Methadone 21 Day Detox
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I am 65 y/o male who has been on Rx opiates several years. I cheated when the Rx arrived early in the mail and had extra tablets. When taking codeine sulphate and long acting morphine the pills were shipped together. When the codeine was switched to Norco the meds were mailed separately. The VA is where I receive health care. The Norco was always sent out on day 31 taking up to 10 days to arrive even on 28 day & 30 months. The morphine was always overnighted and arrive on time. The time gap between shipments left me taking excessive amounts of one to cover for the other and visa-versa. At the end I would 30mg Norco QTH when out of morphine. I would crush 6, 30mg morphine tablets daily while out of the Norco. Of course I found myself without either drug for up to a week at a time going through hell. I found the courage to tell my doctor what was going on and asked for a program. There is no program at the VA where I go. I was sent to a civilian methadone clinic where they offered me 21 day detox or maintenance. I wanted off the opiates and chose the detox.

Unfortunately they did not consider my BMI or amount of drugs I was using, starting me on 20mg methadone tapering off 2mg every 48 hours. I complained for the three days and was only offered the maintenance program. I needed to use the Norco I had left, tapering off from 3 pills to 2 then one with their methadone. I began having cold turkey withdrawals after about ten days only to be told I could join the maintenance. I read the handbook this clinic provided and learned they had a long term detox program not to exceed 180 days. I filed a grievance with the program on day 18 of the 21, a Thursday. The director said for me to complete the 21 days on Sunday and reapply the next day. She claimed no-one who worked there knew they offered a long term detox. That was the reason it was not offered.

I was in full blown cold turkey and paced the floor 6 days non-stop with seizure like episodes. I did go to an ER on two occasions. Once at the VA where I was told they do not want to become involved and given five HTN pills. The local hospital near my home treated me with Ativan and sent me home with some Valuim. I appeared at that methadone clinic that Monday, finished the intake process again, waiting for the doctor to call and clear the dose. There was never a doctor there when I was, nor did I ever see one. I do not know what happened, I said I changed my mind and bolted out of there being afraid the suffering I already endured would be for nothing. That was 12 days ago. I am in extreme discomfort, can't sleep but will get through it. I believe these methadone clinics want to keep you on a maintenance program as long as they can. They made it impossible for me to detox and I would have failed if I did not have some Norco left. The place was Skid Row, it looked like thieving murderers and derelicts were their clients, some bragging about how f***ed up they were, getting 100-200mgs daily for the past 10 years. One staff member sounded as if gloating when she told of a person getting shot outside, but went and died at another location!! This whole scene strengthened my resolve.

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Thank you for a response.
I agree that addicts are people who don't set out in life to be an addict. But I also recognize that many want their drug and that is that.
I wanted the drugs before and tricked my doctor into more and more. Now I see what I became and found the courage to face the truth and reclaim my life. I do not want to be a junkie. I do realize I still have a home and reasons to fight this off and many other do not.
But, for this clinic to deny knowing of their own mission statement, and purposely give a giant-substandard dose to detox is inexcusable in my opinion!!!

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Hello, Winky! How are you doing? I am very sorry about what you've been going through.

Well, there are 2 reasons that these Methadone clinics tend to attract people that you may find to be less than desirable. The first is that most of them are severely underfunded. Thus, they are often in less expensive areas, where the crime rates are usually higher.

And many addicts that require their services have been beaten down in life and their addiction has cost them virtually everything they have, including their dignity. But nonetheless, they are people just like you.

And no, the clinics don't deliberately want to keep anyone on a lifetime dose of Methadone, but it is a very highly addictive drug that causes severe withdrawals, just like what you've experienced, so many people cannot ever entirely get off of it.

As a matter of fact, the reason Suboxone came to be, was to try to find a solution to these types of issues. The program for it is different, since it's prescribed by private physicians and not in such clinics, plus people can be more easily tapered off of it to allow them to eventually end up drug free. There are always a few exceptions, but it does work well for many people.

How are you feeling, now?

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