Medically Assisted Recovery

I had lunch today with a very smart and successful person that asked about my volunteer work at the “meth clinic”. As an advocate for medically assisted recovery, I was facing double trouble; he was obviously confused and really didn’t know much about it, but that hadn’t stopped him from having a low opinion of such establishments.

It's a common misconception for the general public to confuse methadone with methamphetamines, but when people abbreviate the words down to "meth" even I get confused. I give credit where it’s due though, once this individual was made aware of the differences between the two and the benefits of medically assisted recovery he did express his support.

Since the days of Alexandria, lighthouses have been used as navigation aids for passing ships steering them home to safe harbor and clear of perilous seas. I know it may sound a little corny, but I think of our recovery meeting at the methadone clinic much in the same way. All too often patients in medically assisted recovery are isolated from the recovery communities of NA and AA tending to keep to themselves, sometimes hiding treatment from friends and family… even spouses!

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Aware of my advocacy efforts with methadone and medically assisted recovery for opioid addiction, JamezD of the Island Recovery Centers asked about my stance on Buprenorphine.

There's certainly some history around this (there always is)
that we're simply not aware of, but our addiction docs
seem to think that "Bup" is a superior approach to dealing
with opioid dependence… ~ Misleading on Methadone

Both drugs are used in treatment of heroin and pain killer addictions. Methadone and Buprenorphine work in a similar fashion but are usually administered and dosed differently to block opioid receptors in the brain to prevent withdrawal symptoms. Neither of the drugs produces the meteoric euphoric high that accompanies heroin and pain killer opioids and in fact cancel out the high of other opioid drugs taken during treatment. I feel Suboxone® is a superior form of Buprenorphine because of the additive naloxone which prevents misuse and abuse by injection and intranasal ingestion (snorting).

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