Does Methadone Cause Mood Swings?

Question by Nikki-cole: Does methadone cause mood swings?
I’ve been with my bf for about 8 months now, and we both became addicted to pain killers, first it was just vikodans then perks and then oxy’s. obviously it was really expensive and we were just fighting like crazy. Well we decided to quit. I just did it cold turkey and dealt with the 3 to 4 days of withdrawal, well i’m on day 3 now, but my bf didn’t think he could do it on his own and has started doing methadone. It has literally been 3 days and i swear he is like a different person. He is super paranoid, like i’m cheating on him, i don’t love him any more. One min he’s very sweet and loving and then 5 mins later he’s totally rude telling me he doesn’t want to Talk to me. i just don’t get it and right now i’m going through my own thing (withdrawing) and trying to keep him “Happy”. i’ve looked on line and i’m not really seeing anything about mood swings, all i see is how horrible it is and the withdrawal is worse than any other street drug…

i’ve talked to him and i know that he can’t get off the pills by him self, we have tried b4, thats how i know i can do it myself. and now that he has started this its quite obviously that he has no intentions of stopping until “they wean him off” Yeah right! So, i’m just wondering has anyone else experienced major mood swings? and are they just happening b/c he’s new to it? do they level out? i mean what should i expect?

any advice would help.

Best answer:

Answer by oldtimekid2
Yes, it can. http://www.drugs.com/cons/methadone.html says that some of the side effects include (snippets of it):

hallucinations (seeing, hearing, or feeling things that are not there), mental depression or other mood or mental changes, unusual excitement or restlessness, false sense of well-being, nervousness or restlessness, nightmares or unusual dreams, trouble in sleeping, or unusual tiredness or weakness. It also says to check with your doctor if you notice any nervousness, restlessness, or irritability (again, among others).

Yeah, all of those would be like mood swings. About the only thing you can do is send him to rehab or force him to detox like you did… maybe threatening to leave him or threatening something else he loves would be the only way to do it, but he needs to get the drugs out of his system to get over the side effects like you have. Congratulations for WANTING to quit, BTW… that is a very hard step and it sounds like you’re doing it very well.
Good luck and I hope I helped!

Answer by Tink
Junkies just aren’t themselves when they have drugs in their systems of any kind…even years after getting off drugs, a simple trip to the dentist can be a whallop of a trigger….

Youre both going to be emotional messes for at least a few months after the drugs are totally out of your system while your brain recalibrates so to speak…

And anyone who has ever done methadone will tell you, that methadone is a helluva lot harder than any other drug to kick…

PAW (Post-Acute Withdrawal): After Initial Detox. — Symptoms of post-acute withdrawal. how to cope. letting others know what’s going on with you mentally, physically, etc. This lasts well after you first get c…


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