Hi, I am asking for advice for my 24 year old adult son. He has came to me wanting help to go to an one year in house rehab. He is currently taking methadone and abusing other drugs. The problem is that rehabs will not take him while on methadone. Do you know of any places that will detox you from methadone? If he continues to go to the clinic and slowly lowers his amount without any inhouse support I am afraid he will continue to use other drugs and die. He needs impatient treatment! Any advice?
Thanks!
How long has he been on methadone, and what is his dose? Is he going to a daily clinic, or is he given take homes?
Methadone is a hell of a drug. When people first started using it to treat opiate addiction, it was intended to be long term. Sometimes permanent. It is so powerful, and the half life is so big that detoxing from it will always be more difficult than detoxing from other opiates. Be it oxycodone or heroin. It was relatively recently that people started using it as a taper drug, and not a replacement drug.
Everything about it is strictly inferior to Suboxone. Which is what I used to get clean. Suboxone is designed for a gradual taper, and has the added benefit of closing off the mu receptors in the brain. It fills them and then closes them. What that means is that, while it is still active in your system, you cannot get high on other opiates. With a half life of more than 72 hours, it makes it so, just to get high once, one must go through severe withdrawal. It serves as another aversion. Methadone does not do the same. On the perfect dose, the patient will not get high from it, but taking more will make them high. And allows them to get high even after taking it. Which many addicts do. They stay on the methadone program every day just in case they cannot score.
As far as getting him off methadone safely, it all depends on the length of the usage, the dose he is on, and his own body. No two opiate addicts are completely alike. That said, he may be in for more than he realizes. While not impossible by any means, he is going to experience severe withdrawal. For a long period. Will the clinic accept him if he were on Suboxone, instead? If doing a rehab doesn't pan out, my suggestion would be to switch to Suboxone, and follow a taper plan. For the most part, I was dropping dose about 25% every week or two. Until I got down to the really tiny doses, where 25% less is too much. At which point I just winged it. Took the tiny dose when I felt I needed to. Then I started the skipping dose process. Dose one day, skip next, dose again, skip next two days, dose again, skip 3 days, etc until it is over. Not only does it deal with the cravings very well, it will make using completely pointless while on it. He wont get high from it, or any other opiate.