Taking methadone vs. methadone addiction

I'm 36 years old and I have been addicted to heroin for a long time. I have been on treatment for the past 2 years and have used methadone as a withdrawal symptoms suppressant. As I understood methadone is as addictive as heroin and withdrawal symptoms can be as bad as ones in heroin withdrawal. I would like to know what is used to treat methadone addiction, how do I get off methadone? By using methadone vs. methadone addiction?

There are other opiates which are less addictive, have fewer side effects than methadone and are easier to manage than methadone. One good example is bupenorphine, which is used to get methadone addicts off methadone and also is used for treating heroin addiction. In the past addiction treatment centers have used smaller doses of methadone for treating methadone addiction and with great success. By gradually decreasing the dose of the drug in theory withdrawal symptoms could be minimal and even avoided. So using methadone versus methadone addiction is not so uncommon. It should be closely monitored by your doctor or other medical personal in charge of treating you in the institution youre in. If you have any further questions about methods of treating your condition you should be free to talk to your doctor about it.

SUBOXONE is the medical meds that you would be looking for to help you to overcome your methadone addiction. What sub does is it helps your opiate receptors to *heal* while methadone, just like heroin, suppresses the receptors and that is the reason for the simular withdrawals. Please be aware, and this is IMPORTANT, sub DOES have withdrawal side affects as well and they are not pleasant so ask you doc about a IMMEDIATE TAPER program when you start so that there are absolutelty no withdrawals, but you will need to taper (decrease the mg with each dose) slowly to avoid any risk of withdrawals and sub is also a little more expensive so please be aware of the FEW downsides to the switch. It is howerever a maricle drug and also some benzo can ease the withdrawal AFTER you are off the methadone, do not take while still using it though for this can be fatal. Good luck and congrats for kicking you heroin habit, stick with it!

My heart goes out to anyone brave enough to kick opiate addiction, I i used diamorphine (heroin) and crack cocaine for 3 yrs, I guess 4 the last yr i've been mantaining on 80mg of methadone. Let me make this very clear, I have gone cold turkey from a min of 1grm of heroin intravenous injection a day sometimes more! and within 4 - 7 days i was cool and feelin pretty good, I did use fairly high codeine doses to help maybe 300mg a day, but last weekend I had the worse experience of my opiate taking time. The gear I shot up was contaminated with rohipnal the date rape drug(very dangerous) My mate thinks he knows it all and as he thought i was ODing he gave me suboxone wich contains naltraxone, this as some of you may know puts an opiate addict into massive acute withdrawl. I woke up naked , shitting myself and throwing up uncontrollably, it was scary, degrading and complete hell!!. He should have called 999 or 911 depending where u live and the ambulance crew will administer NALOXONE not naltraxone they are often mistaken. He then fed me crack hits!! I asked my drug worker and she said that she could not believe my heart didn't stop. please understand if your m8 od's the best thing u can do is get him pro medical help. My mate while full of good intentions could have administered the final dose that could have proved fatal, he then would face a manslaughter charge at the very least! In the UK you dont get cops or any trouble 4 reporting a mate who's od'd, if u dont want the neighbors seeing all the crap take your mate down the road and meet the abulance there, please i emplore you. unless you have naloxone you can do no good, an overdosing patient will need a shot then another one 20 mins later. I can say the withdrawl i went into was unreal. I have now decided that is it for me, i'm reducing from 80mg meth by 5mg per day till i get to 30mg then i will switch to subutex, I also take between 5 - 25 mg of nitrazepam daily to help me relax, sleep and deal with my shitty feelings, i'm also on 40mg of prozac. Depression, anxiety, insomnia, diorria, cramps etc etc are totaly normal. ride it out its worth it mate! I wont be a slave to that filth ever again, amazing as it feels when you have a fat , perfect hit geeza it just aint worth the bad. some drugs are ok in my book but H and crack are NO nO's avoid at all costs. massive love and best wishes to all brave enough to take the challenge on. Good luck and never give up!! take the "t" off of cant and you can do anything you set your mind to remember that.

dubin wrote:

I'm 36 years old and I have been addicted to heroin for a long time. I have been on treatment for the past 2 years and have used methadone as a withdrawal symptoms suppressant. As I understood methadone is as addictive as heroin and withdrawal symptoms can be as bad as ones in heroin withdrawal. I would like to know what is used to treat methadone addiction, how do I get off methadone? By using methadone vs. methadone addiction?

methadone withdrawals are not so intense as herion withdrawals but they last much longer and taper off much slower it even goes away and comes back thre sneaky b******d. Once you are lower than 30mls the lower the better go onto subutex a lighter opitae with a herion blocker in it but the withdrawals are much lighter and shorter than methadone please note the only problem is you may suffer some turbulance switching from the methadone to subutex so you must be on less than 30mls but my advice is get down to 10 or 15 then swap over;good luck