How does one get off of methadone?

[mikebobjohn]

Swim had only been taking methadone for six days, then he went one day on tramadol, and was in a lot of pain, but toughed it out. he couldnt not sleep very much that night though. the next morning swim's bowels and belly button felt like they were burning. swim had to take 20mg of methadone because swim felt so badly. a few hours later swim felt fine. he took another 15mg 7 hours later. now its only been about 8 hours since the last dose of methadone, but swim is starting to sweat and feel sickly again. How can swim get off of methadone without dealing with withdrawls, either in the next few weeks, or if he continues to use it for a few more months, and then wants to get off of it. Will it be harder to get off of it if swim continues to use for the next few months (for pain management. swims bowels are the original pain problem, and now when swim stops methadone, it burns like crazy where the problem already was, except much worse), or will it be a less painful if swim tries to taper off of it sooner rather than later?

keep in mind swim will enough pills (and a doctor helping him) to taper off of the pills whenever he chooses to stop taking them.

what do you guys think?