From Wikipedia’s article on Methadone: “Withdrawal symptoms are generally more acutely severe than those of morphine or heroin at equivalent doses, and are significantly more prolonged; methadone withdrawal symptoms can last for several weeks or more, and so individuals maintained on methadone for long periods of time may in fact find it more difficult to give up methadone than people who go directly from heroin use to abstinence… [in fact,] most heroin addicts report more difficulty in quitting methadone than heroin.”

    Uh huh. Tell me about it.

    Oh yeah, and let’s not forget the “HOLY CRAP!” part of this… whilst taking Methadone, I was also taking a drug classified as a benzodiazepine. I found this near the end of the article: “Worldwide, there has been an explosion of deaths related to methadone… Germany noted that one-half of its drug-related deaths were caused in whole or in part by methadone. In 1996, more than twice as many people died from methadone as died from heroin in England. It should be noted that nearly half of all overdose deaths involving methadone in Indiana and South Carolina were contributed to by the victim’s concurrent use of benzodiazepines or other sedative drugs such as alcohol… According to the National Center for Health Statistics, as well as a 2006 series in the Charleston (WV) Gazette,[5] medical examiners listed methadone as contributing to 2,992 deaths in 2003, up from 790 in 1999. Approximately 82% of those deaths were listed as accidental – and most deaths involved combinations of methadone with other drugs (especially benzodiazepines).”

    Hoooooooly crap, hoooooly craaaaap, hooooOoooOooooollllly craaaaaaaaaap! Well I guess that means the withdrawal is worthwhile, cause at least it’s better than the alternative. But egads, and holy crap! Scary, scary… but as scary as that is, the withdrawal still sucks, and I still hate it, and it still hurts like hell.

    For the sake of clarity, I just wanted to restate, for anyone who may be new to this blog – all the drugs I’ve been on, and the one that’s causing the current withdrawal symptoms, have all been legal prescription drugs taken as prescribed. And I just want to say, after having experienced withdrawal myself due to multiple *legal* narcotics, I have to say, I cannot imagine why ANYONE would ever do this to themselves willingly. I had no choice; this disease was given to me by fate and its associated pain had to be treated. I had few options, and I weighed them carefully. But never, never, could I have ever fathomed that one day I would experience this. Don’t let it happen to you. It is so much worse and so much harder than you can ever imagine, and I wasn’t even an addict.