Does methadone work?

I was on methadone about 10 years. I made a decision to slowly detox. I had to instruct my clinic as to how much and when to reduce the dose. The clinic is a profit making business, they would rather you were a long time customer. I would reduce dose by 5 mg, then stay on that dose for a month or more. You allow your body to adapt to the lower dose. At one time, I had been on as much as 120mg a day. On my schedule, I was able to get off methadone with little or no withdrawals. It may have taken a year, but was best thing I ever did. If I can do it, anyone can. You need to get to the place where the high no longer matters, the money you've been spending is too much and you know you must change. Its the fear of sobriety that stops too many.

I agree it's the fear of reality which sobriety brings that long term addicts often fear.Your story is an inspiring one for sure.The ability to take control of addiction after year's of abuse is not easy and often never happens,however if you learn to care about yourself in the midst of addiction while it actively destroys you than at that point you are no longer trapped and indeed can dig out of the hole you've dug yourself into.Congratulations on your sobriety and thank you for sharing. Stay Strong and God Bless

Hi I am new here and I am a recovered heroin addict and if it wasn't for the methadone I may not be here today.Methadone is a substitute for opiate addiction but prescribed and monitored by you doctor.I wAs on methadone for approximately ten years yes very long but I preferred to take my daily dose over risking my life searching for the heroin every day to avoid being sick from withdrawal.The years I was on methadone program I did use approximately six times within the ten years.why I don't know but that's the road if recovery.I've been off methadone for two years now and completely living a drug free life and recently completed addiction and social service course in college.im 51 years old .I tapered slowly off methadone and even though it took ten years I did it!!no matter how old or how deep into the addiction of heroin I am proof methadone works.I do think that methadone programs could be more successful if patients were tapered slowly without knowing by doctors due to fear of withdrawal but not until patients at a stable dose where they no longer crave the opiates.Im rambling on but my point is yes methadone works I am proof and im blessed to be here today as now I want to live rather than give up ..thanks for listening.....tory

Congratulations on your Victory..So yes your story got me thinking. I have personally said a lot of bad thing's about methadone..I am now understanding, taking into consideration your age as basically it was the only thing available for heroin addicts when you went on it,but your story highlights the most important tool when a person decides to get sober and take back one's life and that tool is a person's desire to take their life back.Now they have in my opinion better options, like Suboxone..however it to can be abused,so the desire and will to get sober must be at the forefront of the fight. Personally methadone didn't work for me and I personally don't know of anyone it has worked for but I am glad it worked for you. I have a lot going on in my head after reading your post but im going to try to end it here before I write another short novel so again congratulations and welcome to the site. Stay Strong and God Bless

Whoever wrote that M doesn't have a very long life is wrong. M. stays in your system for 48 hours before you even feel any withdrawals. Now in no way will I say that this is how people will actually feel: every addict reacts different. With M it becomes a huge head trip. I have known people on as high a dose as 300mg (which is insane!) and still claim they could not sleep a full night because they would jones. The best way is to get on a holding dose. Most will find that no one needs to really be over 50mgs. In the beginning it can be a lot higher, because you might come in with a massive chipper on your shoulder; but once you settle in, one finds that between 50-80 is where most hang. The hard part is getting off. M. is way harder to kick than H; way harder. I found the best way is slow, BLIND detox. Where your counselor takes you down slowly over the course of months. It doesn't get hard until you get under 15 mg. At that point every 1mg you shave off becomes a higher percentage of your overall dose. This is all assuming you are staying clean outside of your dose. Many clinics nowadays won't even deal with you if you are bringing in dirty urin. Back in the day your dose of M. was just the jump start to go out and find real dope; and Xanax, and Cocaine, Crack, Booze. The documentary "Methadonia" showed our life style for many years. Too high a holding dose, a tolerance for Benzos and Alcohol will get you to that state.
Methadone works but you MUST stay disciplined. Suboxone works even better but you can not switch from one to the other easily. I have been told about Kratom; some swear by it.

Ok that was ME who said it didn't last long,let me clarify as this is about the 3rd time I've read that my previous post on this topic was incorrect.When I was on methadone it was a once a day clinic trip at 5 a.m.and I would get the smallest little paper cup with like humming bird nectar in it and THAT dose of methadone only lasted about 1 hour for MYSELF,however I have known people who received methadone prescription's of up to 300+ pills a month who have had success keeping from getting sick for until their next month's refill.I was only on the "Here's your world's smallest solo cup dose"and chase dope until tomorrow at 5 a.m.I do apologize for any confusion or misrepresentation I may have presented. STAY STRONG AND GOD BLESS

Hi TC, I was replying to your statement, but obviously you are speaking from personal history. No one can doubt what your experience was. I think I was more trying to answer people who like to post about these things from statistics w/o really knowing that much about it. I have known many, many people on the clinics, and in 99% of the places that is the way you dose: once in the a.m. Usually that will hold you. Maybe you were on too low a dose. That stuff is deceptively powerful. This is a topic that can be talked about for hours because there is no easy solution. It works for some, doesn't for others. But it is never easy.