Is Methadone Maintenance Hard?

Addiction recovery is not an easy road, but there are many ways in which methadone maintenance can help you recover more easily. The process of recovery and attending treatment itself can be difficult, but for many individuals (“over 254,000,” according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse), methadone maintenance is an extremely beneficial tool for addiction recovery.

How Does MMT Help Make Recovery Easier?

Methadone has the potential for abuse, so it can be hard for some to avoid abusing the drug.

There are many ways in which methadone maintenance can help to minimize the difficulty of your overall recovery and allow you to have a stronger chance of relapse prevention.

Methadone itself minimizes withdrawal symptoms and cravings so you will not have to experience the full effect of these issues when you are trying to recover.
Methadone also blocks the effects of other opioids to an extent, reducing your chance of relapse.
The drug does not cause euphoria when dosed correctly so you can drive, go to work or school, or do any of your normal, daily activities while being treated with methadone.
MMT programs often offer patients a number of other treatment options as well as referrals to programs that can help with employment, housing, education, and other necessities.
The medication brings “about a biochemical balance in the body in order to reduce the illicit use of opioids,” ensuring that you can start your recovery off strong (National Institute of Justice).

MMT makes recovery much easier by allowing patients to feel the side effects of addiction and dependence less intensely so they can begin to piece their lives back together without intense consequences. This is incredibly important and can make all the difference for someone in this position. Over time, we have learned addiction is something that can be treated medically and that medications like methadone actually make the entire recovery process much easier.

Is MMT Hard?

Compared to some other pharmacological treatment options for opioid addiction, especially naltrexone, methadone is usually fairly well tolerated by patients and is not as difficult on them while they are attempting to recover. However, there are some complicated aspects of the treatment one should understand before beginning it.

The program is quite controversial, even now, so it may be difficult to explain to friends, family members, and other loved ones why methadone is a beneficial treatment. If you need your doctor to explain the benefits of this program, it can be helpful to ask in order to ensure that everyone you care about is on the same page with your treatment.
It can sometimes be hard to attend treatment at the clinic every day, especially if you have a full schedule or transportation issues. In order to remedy this, try and plan out your day and know exactly when and how you will go to the clinic to receive your medication.
Methadone itself is a habit-forming opioid, so it can be hard to avoid abusing it. The best way to do so is to receive your medication from the clinic itself every day until you are strong enough to administer it on your own.

Breaking Down the Methadone Pros and Cons

Methadone’s use as an opiate addiction treatment offers a range of benefits for people recovering from long-term addiction problems. First introduced in the 1930s as a pain relief alternative to morphine, further research into the drug’s effects uncovered its ability to help recovering addicts better manage drug cravings. Since that time, methadone has become a ….

Overall, methadone maintenance is not as difficult a treatment to tolerate as some others, and it also has a number of important benefits for patients that make going through recovery much easier. If you have questions about MMT or want to find a clinic in your area, call 800-678-5931(Paid Advertiser) .