How long do methadone withdrawal symptoms last?

not really, you can try sleep meds but they usually dont do much good. Have you read through these posts? Did you at least taper yourself down?? Methadone has such a long half life its not a good idea to go cold turkey .. its just too hard on your body and mind. The withdrawl will be SO much more tolerable if not obsolete if you just come down slowly.

What I have done since no direct response to my post was submitted was to just maintain control of the symptoms. What I mean by this is, I had already gone cold turkey for 2 weeks and had all kind of physical ailments besides my usual pain was to take 5-10 mg per day when I felt the withdrawal ailments began. Now I have decreased that to skipping days when no withdrawal symptoms rear their ugly selves. So we will see what happens next.

my husband is withdrawing from metadone. he went cold turkey on 17mg because he started to feel the withdrawal symptoms anyway. he was on 160mg a month ago. he went down pretty quickley. it is nowday 7 without any methadone. he seems to be feeling better than he did except for the fact that he cant sit still because he is jumping out of his skin. he is finally sleeping better than he did considering he didnt sleep for four days straight. when can he except to start to feel some what like himself? we have been looking for answers but evrything varies. i have him on alot of vitamins and protien drinks that seem to help. is ther anything else? he has to go back to work in 2 days .

I am trying to kick a very low dose of methadone. i'm finding it to be very difficult.

to be honest i don't really want to quit because it works wonders for me. for once i feel half way decent. i can be on my feet for more then 3 hours and not have my back scream at me. or my joints and muscles screaming at me.

coming off of such a low dose... one would think would be easy as pie. i thought it would be easy. it's so damn hard. i keep going back to my methadone. the withdrawal is bad. the restless leg is driving me crazy. (i have that without the methadone, so much worse coming off of the pills.)
the sweating. the being cold all of the time. the constant runny nose. the tremors. the not being able to sleep and restless leg is the worst. my family would say my mood swings are the worst. the muscle pain and the joint pain is now worse then when i started these lovely pills.

i just took a half a pill ( i fear the restless leg). no one understands what i am going through and i fear when my pills run out i am going to make a LOT of people very angry.

how will taking benadryl help me? i am desperate. i have pills for the restless leg and they do nothing for me but make me sick to my stomach. my NEW doctor won't give me anything. i wonder if i tell him i am going through withdrawal... will he help me. it's hard right now. i am depressed as well.

I've read all the posts here and I want to thank everyone for their input. It's very nice to come hear and know that I am not alone in this horror. I've quit my labor intensive job and I'm determined to kick for good so I can p clean for a better job and not have to wake up an hour early, to take a pill to wait for my body and mind to be capable anymore. I've had a very long journey with opiates. One thing is for sure is everyone is different. All kicks and symtoms will be similar and very different. All people, no matter what their reason for using, cause a dr. told you, you needed pain killers, cause you were depressed, cause you like drugs, whatever, it's all the same, and be assured that we are all addicts... as would anyone be if they took a pain killers daily for years. As life gets better, remind yourself not to take pain killers, ever if possible. Our bodies like the calm warm feeling of opiates and it gets us right back where we were in the first place, no matter what our intention is. Methadone is the king of painkillers. It has saved many heroin addicts life and we should be greatful for that. Methadone makes people who would otherwise be homeless and jobless, be productive members of society. This is for real. HOWEVER, there is NEVER a reason to be on 100mg a day, let alone 160mg or whatever else insanity people are on these days. Start realizing that Meth Clinics are there to help but also there to make $! Many thanks to "feel your pain", more than likely, people who come to this site are kicking or ready to kick from some horror that is going on in their life... and are wondering how long the kick lasts. So bank that pain and kick and get on with it. William Burroughs put it best in the book, "Junkie"-you can work it out, or wait it out." I suggest working it out until you get to 5mg and depending on the job, quit if you must, then kick cold. I mean cold... if at all possible. Using advil is ok, benedryl may help to. Withdrawal is much like a severe allergic reaction(or like the flu on LSD), that's why benedryl helps. Taking benzo's such as xanax, valium, etc, could help but I STRONGLY urge people to not do that if kicking is indeed what you want to do. A benzo habit is worse(Omg!) then kicking Meth. If this is your first kick and you try to come off anything more than 30mg without medical help, you are indeed in for a world of pain and insanity and yes you are going to think you are dying. From past experience I can testify that it was AWFUL! Thinking back to the 20year old me and my first kick off Methadone, thinking I was going to do it cold turkey, 60hours later, having a seizure, I came to the conclusion, that was not possible. I've been on Meth(with bouts of h addiction) for a long time now. However never on more then 20mg a day. Usually on 10mg to 5mg a day. Heads up people, 5mg/10mg will completely waste a "normal"person. Be realistic about your doses. It is INSANE the doses some people talk about being on. Do you know 50mg of Meth will kill a "normal"person? OK, I have to admit, I got angry when reading the post that methadone addiction lasts for life. No, that's not true, it may last a long time, but it gets better... it's more likely the person who posted that has that feeling because of the mentioned hepC she/he has, so stay calm people and don't use that post as a reason to stay on Meth forever. We have changed our chemical balances but, hey, have you ever noticed how long people live that have been opiate addicts. Even Burroughs lived 88years! Has anyone noticed the Keith Richards keeps on keeping on? Addiction shouldn't be something everyone is so ashamed of. We are humans, we have a chemical makeup. We all know that there was a reason we started using... maybe it saved our lifes. Now there is a reason to stop. Mind of matter for real. Thank you for post 14days... yes, food gets better, you can smell, see again, feel again, be interested in sex again, care again... and yes in the beginning you may cry at movies or easily get your feelings hurt or have anxiety attacks. We are truly being reborn. Every cell in our body has to change to eliminate the meth in it. This is also one point to my theory on why people live longer that are opiate addicts. We all have pain, everyone, not just opiate addicts, get off!!! Stop rationalizing. If you don't want to get off. then just lower and raise your dose for the rest of your life, either way, you'll have to experience withdrawal. Help for us all; tea, vitamins, hot baths, herbs(I mean the legal ones), exercise, sun, water, small snacks, music, inspiration, good people, mind checks-it's probably us not our dogs, friends or loved ones that are being irrational, and most of all, no matter what your day of withdrawal, lay in bed from 12am-7am, or the likes of and try to sleep, if it doesn't work, too bad, get the heck outta bed and take a shower/bath, etc... and go sit on the couch if you must. Get outta bed! If your anything like me after 3days in bed, which will seem like 3years during withdrawal, you'll be ready to say F it. However if you track your progress by the minute if necessary, best by the hour, until you reach a week, you'll get threw this. We can do it! Piss on this drug that's taken away our lives and emotions&peace! Remember as much as you'll feel out of control in the beginning, your making yourself that much stronger to deal with life on lifes terms later. Remember who you are, what your interest are, what are you here to do... Ask God, Mother Earth, Allah, Buddha, or whatever you can to alieve you of this desire to use opiates and help you threw this struggle. Scared, hopeful, determined this time, life is too short for this to be it forever. Love to all and best wishes, Ciel

Hi everyone. I cannot express how much I appreciate the posts and here and how they have helped. I now want to share my own story. Today I am a 37 year old professional in upper management at a government agency. I have a masters degree from a major university and I've worked in government administration for 16 years. I am outwardly successful by almost any measure. But as you all know, looks can be decieving. I am a top secret opiate addict who was on 130 mg of methadone for the last 7 years. (on more than 100 mg the entire time). My love affair-miserable as it became in the end- with opiates began when I got my first job out of college, got dental insurance, and decided to catch up on years of dental neglect. I had a dentist who was very generous with his pad and pen and I had work done weekly for several motnhs. It wasn't long into that when I relized that if took 2-3 extra pills (Hydrocodone then) I could get that warm enveloping glow that made everything seem better. By the time my dental work was done I had a full blown addiction I wasn't ready to let go of. I started looking at a script one day and thinking it wouldn't be that hard to make, so I created a blank on my computer and copied the latin words my dentist used and away I went. Amazingly I got away with writing my own for more than 2 years. Evenutally my luck ran out and after trying many other options, I finally went on methadone. I tell you all of this simply so you will all realize that this kind of thing can happen to anyone. I'm successful, educated, come from a good family, etc. But it happened to me.
First, if anyone is just starting or thinking of starting methadone, keep reading. When I first started it seemed like the miracle drug. I actually got a pretty good buzz for a while, never had withdrawls, etc. But it wasn't long before the buzz wore off, so I started the increased doseage game. That also worked for a while, but eventually my doc wouldn't go up any more. SO I stayed at 130 3 more years until-like most of you-I decided to try to get back my life and freedom. Well, this is my first run at detox, so I didn't have the good sense to do it as slow as I should have. I went down 10 mg per day and did really well until I got down to about 40 mg/day. I then slowed down to 5 per day, and did ok-not great but ok- down to 25. THen it started getting petty bad. SInce this site seems to be more about the withdrawls than the "how we got here" stuff, I'll discuss withdrawls in a seperate post.

I have to agree with BurroughsToldU...many people are on way too high of a dose. I was on 95 mg starting in 2004-2006 because of a heroin addiction I couldn't seem to kick. I would nod off at work, while driving...it's amazing I didn't crash my car and injur myself or others. I decreased to 55 mg and stayed there through most of 2007. Then last November, I decided to start the detox process. I have to say that I am shocked hearing that people's last dose is 10mg. I went down 5 mg a week until I got to 30, and then started going down 3 mg a week until I got to about 19mg. Then 2 mg a week until I got to 9 mg and now I am going down 1 mg a week, and I always have the option to skip the decrease for the week if I feel any symptoms. I am currently at 5 mg and so far have had hardly any symptoms of withdrawl. My feet and ankles and sometimes my calves ache a bit at night, and I am sleeping a little less than I used to, but nothing that isn't tolerable, AND NO CRAVINGS YET. Nobody should have to go cold turkey at 10mg. That is still an incredibly high dose. Now that I am at 5 mg, the nurse administrating the methadone told me I am finally at a dose that non-opiate addicted patients receive. I don't know what the future holds for me as far as withdrawal, but I plan on decreasing my dose until I get to 1mg before quitting completely. One thing that has helped -- stop your sugar intake and start eating healthy now. Take vitamins and exercise as much as you can. The detox process is easier if you have been taking care of your body. Also, keep busy. I have enveloped myself in work, which makes me forget about the fact that I am detoxing. Also, my counselor has informed me about Suboxone treatment after getting off methadone. She says if the withdrawal symptoms are bad after my last dose, that there are Suboxone detox programs in the city that will help take away any residual withdrawals from the methadone. You take it for two weeks, and supposedly walk away with your body months ahead of where it would be without it. I think this also helps me knowing that there is a back up plan if I feel too sick.
Most importantly, stay positive! Try not to "expect" you symptoms or look for them. And have a support system. If you friends and family know, they can do their best to help you or keep you from making bad, rash decisions if the detox is going badly. I wish everyone the best in getting off methadone if that is what is right for them.

I just wanted 2 say that I agree with "luckylady77" about decreasing from the methadone. In my own experience I found out the hard way that going down 2 fast can take u out. I know that everyone's different, chemically & emotionally, but I just want 2 warn anyone who's trying 2 get off of methadone 2 try 2 do it slowly because when u start 2 feel dope sick most of us automatically want 2 feel better right away. I wish the best 4 everyone & I was so happy 2 come across this site cuz I don't feel so alone now (at least 4 today). Let's face it ALOT of people who r in the clinics r still using everyday & have no intention of ever stopping & the clinics r there 2 help but there also there 2 MAKE MONEY but there r some of us who r trying 2 use it as a stepping stone 2 get completely clean. I consider myself clean, even tho I'm on methadone, cuz I had 2 work hard 2 stop shooting dope even with methadone but I am slowly coming down & hope 2 be off it as soon as I can. The last thing I want 2 say is that methadone can do good things 4 some people. I got sole legal custody back of my son,from his father, who was using him as a pawn 2 get whatever he wanted when i was still using. I started working full time again and was trusted with thousands of dollars. I have buried close 2 almost TEN3 people this past year so I want 2 say good luck 2 all of u & always remember that ITS NEVER TOO LATE and we r all worth it!!!

After my twins were born, I got addicted to oxycotin. After spending all my savings on it, I decided to go to the Methadone clinic. I was on Methadone for five years at 35 mg a day. I weaned myself off of it to about 5-10 mg a day and it has now been 15 days since I have been clean. Most of the physical withdrawals have gone away, which everyone knows they would prefer to be in an induced coma until they go away. It was utter torture. My problem now is that two weeks later I am severely depressed, very fatigued, loss of all and any interest. I don't want to watch TV, read a magazine and can only sleep two hours at a time. My children are still being taking care of by my family.
I'm scared to death that my depression won't go away and I won't get my natural energy back. Will I be able to live a normal life without the boost I got from the Methadone? How long can this take?

I came to this site a couple of weeks ago, when I just started kicking. I now have 17 days clean. I understand your fatigue Christine2209. However, you are threw the worst part! :-D So be happy for that if you can't seem to find any other happiness. Are you taking vitamins? Make sure to take Multi-vitamin, fish oil and there are a few other good ones listed on a site on the Internet under http:/www.dpeg.org/methadone_withdrawal.html I found a lot of very good information there that helped me threw my last 17 days. From all my research I've found that methadone withdrawal will last 3-5 weeks, with the first 2 weeks being the worst. Ofcourse after 5 weeks there will be post accute withdrawal- which every type of addict has. I've come to the conclusion that the tiredness and fatigue that I'm feeling now really just has to do with my own endorphines and such not firing like they should. It's going to take a while. I was on methadone for 5 years prior to this kick and I'm being honest with myself that I'm not going to get completely better overnight. I have to say that I'm sleeping 6 hours a night and don't seem to have any symptoms other than extreme fatigue and weakness. I think the vitamins I'm taking help a lot, asking "god" to help me threw this and being absolutely determinded to kick this ish for good. Now we have to study health and endorphines to get natural highs. I suggest doing that. I've found I can exercise if I don't do it for a long time&that makes things better, healthy food and just trying to keep myself into other things, interests, or people around me and stop thinking about how I'm feeling all the time, seems to help. It's just the way you look at it... like all this sneezing, how annoying, but if you think about it, it always feels better after you sneeze. I highly suggest to everyone if they have gradually kicked the methadone NOT to go on to subutex, suboxone-this too is addictive and simply just is the "next big miracle cure"- full of B.S. and you will find there will be more and more subuxone addicts in the future. We have already had our addictions here with methadone, that's enough right?!! Keep on Keeping on (kicking) and with time all your pain will be worth the pleasure you have in your new life, free from addiction. One Love, Ciel

You may have seen my post a few days ago under "guest" in which I provided a little background to help you see that I'm as average guy as anyone and still ended up on 130 mg of meth for years (I'm the 37 yr old govt agency manager). I posted that on one of my rare "good days" since I've been in withdrawls (good really just means tolerable). Now, as promised, I want to describe my own withdrawls. I don't mean to scare those considering it, but it has been a hell I never could have imagined and I think people should know what they are headed for. I came down about 10 mg per day from 130 and did great until about 40. At 40 I was feeling some disconfort, so I slowed to 5 mg per day. I was uncomfortable and a bit sleepless but certainly tolerable until I got down to 10. It got rough then...or I thought it was rough until I stoped completely. In fact, I stayed at 5 mg for 2 days...and while I thought I was bad then, the difference between 5 mg per day and 0 is a bigger difference than I'd ever imagined. Within 24 hrs of my last 5 mg, I was hurting bad. For the first 7 days (yes SEVEN) after I last took 5mg I was absolutely in a hell I cannot begin to describe. Nothing I've read in others descriptions could begin to describe what I felt. I live alone and made arrangements for no one to visit or come by because I knew I would be sick...just not how sick. People, I literally thought I would not live through it. I had a bone aching pain that can't be described. When I say I wanted to come out of my skin, it is very true. I'd tense up every muscle in my body intentionally just so when I realeased the tension Id get a few moments of relaxation before the withdrawls started aching my muscles again. I would lay in the floor and just yell out, then get in bed, only to pop up 5 minutes later and try a chair. No matter where I was or what I was doing, I was miserable. Friends, it was worse than you can imagine. I'd turn on my AC and a fan both, and 10 minutes later I'd be turning on my heat (in the summer). I was always hot or cold, never right. On about the 3rd day after last dose came the nausea. I actually only threw up a few times, but I felt like it for about 6 days. ANd of course there was the lack of sleep. Friends, I just can't describe what it was like to not get more than 10 minutes of sleep for 6 days and nights straight. (really...6 days and nights!) Not only did my body feel exhausted, but it literally starts to drive you insane as there is nothing to seperate days from nights. Watching informercials at 4 am knowing the rest of the world is asleep is hard, and the longer I went without sleep the more sureal and miserable things got. You'll just have to experience it to understand what I mean. I did get the sneezes and would sometimes sneeze like 15 times striaight without being able to stop. Headaches were also everpresent and unbearable. THere are just no words I can use to convey to you how horrible the 7 days were...and by the way....thats why there was such a gap between my first post and now....durring the worst 7-10 days I couldn't possibly sit at my computer and think, let alone type. ANd don't misundertand me, the clouds didn't part and all got much better after 7 days.....but it did finally and slowly start to improve. SO lets get to the good news....
First, I want to offer a few tips. I tried countless medications- script and OTC and the only thing that ever helped a TINY bit was advil! Really. Ibuprophen did ease all the syptoms a little. I also called my doc and said I was throwing up and he called in some phenergan (ie promethazine) which was what I was fishing for since it is used both for nausea and sleep....but it never really helped me with either.
So advil is about all I can recommend in terms of medication. The only other thing that gave me any measure of relief was hot, hot showers, long ones. It helped the muscle aches, helped me get the closest thing to relaxed, and just helped make me feel refreshed. As someone else said on here...hygeine is important durring withdrawls because it helps kep you feeling more normal and less funky. My house became a wreck because I didn't feel like cleaning, but I forced myself into long hot showers and they helped. Anyway, I'm now in my 2ed week and I'm still in hell...and I mean bad...but it is getting better. I'll post again in case anyone is interested so if you have Q's, feel free to ask.

I have been addicted to Vicodin for 10 years and switched to Methadone 10 months ago. I am at 28 mg. Should I go to inpatient detox ASAP and get of of it. I am terrified of the withdrawls. When I read some of the post here I wish I were dead. I hate being a drug addict. I'm tired of this c**p. Did I make a huge mistake by going on Methadone? I felt like it was a miracle cure for my Vicodin addiction. I feel so normal on it. Am I a fool????

Yeah, it's not nice. Methadone is a really shitty drug due to the potential length of any detox. I know that in the UK, methadone is prescribed due to it's low cost rather than it's statistical efficacy.

The best bet is once you're down to 30-40mg of meth, switch to Buprenorphine (whether Subbutex or Suboxone).

Don't disregard the instructions about waiting 'til you're severely sick before taking your first dose of Bup.; wait, and then wait a bit more. Methadone has a long half-life and you MUST wait 36hrs MINIMUM, preferably 48. Sooner and you WILL BE SICK AS A PIG...and you'll have the pleasure of being sick for the next week if you keep taking the Buprenorphine!

Try to get your prescription in 2mg doses, as this will allow you to optimize the dose with ease.

If you've got a good doctor, push for 4mg for your first day, then upto 16mg per day (in 2mg doses) for the subsequent 5 days (the idea being to take as few or as many as you need). Not many doctors will prescribe a "take as required" regime, but it will make the switch utterly painless. After the first 4/5 days stabilise your dose at 10mg (same time of day each day ((midday is good, so your sleep remains unaffected)), then start to reduce.

A good schedule for a fast (28day) reduction [if the buprenorphine has been prescribed as above]:

Day 1 10mg
Day 2 8mg
Day 3 8mg
Day 4 7mg
Day 5 7mg
Day 6 6mg
Day 7 6mg
Day 8 5mg
Day 9 5mg
Day10 4mg
Day11 4mg
Day12 3mg
Day13 3mg
Day14 2mg
Day15 2mg

Switch to mixture of 0.4mg and 2mg tablets

Day16 1.4mg
Day17 1.4mg
Day18 1mg
Day19 1mg
Day20 0.8mg
Day21 0.8mg
Day22 0.6mg
Day23 0.6mg
Day24 0.4mg
Day25 0.4mg
Day26 0.2mg
Day27 0.2mg

By reducing so quickly, you will stop your body becoming accustomed to the Buprenorphine which makes the reduction painless.

The "cold turkey" is still not pleasant, but it's far far easier than smack, and a cakewalk compared to meth.

Allow a week of feeling fairly dire (though not diabolical), another week of feeling shitty but on the mend, and then a couple more of general weakness and lethargy.

You're good to go, collect £200. :-D

Everyone reacts to methadone differently. I have a high tolerance for opiates and always have. I started at 80mgs and am now at 10 mgs. I find that once you hit 10 mgs, the side effects are more mental. In the past I reduced to 8 then 6 then 3. At 3, it is questionable whether your body id reliant on it. In fact, this time, at 10 mgs. , I find, I don't really need it and am going to ween off by myself with the last 3 bottles of 10mgs. My physical symptoms are non existent at this level. HOWEVER, I could NOT do this without the aid of Diazapam or Clonazapam. These anti-anxiety medication help e to deal with the flood of emotions and "blanket' that methadone provided me in coping with life.
In terms of going cold turkey, it can be done. I ave done it with what is called (In Toronto) the "Detox Kit" which includes: Diazapam (anxiaty) , Clonodine (helps reduce your heart rate to lessen the chills and fever combo) Amotryptilyne (For sleep, a very heavy sleeping aid.helps you to sleep through the worst of the withdrawal time.If you are not withdrawing, it will put you to sleep for 3 days!) also, a huge bottle the strongest ibuprofin tablets (400mg?) to help with the aches.
This "Detox" kit is available to anyone in Toronto at a methadone clinic, of which there are many. You can get it by just walking in.
good luck to all

If he's sleeping, he's not detoxing.