Does anyone have experience with this? I have been on 15 mg for 2 years and have been weaning off as it was no longer working at that level and I refused to go up. I really have not hurt any more at lower levels so I am determined to get off narcotics for the condition I have.

I went down slowly as I have read how this drug is very difficult to wean. Getting down to 5mg and even 2.5 mg was fairly easy. I did this over a 3 month period. However trying to jump off below 2.5mg has been pure hell. I had some chills at 1.25mg and maybe that was a sign that I should not go further. However I went to zero Saturday. Day one was not bad. Day two I felt like I had the flu plus uncontrollable sneezing and chills. Sleep has been tough. I broke down and took a crumb this morning (day 3).

My question is: Should I go back to tapering even though the amount is so small or should I bite the bullet and go thru the awful withdrawal now that I have come this far?

This is complicated further by the fact that I have surgery in 9 days for what I hope will relieve my chronic pain. I was hoping to go thru the methadone detox before the surgery but I do not want to lay in the hospital for two days with this on top of the surgery pain.

Thanks for any insight.

Hi Romans,

From what I've read, those are extremely low doses. The duration of withdrawal can vary from a few days (with the help of your physician or detox) to (in extreme cases) weeks (trying to go it alone).

IMO, you shouldn't be doing this without the help of your doctor; s/he can advise you better and prescribe temporary meds that can help ease you through this process.

How to Withdraw from Methadone

Doc

I was on Methadone for over a year and it took me a YEAR to wean down from 10mg to nothing without having withdrawal problems. Literally a year. The first time I tried to stop I tried cold turkey. I didn't know anything about the withdrawal problems from it. By day 3 I was on the bathroom floor in the fetal position throwing up and hallucinating. My husband literally shoved a pill down my throat to stop it.

It took 10 hard months and then the last 2 were relatively easy and I was under a dr's care the whole time. When I looked it up on the internet I ended up on a heroin user's forum and they said they'd rather go cold turkey from heroin then from Methadone.

I'm NOT trying to scare you or discourage you. It can be done. You just have to go sloooooow. For people who've never experienced it, 15 mgs can seem like such a small dose, but to your body it's everything. I've been there, done that and do not want to go back.

Go slow, friend. Make sure you and your dr. are working together to wean you from the Methadone. You can do this and you will get through it. Just go slow, ok? I'll say a prayer for you....I know how hard this can be.

Just to clarify, what I was referring to as "extremely low" was the 1.25 to 2.5 mg range—not the 15 mg., and that was relative to what pain patients typically take for pain—not to any individual. Everyone is different.

Doc

Hey Doc, I actually didn't mean what you wrote, brother. I hadn't read your response thru. Sorry if you thought I meant you. I meant people in your life who, when learning you are weaning down saying things like, "Well that's a low dose, what exactly is the problem here?" I heard that from a well-meaning friend. It drove me insane. She didn't have a clue about any of it and thought that getting off the last 5mg should have been easy. LOL

I've been in pain mgmt for years and I've heard all sorts of comments from well-meaning people that didn't amount to anything helpful. I'm sure you, and anyone dealing with pain, has heard all sorts of stuff like that, too. Have a great day friend.

The good news - I have been off methadone now for 7 weeks. The nasty part of the withdrawal lasted two weeks but I found the Thomas Recipe including a Clonidine patch really helped. After the hard withdrawal period I was very lethargic and unmotivated for a few weeks but felt like I did not hurt any more than I did while taking the low dose of methadone.

The bad news - I have been hurting a lot lately and believe I will need to find something to help. Neurotin has not been working. Neither has muscle relaxors and Alleve. In the evening I sometimes take a Valium and that helps.

I am thinking about asking my doctor for one of the SNRI anti-depressants as they are supposedly good for chronic pain / depression. I currently take Wellbutrin but it does not help with the pain. I have chronic upper back and neck pain. I have had two spinal fusions and Thoracic Outlet Syndrome surgery. However I still hurt a lot but feel like it is due to the muscle wasting and imbalance on the surgery side. I just carried the TOS problem too long before it was diagnosed and it caused a lot of damage.

Any suggestions for non-narcotic pain relief? Cymbalta?

People can tell you what they've tried and what's worked/not worked for them, but that's not really relevant. Everyone's different, so it's going to be a trial & error process to find what will work for you.

Just be aware that the prescription non-narcotics can/may be even more difficult to get off of than the narcotics (e.g. all the Lyrica threads here and on the Chronic Pain forum), and can have just as bad (if not worse) longterm effects. Whatever is discussed/prescribed, I would advise doing plenty of homework before committing yourself.

Doc