mialicious

Hello everyone!! I haven't been here since early last summer. But I wanted to share the great news and offer hope to you all out there who may feel like it's impossible to come off methadone or suboxone. I am clean 11 months today. March 5th will be 1 year exactly!

For those of you that remember, my name is Mia. My husband and I used to sell and use IV heroin until our home was raided by the DEA. We used more heroin than most as we had an abundance of it to go around. I used heroin for 5 years. Methadone was a necessary transition to instill normalcy back into my lives and my husband's. We are still together as a family. My daughter has clean parents. She deserves that and I am proud to give her that. This is a very emotional day for my I am literally crying as I type out of real true happiness. There are hard days and days you fight harder. There are easier days and it does get easier (I know that's cliche). Awakening that warrior inside is part of the battle of overcoming such a serious addiction, the warrior in you has been numbed by opiates and doesn't even know he's there.

I was on methadone for 13 months and weaned down on my own, saving some. I quit from 2mg. I got to 150mg of methadone at my peak when transitioning off heroin. It's so true that it takes time for your brain and body to heal and for that natural happiness to return. Don't give up. Opiates/opioids are an epidemic that have its tentacles everywhere in society these days. It's those statistics that I like to kick in the ass on the daily, is the one that considers me an opiate/opioid addict who is less likely to recover. That's the demon I am fighting...still. It gives me pride to beat it daily. There have been times, that I know if I allowed any pain killers around me, I would have done them. It was imperative that I cut ties that anyone that would offer such a temptation.

Another thing that I found to be key in my recovery was investing in supplements. howtoquitheroincoldturkey.com offers a great list of supplements to help with detox and your brain healing. If you need support or help or have questions, I am here. Just ask in a PM or in this thread

Much love and hugs to all you warriors fighting this battle right now

CAPTAINZING2000

Grats to you ��

mialicious

Thanks! I am here to help any and all that are in their personal battle with subs or methadone. I've used both methadone and suboxone. I hope that anyone that feels the need for support can come to me via pm or publicly. It means the world to me to give back. This forum has been a Godsend in my recovery.

Stilltrecking

what supplements would you recommend? I am 20 days off bupe and still having trouble with the mental side of things.

mialicious

Congrats on 20 days!! That's great. You'll start feeling much better soon. I recommend buying vitamins from a healthfood store not a grocery store.
L-tyrosene is a good one for encouraging healing your receptors and helps fatigue (dopamine & seratonin. L-tyrosine plus a multi is key IMO)
B vitamins (I take b6+complex)
A decent multi
Omega 3s (fish oil)
Coconut oil (promotes healthy brain function also helps fatigue and encourages a good sleeping cycle)
If you were on methadone before subu's that really messes with your bone and teeth health and I HAD to take extra calcium magnesium. I still take it sometimes.
For sleeplessness I drank chamomile (but it only helps sometimes). once in a while I'd give in a take a xanax but you have to be careful with that.
A wide ranging protein/supplement shake. I bought Green Protein and Green Vibrance from Vibrant health at Whole Foods. I drink it with juice. I drank those shakes until my brain and body and mind started functioning more normal again. I still sometimes drink it, but they're pricey so not everyday.
Eating green food rich in calcium like spinach broccoli was helpful too. Not just meat and potatoes which is what I prefer lol.

Stilltrecking

thank you so much for this detailed list. I will definitely look into the L-tyrosine, I have heard a lot of good things about it. at 21 days I am feeling much much better than at 2 days. Still not perfect yet, but hey, what do you expect? Yesterday was my first day without a Xanax for sleep and I slept like a baby for 8 hours (what a pleasant surprise)! No rebound anxiety and I attribute that to being responsible with it. I actually felt a lot more active this morning without having the .5mg of Xanax grogging my brain down. I understand l-tyrosine is the precursor to dopamine and norepinephrine, what dose do you take and when?

mialicious

You're welcome! Glad you're starting to feel better. I forgot to mention that I took l-tyrosine with an amino acid multi which I purchased together. I took one of each twice daily (morning and night) for about a month or two(?). On my bottles it says the l-tyrosine is 750mg (x2 daily) and the Amino complete is a blend of aminos including l-tyrosine and others 3000mg (x2 daily). After that I only took them occasionally. It's a booster to help you over the hump of healing your receptors and it really helped me.

cleaninLI

Mia congrats on your 11 months! That's awesome! I'm so glad you came back to share your experience! I get annoyed when I read posts that say continued sobriety is impossible for oppiate addicts! Of course we all know it isn't easy.....but hope is extremely instrumental....without it we have nothing! Your post gives me that hope....so thank you so very much for sharing!

The other day I noticed that I'm losing more hair then usual. It really freaked me out....so I started taking vitamin supplements. I have been taking E, B-complex B-1, B-2, B-6 and B-12, folic acid, C, Calcium 600+D3. I will have to pick-up L-tyrosine. Thank you so much for this information!

Stilltrecking

when did you notice the l-tyrosine was working?

recoverinbeauty

Congrats to u and ur family for recovering and staying a family!! Im freaking out! im on methadone..65 mgs and have been for 4 mths now..i was aware there was withdrawls but didn't care I just needed out of the junkie lifestyle and im scared to death to come off meth now hat ive read some stories..i didn't know it was that bad and the clinic sugar coated the **** out of it and didn't let me know it was as bad as some of the things ive read on this forum..i like the clinic im at its clean and the support is def.out of this world hepful but financially its killing me and I don't want this to be a forever thing..i am so hopeless now in thinking about coming off...wtf did I get into now?

caring247

Hello mia..congratulations on your great accomplishment. I am new to this forum in hopes of finding some answers/help. My boyfriend is on methadone. He is up to 90mgs..he absolutely hates it. We live in nj..im curious if you know of any places or can suggest anything i can do to help him get off the methadone and stay clean. It breaks my heart to see him as sort of a slave to this drug..whether its supposed to help or not. Im not really surw what to do as ive never been in this sort of situation before. Any help/words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

marvin59

My jump off date was over 90 days ago. The problem is the lack of sleep, I have not been using anything to induce sleep. How long can withdrawal symptoms mess with sleep. I don't go see my doc for two weeks. This sucks.

OpioPhobe

Marvin - have you been trying non-pharmaceutical methods for help with sleep? I don't have personal experience coming off of long-term methadone use. Have you been exercising sufficiently? Have you tried different types of music to help with the sleep? Are you getting up at the same time each morning? Those were three biggies for helping with sleep during PAWS.

mialicious

Sleep was hard. It was sporadic and much of the time I didn't feel fully rested. I think it probably took about 4 or 5 months before I was sleeping restful again. There were some nights I got full nights sleep after a couple months. Sleep is one of those big milestones when quitting any opiates. I could tell you to try a number of things like chamomile, kava kava, xanax, etc., but none of those things was really the magic potion. Letting my brain chemicals balance out and my receptors heal was the only real way for me. Good luck! I hope you get some restful sleep soon.

mialicious

I hated it too. But it was a necessary evil to get me off iv heroin.I hated how bad it was for my teeth. I gained weight. It was just really sh**ty. He's going to have to come to a place where he's motivated to end using it. For me, it was weight gain and my teeth (which I've had fixed since quitting). Again, I never wanted to be on methadone, but because I chose to be on methadone, it allowed me to quit heroin by helping me be "fixed" not "high"...from there I was able to instill normalcy back into my life without using the needle. I was on methadone for a year. Some people are on it for much longer. I personally resented my affliction with opiates. I needed them to function. It took being fed up with it and my daughter, to help me end that horrid cycle. It isn't sunshine and rainbows quitting. It's the hardest thing I ever did. But I'm happy as hell I did it

mialicious

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply. I responded to your PM with some info and experiences. I hope all is well

mialicious

I can relate to how you feel 100% about clinics and switching to methadone. Keep in mind, methadone was a necessary evil for me to fully quit being an IV herion user. It is essentially switching addictions. But it lasts longer so you are fixed for a longer period of time allowing you to not have to fix as often. On that same flip side, quitting methadone leaves your body slower. It was important for me to get to a LOW dose (2.5mg) then quit. I weaned down for about 3 months. You really notice it the lower you go. But let yourself normalize a dose. Sometimes lowering your dose can take 5 days to a week. Methadone is not as shocking to your body as quitting herion but it does drag out. Clinics are helpful but they SUCK! Methadone is helpful but it is f*****g evil because it has a hold on you. Keep reminding yourself WHY you decided to take this step. Keep reminding yourself why you hate methadone. Find that driving force inside of you that motivates you to quit and end it. It's a process, it ain't sunshine, but sunshine is around the corner. So remind yourself of that to. PM Me ANYTIME! I haven't been on in a while and just responded to my messages but I will eventually get back. Sending you hugs and light <3 You got this!

mialicious

Thank you! I am so happy to help and offer hope. I'm still clean off methadone since 3/5/13 and off heroin since 4/29/12. Supplements were a godsend! I don't think I could have done it without. I don't have experience with hair loss. If your hair loss is attributed to nutrients, I would recommend protein and iron! You can buy hair skin and nail supplements that have calcium, magnesium and potassium. I still take supplements daily. Sorry it's taken me so long to reply. I am hardly on because I am so busy.

marvin59

I have been using exercise, music and meditation to try to induce sleep. But none of techniques have been working, however I talked on the phone to my doc and she prescribed a low dose of trazodone, and it worked great. The thing is going trough the pains of getting off of methadone I am paranoid of drugs of any type of medicine. She did tell me that this drug is safe. Hell if I know.

mia020572

I am new to the site. Was just clicking around and this is where I landed. My son Austin is 20 and is an opiate addict. He is currently taking 60 mg of methadone per day from a local clinic. He hopes to be off of methadone someday, but he is afraid to start tapering down. He started going to the methadone clinic in March of 2014 after he tried heroin for the first time and used it 4 times and then stopped and went to the clinic instead. I am thankful that he stopped using heroin, but I am scared that he is on methadone. I have tried to encourage him to see an addiction specialist and get on suboxone or subutex instead, but the addiction specialist won't see him until he is down to 30 mg of methadone a day. My son said that they don't usually start tapering your methadone dose down for at least 6 months. I really think he wold benefit from seeing the addiction specialist -vs- the methadone clinic, but he just doesn't think he can start tapering down. My husband and other son are going on a camping/back packing trip in July, and Austin is very sad that he cant go because the clinic will not give him take homes since he has only been going for 3 months (he would need 4 take homes for the trip). Any advice on starting a tapering program?