5 Wrong Reasons to Get Off Methadone

*A follow up to the hub, "5 Good Reasons to Get Off Methadone"

Once again, in this series of hubs I am specifically referring to people who are on a methadone maintenance program for treatment of opiate addiction at an accredited clinic. I understand that many people abuse methadone by buying it illegally on the street, or have a prescription for it for the treatment of pain which is not closely monitored (or monitored at all), and they end up getting hooked. In those cases, where an opiate dependency was not present in the brain before getting into methadone, there are many great reasons to get off of it, either through a regulated methadone detox program, or inpatient rehab. However, this article is intended to focus on those individuals who already had a heroin or painkiller addiction before they made the decision to seek help via methadone maintenance.

1.) You're tired of being chained to something, want to get rid of the "liquid handcuffs". Clients first starting out at a methadone clinic are required to go once a day to drink their dose. There are very good reasons for this. The dose must be closely monitored (and either raised or lowered accordingly) until the patient and the doctor find an adequate dose that lasts him 24-36 hours. The majority of patients are still using opiates during this time until they stabilize, and it would be unwise to automatically trust the addict with a week or a month worth of take home bottles right off the bat. Odds are he'd take more than one a day, or run the risk of selling it on the street to get money for heroin. Of course it's frustrating to have to make the run to the clinic each morning, wait on line, and potentially get sideswiped by your counselor for a mandatory meeting you didn't know you had until you showed up, but how much MORE cumbersome was it when you were chasing an addiction? I wasted huge chunks of my life figuring out how to get money and then going through the steps of getting it, phoning dealers, waiting for them, thinking up more ways to get money, scheming and plotting and pawning, then dialing up the dealer and waiting for him again later that day. I read once that if you've been an addict for 10 years, you will have spent seven of them waiting.

2.) You want the flexibility to travel and take vacations. While on heroin I couldn't travel, couldn't hold a good job, and couldn't take trips with my family, because I always had to be near my supplier. On methadone, privileges are granted in accordance with your success. They drug test you every month, and you begin earning take home bottles after three consecutive months clean (at least in PA). At most clinics, if you do the work and have the clean time to prove it, you can earn up to two weeks, or even thirty day's worth of take homes at a time. If you want to go away for a week and have not yet earned seven bottles, there are other alternatives. Some clinics will grant an exception and let you have vacation bottles; others will set up guest dosing at a clinic near the place you'll be visiting. It requires a little bit of planning and responsibility on your part, making sure they have enough advance notice, but it's far preferable to the alternative of being on heroin and never being able to do anything...at all.

3.) Your spouse or other family members want you to get off of it. There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding methadone treatment. The term alone, "methadone clinic", has a negative stigma attached to it. Family members may not understand why you can't just get and stay clean on your own, they think you're trading one addiction for another, they think you're using it as a crutch. They ask, "When are you going to get off this stuff?" They witness your routine and think it's ridiculous that you have to wake up early every morning to get to the clinic on time, subject yourself to monitored drug screens, and submit to your counselor's or doctor's whim. I would refer them to Addiction Treatment Watchdog's very informative letter titled "Dear Family Member or Friend". This letter explains, among other things, that, "A stable methadone patient who is not mixing the medication with other drugs--particularly benzodiazepines, which can sometimes be a very dangerous mixture--and who is on a medically appropriate dose will not be "high" or sedated. These patients are able to work, operate a vehicle, care for children, and do anything else a normal person can do. Their minds are not "clouded". Some of these rumors may come from observing patients who are abusing other drugs, or are taking more than prescribed. Methadone, properly administered and taken, balances the chemicals in the brain so that the patient feels normal."

4.) It's too expensive. If you reached a point in your addiction where a methadone program became a valid option, then there is no way in hell you weren't spending tons of money on opiates. When I got clean, I calculated that I'd been spending around $1,260 a week on heroin--that's more than five grand a month. It wasn't easy by any means, but I somehow always found a way to get the money I needed. At $95 a week, methadone cost 1/12th of that. If I could somehow find a way to support myself in destruction, I could absolutely find a way to support myself in sobriety. Many clinics do not accept private pay insurance, but they will accept Medicare.

5.) You've been on it for too long. Addiction is a chronic, incurable disease. Experts recommend being on methadone for at least three years before even considering tapering off. Some people detox off methadone and go on to lead normal, drug-free lives. But for others, abstinence just doesn't work, for a variety of reasons, and methadone may have to be a long-term and possibly even life-long solution. And if everything else in your life is stable, you have a home, a job, and a car, you've repaired any bridges you've burned and reformed strong family bonds with those you thought you lost, then WHO CARES how long you've been on it. It's not about the quantity of time but the quality of time.

These are my opinions based on my personal experience with heroin addiction and methadone maintenance. I very much welcome input from others who have experiences of their own. Good luck in your journey.

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." --Eliot