... I really appreciate all of the help!