ReDiscover Treatment Options Program, Kansas City MO

I started thus clinic as the lesser or two evils when battling many years of heroin addiction and my wife and I came to the conclusion methadone was about the only opiate treatment that we had not given a chance. No other options had worked for us.

Fast forward 8 years and 1 month and we are still here at the methadone clinic. It can be a great alternative to opiate abuse IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR GETTING INTO. If you have never been on a methadone clinic do yourself a huge favor and do extensive research before just jumping in feet first thinking this is the end all magic bullet fix for someone with heroin addiction.

This is simply my opinion and many papers and physicians across the internet agree with what I am about to say. Use methadone as a short term means to get through the heroin or fentanyl withdrawal and give yourself 1-4 months on the clinic to get a job and try to get your life back on track and use your time on the methadone as a blessing to not have to deal with that demon from he'll of a withdrawal that opiates give. I would recommend only going to a dose high enough to make you well, not sick and able to function normally like being able to get and hold a job. Always remember the higher the milligram dose you go up, you will one day have to come back down from that unless you plan on making thus part of your life until your buried.

The longer you stay on methadone from over 8 years of experience on a daily basis, our bodies become accustom and build a tolerance to things we ingest on a regular and especially a daily basis. So the longer you are on say you get on and stay on 70 for a year straight. Well at the start of the year that 70 was sufficient, it warded off withdrawals until your next dose and seemed to generally help your body function as a member of society. In my experience after being on a dose for many months or years it does not continue to be that therapeutic dose that a year prior it was. This starts the increasing of doses. Tolerance builds and our bodies require more to maintain us from feeling withdrawal symptoms. This is how many people who stay on for many many years require higher doses because our bodies build a sort of immunity to it and what used to last 24 hours fending off withdrawl gradually becomes less and less until say it's only lasting 16 hours now. These are some of the things you need to think about before just going about it willy nilly.

I truly believe the easiest way to use methadone to get off of street drugs is to use the methadone as a short term tool to get through the initial intense detox where the majority of relapse occurs. My advice also is to only get up to the milligram that alleviates your withdrawal and allows you to start rebuilding your life. Longterm methadone withdrawal or trying to kick cold turkey is widely known as one of the most uncomfortable and longest lasting withdrawals that exist with ANY substance. So get on beat your initial withdrawal while being cognizant and aware of the risk of continuing to have your dose raised. The lower your dose and the less time you saturate your body on a daily basis in this medicine, the more attainable and comfortable the process will be for you. Hind sight being 20/20 if I knew then what I know now, I would have never gone above 40 and would have only used 40 for my first 7-10 days and would have started my titration at 2 MG a week until I hit 20. Once I got to 20 I would have titration 1mg a week until 0. Then boom your completely off and completed the program in a little over 6 months and would have provided the easiest road to accomplish that goal.

These are just my thoughts and opinions on the matter. I have been on now 8 years and I am on 100mg and have been for a long time now because I never wanted to keep going up and end up at 200mg which would be a 4 year titration at 1 MG a week.and the longer your on the more your body will expect and crave it even for months after successfully titrarating all the way down to 0.

Don't white knuckle dose. Get an increase if you need it.

Glad I found this place. I think this is what I was looking for more than the flory center