Codeine addiction - overcome for the last time?
Posted , 11 users are following.
Hi. I just wanted to share my expereinces with regard to codeine addiction. I have noted that some threads talk about codeine not being addictive - I could not disagree more. I have been taking dihydrocodeine and co-codamol on & off for about 4 years. It started by self medicating - I had a nerve infection in my face that doctors or dentists could not treat, until I was given some co-codamol by my relatives. This worked - wow!! it really numbed the pain. I began taking 2-3 at a time, until the infection passed. I still had 10 or so left, and I decided to take them to cure a hangover!! they worked - they numbed the symptoms and left me feeling calm and dreamy. I loved the feeling it gave me.
From this point on, I began to see the benefits of the drug and it made me feel nice - but i was stealing dihydrocodeine and co-codamol from my relatives, taking the odd pack of 10 at a time.
I began training for a half marathon, and found that taking co-codamol after a long run had a soothing effect on my body. I began stealing more & more tablets until it ran out, and then I embarked on searching companies on the internet that could supply me it.
I began to order 100 co-codamol at a time, regularly taking 8 to 10 or so in the evening to draw my mind away from stressful days at work. I would wake up fine the next day & look forward to taking them again in the evening.
About 2 years ago, I went on holiday for 7 days and forgot to take them with me - i secretly panicked inside!! I noticed that after 2 days of not taking it, my body began to ache and ache - mainly my legs, and I would have cold sweats at night. I also suffered confusion and began to ruminate a lot about negative things on my life.
One good thing was that I managed to kick the habit that week - I told my future wife & my son that I had caught an infection on holiday, but secretly i knew the truth.
I went about 8 months clean of codeine, until events in my life pushed me towards taking them again, as I yearned for the dreamy numb state the tablets gave me. Codeine is good at making you numb - especially to relationships which it secretly destroys.
I was gradually becoming so dependent on it that I started taking them at work, as I could not function without them or think straight. It gave me confidence at work, but at the same time it also meant that I cared less. I even gave up my safe job when redundancies were being offered, knowing that I had no job to go to and a mortgage to pay & family to support. But hell, the redundancy money meant i could take time out and take codeine whenever I wanted.
Which brings me up to now.
I have just returned back from a weeks holiday from my new job, and I treated this holiday as "rehab" "cold turkey" . I just needed to be clean for the sake of myself and others. I have been clean of codiene now for 11 days. I spent 4 days of my holiday going through horrible withdrawal (aches, pains, nausea), blaming it on a viral infection.
I had an email from my online pharmacy/doctor last week stating that they would no longer be selling me dihydrocodeine unless I had a prescription from my GP - maybe this is the push I need to stop using?
Must admit, I feel great now that the physical symptoms of withdrawal have passed, and I am now looking to moving forward in life. I have rejoined my local gym, started focusing on new things and have told myself that there is no going back to codeine ever.
I am really really hopeful that I have kicked it this time. I do miss the feeling of taking those small round tablets, but I do not want to ever go back to them.
My advice to anybody who feels that there is no way out is that there is! Think of the harm they do to you and what you will miss in life when you are both alive and dead from codeine addiction.
4 likes, 14 replies
john69167 phil76763
Posted
Pumpkin1 phil76763
Posted
I'm on day 3 and 24 hrs cold turkey as I became severely allergic to my dihydrocodeine, sigh, and it's miserable! Both posts give me hope I 'm nearly through the worst of it now.
Hope you're both going strong, clear and clean.
john69167 Pumpkin1
Posted
Pumpkin1 john69167
Posted
12 days 18 hours and I'm beginning to feel awake and alive again :-) still feel restless and like I have sandpaper in my veins but it's easing. Sleep still fractured and I'm having to adjust to getting up early, too! But I'm coming through loud and strong now and it's great.
Thanks again for the support, it made all the difference, helped me cling onto hope...
john69167 Pumpkin1
Posted
nelly86 phil76763
Posted
Pumpkin1 nelly86
Posted
I can't imagine how awful cold turkey from that amount of dhc will be - I'd be very, very reluctant to do that one, for sure, unless I was an inpatient in hospital hooked up to calming fluids and soothing meds to take the edge off the pain and misery.
I've ended up in hospital 3 times during my own cold turkey after severe allergic reactions and on one ward I was next to someone withdrawaing from alcohol who had all that help for the worst of it.
Good luck, though, hope it goes well for you and w'd isn't too horrific.
nelly86 Pumpkin1
Posted
braim784 phil76763
Posted
I quit 'cold turkey' for 12 days now. But it's hard. Really hard to get rid of the cravings am having. I came to realize the company I keep affects my mind on matters of codeine intake. So I switched to a more hands on group of friends. Who live outwardly. Another thing that keeps me going are affirmation statements. I do this every morning as I wake and just before I go to bed. And recently i began to exercise more and it also helps. Gets the blood flowing and all. Hang in there , we are going to get through this (if you have had the profound realization for the need for change) my heart goes out to you and anyone going through THIS.
natasha_18570 phil76763
Posted
anna07613 phil76763
Posted
I’m new. I’m addicted to dihydrocodeine and I hate it. I don’t take as much as what I’ve read others do but i have to take about 5/6 30mg pills with my morning coffee just to feel normal and then i half the rest and take one half maybe every half hour until I’ve taken 8-10 pills in a day. Recently I’ve noticed that I waken about 4-5 am with severe agitation, sweating and I NEED the pills. The pain of withdrawal is awful. Any of you had success beating this and how did u do it? The pain of withdrawal is enough to make me take a few pills so I don’t see a way out of this. I’m nearly 34 and I’m so scared I’m going to die. I drink occasionally Aswell (like once a month) but I’m
Now starting to worry I’m gonna go to sleep and not wake up. Any help or words of encouragement would be appreciated,
Anna
bsa08787 anna07613
Posted
dear Anna.
I know how you feel. hope all is currently well.I promise you won't die with what you are doing. but you need to obviously stop taking them sooner or later.
I'm a very qualified professional in this area but also had issues with codeine at one point. it's no respecter of status or class.
good luck.
BSA
Guest phil76763
Posted
Hi guys, please if your taking cocodomol, STOP NOW and replace it with straight codeine it's a lot safer, the paracetamol in cocodomol is lethal there is no coming back from a paracetamol overdose like there is the possibility of a codeine OD. I found a way to get off this rubbish a lot easier, I have posted this previously on here but wanted to add the cocodomol warning for folks out there... Read on
How to give up opieates with very little withdrawal syndrome
Firstly please don't attempt this on your own please involve your GP this method seems to work for all opieates, (for the search engines heroin, oxycontin, morphine, dyhidrocodine or codeine) I've been dependent on dyhidrocodine and oxycontin off and on (but mostly on smile for 10 years. I have given them up twice before, first time totally cold turkey which was absolute hell but my Dr put me on pregabalin (pregabalin has been tested up to 8000mg in a single dose without any damage to the tester, but bet he was off his nut lol. It will make you feel a bit drunk so I would recommend not going to work, NOT DRIVING, and stay in bed for the 5 days or so this will take) for another reason and I found it releleaved the snake bones, itchy joints and the jerks (from here on called the heeby geebies) . Your going to need fairly high doses well well beyond what NICE (UK) recommend, I've read that some clinics in the US use it(they say 1200mg but that I'll blow you away) . I found 900mg every three hours is about what you are going to need, but your milage will vary as I am 160kg (22 stone) and you may get away with less, best bet would be wait for the heeby geebies to start and take one (300mg) if that doesn't help after 20mins take another etc..this will find your needed dosage. The heeby geebies for me return after 3 hours at which point I take another dose. I would recommend not pre-empting the onset of the heeby geebies as towards the end they seem to become less frequent and severe.
Pregabalin is expensive, its about £250 a box of 56 on a private prescription and may not quite be enough I was lucky living in the UK and having a awesome and very understanding GP (General Doctor) who prescribed what I needed under the UKs NHS... Your milage may vary.. I truly hope this helps some folks. Best of luck, its still not easy but the flu like symptoms are a lot easier to deal (and much reduced on pregabalin, just got a stuffy nose and aches and pains this time) with than the heeby geebies you get at the start, I was flipping between the oxy and the DHC 100mg of oxygen a day and 120mg of DHC (to stop the withdrawal from the DHC being) g a tri acting opiate or 400mg/day of DHC that way I got far better pain relief as my tolerence would drop for the oxy (a single acting opieate) a while taking the DHC and vise versa I am told that due to the poor quality of street drugs I was doing about a 10 bag a day.. )
Anyhow I wish you all the very best breaking your dependence/addiction. Please post a comment if you have success with this procedure or have any questions.
Best of luck
Jay
Kazzy19 phil76763
Posted
That's great news to hear Phil. How are you getting on with it now?