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I applaud your resolve to get clean but want to caution that methadone is very difficult to get off of. It is used mostly as an opiate maintenance therapy (OMT) to "treat" your addiction which simply means that they substitute one opiate for another. If you do decide to taper off remember that methadone is a long acting narcotic and your withdrawal symptoms will stick around for quite a while. You will feel rotten for as long as four to six weeks. You may want to switch to something shorter acting talk to your doctor about it and taper off of that. There is really no easy way of detoxing from home. I have dealt with hundreds of addicts who have all told me horror stories of doing it by themselves. I would only guess that if are successful in doing it at home you don't end up in my clinic. Just in case you are curious it takes us three to four days to detox a patient from methadone or any other opiate and get him/her back home drug free and feeling well on Naltrexone therapy (no opiates). At home the basic technique is to space out the pills you take on a consistent manner until you take only one at night than half at night than every other night and then none. The way to taper is slowly cut down on the dose of the medication as well as spreading the time between those doses. If you do this in a consistent manner it can be done both for opiates like methadone and for valium which you should never stop cold turkey. See if your doctor can write you a prescription for some Requip for restlessness Neurontin for anxiety and malaise some Flexeril or Soma for a few weeks for muscle spasms and maybe some Seroquel low dose for sleep. It will make your withdrawals easier. Valerian and Magnesium is sometimes helpful remedies over the counter. The residual symptoms of insomnia and depression can last another few months. Thus it is not easy but it gets better and better over time and you can look forward to a drug free healthy energetic you in the future. Take a look at my blogs about options for detox and recovery. You may also take a look at my clinic website where I also have my blogs and a lot of other info about drug addiction and recovery. It is at www.MDSDrugDetox.com where you will find more of my blogs. Look especially into the blog and the info on Naltrexone therapy after getting clean. It really improves your chances of staying clean for good by cutting down your physical cravings. There is a injectable form available now that is covered by all major medical insurances called Vivitrol that you would need to get only once monthly to stay clean. Just keep it in mind for the future. Good luck to you.

2014-12-08 04:18:26

Amy