You maybe right I have been a person always looking for instant gradifaction. That may be my main problem. It makes me so mad to see clean friends that never went on meth and I quit dope 3 years ago. Im not mad at them Im mad at me. What a dummy I am

Chet

Chet>>>
I often think of friends who were like "nah" when it came to trying anything and I really think that its got a hell of a lot to do with a lot of factors.
The ones I know all had stable families no divorces/ professional parents (at least one)/those who never had to watch a loved one go in the ground/those who never experienced depression or panic or fear...
WHat Im trying to say is those people that ya talk about?? They are most likely the ones who were really blessed in this life and felt no need to ESCAPE IT for any reason. I fall into the latter part.........

Jacks I am sorry you did not have what everyone should have a fair start. I look back and really couldnt ask for more. My last name is not Hilton and my family far from rich, but I had a stable family with opertunities to be some body and do something with my life. It really is a shame the old hind sight gets us every time. I think the person that said hind sight is 20 20 might be the smarts person to have lived

Chet

Chet man you touched my heart so much Im crying. No one ever told me that they were sorry I had a bad start. I learned early in life to fear this world that who and what we love is gone in an instant and man I live like that to this day. Now with Uncle leaving...oh man....
BUT I DID also have chance at college ma had the money at the time and I blew it. SO I had the chance too. Just when daddy died and we lost dads three business and our farm and our horses I was so heartbroken I didnt really wanna go on even at 6! I still miss my horses our stables dads gas stations and his car dealership and he was only 35 ! I would have had THE LIFE had he lived money wise but for all the money I would throw it all away to have that man here with me for one minute. Just one minute in time. Oh boo hoo poor me. Im sorry to be rambling. Your comment on the 20 20 hindsight wow It BLEW ME AWAY!
Here is another I just LOVE Chet>>
"Nothing is easier than to condemn the evildoer,
nothing is harder than to understand him."
-Dostoyevsky

THANKS CHET from my heart

Could you be more specific about the negative effects of methadone, sub etc?

Thomas
http://opioids.com/

Bro did you read the tread. It is full of the negative and some positive.

Hi

My name is Susan and I live in Baltimore,Md. I just quit my methadone clinic yesterday. I got tired of having to be so medicated all the time and not being able to go anywhere and basing my whole schedule around "The Clinic". I know I am gonna have a rough week, but that is ok. I want to be totally clean. I am 37 and have been off and on methadone for the last 11 years. It isn't an answer, at least not for me. I am so glad I found this place with other people who are going thru the same struggle. I want to be able to wake up and face the day on my own, not with 90milligrams of methadone.

Susan

Did you just quit at 90, did you taper, and how long where you going this last time? I wish you the best. Please post your experiences for others to learn from.


Chet

Chet,
My name is Bam and Ive read some of your post and I thought I was the only person that felt that way about methadone clinics.I mean when I first started they were so nice but the first time I even said anything about a detox they told me I should stay on a little longer,I guess so the drug would get harder to come off of.
Ive been on methadone for 5ys at the dose of 30mgs until I got on subutex in 11/17/04 and Ive been tapering since dy one,I started at 24mg then 16mgs then 8mgs ,4mgs ,2mgs then 1mg 3x adyand now Iam taking a 1/2,once in am then once pm and I dont feel bad at all but what Ive been reading here it is scareing me alittle,so do you think I should stay on sub alittle longer just until the methadone is completely out of my system?
thank you, Bam

I HAVE READ ALOT OF YA'S POST AND i HAVE TO SAY THAT IF THE DONE WORKS AND YOU HAVE NO FEAR OF EVER HAVING TO QUIT AND FACE W/DS
WELL GO FOR IT.bUT WHEN i STARTED DONE THEY TRIED TO PUT ME ON TO MUCH AND IT MADE ME SICK BUT THEY SAID IT WASNT THE DONE THAT IT
WAS SOMETHING ELSE,THAT WAS 4OMGS,AND AFTER A MONTH OF FALLING A SLEEP ON MY LAWN MOWERS AND ALMOST KILLING MYSELF i WENT TO ANOTHER CLINIC WHERE THEY TOOK ME DWN TO 25 MG AND IT WORKED GREAT.bUT AFTER i WAS ON THAT MUCH FOR A YR i WANTED TO GET OFF BUT THEY TOLD ME THAT i SHOULD WAIT AND STAY ON IT A WHILE LONGER AND THAT WHILE TURNED INTO 5YRS,i THOUGHT THEY REALLY CARED ABOUT ME BUT THE FIRST TIME i TOLD THEM THAT i WAS LOOKING INTO GETTING ON sUBUTEX ,WELL THEY ACTED LIKE i HAD ASKED THEM FOR A JOB THERE AT THE CLINIC,YOU KNOW THEY WERE STUNDED,THEN THEY TRIED TO TAKE AWAY MY TAKE HOMES WHICH WERE 28 BOTTLES AT A TIME,SO i ACTED LIKE i HAD CHANGED MY MIND AND WHEN i GOT MY LAST PICK UP ,i STARTED COMING DOWN OFF THE DONE ABOUT 5MGS AWK UNTIL i GOT TO 20MGS THEN JUMPED ON THE SUBTEX AND NOW iVE BEEN ON IT FOR ABOUT A MONTH AND NOW iAM AT 2 1/2 MGS ADY AND ITS GOING GOOD SO FAR,SO i JUST HOPE IT WANT BE SO BAD.
bAM

Thats great bro let me know how tghings are going. How was the transition to the sub. I havent switched yet so I cant really tell you. I would go a couple day without and see if you can stand it. If not taper down slower for a cople more weeks and try again. I think the methadone will get out faster when your on sub because it cant bind with your receptors.

Chet

Chet.

Hope all is well, man. You sound like you are planning to get off the meth and on the sub soon? Whats your plan look like?

Tom

Chet, I just want to agree with you about methadone maintenance. I went to a local clinic in 1985, was suggested to go the maintenance route, and being only 30 at the time, I figured I'd be on it a few years. Well, that few has turned into nearly 20 and how I wish I could go back in time and start over. I just turned 50, have been on 30mg the past 6 months, down from 40 and 35mg before that. When I started I was on as much as 70mg. My main problem has to do with work and the clinic's rules. I can't be tied down and need to travel and work without the constant groups and individual sessions that conflict with work. And I've been clean for over 10 years, just methadone. They claim I'm in "non-compliance" because my work keeps me missing group and individual sessions. They don't care that I've been clean for so long, and that I work such long hours, 7 days a week, no I have to miss work to be at the clinic. And now they claim I also owe them over $1,500 which is absolutely ridiculous! They claim I missed payments at times in 2002 and 2003. I have to pay $100 a week and as far as I know I might owe a few hundred dollars, well I have the receipts to prove it but they took away my take homes because of this. They took them away once before claiming I had a urine come back positive with benzos. That I fought and eventually got my take homes back but that didn't last long. I've had it, and I'm going to just walk off at 30mg/day. I hope to go to my doctor, explain my predicament, and hope that he'll prescribe me until I get down to 25mg and switch to sub. Methadone maintenance while it did help me stay clean, has too many restrictions with these clinics to enable me to work. Most of the people at the clinic do not work, hang around there all day and just talk drugs. I never did that, but I feel like I'm being punished! And the people that hang around the clinic all day, have public assistance to pay for them, all have dirty urines! It's amazing, the people that work and stay clean are lumped with them! I can't stand it and I've had enough. I just pray that my doctor will understand, he's treated me for high blood pressure the last 10 years, but I was too ashmaed to tell him about my addiction. He's an understanding physician, I think, and I can't imagine him not helping me, but you know how so many doctors think of addicts. I want to get off of all of this, but I don't want to just walk off without a slow taper. Thanks all for letting me vent, it's just frustrating and I wish to God I just used methadone for detoxing and not long-term maintenance. Take care Chet, and happy holidays to all.
Marc

marc before you walk off the clinic.. Make sure you have a back up talk to you doc first. I having a really bad day of I would try to help you more

Mas-

Line up an appointment with a physician able and agreeing to prescribe Suboxone **FIRST**. Make sure you have that in place before leaving the Klinik. I have been through the same thing. An extremely compliant, producitve "client" who had to prove to the Klinik I DESERVED respectful treatment. I left because of an intense, growing feeling of the "wrongness" about the whole Klinik system and the legislation behind them.

Another important consideration (this is definitely from experience), people metabolize methadonde at different rates. If you have been able to taper comfortably, you are a probably a slow metabolizer as most long-term, stable MMT patient are. You MUST wait until you are in slight withdrawals before inducting on Suboxone or you will have a nightmare experience. My third and successful attempt required me to wait over 6 days from last methadone dose (10 mg) before I ever felt even the slightest twinges of the beginnings of withdrawal. Nothing painful, just a "little off" and I was able to make a successful switch to 2mg daily of Suboxone.

You can do it! Just line up a physician ahead of time.


Best Wishes,

-freak