General Forums >> Controversial Topics >> Methadone
Methadone
|
Posted 2 months ago I just got home from interviewing for the positon of Office Manager at a Methadone clinic and it made me wonder what you ladies think of methadone treatment. Some people use it as a way to control their pain while others use it to come off of other drugs, usually opiates. What do you think? How do you feel about it? Need Breeds Ingenuity!
|
back to top |
| Posted 2 months ago The first time I really knew about the drug Methadone was in the Anna Nicole story. It was one of the combination of drugs that was in her system when she died, that she was addicted to. I think her son had also taken it a that the time of his death. Are you going to take a position there? "Don't tell GOD how BIG your storm is.
|
|
|
| Posted 2 months ago Watchnstarz44 says ...
I had never really heard too much about Methadone until my ex became addicted to pain meds and the Veterans Hospital pointed him in that direction as a way to get off. He was part of a Combat Communications unit and had serious injuries to his back and as opposed to helping him ease his pain via therapy and exercise they just gave him Percocet or Oxycontin hand over fist. It didn't take too long for him to become dependent. If the job is offered to me and the pay is right I will take it. I don't feel threatened by the "type" of people that go there for treatment. They are just like us only they have an addiction they are trying to address. It's a small clinic and I had the opportunity to see what their client base looks like and in all honesty if I saw half of those people on the street I would never have known that they use Methadone. Need Breeds Ingenuity!
|
|
back to top |
| Posted 2 months ago I hope that they offer you the job! I'm sure we'll hear you holler when you do. "Don't tell GOD how BIG your storm is.
|
|
|
| Posted 2 months ago Watchnstarz44 says ...
You bet your bootie ya'll will hear me holler! Thank you. I'll keep you all posted. So many of you have been so supportive and I truly appreciate that support. Need Breeds Ingenuity!
|
|
| Posted 2 months ago Watchnstarz44 says ...
Agreed! And, you sound like the kind of person they need. Imagination. . .is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared. (J.K. Rowling) |
|
| Posted 2 months ago katiej says ...
Definitely. Good luck with that, Kat. It sounds like just the place for someone as caring as you to work at. Daniela
|
|
| Posted 2 months ago Kat, I don't know much about Methadone treatment but anything that is ment to help someone beat an addiction can't be a bad thing. One of my sisters is a cancer patient and she is addicted to oxycontin. She pops about 8-12 small pills every few hours and you can tell when its getting time for her meds she gets very irritable. She been doing it for several years, it started as 2 for the break-through pain and it just keeps going up. I asked her if she thought she was addicted and she said probably but when someone has bone cancer they figure they don't have long and its better than them being in pain all the time. What is this stuff doing to her body? I'm sorry, I went off on a tangent there.
Jean Bentley
|
|
| Posted 2 months ago I do not believe that Methadone works at a treatment. My opinion stems from my personal experience with someone addicted. My ex was addicted to Oxycotin and hydrocodone and was also pointed to a methadone clinic, which struck me as funny, because methadone was a drug that he would look for whent the other two were not around. He abused Methadone just as much as the other two, and he actually went there to get the drug on top of the other stuff. Several of them would go to the clinick and save their Methadone, and trade, sell it. They were just as addicted to it, used it to get high, and had no intentions of getting clean. I know this is not the case for many people who go to methadone clinics. There are people who truely want to get rid of their addictions, but Methadone seems to be addictive as well. Beating an addiction is incredibly difficult, and unless the person is completely dedicated, it seems to me that substituting one addictive drug for another is not accomplishing anything, except making it easier to get a hold of on a regular basis.
I left my ex during his addiction stage, so I do not know where it went with him. |
|
| Posted 2 months ago The only experience I have with methodone and patient care is that the patients I see are incarcerated (in prison) and when you ask then how many pregnancies they have had for their medical history file, they count how many times they have been in prison, and that is how they keep track. Perhaps I should explain that one. When women are doing heavy drugs it effects their bodies, resulting in no periods or no ovulating on a regular basis. They get busted for one reason or another, then are in the legal system just long enough for mother nature to straighten out, they get out on bail, get knocked up, then go to court for sentencing and show up in prison pregnant. But this sad story does not stop here, if they test positive for drugs they are given two choices. 1...Go off drugs cold turkey and do withdrawals which is hard on Mom and Baby OR 2...Stay on drugs, regulated doses of usually methadone, until they give birth...which means both mom and baby go thru with drawls right after delivery...and Baby almost always has permanent problems. And then finally, the kid ends up in foster care because they will not sign their rights for the kid away---so no way will this kid ever have a "normal life" now.
I asked WHY they were not allowed to WEAN off the drugs during the pregnancy so that baby AND mom would be more likely to weather this without permanent damage....the answer...money. The prison system is given a certain amount of funding for those Moms which are on drugs, to keep them on drugs during pregnancy, as is their "rights" I suppose in some sort of twisted way. They do not offer "weaning off " as an option. I feel THAT is criminal.
I guess I should admit I feel that repeat offenders..."repeat drug abuse then yo-yo birthing in prison" is criminal. Even though I am adamantly pro-choice in every way, I would stand by a judge that says these women should have the birth control implant that is effective for three years. If they test clean in three years and then want to reproduce then fine. I would stand by a judge that makes the sentence they serve shorter if they opted for permanent birth control. I know that may really tick off some people but they have no idea the perpetual revolving door that foster care has become AND the kids ultimately suffer, AND typically follow the same course as the parent. AND if the parent ever gets custody the kid is just a bigger welfare check for them==more drugs. So...I know one of the goals that these methodone clinics have is that they are supposed to help people go off drugs. The women I see in the two prisons I work at openly admit that they will go to a methadone clinic "pretending to want to go off the drugs" simply to get a fix. It is a safe way to get drugs. DO not underestimate the extent these people will go to to get that fix. I refused to wear a name tag with my last name on it for that very reason. They will stop you in the parking lot, ask for a ride, for help, whatever....and then bonk you over the head and take whatever you have to hock to get that fix. These women are not all hard core criminals. They were at some time normal people that made bad decisions, and from that point on they are driven by that need to get a fix. I listen to these women every day. Make sure you have pepper spray girlfriend! |