Went To The Clinic Today

not sure if everyone is familiar with my story so i'll update you. i had an addiction to pills for three years.i was tired of chasing them down & at the time everyone i knew that was on pills started going to the methadone clinic. i knew nothing at all about methadone. all i knew was i wanted to get off the pills. i planned on being on methadone for a FEW MONTHS to help me taper off the pills , but 7 yrs later, i'm still on it. i hate it. i want off, but all the horror stories of people detoxing from it scare me to death. i have started decreasing & i'm @ 50 mg. i've been thinking about switching to suboxone cause i've done some research on it and found out that for most people it's alot easier to detox from than methadone. i went to the clinic today & talked to my counselor about. i thought that she was going to tell me that it was a bad idea. (you know how the clinics don't want to lose that $$) but to my surprise, she told me that she thinks that it'll be a good idea for me to try it. she made sure that NOBODY heard her tell me this, because she could probably lose her job. not sure what i'm gonna do yet but i'm seriously leaning towards the suboxone. the only problem is that i only go to the clinic once a month & she said that if i do switch & it doesn't work for me & i have to go back on methadone that i may have to start all over from phase 1. that would SUCK!!! i'll keep yall posted on my decision. any advice will be appriciated. jessica
Jessica,

Your post caught my eye because I came on here intending to start a post about methadone. Your story is basically the same as mine. I was addicted to pills for about three years when my shrink recommended I go to the methadone clinic. Looking back that was a horrible idea and I should have done my research before I started at the clinic. I was going to be on it for 6 months to a year and ended up on it for nearly three years. I tapered down to 11mg and jumped off there. I ended up relapsing not to long after that. The w/d was brutal. I don't know much about sub but from what I've heard it's a much better choice then m-done. I've heard from most who have made the switch that you need to be down to 30mg of methadone before you switch but I don't know if that's true. I really wish you the best with this because I know what a monster methadone can become. It controls your life a lot like pills and other drugs do. You're constantly at the mercy of the clinic and the employees. The reason I came on here today was because I experienced a methadone "horror story" yesturday. My sister-in-law's cousin goes to the clinic. He has to go everyday because he has never been able to build up the privilege of take homes. Anyway yesturday his car wouldn't start. I guess they changed the hours of the clinic here and he had to be there by 11:00a.m. He couldn't find anyone to drive hime because his entire family is against him being on methadone and they told him when he started that they woudln't do anything to aid him in this. So I guess yesturday he freaked out on everyone and said a lot of horrible things. Of course today his car still wouldn't start so he took the bus as far as it would take hime and then walked the rest of the way. He must haved walked for a long time because the clinic was closed when he got there. My sister-in-law says he's not doing very good and his mom is going to take him to the clinic tomorrow. It just got me thinking how things like this can happen to anyone and it's scarey. IMO, methadone is just not a good idea for a lot of reasons. I hope you are able to get off the methadone and on the sub.

Shelly
OMG Shelly, that's a horrible story..I bet he feels like hell. That's the main reason I didn't go on meth back in 2005. I didn't want to have to drive there every single day. That's just crazy. I wonder why people get all nuts when you mention meth but are cool about sub? I guess people associate meth with H so that is "dirty" to most people. IMHO, oc's are just really good pharmaceutical H. I don't see the difference? I think they are both (sub + meth) really hard to get off of.
Find a real good sub doctor, and make sure they have experience with the switch.

Keep very present that this isn't a race...
Take it slow, wean down as low as you can. The recommended dose of methadone to switch to sub is like 35 mgs. If you can go lower, do it, never switch higher.... and don't switch until you are stable on whatever dose you choose as a target point.

Research and research some more, ask tons of questions, and make sure you are switched in office, not allowed to take your first dose at home....

Good Luck
Love,
Tina
What happened to that guy is not the fault of methadone and has nothing to do with its effectiveness as a treatment. It is sad commentary on the ignorance of his family as to what methadone is and what it does. I doubt they would have refused to take him to any other medical facility he needed to attend.
shelly33, thanks for the response. any info i can get at this point is good. i'm def. going to take my time in making a choice this time.i'm not going to rush into something that i may regret later. i have done lots of research on suboxone but the stories i am hearing kind of go both ways. some have great results & some don't so i'm still scared. my husband is real skeptical too. he just doesn't want me to make the wrong decision, & i can completly understand where he's coming from. i will keep everyone updated on my decision & let you know how it's going. like i said before, any info or advice is appriciated. i would like to learn as much as i can before i make a decision.
as far as that guy. i can't believe that they did him like that. does his family realize that he can die from methadone withdrawels? gosh, i can't even imagine that. i have only had to do without my dose 1 time in 7 yrs. it was for 2 days though & it was horrible. i went to the clinic & i was 10 minutes late & they refused to dose me. it was on a saturday so i had to do without sat. & sun. i couldn't believe that i was standing @ the desk, their were still people in line waiting to be dosed but that stupid bit*h receptionist wouldn't sign me in the computer just because i was 10 min. late. let me just say that i would've loved to catch her a** on the outside, lol! well i hope that he got to the clinic today & he's feeling better.