how do i get off the last phase of methadone?

Question

i am posting this a little early in hopes to get a bunch of great ideas/ answers for when the time comes. i am dosing myself in methadone. despite what everyone says, it is going great. ( i have to get off of it quick, and the docs wont let me go down as fast as i need to). i know i shouldnt do it this way, but i am, and it is working really well. if everything goes as planned i will be at .5mg in about 2 more weeks- but then what do i do? do i have to take .25mg??? i was told that i am supposed to switch to another drug. can someone tell me what that other drug is or what i should do? what should i expect? will i get just as sick when i stop at .5mg? please help, i am so worried as that time is getting closer.

gnarly_1 · Answer

wish I would of though of diluting it... when I got around 5ml it was difficult to measure it ...
annything below that was like splitting hairs....im still wondering if this guy is splitting 10mg pills up....I know of no one that has droped it below 1 ml doing this...I have herd of people
skipping days when they get to 1ml but again never heard of anyone going below that amount

hellc@mst · Answer

All you need to do is add 9mls of sterile water to 1mg of methadone and you then have a 0.1mg to 1ml mixture. So 0.25mgs will be 2.5mls or 0.5mgs will be 5mls. It aint rocket science.Look i dont know why someone wants to do such miniscule reductions but thats not for me to dictate to someone else. Obviously there are people out there who do feel that their recovery is best served by the slowest taper possible.

gnarly_1 · Answer

hey jeremy I weened myself off methadone with a syringe and the liquid methadone when I got down to 1ml it was like 3 drops being dispensed I cant even imagine someone trying to go to a smaller dose then that and also why???....if I had to do it over I would jump at 5ml and get a head start on my recovery rather then waisting 5 weeks dropping a ml a week
.......Gnarly

hellc@mst · Answer

I just wanted to respond to feohmans comment about doctors/anyone advising people to switch from methadone to suboxone in order to detox off of methadone. I think most informed medical proffesionals do this is because short suboxone detox's have been shown to mitigate the severity of methadone withdrawals considerably. 

I know from my own experience that as i tapered down off of my methadone dose i had periods of extreme discomfort. When i finally reached a methadone dose that could be effectively covered by suboxone i was admitted into a residential detox unit and transititioned onto an equivalent suboxone dose. This dose was tapered over a very short period(less than 2 weeks) and i can honestly say that the final push using suboxone was much milder than i had anticipated and far less intense than the most uncomfortable periods of my methadone taper.

While there are people who have bad reactions to suboxone, the general concensus is that short term suboxone tapers mitigate the severity of opioid withdrawals(especially methadone) . Longer use of suboxone ,however, has the opposite effect and invites methadonesque withdrawal severity. 

I also saw the confusion over the ability of someone to accurately measure methadone into .5 and .25mg doses. Seriously this is no great feat and perfectly plausible. A 10ml syringe a tablet crusher and some sterile water should suffice.

Anyway. I just wanted to share my experience and offer some insight into the posible motives for the prescribing of suboxone for a methadone taper.

All the best regards Jeremy.

feohmoon · Answer

It frustrates me when doctors/anyone advise people that they need to switch to suboxone to get off of methadone, which they got on to get off of opiates.  This cycle is just an example of addiction and the vicious cycles associated with it.
You should be ok if you have tapered this far, and l am with Gnarley on the mg.???
My fiance and I detoxed from methadone - if you would like to check it out, I have a couple of journals that address it.  There are many remedies in there that will help you with the detoxing process and help to alleviate some of the pain and discomfort associated with withdrawals.  
Best of luck to you and continue to post, this place provides you with an outlet for your feelings and there are great people here to provide you with support and encouragement.  Of course, aftercare is essential to your recovery so hopefully you can find a counselor or a group in your area that will help you to develop the skills you need to stay clean.

gnarly_1 · Answer

my only question is how are you splitting it down into .5 and then .25...I jumped off at 1ml and made it.....they dont make 1mg pills they make 10mg pills how are you breaking it down to such a small dose????

IBKleen · Answer

Once again, we cannot tell you how to taper off of Suboxone or Methadone. Nor can we tell you which drugs to switch to, if any. You will need to see a doctor about lowering your dose. Good luck.