I read an article today that happened to mention that one of the people involved in the situation being written about was a methadone counselor. I was curious to find out exactly what they meant, so I checked it out. Methadone is sometimes used in treatment programs for heroin addicts. Unfortunately, methadone is also an opiate, and is also addictive, and many people who take methadone to kick heroin wind up addicted to methadone instead. They then have to go through and methadone detox and sometimes rehab to handle their new addiction.
So what does a methadone counselor do? According to the Methadone Assisted Recovery Guidelines for Saskatchewan, methadone counselors do everything from screening an individual to see if methadone treatment is right for them, to dealing with the issues that would make someone addiction prone.
The outcome of methadone counseling is supposed to be one of three possibilities: the addict stays on methadone long-term, the addict goes through a medically-supervised withdrawal from methadone, or the addict is given a "methadone harm reduction" program.
The addict is expected to be on methadone and receiving methadone counseling for two or more years, after which time the counselor makes his recommendations.how to get off methadone
Okay. So that's how it works. During the two or more years the person is taking methadone, the counselor is working with them to resolve their addiction issues. If the counselor concludes that the issues are resolved, I would assume he would recommend withdrawal from methadone so the addict can become drug free.
But there's a major flaw in this treatment: The person is trying to resolve his personal issues while he's on methadone. Is that going to be a drawback? Well, here are the side effects of methadone:
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