KICKING METHADONE without the help of modern tools is practically impossible. Half of the reason is the fantastically violent illness brought on by methadone withdrawal. I believe Keith Richards described heroin withdrawal as Feeling like your body is trying to turn itself inside out. Methadone withdrawal is widely acknowledged as just as bad or a close second to heroin withdrawal because it somehow seeps into your bones and it takes forever for your body to pull it back out. Constant puking, inability to sleep, twitches, jitters, hot flashes, cold spells...lets just call it the worst sensation imaginable. Methadone addicts live in constant fear that their supply will disappear; we spend about half of our waking moments making sure we will not run out of methadone under any circumstance, because of the fear of withdrawal, which, just one day of is enough to drive a person mad. I had 29 of these days. Because after that awesome witchdoctor shocked my nerves into repairing my damaged muscles, I no longer had an excuse to keep taking methadone. My pain was practically eliminated. So about one year before I quit drinking, I had to face the terrible task of giving up methadone cold turkey. (There was no other way; I had tried tapering off countless times and found it impossible to control myself from abusing them.) It wasnt pretty. I was unable to work or drive or do anything for a month. Every day I kept hoping the next day Id feel better and sometimes I would, but after 28 days of it Id started to lose faith that I could go on much longer before taking some methadone just to stop the sickness. The next day I went to an NA meeting to tell my story and ask if anyone had any advice for me. One guy caught up with me after the meeting and told me about a new drug called suboxone, designed to completely mask the withdrawal symptoms while your body gets used to not requiring methadone in order to function. The prescriptions are highly regulated; only a handful of doctors in the area able to write them, and you have to take a drug test every month to prove you are not using or they will shut off your prescription. suboxone was the last piece of the puzzle. After only six weeks I was completely off of suboxone and clear of methadone. And I wouldnt shove another methadone pill down my throat for all the China in Tealand. Unfortunately, thats also when my drinking went from bad to worse. Gotta take the dog out. Cliff
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 23:57:27 +0000
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