About Methadone?
Question by Helen P: About Methadone?
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.
Best answer:
Answer by Sangre y Leche
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&list_uids=9219150&dopt=Abstract
Also interesting to read:
http://www.drstp.drugeducation.com/PDF/EstoniaSummaryEnglish.pdf
About methadone and heroine:
http://www.istc.ru/istc/sc.nsf/news/science-news-methadone-vs-heroine.htm
Answer by preecey
Methadone is prescribed as the safe alternative for heroin addicts, unfortunately I have met many people who are addicted to methadone, hence your sons withdrawal symptoms. He does need to come of methadone at some stage, your dr is the best one to ask how long he can be on it for. My strongest suggestion is to encourage your son into rehab, so he has the chance to get really well and have a happy and fruitful life.
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