Using methadone to break free from heroin abuse is relatively painless, and will allow you to function normally in society. But methadone is in itself a very addictive substance, and a lot addicts who try to get off methadone remain users many years into treatment.

During rapid detox, patients are kept under sedation and injected with a cocktail of drugs to accelerate and intensify the withdrawal process. After a few hours, the worst of the withdrawal pains are over, and patients undergoing the procedure over a weekend will be well enough for work on Monday morning.

I was prescribed "non addictive" Ultram after a work injury, and although it never worked all that well for the pain...I loved this drug. It gave me energy, it improved my concentration, and it put me in a fantastic mood that lasted the whole day. Nothing that feels this good comes for free, and when I ultimately tried to stop (I had been taking more than I needed to get the feeling I liked) I was shocked by the severity of my withdrawal symptoms.

Gradual methadone detoxification may not work as well as very long term methadone maintenance, and methadone recovery statistics are revealed to be inflated. Two separate San Francisco studies on methadone therapy further complicate an already contentious issue. Is methadone therapy working as it should?

If Suboxone works as well, is easier to get off of and you can take home a month's supply at a time - why would anyone still choose methadone???

Thinking about getting off of pain pills, and thinking about detox and withdrawal and all of that - can be pretty scary stuff. Watching others take the journey - watching what they do and how they do it, can help to make it a little less frightening.