How Long Do You Have To Take Methadone To Get Withdrawals (Top voted first)

Hello everyone who is one methadone and wants to get off. I was on methadone for 6 years....I wanted to get off so I went to a rehab and did a 30 day suboxone detox getting down to 1 mg for the last 3 days. After 2 days off suboxone I started to get sick once again and decided to get back on methadone. That lasted for about a year before I had finally had enough. I did research and did a 16 day detox from 108 mg to 0 with minor side effects compared to the hell I know methadone withdrawal can be. This is what I did and it worked for me. I can't believe drs aren't talking of the benefits of DXM. Every day before dosing I took 100 mg of Dxm, and drank a few cups of grapefruit juice, the juice increases the effects of the methadone because it inhibits the enzyme that metabolites it in the liver, thus stronger effects because of the longer and more amount of drug in the blood. The dxm is proven to reduce the body's tolerance by inhibiting the nmda receptor that tells the brain it needs more...I did this refining every day before dosing and even missed the last 2 days of treatment. I also partook in the tiniest amount of marijuana, but don't think that was the key. The key was the dxm, it can reduce the tolerance. Everyone is different but if you are thinking of doing a methadone detox start everyday a few hrs before dosing with 50 to 100 mg of dxm, basically cough syrup...look it up, then take your methadone and you'll see the effects will be increased and the withdrawal will be so much less. The grapefruit juice also helps, but not on its own. It only potentiates the effects rather then decreasing the body's tolerance. All I know is after basically 7 yrs of over 100 mg a day I had minimal withdrawal after a 16 day detox and was ok after a month of lethargy. No cold sweats, puking or the hell I had experienced before. I would rather kick opiates cold turkey any time over methadone, it's so much worse, you'd have to be willing to be a lifer to get on it, or go down small amounts over 6 months or more to have success. I can't believe no one talks about dxm, it saved me so much pain. Please look into it, even if you are going to do a 21 day detox. Start the first day with it and it will be so so much easier. I really hope this helps at least one person.

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Hi Charlotte,

Your welcome, I know how scary this can be. Are you taking 5 mg methadone every 6 hrs as prescribed by a dr? As far as I know it's not really a drug you take multiple times a day because of the strong half life and shorter acting analgesic life, once you fell the pain come back the amount of methadone still in your system is the same! Unlike others like vicodine where when the pain't comes back most of the drug has already been metabolized. So what I'm saying is dosing multiple times a day with methadone is scary because you end up with so much of it in you and a strong strong physical addiction.

Why are you taking it? For how long?

I know that taking b vitamins are good, also to take a liquid called calmag helped me alot, it keeps the bones healthy, and the methadone works it's way into your bones quickly and when withdrawl happens they hurt, so the calmage (calcium magnesium) helps. Also clonodine is something your dreams can prescribe that helps a lot with the physical part of withdrawls, not psychological but can be taken while narcotics are also being taken,

All said, I know how you feel, it was the hardest thing I ever went through. But there is light at the other end. I felt I would never fell normal again, but I did and you will also.

Not sure if this is appropriate, it was ok for me, I was very carfull, but I also drank a little beer when it got bad, I was amazes at what 2 coronas could do to make me feel better.

Again I'm not sure why you are even on pain meds, using alcohol if you are going to be on them long term isn't a good idea. But the clonodine, dmx and grapefruit juice should help, along with tagment to make the benzos stronger.

Please if I can help at all just ask, I guess I get an email every time there is a responce in this thread, so......take care, you're not alone

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Sorry for so many responces, but I keep thinking......stabilize at 20 with what we've been talking of, then go down ssssllllooowww. You must of gone down too fast, I've done it. I'd take 1 mg a week. It'll take a long time but it's worth it if it's done right.

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Jonyb,
Thank you for your kind support! Have been on methadone for pain management for 6 years from having 2 back surgeries. I did what you said and took 50 mg DXM
this morning with grapefruit juice and just took the same again. My prescription says to take the methadone 5mg 4 times a day. I was cut back from 30 mg per day
about 3 weeks ago. Before I was put on methadone, I was on fentanyl patches. Sorry if this post is rambling, am just so tired etc., etc. The DXM is helping a bit I think. My doctor has nothing to offer, so am on my own with this. I just want to know exactly how much pain I am in without methadone for it. Whenever I told the drs that I felt okay, they said that the pain meds were doing their job. But after so much time, I want to know where I stand without medicine. Am adding the vitamin pills you suggested also, plus a small drink maybe if the nausea goes away. Did
the Suboxone help you at all? It didn't sound like it from your post. This will be your BEST Chistmas in a long time! I am happy for you! Thanks again so much for the very kind support you have given to me. I have used your advice.... Starting to ramble from being without sleep. If you have ANY suggestions, I would love to hear them,
Charlotte

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My first post, Due to the stress put on my back from training Equine Athletes, I had spinal fusion surgery of L4/L5. (sidenote, please everyone, be very thorough in checking out your surgeon. The first fusion failed, one screw was broken, no bilateral support, found out after the fact that the first doctor was on probation, got kicked out of another hospital, etc. The second surgeon was just barely able to redo this! My first taste of Hell.). This was 13 years ago. My problem now, I was taken off the fentanyl patches and put on 30 mg of methadone 6 years ago. I have weaned down to 20 mg over a 4 week period and am in a second Hell! From the top of my head to my toes feels like needles are being stuck into me. No sleep, barely can eat, heart is racing, cold and hot sweats, When will this stop? I will need to stabilize at 20 mg before I can drop down further and just the thought of that terrifies me? Am 52, female and my doctor is not very helpful. I have Xanax to take. Just read the post about using DXM, cough syrup, and grapefruit juice. Any advice from anyone would really help. Am at the end of my rope! Thanks for any replies. The pain management dr. that put me on methadone said it would be easy to get off this medicine. I think not! Thanks to anyone that can help me

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I took it once a day, because I only dosed once a day. An hour or more before I took my methadone. It needs some time to work it's water into the receptors I hear to work the best. As with anything you can probably build a tollerence to this also so I think it's best used as a way to help the detox prossess. I'd look it up to see if others have used it with fentalal. For me it worked great taking once a day. Keep me posted

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I'm not a dr, but have years of experiance and have done my home work. If your taking 20 mg a day and in hell, find a cough syrup that has a high ratio of dxm per ml, 30 is usually good, it's hard to find one that only has dxm in it, but usually taking higher doses of the expectorant isn't unsafe unless it reaches over 4 grams, 4000mg, that's not gonna a happen.

Try taking 100 mg dmx an hour before you dose and a few glasses of grapefruit juice as well, beforem you does. Also you can take a fewoknt tagment, it's an otc heart burn med. Take all an hr before you dose, then an hr after you take your methadone take the Xanax or valium or any benzo. I think you'll rearly fell the diffrence. Let me know

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But don't take a lot a Xanax maybe twice a much or %50 more then you usually take. The tagment and juice as well as the dxm all potentiate it, that's why you want to wait to take it, so they can get into your liver and turn off the enzymes that metabolize it, there forever leaving more in the blood, it in turn also potentiates the methadone as does the dxm. Please let me know how this works for you.

Any Dr who says it will be easy to get off methadone is full of it....

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The suboxone didn't help me, but I tappered off a very high dose of methadone with in it in one month. I was wondering if you think most your pain is drug related, not having enough or from your extensive medical history. Suboxone would not the best if your pain is due to surgeries etx.

This hasn't come up yet but have you thought about adding meditation into your rutine, I do, it saved me and made me so much more alive then I ever thought possible, good thing is you don't have to 'do anything ' to do it, just learn the right teaniques. There are lots of studies, even Harvard that show meditation lessens pain a lot and reduces the size of the center in the brain that is responsible for anxiety and pain, the amigdila. I think it's worth looking into.

Did more research for you and think taking the dxm every 6 hrs would be good. Also give it a few days for this all to work and to let your system get used to it.

When I was going through the worst of the withdrawalsame I'd run a hot hot bath and sit in it till it got cold, then drain some water and start agsin, when I was in a hot hot bath all the symptome, most all left entirely.

Keep me posted, Jon

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Hi Charlotte, dropping off methadone was not extremely painfully for me physically but emotionally it was hell hell hell. I would never recomend you drop another 5 next week. You seem to be having very bad wd, and I'd go very very slow. I don't know how it works but if you can I'd say drop one mg a week......I know that sounds bad, half life's a lot longer on methadone but these wd's last a long time. Since you have to do it you should BPT just get it over with. If you go down slow, your body will have a week to get used to the new dose then the wd's will be less. Go down fast and they will be just as bad, or similar to what they are now and will last for awhile.

The thing is methadone remains in your system much longer after you stop taking it, releasing it's self from your liver and fatty tissues. So a unlike other narcotics 'getting it over with ' won't apply in your case. If you were on hydrocodone it would be a diffrent story.

My strongest advice is to go down slow, your already physically addicted to it, so being on it longer won't get you hooked more, especially if you are going down.

I can't stress enough going down too fast, then being off completely will be even worse than it is now. I know 1 mg a week is good, then if possible after you get down to 1 mg do it every other day, or even every 36 hrs. I even know others who do .5mg to make it easier. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Pins and needles all over means too much too fast. Also clonidine, check it out, get some if possible. Take the dxm every 6 hrs if it helps. Do all you can to do it right.

Methadone wd's can take months to recover from when the body isn't able to adjust to the decreasing amount of medication.

Let me know your thoughts.

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You can call a methadone clinic and talk with them if your dreams is only able to go down 5mg a time. They clinics can do mg by mg over long periods of time.

Do you have to see your dreams every day to get your methadone?

If you have a take home prescription, you can just go along with his decreese but break the pills up into smaller doses or if it's a liquid do the math to measure out the mg you want to take.

Most insurance will cover methadone clinics.

Ifor you have info about this let me know, I'd love to help you find one, or give you information on how to best get started.

You don't have to stay with this dr, there are other ways, even if you take the pills or liquid and do the math do get the desired dose. Drs too too often have no idea and patients endnotes getting looked for life or experience the hell you are. It doesn't have to be this way, it can be almost un noticable.

Your in ,your prayers, keep me posted

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Hi Jon,
I don't know if you are still taking messages, but I am down to 1 pill per day. My brain is coming back- I have been playing my piano, and generally just getting back on track. You know, I really thank you for your generous post. You did help me.
You cared..... Physically, I am still having nerve pain from the lack of pain meds.
But this is better than the problems caused by taking them. For me, I found marijuana ticture to be of the most help. Smoking it was too strong, vaporizer- too strong, edibles made me sick- and either too high or bad headaches, BUT, the tincture was just right! It helped immensely. How are you doing now? I care too!

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Hi Charlotte, glad to hear from you again, ya it's been awhile and this site doesn't always notify me when there is a post in response to mine. I'm doing well, I've also found that meditating is very helpful and I can't stress how much it has helped. I don't think I'did of made it if I hadn't had it. I am studying the SRF lessons and practicing their techniques. If your interested you can look up SRF, they have weekly lessons sent to your house! Anyway it definitely takes awhile to get off that last little bit?? Sometimes longer then we think it should, hang in there. Your right I do care, knowing what methadone is like, like a prison, I fell for others who want to be free if it. Again, I found calcrumbles magnesium very helpfully for the bones and grapefruit juice helpful. How are you doing now?

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Hi, my name is terry, I read what you were saying.. And please listen to me!! When taking Xanax of any type of benzo diazapiens.. Never consume any grapefruit of any kind, it can kill you!! Please research...terry

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I just posted about taking methadone instead of the fentanyl patches. I take 5mg every 6 hours. With using the cough syrup, did you take it once a day or several times per day? Thanks

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Can't get to the store yet to get the cough syrup. I really just want to DIE and get it over with. Thanks Jonyb. I have never had a tattoo, but, I imagine if I was having an entire body tattoo done at the same time, head to toe, this is what I feel like... Plus the hot and cold sweats, shaking, nausea... Don't know how much longer I can hold out. And I am only down to 20mg from 30 mg of methadone! It has been almost 4 weeks with no improvement at all! As far as the Xanax, in 2000 when my i**** OBGYN took out all but 1/4 of one ovary without my permission, long story, I had a cyst and he was only supposed to take that out. But he said ' sorry, I thought it was better to just take them out. Then, since it put me into menopause, he gave me Xanax instead of estrogen replacement for all the immediate hot flashes, high heart rate etc. I did not even know what Alpraxolam ( Xanax ) was! So, I have been on Xanax, I am allowed up to 3 mg per day but I take 1 and one half mg per day which is an entirely different hell! What was this dr thinking? I feel, after reading so many posts on this site, that so many lives have been wasted due to doctors not knowing what effects the medicine they prescribe will have on us. The pain management drs I have seen are located in the upscale parts of my area. They gladly accept my money but the doctors themselves are not there, only PA's. Sorry for the long rant. Growing up, my family was very nutrition oriented, NEVER thought I would be in such a sad state. I keep hoping every day will get better. Methadone is the drug from HELL! Xanax is the drug from HELL! If anyone reads this that is considering taking these drugs, don't! Your life will be gone. I had a successful business, trained sport horses, was very active, now it is a good day just if I can eat food. If anyone has any thoughts about Suboxone, please let me know, or is that just another addiction?

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Jonyb suggested taking DXM cough syrup for methadone withdrawals plus grapefruit juice. Finally was able to get both. Just took about 50 mg DXM and the juice. Have been on methadone, 30 mg per day for 6 years, cut down to 20 mg and feel like needles are poking me from head to toe! I hope this helps. Will let you all know. In an hour I will take a bit more DXM if this does not help. Short history, 2 lumbar fusions back in 2001-2002. Was on fentanyl patches, then the dr changed me to 30 mg methadone..said methadone would be easier to get off of. We all just want our life back!

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To Jonyb, thank you for taking your time to write to me! I have no one else to talk to that has been through anything like this. Especially since Christmas is next week. Last year, my father, oldest brother, and Aunt died. I did the hospice care for all 3. So this has been particularly rough trying to get off methadone. You should feel so proud for ridding yourself of this horrible medicine.
Charlotte

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Hi Jon,
Thanks so much for your kind replies. Will try the DXM every 6 hours. It does seem to help
with the hot/cold thing. The needle feeling is still there, but, with the DXM and I think the grapefruit juice, a bit more bearable. This is tougher than I could have imagined. If I go by
my dr's advice, he would drop me by another 5 mg in 2 weeks down to 15 mg methadone.
He can only do 5 mg decreases, so, I can stay at 20 mg. for a bit, maybe just a month or so. It's my decision. I really believe I
can get by with just non prescription medication for pain. I just have to get off the Methadone. All the needle feeling I have now must be the nerve endings coming back from constantly being numbed down, that's what I tell myself anyway

You mentioned meditation. If this is the same thing, I get deep into reliving my beach swimming, hiking, traveling whatever good experiences pop into my numbed down brain.
I have done the hot hot showers, that does help.
Also, silly shows and movies.
Trying to stay as calm as I can,
Thank you for letting me write to you, I feel sooooo drained of energy and life
Am trying to eat more since I am losing too much weight
Charlotte

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Hi Jon,
I do think the DXM helps a bit. To describe it, I would say that the Methadone withdrawal is still there, but just not as bothersome? Can't really think of the right word. In your opinion,
should I stay at 20 mg, or, if I drop another 5 mg next week do you think I will feel the same? I know everyone is different. You just did such an amazing job at getting off this extremely bad drug. Could you try to describe how the drops in dose felt, not each day, just kind of overall.
I still feel like needles are poking me head to toe, is that what you felt like?
But if dropping further and I will still feel like hell, might as well get it over with. I do not know what to do at all.
Thank you for your great help and kindness!
Hope you are happy and healthy,

Charlotte
Charlotte

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Hi Jon,
I hope I am not being a pest. If you have time to write back, what did your body feel like when dropping down your dose? I can only get 10 mg pills when I see the dr once a month. But I can break them down into small pieces. The way I feel right now, I better give it one more week before I drop lower again. The needle feeling,
headache, is pretty bad. The hot/cold thing is not as bad.
Thanks soooo much,
Charlotte

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