JUDY,
I was on it for 3 years and I hate to say that it was really tough getting off of it. It was one of the worst experiences of my injury. This is not the case for everybody getting off it it by a long shot. I was at a pain clinic at Stanford University while I was weaning off, and there were some patients that had no issues at all with withdrawal because of using suboxone to assist with the process. I was using suboxone to deal with the withdrawal and understand that my experience was unusually hard.
There is better information on the web than I can give you, but I can tell you what helped me.
1.
Exercise!!! = natural pain killers / endorphines (can't emphasize this enough. This helped me on all frontiers (physical, mental, spiritual, egotistical
, motivational, etc)
2.
Go at it as slow as you need, but keep your eye on the prize.
3.
Supplements. (search the web, because I forget.)
http://www.dpeg.org/methadone_withdrawal.html
4.
Support System. I stayed with family, probably couldn't have done it without them. This could've been a make or break one for me.
5.
Ginger Chewing Gum. I had pretty bad nausea along with over all intestinal hell. This stuff got me through the day...
I'll add to the list as I think of more things.
Here's a great resource:
http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=68
type in a search for "methadone withdrawal" and lots of discussions come up.
Best of Luck Judy!!!
Chris
PS Like all other BPI related topics, I think it is best if folks post their experiences here instead of emailing you privately. That way it is here for other folks to benefit from down the road. That's half the reason why I ever post to begin with.