Methadone Taper

My husband and I were addicted to opiates for several years. We started on Methadone maintenance about a year ago and it has worked wonderfully. We are now ready to move on with our lives. We knew from the beginning that we were not going to be on Methadone for the rest of our lives. We are ready for traveling, babies, and life without methadone. My husband turned down an awesome job out of state to taper down correctly instead of quitting cold turkey, as the state the job was in had no methadone clinics. We both spoke to our counselors to discuss tapering off methadone. My counselor was very supportive, but, my husbands counselor is horrible and said that "he needs to come to the realization that some people stay on methadone for the rest of their lives". My husband explained that was not the case with us, but, has been having the same issues every time he goes to see his counselor. We started tapering about 3 months ago and I have come down 80mg and my husband only 30mg. I began the taper at 160mg and my husband was at 150mg. I have had NO withdrawl symptoms as of yet and feel great. I can actually stay awake now. I guess I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what to do?? My husband and I really want to get on with our lives, but, his counselor is making it impossible for him. He made a doctor appointment to discuss this with the doctor at the clinic, but, that became a nightmare as well. My husband was told he could not come down anymore until he saw the doctor, so he requested an appointment...which you have to do through your counselor. This was about 3 weeks ago and he just got his appointment today, which is still 3 weeks out. So, basically I am going to be off of methadone and my husband is still going to be only half way done coming down. Any suggestions? I know it is not legal for him to hold anyone on anything that voluntarily started taking, but, he also does not want to quit cold turkey and be sick for several weeks. He has no say at all about his treatment plan, and it is wrong!! I have never seen anything like this in all my life. Everytime he tries to speak with someone else at the clinic higher up than his counselor, we just get the run around and no set answer. This idiot has just decided that he wants to hold my husband on methadone, which I know is illegal. The whole situation is very frustrating and we do not know what else to do. Any suggestions or laws would be greatly appreciated with this.

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Actually, no his doctor/counselor is not doing anything illegal, they have genuine reason to be concerned about the consequences of coming off of Methadone and, as long as your husband keeps returning to that clinic and agrees to their treatment, then he agrees to abide by these decisions. Thus, there are no laws being broken.

As you've stated, the option is always there to just stop treatment.

They are right in saying that most people do not ever get off of Methadone, which is why the medical industry spent years and billions of dollars to find a replacement.

https:/­/­rxchat.com/­wiki/­Methadone/­

Has he considered switching to a different doctor/clinic?

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The only thing I can suggest is maybe going to a rehab or a differant clinic. Some of these doses I hear people talking about getting at these methadone clinics are unbelievable!!! They are so high, and if you have trouble staying awake on them and cannot function in your day to day life, it is to high. Methadone is about double what oxycotin or other pain meds are. So if you are doing 160 mg. of oxy, 80 to 100 mg. of methadone should be good to start. Most clinics only let you stay at your begining dose for about 3 months and then start to bring you down slowly. You should be commended for wanting to come off of it and moving on with your life. Coming off of methadone is extremly hard when you get down to 30 miligrams and below. It is also so hard to get off because of the way it is stored in your body. That is why it takes so long to totally get off of it. It can be 6 months to a year before you stop feeling the withdrawl symtoms from it after you take your very last dose. I dont think it is right at all that his counseler told him that he has to realize that some people stay on it for the rest of their lives. Some people do, but I think that is up to the individual. If he wants to wean off, he should be able to, especially if he wants to do it. He could keep getting his doses and doing this himself by only taking part of them. I think it is so wrong that they would try to keep you on a drug when you are willing to stop. I wish you the best and hope it works out for you.

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If he realy, really, wants to detox, stop paying and you'll see how fast they jump and detox him.

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I've been tapering 5 mg of methadone a week on down to 40 mg now. I was on 100 mg. I wanna know how sick I'll be when I get to 30 mg cause that's where my last day at clinic begins?!

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