Methadone Drug Addiction .com

My son is a heroin addict. Dr. perscribed methadone. He's had 3 relapses and has repeatedly been perscribed methadone. Is it possible he will have to stay on it the rest of his life? It seems every time he gets taken off of it, he gets nightmares about using, gets insomnia, and anxiety and then goes back to using. Any help out there would be very much appreciated.

Methadone is actually even more addictive then heroine. What your son is going through is the cold turkey and the effects of stopping with the drug. This is supposed to be so horrible, for both drugs, that it seems impossible for him to stop. It's easy to fal back into his drughabit.
Even after he is physical clean, which takes a few days, he is still mentally addicted. He needs help.
With some good help, first he has to make sure he gets of the drugs physically with no chance of falling back. A clinic might help him. He could also do that at home, but it will be so strong that he might not be able to withstand the enormous temptation to use again. So he needs the help of people who will make it imposible for him to leave at that stage and who not give in to him.
After this stage, he needs to find ways to stay clean. The thing is that first of all very often a person's whole social life is around drugs, which makes it difficult to stay away from it, and second of all: what's the reason for his drugaddiction anyway? What is behind it? Most often there are things behind it, like traumatic experiences or the need for warmh and understanding. So he needs a professional to help him learn what is behind it and how to deal with those issues.
He doesn't just need to fight only the surface addiction, but he needs to get the root of the problem out.
There are many clinics and docters that are not good and use unhealthy techniques for this. Thank god there are also some very good drugtherapists and clinics. He might need them!
He will NOT have to stay on drugs for the rest of his life. But, without good help, he might have a problem with drugs the rest of his llife. An addiction like this is hard to deal with, but absolutely NOT impossible!

The best to you and your son!

Maybe the two links down here can help you a bit to continue your search:

A good book by a very good therapist:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query .fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&lis t_uids=9219150&dopt=Abstract

Also interesting to read:
http://www.drstp.drugeducation.com/PDF/E stoniaSummaryEnglish.pdf

About methadone and heroine:
http://www.istc.ru/istc/sc.nsf/news/scie nce-news-methadone-vs-heroine.htm

2007-04-02 22:27:38 by Helen P

Me talking about my hair and that Damn Methadone.

It works wonderfully for my herion addiction and I don't want to go off of it since I know I'd immediately start using again. So many people consider it a "heroin substitute". However, I DO NOT get high on it and it is medically controlled so when taken correctly, there is little risk of an overdose. Not to mention all the awful things that go along with heroin addiction like the risk of contaminated needles, drugs laced with deadly substances, doing illegal things to get your "fix", and the fact that you will eventually end up dead or in prison. The problem is that I still have problems with alcohol and cocaine and methadone DOESN'T help with those addictions. I want to get help for all my substance problems but almost all rehabs are VERY AGAINST Methadone. I don't want to be on Methadone the rest of my life. I will eventually wean myself off (VERY SLOWLY) so that I don't get sick (it is addictive like heroin). Any thoughts about this? Please be kind. This is rough!

I'm not really sure if you can mix it with the methadone or not but Revia (Naltrexone) can help with the cravings for both opiates and alcohol. You may want to ask the clinic where you get the methadone.

And go to an NA and AA meeting. You can find local meetings at www.aa.org and www.na.org

One day at a time.

2007-10-04 18:45:36 by jessica

Price: $15.00

I have a son who is in a methadone program. He cannot travel and spend time away from home because he has to go to the clinic every day to pick up his methadone. How do I go about finding a physician in my area who will prescribe methadone for him so that he can travel or even come home to live ( the nearest clinic to my home is an hours drive away )

If you live in the US, this is strictly illegal. You will not find a doctor who will do this in this country. A doctor can prescribe methadone for pain management, or prescribe opiates for a short-term medical detox, but this doesn't really help you.

If your son is compliant with his methadone program, he'll start getting take-home doses as quickly as a few months. This will allow him to travel: he just needs to avoid skipping days and pass his drug screens. The exact rules vary by state, but the number of days you can take home build up and generally after a year or two of good behavior you only have to go once a month.

There is, in most places, something called "hardship" dosing. You can sometimes set up a program where you go once a week to the clinic and get a take-home supply. Then you have to coordinate with a nearby program that does monitoring and provides the necessary addiction treatment.

If your son just wants to take a trip and he's been in the program for a while, there's also something called "exception" dosing. This will let the clinic give him a one-time set of doses to take with him during the trip. The rules on this vary by state, but it's usually for patients who have been there long enough for take-home doses but haven't been compliant enough to get them.

There is another drug called buprenorphine that a doctor can prescribe for opiate dependency on an outpatient basis. If your son wants to come live with you, he could find a doctor in your town and set up a treatment. This is usually pretty expensive compared to methadone, and switching from methadone requires you to go about three days into detox from methadone or it will make you very sick. Some buprenorphine doctors refuse to take methadone patients for this reason.

Also, it's really important that you treat the addiction in addition to the chemical dependency on opiates. An outpatient buprenorphine program typically doesn't include any addiction treatment, just a chemical dependency treatment. This puts a higher burden on your son to get treatment himself.

If you want to try buprenorphine, check out http://buprenorphine.samhsa.gov/bwns_loc ator/ and talk to some of the local doctors. You could also call your local clinic about hardship dosing.

Good luck to your son. Methadone treatment can help you switch off the dangerous and highly disruptive short-acting opiates, but dealing with the addiction and mental health issues that led him there takes a lot of work. For this reason, people generally stay on methadone for years before they are ready to stop. The chemical dependency is the easy part of this situation.

2009-07-14 10:28:21 by Laura

Price: $5.95 $5.95

I recently started a great job somewhere, but I've been struggling with my addiction to heroin. Would I tell my doctor about it? and if I did get prescribed methadone would I get fired? I work for a Collections department in the bank, so I'm sitting at a desk all day on the phone. I don't know what to do

First of all it depends on whether or not you will be drug tested for your job. If not then there is no reason for you to disclose that you are in MMT. Your clinic is not allowed to release any information or even tell your employer or anyone else whether or not you attend the clinic. Addiction is listed as a disability by the ADA and therefore you are also protected by the same rights as someone in a wheelchair whenit comes to getting fired but due to the stigma of addiction it is advised that you not tell your employer unless you have to. You mentioned telling your doctor and "getting prescribed Methadone". I am afraid maybe you are a bit misunderstood about how MMT works in the US. Doctors cannot prescribe Methadone for addiction unless they work at a Methadone Clinic in which case you don't receive a script. You will take your Methadone at the clinic under the watchful eye of a nurse for the first 3 months of treatment and then you are eligible for 1 take home dose per week for 3 mo. when you can get 2, etc. Clinics open between 5-5:30AM for people who work early. You may have been thinking about people who get methadone from a pain management doctor because they get a script but in much lower doses usually. Anyway, if your job does do drug testing here is a link and I copied the pertinent info about what you need to do regarding telling or not telling your employer. Good Luck, It saved my life. http://www.methadonetoday.org/v5_n10.htm #Testing
Employment Drug Testing: Know your Rights
If you discover that methadone is going to be tested for or you are not sure. If at some point you are asked by your employer or the clinic conducting the drug test to provide a list of prescription medications, do not fail to list methadone in the hope that everything will work itself out. If they do test for methadone, you will most likely test positive for it unless you are on a very low dose. Methadone patients sometimes lie/fail to list methadone because they figure they have nothing to lose, but in doing so they are giving a valid excuse for employers to fire/refuse to hire them (i.e., they are not firing you because you are a methadone patient or opiate addict; they are firing you because you were dishones--whether this is the true reason or not, this gives them a way out of a discrimination charge).

If the drug testing clinic does ask you to provide a list of prescription medications, this may indicate that your employer will only be informed of "positive" drug test results caused by illicit rather than prescribed drug use (another reason to include methadone on such a list). Some drug testing clinics will only ask for a list of prescription drugs if a "positive" drug test result occurs - again, this may indicate that your employer will only be informed of "positive" drug test results caused by illicit drug use and they will not find out that you are on methadone. The worst situation is when the drug testing clinic never asks for a list of prescription medications and sends the "raw" drug test results to your employer, not only revealing that you tested positive for methadone but leaving it for you to explain to your employer that the "positive" test result was due to a prescribed medication and not illicit drug use. This is particularly bad in the case of a pre-employment drug screen, since your employer may label you as a "druggie" even before you have a chance to tell them that the "positive" test was due to a prescribed medication. Hopefully your employer will realize that methadone maintenance is a legitimate medical treatment or at least understand that firing/not hiring you because you are in methadone treatment would violate the ADA.

What to do if you are fired/not hired after a drug test? Naturally, if they haven't told you why you were fired/not hired, you should ask them. . . and if they mention the drug test results, ask them to specify what substance(s) were found. If they do mention that you tested positive for methadone, reiterate that you are on methadone by prescription and that you can bring verification if necessary. Assuming your employer does not back off of its decision to fire/not hire you, you might want to state that you feel that it is unfair for them to discriminate based on a medical treatment and that you are going to consult with your attorney about whether their actions violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. If the drug test in question was pre-employment and your employer won't give a reason for not hiring you, you may have a good claim under the ADA.

2008-10-21 15:56:44 by Dr. Tullius

im having serious side effects with methadone and the docs dont believe it because these side effects are not heard of.

Get emergency medical help if you have any of these signs of an allergic reaction: hives; difficulty breathing; swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat.
Call your doctor at once if you have any of these serious side effects:

shallow breathing;
hallucinations or confusion; or
fast or pounding heartbeats, chest pain, trouble breathing, feeling light-headed, fainting.
Other, less serious side effects may be more likely to occur, such as:

feeling anxious, nervous, or restless;
sleep problems (insomnia);
dizziness, drowsiness, or weakness;
dry mouth, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, loss of appetite; or
decreased sex drive, impotence, or difficulty having an orgasm.
This list is not complete and other side effects may occur. Tell your doctor about any unusual or bothersome side effect.

2008-07-07 15:39:55 by Chelm S