Detoxing off methadone

I've been tapering off of Methadone also. I started at 80mg. and decreased 5mg. every two weeks. I'm down to 30mg. but have been getting really bad restless leg syndrome whenever I try to go lower. I was prescribed Methadone for RLS. Everything I read says Methadone is the only thing that helps long term. I do want to get down as much as possible but don't want to go back to the way I was, not sleeping at all! It sounds like you're tapering correctly. I know once you get to 30mg. you are supposed to start decreasing at a lesser rate. Good luck! How are you feeling?

Hi Jim,

When I was coming off MST/Oramorph I went down from about 150mg day to about 45mg a day pretty easily but then it got really hideous/evil/want-to-die/shaky-body-legs-everything. In the end I went to my local drugs and alochol services (UK) and they prescribed me Lofexidine/Britoflex - I stopped all my MST on day 2, took the Lofixidine for 3 weeks and only had minor withdrawal compared to tapering (which would have taken me another 6 months of hateful withdrawal).

The only downer is Lofexidine is not prescribed in the US - I believe Clonidine is the nearly-as-good equivalent.

After that it was just the sleeping that was a bother. I tried prescribed sleeping tablets (Zopiclone) but they didn't really do much, and they are pretty addictive. Since then I've used Valerian Root Tea/Capsules to help sleep - pretty good and not addictive, you can buy them in most health food shops or supermarkets, not too pricey.

your detox schedule is well planned (especially switching from 2ml to 1ml reductions when you reach 10ml a day), though every 5 days is about as short as you can make a stabilization period for methadone - many people would stay on the same dose for up to 2 weeks before making another dose reduction. You are likely to experience some low-level withdrawals as you drop below 10ml, and perhaps the worst of these (as you are aware) is insomnia.  If you can get sleeping pills prescribed to you by a doctor (eg. zopiclone) that's the best option, otherwise try out some of herbal sleeping remedies (esp. valerian or Kalms).  If insomnia or other WD symptoms get too bad, stay at the same dose level for longer.