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Most
heroin addicts will tell you the high behind methadone is quite
inadequate, at least in comparison with the real
thing. You may have heard a saying, If God made something better
than heroin, He is keeping it to Himself!
Almost
all opiate addicts like heroin better than methadone.
The most seasoned staff people at methadone clinics have seen
thousands of intake urinalysis results.
Only a very small percentage of those results have any methadone
in them (usually with morphine/codeine [heroin]).
Only a tiny percentage have
only methadone. Very,
very few street addicts have methadone as their drug
of choice.
Some
recovering addicts in drug-free treatment programs, and especially some of their staff members, may wishfully (and jealously) think
that methadone is a wonderful high.
This is the stuff of their troubled dreams, but reality is another matter.
- Myth
#5
- ONCE
ON METHADONE,
- YOU
CANT GET OFF
This
is a complex myth and would better be examined at several levels.
At a purely literal
level, obviously there are methadone patients who leave methadone
programs. This
happens all the time. So it
is not true that you cant get off
methadone.
At
another level this myth refers somewhat to the so-called revolving
Door of street addiction
and methadone maintenance (or other forms of treatment).
Addiction
is a long-lasting metabolic disorder with roots deep in human
nature, personality, family, upbringing, social environment and
cultural values, and it is
true that it can take a long time before any particular addict decides
to change, changes, and stays changed.
Methadone treatment, when followed by lapses and relapses, may
seem to some people to be the cause of the relapse.
This is the logical error, Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.
(After this, therefore because of this.)
To
some extent this myth blames the methadone for the fact that some is on
methadone, and one translation would be, If it werent for the
methadone, I wouldnt be an addict!
Thus,
this myth is a cop-out. Most of use are prone to think that some thing
outside ourselves is responsible for our undesirable behavior (but much
less prone to look to the outside in explaining our desirable behavior!)
This cop-out relieves us of the responsibility for putting out
effort to change and it gives us something to blame for failure if and
when we do try to change. Of course, it also help ensure that we will
keep out problems.
This
myth is a variation of another popular myth, Once a junkie, always a
junkie. Untrue. Most long-term methadone clinic staff members know a
number of former heroin addicts and methadone patients who are no longer
addicted. |
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Obviously
there are many people in NA, Rational Recovery, Women For Sobriety, and
Secular Organizations for Sobriety who are no longer practicing addicts.
People change themselves, sometimes with treatment, sometimes without.
No one is born with a needle in the arm, and no one has to die with one
there.
The
DARP (Drug Abuse Reporting Program) study found that a substantial
percentage of methadone patients has not used illicit drugs at two-year
follow-up (Sells, 1974a. Sells, 1974b; Sells & Simpson, 1976a; Sells
& Simpson, 1976b; Sells & Simpson, 1976c). Therapeutic community
graduates were equally successful. Drug-free outpatient graduates were
considerably less successful. Its really time to lot go of any
delusions to the effect that drug free outpatient counseling is worth
recommending for treatment of opiate addicts. Generally speaking, it
isnt.
The
unstated continuation of this myth is without discomfort.
Magically. Low
frustration tolerance, with its associated over rebelliousness and lack
of willingness to work hard to over come problems, contributes
substantially to why most people keep their problems, including
addictions. Most of us dont want to believe that our lack of
persistence contributes to our keeping certain problems, so we perfume
this by saying, You cant get off methadone, or, Once on
methadone, they keep you on it.
- METHADONE PROLONGS
- AN ADDICTS CAREER IN DRUGS
The
DARP research, which began in the early 70s for about a hundred drug
abuse treatment programs that received federal funds, and originally
involved about 45,000 subjects, had recently had its twelve year
follow-up. What has been found over the years in the analysis of the
data is that demographic variables and various personal characteristics
of patients seem to be the main predictors of longevity of drug career.
These factors have been found across the three treatment modalities that
were in the study: methadone maintenance, therapeutic communities, and
drug-free outpatient counseling.
Some
findings in the research are as follows: The younger some began drug
use, the longer the career. The less education, the longer the career.
The more times stopped by the police but not arrested, the longer the
career. The number of times the addict moved geographically to avoid the
police, the longer the career. Addicts employed in square, higher status
jobs tended to have longer drug careers than street addicts. (However,
it was found that the square, higher status job holders had considerable
better courses of treatment and treatment outcomes than did the street
addicts once they did get into treatment. So much for the concept of
hitting the bottom! Those people did not hit the bottom.)
Thus,
length of drug career does not appear related very closely to any form
of treatment in itself. It appears related to a variety of other
factors.
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