People who are on methadone for life (which is most of the clients like myself)are called methadone maintenance patients. For those of us who were addicted to painkillers, etc. the process of going every day serves a purpose. If we were given a "bottle" of methadone to take home we (as addicts) would instinctively take more than prescribed. Giving us a daily dose allows us time in recovery to learn we don't need a bottle but a dose. LOL
Also we are closely monitored (at most clinics) regarding urine tests. Most of the unfortunate negative media surrounding methadone results from people who are not in clinics but buying it rather from pain clinic patients and THEN mixing it with xanax, Valium, antidepressants, etc. Methadone alone is not harmful until mixed with these other drugs. Unfortunately the overdoses are not called xanax related, or valium related but methadone related. Now as far as your question...she may very well need long term treatment. When I discovered this was a possibility my doctor told me to look at my addiction as a disease just like diabetes. As a disease I will need to take medication for my diabetes for life. Likewise, I will need to treat my addiction for life. As far as going to a clinic everyday that is not the case. Every clinic differs however every clinic has a system designed to allow take home medication after requirements are met. For example, at my clinic after 90 days of clean urine, meeting all scheduled counseling sessions you get 1 take home bottle. After 180 days you get 2, etc.
If this is totally not feasible for your sister to do & get her kids back all is not lost. Suboxone is a medication very similar to methadone that can be prescribed by a doctor, She won't have the watchful eye of the clinic and the counseling to help prevent her from taking her script too soon but some patients are very successful in moving from methadone clinics to suboxone. I regret many people see people at clinics as still addicted. Our families will tell you otherwise! It saved my life. So support your sis in her decision. We don't want to go everyday to a clinic but the desire to get clean drives us. I am in the end stages of terminal cancer and still go 3 days a week. I also take nothing else for my cancer pain. Thanks

wow you are a much stronger person then i could ever be. but yes there is a stigma towards the methadone and i am proud of any/every step my sister makes...but i do know its hard for her she has fevers at 2 in the morning and then finds herself down and irritable the next day due to lack of sleep and/or comb. of meds she is on...maybe ill just adopt the kids (i wish)...thank you so much i really learned a lot in everything that u said and u are a person to be admired

my husband is addicted to methadone he went to the clinic for awhile because it was cheaper than what he was paying on the street. My personal dealings with a methadone addict is that methadone helps nothing and when my husband ran out of money and blew up my car trying to get his fix for the day. He went through the worst withdrawls he had ever experinced in his life so to try to get through it he had friends bring him everyother drug they had to help him he was mean anjd he got up and walked out on me and my three kids when I refused to find him a ride to the clinic. Methadone did nothing but save him a little money and destroyed our family. Good luck to your sister I hope it woks for her.