In some cases, unsuspecting people who are not really using illegal drugs at all can be put on Methadone by their physician. This can occur due to illness, injury, or pain issues. Many times this happens when the pain is severe and other drugs are not working on it. This can also happen when other painkillers wear off too quickly and the pain always returns in full force. It is situations like these that might have a medical professional order Methadone for pain, because it tends to last for a long time compared with other medications.
This "sticky factor" is a huge part of what makes Methadone so addictive. It is really, really hard to get off Methadone once you are hooked on it. The problem is that the drug is so sticky that it tends to cling to your opiate receptors in your brain for much longer than other opiate painkillers would. This creates a very uncomfortable and very long detox process.
Keep in mind that treating chronic pain with an opiate is a bit like trying to use alcohol as an anesthetic for surgery. Consider this analogy for a while and you will start to see how painkillers are working in our brain in order to try and treat physical pain. What is really happening is that they are not treating the source of pain at all in our physical body, but instead the chemical is literally doping the brain so much that eventually the mind refuses to care about the intense pain signals that are repeatedly being sent to the brain. Getting to this point when a person is in intense pain means that you have to seriously medicate them to the point of being practically oblivious. Imagine using enough alcohol with a patient to properly prepare them for surgery and you have an idea of just how "out of it" a person can be on Methadone.
Most people believe that Heroin is the most addictive opiate that exists. By some measures this might actually be true. But if you look at the severity of cold turkey withdrawal, Methadone is actually worse than Heroin. When detoxing from Heroin, it is actually possible to stop abruptly and medicate most or all of the withdrawal symptoms in a medical setting. With Methadone, if people are taking a high enough amount of the drug, then this is really not even possible. The only way to avoid an intense and miserable withdrawal is to slowly ween the addict down in their dosage over time so that they are only taking a minimal amount of Methadone. This is not easy for some addicts to do in itself, especially if they have chronic pain issues that they are dealing with also. In fact, it can be very difficult to get off Methadone, even with this slow weening down process in a person with no chronic pain.
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