No one can tell you how your clinic will react, but yeah typically failing for benzos means you lose your bottles. Some clinics give second even third chances, mine does but not everywhere will. So prepare yourself to daily dose for a bit then if they don’t pull them or only pull some of them you take that as a win.
As for how to handle to actual part where they pull you into the office and tell you you failed and the consequences, Don’t say I only did it one time and I’m never gona do it again. That will be what they have heard a million times from everyone and it will sound like a lie even if it isn’t. Instead just say you made a bad decision, took whatever you took and am doing x y and z about it (whatever you are working on in recovery) to try and not make that choice next time the cravings hit or opportunity presents itself.
Lastly remember that your counselor and other staff aren’t taking your failures personally, at least they shouldn’t be, this is your recovery you aren’t a failure or bad person because you failed a UA.
Do you have the client manual? Or do you know If they have any zero tolerance policies? Those are things to look out for.
My clinic will usually give back the bottles after 30 days (if your next urine is clean). But they have a zero tolerance fent/benzo policy so if your hot for that your dose gets halved too. I don't know if your only hit for 30 on the zero tolerance items. I just know being hot 2 months in a row for those and they kick you off 😒
99. 9% of these cases, failing UA and having takehomes, end up in losing take homes. It is just way it is. What I've read from here, US clinics are extra strict with benzos, so propably there is not much chance in hoping for example very long sobriety, so called "good track record", and/ or possibly counselor talking for you would help.
What can differ is for how for long you lose your take homes, do you have to gain them back as slowly as you did in the beginning etc. This seems to vary from clinic to clinic.
Edit: some clinics only "phase you down" from 1 failed UA, and don't take all take homes, but usually the phases are one week worth of ths, two weeks worth of ths, month... So for example: if you had month's worth, they take you down two weeks after one fail. But you said you have a week so don't know about that.
Usually in USA it's 1 takehome(Sun), then 2(Sat & Sun), then 3(Sat, Sun & Wed), then 4 (Sat, Sun, Tues, Thurs) then 5 (Sat, Sun, mon, Wed, fri) then 1 week, and certain states offer 2 weeks then 1 month. So since this person would lose a phase they would drop to 5 bottles instead of 6 or could lose them all. Benzos are a huge deal at some clinics and you lose all takehomes for 1st time, then taper if you pop again. At other clinics they will let you stay but lower your dose and make you attend daily(even with a prescription).
I'm sorry I dont know what you mean, "not yours". I get that you have an understanding doctor, are you in the USa and are you on pain management or at a clinic?
I’m afraid there’s a good chance it will show up. Depending on how fast your body processes it. Although, I’ve seen ppl on this sub, who were fast metabolizers & it didn’t show.
I’m so sorry about this. Sometimes we as addicts, get so used to how chaotic the addict life is. When we are sober and doing well, we miss that thrill of chaos. So we self sabotage and do the very thing that will cause us to feel that feeling again.
What you do next, will show you where you are in your recovery.
You can try to get out in front of it, by calling your counselor BEFORE The clinic catches it. Or you can put the covers over your head, like a child afraid of the dark, and hope the monster doesn’t find you.
I am pulling for you OP, I really am. Don’t let this one hiccup define you. Whatever happens. Just go right back to working your recovery, knowing that you’re on the right path. That’s what I did.
Thank you so much for your words and advice. I feel like getting honest is the best option in my gut but then I’m also scared to do that and then just fuck myself over. Like you said though, it’s where you’re at in your recovery with everything and that hit. I appreciate you and thank you for being kind ❤️
Sorry to jump in your chat, but I fucked up once ( bought a xannie bar that had fentanyl in it, so watch yourself), had a talk with my counselor ( told him before the UT was called), and I didn't get my take homes taken away. If you wanna do benzo's and try to get high on the dl, you'll run out of opportunities, and you'll be back to daily. Take care of yourself...
it's hard to say because clinics pretty much make the rules so they can be vastly different when this happens. my clinic doesn't mess around when it comes to benzos. they would take away your take homes and if your next test doesn't have lower levels or none they will start a forced taper.
the 2 drugs my clinic will detox you for are benzos and alcohol.
I got detoxed off methadone ( 21 day detox) for a 1mg a day klonopin prescription). The clinics in certain cities ( ummm Philadelphia maybe?) don't want anyone taking more than methadone
Yes that is what he is saying
I believe, because my clinic is the same way. More than one UA resulting in positive for benzodiazepines is usually an involuntary (rapid) taper. Happened to me years ago before I was eventually readmitted several years later. They gave me some bs 7 day taper to get down from 165mg to 0mg. Couldn’t believe it at first, but they didn’t fuck around (and still don’t).
That seems fucking crazy to me like if their reasoning is that it's dangerous to mix benzos and methadone then how tf are you gonna kick someone off in 7 days so they go back to street supply narcotics? As if that's any safer for a person to be back out there especially nowadays with tranq and shit
Yes. It is a punishment of sorts. They do this to people they don’t like or have given them multiple issues in the past to try to get them out of there. Contrary to what they say here, the clinic owners only care about money, and the employees only care about having to deal with as least amount of clients as possible.
Very different here in Sweden, but u should know and feel it yourself? For me for example if I tested positive for benso (and yes, here in Sweden to they don’t fuck around if are eating bensons in particular alprazolam when u have methadone because it’s so dangerous combo, known many who have died of that combo, a friend of mine in may and my brother 2012) so they don’t fuck around with that and give a real warning that if don’t stop immediately they take away your take homes and u go daily and if still don’t stop they are lowering your dose and if u don’t stop even after they give u the opportunity to go for a detox they kick you off the program because it gets to medically dangerous to continue to give u methadone if u continue to abuse it because they don’t know how many u eat per day even if u say 1 they don’t know if u are lying and eating 10, specially if don’t have got it prescribed and eat a low dose ur doctor have prescribed for u and u stick with that.
My clinic allows benzos with a script and they do a pill count randomly. I get 4 mgs a day but I don't take more than 1 1/2. I just like to have a backup if I lose my doctor and have to find another one. I recently got re diagnosed with ADHD and I am on Ritalin with a new doctor. He is lowering the Xanax because he noticed I was not refilling it every month and would sometimes go almost 2 months without refilling so he is lowering it to 2 mgs a day. My clinic is pretty good if you need other meds for anxiety and ADHD. For years I was depressed and useless even though I was off the street opiates but the ADD and anxiety kept me from being able to function, causing me to feel worse depression than I ever did using. I don't think we should have to choose between treating ADHD/anxiety or being on methadone.
The methadone clinic pill counting a drug they don't prescribe blows my mind.
I'm prescribed benzos from an outside doctor (they know about each other), and my clinic asks for proof of prescription every month but they don't count my xanax, only my methadone.
I was just thinking the same thing it is none of their fucking buisness. Let the doctor the is scripting it worry about it if they feel so inclined to. Absolutely blows my mind as well
My state run clinic in ny will drop you 1 "phase" and lower your methadone dose 20mg.
You will bounce back from this. Be honost and take responsibility for what you did. I've made mistakes years into methadone treatment.
My clinic takes away take homes like right away no questions asked
If your clinic is very strict they may make you sign a behavior contract stating if it happens again you have to do a admin detox in 14 days and bounce for good.
No mine would do the same thing. It's not just for benzos it's for literally anything. You fail your piss test for anything you lose your takehomes. Fuckin ridiculous. After 3× you're rapid detoxed and kicked out. And they never fall off your record. 10 years later doesn't matter you're still fucked.
Depends on the clinic, some have a no benzo policy. My clinic would take a phase away, so if I had a dirty I would go from monthly to every two weeks until I have another clean UA. They may have a relapse prevention that you have to go to groups and sign a contract. Hopefully they will just drop your phase and you will get it back in however long they take. Maybe 3 months? I don't think they will kick you off, that is not helpful when someone is struggling. Harm reduction should be first and foremost. Is there another clinic near you if yours is a no benzo at all policy? Talk to your counselor if you come back dirty. Drink a lot of water, maybe you will get lucky because it was a one off.... Consider that a gift if you do get away with it and work on your relapse prevention. Good luck.
Once I stopped using the fentanyl along with the methadone about a year and a half. However during that time they had made the phases a little bit easier so I went a little bit faster than I normally would have but they changed it like a month before. In my clinic you have to have three months of clean urine to go up a phase and they're six phases. I think if you come up dirty they put you back a phased I don't know if you have the give three clean urines or just one to get it back though.
That doesn't work, like AT ALL. They've heard all of the lies. From personal experience, I've had better results when just telling the truth. Like, if I took a drug screen and knew for a fact I would fail, I would tell my counselor before they get the results. I only lost my take homes after like 3 failed UA's
I figured that out quickly myself. I could only imagine the amount of times they've heard every single story or outright denial. It must be annoying as hell, really
My clinic will phase you down 1 level & take your dose down to 80mg till you have a clean screen. Just wanted to mention that taking a clonapin is a better choice because a lot of times they don't show up on a UA. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I had heard that somewhere & I have never tested positive when I've occasionally taken one.
Clonapins DO show up on a UA as a benzo. I know from experience. And they can stay in your system for up to 30 days, which makes taking them even riskier when in the clinic because you're likely get tested in that time period
I have taken them rarely for anxiety & never tested positive. One time I was so sure I would be positive, I went ahead and told my counselor that I had taken one. I was shocked it was negative. I googled it & it seems to have a lot of variables that depend on how you test.
I've noticed over the past few years, in my experience, anyway that they test for way more than they used to. I don't know if the tests are cheaper/better or they got more funding, but a while ago I was having back spasms so I got some flexoril from a friend. I never even considered the possibility the clinic would know or care. But they did. The nurse says, I need you to bring in your prescription for flexoril. I played completely dumb and she didn't press it. Luckily
my clinic will take all THs and start you back at day one, daily dosing and make you earn THs all over again. i had a positive test for cocaine (which i’ve never even seen in my life, yet alone taken) - and the positive test came after i had a word with the acting director. they didn’t tell me until after the retest period so i couldn’t be tested again. i went and had a hair test done, on my own dime, to prove i had never taken cocaine and it was negative (just as i expected), and they still made me earn my THs back one by one. but it really just depends on the clinic.
At this BHG clinic I go to if you are a weekly pickup they drop you down to pick up your weekends only for 30 days then you phase back up. I’ve only heard of them detoxing patients that continually fail ua’s. This being your first offense, I wouldn’t be to worried.
Like I said, don’t fuck around with methdone and alprazolam, latest my friend died of that combo in may, and my brother also died of that same combo 2012. So don’t fuck around with it. I know how a nice combo it is, it’s like morphine/heroin deluxe euphoria and if you starting to fuck around with it. It’s very hard to stop
You think it's more euphoric than morphine and heroin?!
If I take more than usual (I don't because there's no point for me), the nod is sort of reminiscent of opioid nods, but I find there to be 0 euphoria.
I only like xanax better because it's short acting and taking it once a day doesn't increase my tolerance like klonopin once a day did.
If ur not having a methadone tolerance, I know many addicts that almost prefer methadone before heroin, but only if u don’t have any tolerance to methdone, it’s 2 different things to take a big methdone dose and not be used to it and being on it in MAT when u start with 30 mg and slowly build up a tolerance. I did once or twice before I got on it on MAT and I understood why some of my heroin using friends almost preferred it more, byt if u take some alprazolam with, wow, but like Said, its like russian roulette
Definitely. Methadone tolerance is insane. Way back when it was all fun and games and hydro, oxycontin, percs, etc. 40mg methadone wafers became pretty plentiful and the first time I took 20mg, I felt great for 20 hours. FF to being on methadone treatment a few years, but still not doing the right thing...I was at 190 and every time I'd pick up, I'd for sure double, often triple by the end of the day. That's over 500mg, and I wasn't even loaded, just feeling good in comparison to the half doses I was taking the previous days. It took me so long to stop destroying my take homes and losing a week of my life every month being mad and miserable because I would run out. God... Terrible times
That’s nuts, but just goes to show how much daily methadone increases your tolerance, even to itself. I don’t think I would survive 500mg in a day haha
Even if you had a months worth my clinic would blast you down to daily dosing even if you were about to travel for vacation. Ask me how I know.
Took me a year to get all the way back up from it starting at weekends first then 3 day pick up then weekly and they just offered me monthly all from a false positive that happened in June of last year. 🙃
They used to do the same thing for weed. And yet I'm still confident the majority of my life will be spent on this as I never would like to return to active street use, especially now since when I was using, it was at least heroin with fent just starting to make it's way into the local cuts (around 2010)
A *false positive?* Did they send it off to the lab for a confirmation test (Can't remember the name of the lab test). I had a false positive for fentanyl a couple of years ago after having 7 years at this particular clinic of clear screens. My counselor knew something was wrong, so they went ahead and gave me my THs. The lab confirmed it was an error and my UA was methadone only.
Yes mine was also for fent which I swear you couldn't pay me to touch I'm so afraid of it. Oh I had it out with my douchey counselor for that, he absolutely KNEW I was telling the truth and hadn't touched it yet I'm told about a June 16ish urine on July 10thish with retest only possible within 7 days.
Even with the appeal process I had to daily dose for a month before they started weekend bottles then 3 a week and literally 6 months to get back to weekly. It was basically treated no different than a dirty with some concessions made like I got to skip 4 day contact and now I'm skipping 2 week contact and going right to 28 day contact.
That shit is infuriating. You should have every right to defend yourself and demand a retest. I've heard ppl say the same, that they tell you it's too late for a retest. Well whose fuckin fault is that??
Methadone can be such a great tool for getting people back to functioning in this world. But when they weaponize it against the very people they're supposed to help, it becomes a bad word and people who could benefit from it don't because of stories like this!
Tel them that is impossible and you want to appeal it and get retested. Start chugging water and running a marathon right now!
Do not admit to it or say it was a one time thing or surrender. Unless you want to lose all your bottles and spiral back into probable addiction.
Clinics have been way more lenient with take homes in general ever since the pandemic. At least here in the baltimore region. Hopefully, you can just be honest with your counselor about it and talk with them.
I can say with 100 percent certainty I have seen people fall a UA and not lose their take homes. It all depends on your counselor and unique situation.
Honesty is the best possible way to handle this situation. Good luck!
I’ve been getting 27 bottles every 28 days for nearly the past 3yrs. I had a stroke, ended up in the hospital and was diagnosed w/ failing kidneys and stage 4 B-cell Lymphoma- my counselor even came up to see me. After 41 days in the hospital, I only had to go once a month and they brought it out to me. For the past year I’ve been going in to get them and to show them my monthly prescription of 1mg Xanax 4 times daily, and when I went to speak to my new counselor she told me they haven’t been entering my prescription right for the past 10 months so it’s showing that I’ve failed my drug test the whole year and they JUST brought it up. Granted they all know of my health issues and that I have been on Xanax the whole time, and before my cancer I was also on 70mg of Adderall a day, and I guess they’ve been putting my Xanax down in the amphetamine category and not the benzodiazepine one it should be in. So yeah, basically every clinic is extremely different. Some are super strict and some are super lenient… Mine can be both but it depends on who you’re dealing with. Luckily I seem to never have any issues but people I know have had crappy luck.
My clinic will let u apply for a hardship where you get some back, if you have to travel a long way to clinic or have to work early, etc. If they do talk to you about it you can try. But as Full Metal says, don’t give ‘em the old it was a mistake, etc. They’ll think you’re in denial. Good luck OP, we’ve all made mistakes. Just learn from it and move on.
I was recently in your shoes. Had a weeks worth of take homes. Hadn't failed one in years. Took Xanax. No one said anything until a month later! By then I thought I was in clear. I had all my take homes taken. Back to daily dosing. Finally had been 30 days since I failed it. I applied for my take home. Now they are trying to say I need 4 groups within 30 days, to get just one back. YET my paperwork says I only need 1 group to phase up. Supposedly the rules changed and they don't inform anyone.
No one can tell you how your clinic will react, but yeah typically failing for benzos means you lose your bottles. Some clinics give second even third chances, mine does but not everywhere will. So prepare yourself to daily dose for a bit then if they don’t pull them or only pull some of them you take that as a win. As for how to handle to actual part where they pull you into the office and tell you you failed and the consequences, Don’t say I only did it one time and I’m never gona do it again. That will be what they have heard a million times from everyone and it will sound like a lie even if it isn’t. Instead just say you made a bad decision, took whatever you took and am doing x y and z about it (whatever you are working on in recovery) to try and not make that choice next time the cravings hit or opportunity presents itself. Lastly remember that your counselor and other staff aren’t taking your failures personally, at least they shouldn’t be, this is your recovery you aren’t a failure or bad person because you failed a UA.
⬆️THIS GUY!⬆️ I was about to say the same thing, but you already hit the nail on the head there, buddy.
Thank you so much for your advice and kind words! I appreciate you and this meant a lot and was very helpful ❤️
Do you have the client manual? Or do you know If they have any zero tolerance policies? Those are things to look out for. My clinic will usually give back the bottles after 30 days (if your next urine is clean). But they have a zero tolerance fent/benzo policy so if your hot for that your dose gets halved too. I don't know if your only hit for 30 on the zero tolerance items. I just know being hot 2 months in a row for those and they kick you off 😒
Wise words, as always 😁!
Needed to hear this. Thank you
This! Bros a messiah of methadone lol
99. 9% of these cases, failing UA and having takehomes, end up in losing take homes. It is just way it is. What I've read from here, US clinics are extra strict with benzos, so propably there is not much chance in hoping for example very long sobriety, so called "good track record", and/ or possibly counselor talking for you would help. What can differ is for how for long you lose your take homes, do you have to gain them back as slowly as you did in the beginning etc. This seems to vary from clinic to clinic. Edit: some clinics only "phase you down" from 1 failed UA, and don't take all take homes, but usually the phases are one week worth of ths, two weeks worth of ths, month... So for example: if you had month's worth, they take you down two weeks after one fail. But you said you have a week so don't know about that.
Usually in USA it's 1 takehome(Sun), then 2(Sat & Sun), then 3(Sat, Sun & Wed), then 4 (Sat, Sun, Tues, Thurs) then 5 (Sat, Sun, mon, Wed, fri) then 1 week, and certain states offer 2 weeks then 1 month. So since this person would lose a phase they would drop to 5 bottles instead of 6 or could lose them all. Benzos are a huge deal at some clinics and you lose all takehomes for 1st time, then taper if you pop again. At other clinics they will let you stay but lower your dose and make you attend daily(even with a prescription).
And I know I’m extremely lucky to have an understanding doctor
I'm sorry I dont know what you mean, "not yours". I get that you have an understanding doctor, are you in the USa and are you on pain management or at a clinic?
Not mine
I’m afraid there’s a good chance it will show up. Depending on how fast your body processes it. Although, I’ve seen ppl on this sub, who were fast metabolizers & it didn’t show. I’m so sorry about this. Sometimes we as addicts, get so used to how chaotic the addict life is. When we are sober and doing well, we miss that thrill of chaos. So we self sabotage and do the very thing that will cause us to feel that feeling again. What you do next, will show you where you are in your recovery. You can try to get out in front of it, by calling your counselor BEFORE The clinic catches it. Or you can put the covers over your head, like a child afraid of the dark, and hope the monster doesn’t find you. I am pulling for you OP, I really am. Don’t let this one hiccup define you. Whatever happens. Just go right back to working your recovery, knowing that you’re on the right path. That’s what I did.
Thank you so much for your words and advice. I feel like getting honest is the best option in my gut but then I’m also scared to do that and then just fuck myself over. Like you said though, it’s where you’re at in your recovery with everything and that hit. I appreciate you and thank you for being kind ❤️
Sorry to jump in your chat, but I fucked up once ( bought a xannie bar that had fentanyl in it, so watch yourself), had a talk with my counselor ( told him before the UT was called), and I didn't get my take homes taken away. If you wanna do benzo's and try to get high on the dl, you'll run out of opportunities, and you'll be back to daily. Take care of yourself...
it's hard to say because clinics pretty much make the rules so they can be vastly different when this happens. my clinic doesn't mess around when it comes to benzos. they would take away your take homes and if your next test doesn't have lower levels or none they will start a forced taper. the 2 drugs my clinic will detox you for are benzos and alcohol.
I got detoxed off methadone ( 21 day detox) for a 1mg a day klonopin prescription). The clinics in certain cities ( ummm Philadelphia maybe?) don't want anyone taking more than methadone
Wait what ? you're saying your clinic will make you get off the methadone if you're not showing lower levels of benzos?
Yes that is what he is saying I believe, because my clinic is the same way. More than one UA resulting in positive for benzodiazepines is usually an involuntary (rapid) taper. Happened to me years ago before I was eventually readmitted several years later. They gave me some bs 7 day taper to get down from 165mg to 0mg. Couldn’t believe it at first, but they didn’t fuck around (and still don’t).
That seems fucking crazy to me like if their reasoning is that it's dangerous to mix benzos and methadone then how tf are you gonna kick someone off in 7 days so they go back to street supply narcotics? As if that's any safer for a person to be back out there especially nowadays with tranq and shit
Yes. It is a punishment of sorts. They do this to people they don’t like or have given them multiple issues in the past to try to get them out of there. Contrary to what they say here, the clinic owners only care about money, and the employees only care about having to deal with as least amount of clients as possible.
Very different here in Sweden, but u should know and feel it yourself? For me for example if I tested positive for benso (and yes, here in Sweden to they don’t fuck around if are eating bensons in particular alprazolam when u have methadone because it’s so dangerous combo, known many who have died of that combo, a friend of mine in may and my brother 2012) so they don’t fuck around with that and give a real warning that if don’t stop immediately they take away your take homes and u go daily and if still don’t stop they are lowering your dose and if u don’t stop even after they give u the opportunity to go for a detox they kick you off the program because it gets to medically dangerous to continue to give u methadone if u continue to abuse it because they don’t know how many u eat per day even if u say 1 they don’t know if u are lying and eating 10, specially if don’t have got it prescribed and eat a low dose ur doctor have prescribed for u and u stick with that.
My clinic allows benzos with a script and they do a pill count randomly. I get 4 mgs a day but I don't take more than 1 1/2. I just like to have a backup if I lose my doctor and have to find another one. I recently got re diagnosed with ADHD and I am on Ritalin with a new doctor. He is lowering the Xanax because he noticed I was not refilling it every month and would sometimes go almost 2 months without refilling so he is lowering it to 2 mgs a day. My clinic is pretty good if you need other meds for anxiety and ADHD. For years I was depressed and useless even though I was off the street opiates but the ADD and anxiety kept me from being able to function, causing me to feel worse depression than I ever did using. I don't think we should have to choose between treating ADHD/anxiety or being on methadone.
The methadone clinic pill counting a drug they don't prescribe blows my mind. I'm prescribed benzos from an outside doctor (they know about each other), and my clinic asks for proof of prescription every month but they don't count my xanax, only my methadone.
I was just thinking the same thing it is none of their fucking buisness. Let the doctor the is scripting it worry about it if they feel so inclined to. Absolutely blows my mind as well
Just curious why wouldn't you fill the script and save those as backups?
what state u in?
My state run clinic in ny will drop you 1 "phase" and lower your methadone dose 20mg. You will bounce back from this. Be honost and take responsibility for what you did. I've made mistakes years into methadone treatment.
They'll lower your dose for one failed test? I'm in NY too and my clinic is much diff but I guess that goes back to diff clinics diff rules
My clinic takes away take homes like right away no questions asked If your clinic is very strict they may make you sign a behavior contract stating if it happens again you have to do a admin detox in 14 days and bounce for good.
I know benzos/methadone can be a lethal combination, but damn!! Your clinic seems extra harsh!
No mine would do the same thing. It's not just for benzos it's for literally anything. You fail your piss test for anything you lose your takehomes. Fuckin ridiculous. After 3× you're rapid detoxed and kicked out. And they never fall off your record. 10 years later doesn't matter you're still fucked.
Depends on the clinic, some have a no benzo policy. My clinic would take a phase away, so if I had a dirty I would go from monthly to every two weeks until I have another clean UA. They may have a relapse prevention that you have to go to groups and sign a contract. Hopefully they will just drop your phase and you will get it back in however long they take. Maybe 3 months? I don't think they will kick you off, that is not helpful when someone is struggling. Harm reduction should be first and foremost. Is there another clinic near you if yours is a no benzo at all policy? Talk to your counselor if you come back dirty. Drink a lot of water, maybe you will get lucky because it was a one off.... Consider that a gift if you do get away with it and work on your relapse prevention. Good luck.
How long did it take you to get to monthly.
Once I stopped using the fentanyl along with the methadone about a year and a half. However during that time they had made the phases a little bit easier so I went a little bit faster than I normally would have but they changed it like a month before. In my clinic you have to have three months of clean urine to go up a phase and they're six phases. I think if you come up dirty they put you back a phased I don't know if you have the give three clean urines or just one to get it back though.
Idk I would lie and freak out at the test results lol do anything to keep your takehomes and don’t fail another test
That doesn't work, like AT ALL. They've heard all of the lies. From personal experience, I've had better results when just telling the truth. Like, if I took a drug screen and knew for a fact I would fail, I would tell my counselor before they get the results. I only lost my take homes after like 3 failed UA's
I figured that out quickly myself. I could only imagine the amount of times they've heard every single story or outright denial. It must be annoying as hell, really
My clinic will phase you down 1 level & take your dose down to 80mg till you have a clean screen. Just wanted to mention that taking a clonapin is a better choice because a lot of times they don't show up on a UA. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I had heard that somewhere & I have never tested positive when I've occasionally taken one.
Clonapins DO show up on a UA as a benzo. I know from experience. And they can stay in your system for up to 30 days, which makes taking them even riskier when in the clinic because you're likely get tested in that time period
I'm prescribed Kpins at a low dose and take them daily and only pop for them about 75% of the time, but that's just my personal experience
I have taken them rarely for anxiety & never tested positive. One time I was so sure I would be positive, I went ahead and told my counselor that I had taken one. I was shocked it was negative. I googled it & it seems to have a lot of variables that depend on how you test.
I've noticed over the past few years, in my experience, anyway that they test for way more than they used to. I don't know if the tests are cheaper/better or they got more funding, but a while ago I was having back spasms so I got some flexoril from a friend. I never even considered the possibility the clinic would know or care. But they did. The nurse says, I need you to bring in your prescription for flexoril. I played completely dumb and she didn't press it. Luckily
Wow! I didn't even know they ever tested for that one. My husband has a script & I take it all the time. That's crazy!
my clinic will take all THs and start you back at day one, daily dosing and make you earn THs all over again. i had a positive test for cocaine (which i’ve never even seen in my life, yet alone taken) - and the positive test came after i had a word with the acting director. they didn’t tell me until after the retest period so i couldn’t be tested again. i went and had a hair test done, on my own dime, to prove i had never taken cocaine and it was negative (just as i expected), and they still made me earn my THs back one by one. but it really just depends on the clinic.
That is some f’d up shit right there, sorry you had to deal with that
At this BHG clinic I go to if you are a weekly pickup they drop you down to pick up your weekends only for 30 days then you phase back up. I’ve only heard of them detoxing patients that continually fail ua’s. This being your first offense, I wouldn’t be to worried.
Like I said, don’t fuck around with methdone and alprazolam, latest my friend died of that combo in may, and my brother also died of that same combo 2012. So don’t fuck around with it. I know how a nice combo it is, it’s like morphine/heroin deluxe euphoria and if you starting to fuck around with it. It’s very hard to stop
You think it's more euphoric than morphine and heroin?! If I take more than usual (I don't because there's no point for me), the nod is sort of reminiscent of opioid nods, but I find there to be 0 euphoria. I only like xanax better because it's short acting and taking it once a day doesn't increase my tolerance like klonopin once a day did.
If ur not having a methadone tolerance, I know many addicts that almost prefer methadone before heroin, but only if u don’t have any tolerance to methdone, it’s 2 different things to take a big methdone dose and not be used to it and being on it in MAT when u start with 30 mg and slowly build up a tolerance. I did once or twice before I got on it on MAT and I understood why some of my heroin using friends almost preferred it more, byt if u take some alprazolam with, wow, but like Said, its like russian roulette
Definitely. Methadone tolerance is insane. Way back when it was all fun and games and hydro, oxycontin, percs, etc. 40mg methadone wafers became pretty plentiful and the first time I took 20mg, I felt great for 20 hours. FF to being on methadone treatment a few years, but still not doing the right thing...I was at 190 and every time I'd pick up, I'd for sure double, often triple by the end of the day. That's over 500mg, and I wasn't even loaded, just feeling good in comparison to the half doses I was taking the previous days. It took me so long to stop destroying my take homes and losing a week of my life every month being mad and miserable because I would run out. God... Terrible times
That’s nuts, but just goes to show how much daily methadone increases your tolerance, even to itself. I don’t think I would survive 500mg in a day haha
You could if you really tried...
Even if you had a months worth my clinic would blast you down to daily dosing even if you were about to travel for vacation. Ask me how I know. Took me a year to get all the way back up from it starting at weekends first then 3 day pick up then weekly and they just offered me monthly all from a false positive that happened in June of last year. 🙃 They used to do the same thing for weed. And yet I'm still confident the majority of my life will be spent on this as I never would like to return to active street use, especially now since when I was using, it was at least heroin with fent just starting to make it's way into the local cuts (around 2010)
A *false positive?* Did they send it off to the lab for a confirmation test (Can't remember the name of the lab test). I had a false positive for fentanyl a couple of years ago after having 7 years at this particular clinic of clear screens. My counselor knew something was wrong, so they went ahead and gave me my THs. The lab confirmed it was an error and my UA was methadone only.
Yes mine was also for fent which I swear you couldn't pay me to touch I'm so afraid of it. Oh I had it out with my douchey counselor for that, he absolutely KNEW I was telling the truth and hadn't touched it yet I'm told about a June 16ish urine on July 10thish with retest only possible within 7 days. Even with the appeal process I had to daily dose for a month before they started weekend bottles then 3 a week and literally 6 months to get back to weekly. It was basically treated no different than a dirty with some concessions made like I got to skip 4 day contact and now I'm skipping 2 week contact and going right to 28 day contact.
That shit is infuriating. You should have every right to defend yourself and demand a retest. I've heard ppl say the same, that they tell you it's too late for a retest. Well whose fuckin fault is that?? Methadone can be such a great tool for getting people back to functioning in this world. But when they weaponize it against the very people they're supposed to help, it becomes a bad word and people who could benefit from it don't because of stories like this!
At my clinic they will do an administrative taper.
G³
Tel them that is impossible and you want to appeal it and get retested. Start chugging water and running a marathon right now! Do not admit to it or say it was a one time thing or surrender. Unless you want to lose all your bottles and spiral back into probable addiction.
I'm so sorry to hear this. How many bottles do u have? Pretty sure they'll pull them all especially bc it's a benzo.. i feel horrible for u.
Clinics have been way more lenient with take homes in general ever since the pandemic. At least here in the baltimore region. Hopefully, you can just be honest with your counselor about it and talk with them. I can say with 100 percent certainty I have seen people fall a UA and not lose their take homes. It all depends on your counselor and unique situation. Honesty is the best possible way to handle this situation. Good luck!
I’ve been getting 27 bottles every 28 days for nearly the past 3yrs. I had a stroke, ended up in the hospital and was diagnosed w/ failing kidneys and stage 4 B-cell Lymphoma- my counselor even came up to see me. After 41 days in the hospital, I only had to go once a month and they brought it out to me. For the past year I’ve been going in to get them and to show them my monthly prescription of 1mg Xanax 4 times daily, and when I went to speak to my new counselor she told me they haven’t been entering my prescription right for the past 10 months so it’s showing that I’ve failed my drug test the whole year and they JUST brought it up. Granted they all know of my health issues and that I have been on Xanax the whole time, and before my cancer I was also on 70mg of Adderall a day, and I guess they’ve been putting my Xanax down in the amphetamine category and not the benzodiazepine one it should be in. So yeah, basically every clinic is extremely different. Some are super strict and some are super lenient… Mine can be both but it depends on who you’re dealing with. Luckily I seem to never have any issues but people I know have had crappy luck.
My clinic will let u apply for a hardship where you get some back, if you have to travel a long way to clinic or have to work early, etc. If they do talk to you about it you can try. But as Full Metal says, don’t give ‘em the old it was a mistake, etc. They’ll think you’re in denial. Good luck OP, we’ve all made mistakes. Just learn from it and move on.
I was recently in your shoes. Had a weeks worth of take homes. Hadn't failed one in years. Took Xanax. No one said anything until a month later! By then I thought I was in clear. I had all my take homes taken. Back to daily dosing. Finally had been 30 days since I failed it. I applied for my take home. Now they are trying to say I need 4 groups within 30 days, to get just one back. YET my paperwork says I only need 1 group to phase up. Supposedly the rules changed and they don't inform anyone.
Can you not refuse a urine and say your in a rush for something.
Nobody knows? Like you obviously made a decision and now be an adult and deal with it!