All in the mind???

[flyboy]

As some of you may know, I am currently on a stable dose of 115ml Methadone 1mg/1ml. I have been on Methadone since September 2003, and on my current dose for 21months.

I know it may sound stupid, but as a lot of withdrawal is psychological, would it be possible to stop my Methadone immediately without any withdrawal symptoms, if i put myself in the right frame of mind?

what off 115ml of meth??? you must be craaaazzzzyyyy to even think of a srt8 detox of this much!! jeez think about it man!!!

[Fluoro]

It was quite a while since i started this topic and am thankful for all your replies.

Since last being on this site, I asked the girl in the pharmacy out, and to my suprise she said YES!!!

Unfortunately it did'nt go beyond a few dates, but at least I now know that not every member of a pharmacies staff make judgements about customers, based on their choice of medication.

Regarding my dose, due to a couple of setbacks I have had my script increased to 155mls, which is keeping me stable..

Tomo...

[Claire B]

Tomo
so pleased that you asked her out, and you now dont think we are unapproachable or 'different'. Sorry it didnt last, but 'hey ho' that is what dating is all about!
Sorry about the set backs, but pleased you are stable again
Take care
Claire

[manicstreetpriestess]

Hi Tomo,

I was on 90ml of methadone, buying off the black market, mixing with Ritalin every day.  I wanted to go into detox, but the public health service back in NZ wanted to put me on a methadone maintenance scheme instead.  I didn't want this and I was told I'd have to wait another three months to get into a medically supervised detox centre.  I was desperate to give up and I came off the methadone cold turkey.  I got some Clonidine patches from my doctor which helped take away a lot of (but not all of) the initial three days of hanging out (and boy was that horrible!).  It took me six weeks to get my strength back; months to get a "normal" body odour; and I've *never* been able to use methadone ever again without becoming violently ill (no matter how many anti-nausea meds I'd take beforehand).

When I was in "recovery", I went through the NA scheme of things.  In my experience, and I don't speak for others, it only fed my desire to "relapse" and use again (which isn't what I really wanted, but I knew of nothing better to do with my time!).  I found Rational Recovery which shut up the voice to use, use, use (as well as indulge in my needle fixation).

I've seen people come off the methadone mil by mil and boy does it make it a long process.... It all depends on your character and whether you're prepared to bite the bullet and really suffer, because methadone withdrawal is the absolutel pits.  I wished I only had an opiate habit when I was going through the methadone blues...

Oh, I noticed a huge difference once I was off the 'done.  The whole world was no-longer "grey" and I no-longer spent my days in bed sweating. LOL.

All the best,
Lydia.

[Jim]

I've heard of rational recovery and it sounded good but you're the first person I've heard who's used it.  I'm not sure it exists in the UK.  Is it true it embraces the concept of NHP (no higher power)?

[manicstreetpriestess]

Hi there,

There are no groups or meetings for Rational Recovery: all you do is buy the book, which is available on Amazon.  It is called "Rational Recovery" (don't mix it up with Jack Trimpey's other book, "The Little Book").  There is also a website: www.rational.org/recovery  However, the website is a bit dumb and I would suggest reading the book.  Then again, the website is what drew me to Rational Recovery when I was going through a really hard time in NA (feeling inadequate, obsessing, feeling diseased, etc).  There is a link there on the RR website that shows you how the addictive voice works, so check it out.

In my own experience, I found that giving up using my own self-will was far more powerful than relying on a "Higher Power".  That may not be the case for everybody, but it certainly was for me, because I reasoned that giving up had to come from my own self-conscious rather than a power greater than myself (whatever that power was according to my imagination; my imagination started to worship the God of Morpheus, which wasn't doing a very good job at helping me to stop using Morphine, but it was indeed a power greater than myself... and he was Higher than me: of course a Higher Power appeals to an addict, anything that is "higher" will appeal to an addict!).

I have also done NLP, which is hypnotherapy (Neuro-Linguistic Programming).  I did that a long time after I found RR and discovered it was no different.  Another self-help guru that I found that helped me change my ways of thinking and associations was that American guy, Anthony Robbins.  He had a really interesting point: those that call themselves an "addict" in recovery (ie. My name is so-and-so and I am an addict) he found only stayed clean for two years maximum; those that got on with their lives and dumped the "I am an addict" label stayed clean for eight years.  I know that I have stopped calling myself an addict of any kind, whether it be in recovery or whatever, as I am simply me: I am many things; I will be whatever I tell myself: the human brain is dumb and will adopt whatever you tell it to do. 

Anyway, I'm sure I've said enough already.... feel free to ask me any further questions should you be curious or wanting more clarification on what I've said.

All the best,
Lydia.