Hi Nathan,
I feel for you. I was in a similar situation. I'm also from Australia. I was averaging 60+ tablets a day, sometimes going up to 90+ tablets a day. I ended up in hospital twice because I was taking Ibuprofen and codeine (Nurofen plus) and the ibuprofen was causing microscopic bleeding that over a long time caused anemia. My iron was dangerously low. I was quite lucky I didn't do anything worse.
I'd been addicted for 5+ years. It wasn't always that bad but over time just slowly crept up to that level. I tried so many different things, cold turkey, taper etc, with various degrees of success. I did full cold turkey twice but only lasted a few weeks before relapsing.
Have you ever done cold turkey before? Do you know what to expect? I think its different for everyone. For me, the biggest issues I had were lethargy, painful and restless legs, and insomnia. At some points I barely had the energy to get up off the lounge. At other points I had enough energy to jog around the block which I found helped my painful/restless legs. I found that the first 48-72 hours were the absolute worse in terms of physical pain, but then after that the physical starts to improve and it was only the insomnia that was the worst part. I don't want to scare you, but I do want to share what I experienced. Keep in mind you might have a completely different experience. The thing I found to be the biggest relief were hot baths. I'd be having ten baths a day as it completely relieved my aching legs and I was able to rest. God I loved those baths. I think the insomnia was really hard as well. It's like psychological torture. One thing I can recommend with it is to try and not stress or panic when you find you can't sleep. You just have to accept that it's part of the process. I find that if you accept it, it makes the experience somewhat less stressful.
From what I've heard, codeine isn't one of the harder opiates to withdraw from. My best description is that it isn't excruciating, it's just extreme, constant discomfort.
Anyway, I had seen GPs about my addiction and gotten mixed results. Most of them said the same thing. They couldn't do much. At best they were indifferent, at worst they were judgemental. But I don't think that should stop you from trying to seek help. Mostly they referred me to my local drug and alcohol facility at my local hospital. I tried contacting them but I was never able to get through to anyone. I left a message and never heard back. Anyway, after a time I had read about addiction specialists. I found one that was close to where I work. He is a GP but also a specialist that can treat opiate addictions. I went to see him and he was totally understanding. He was not judgmental, he had seen it all. He basically offered to put me on a treatment of either methadone or suboxone. You'll probably see a lot of people online that will suggest that going from codeine to methadone or suboxone is trading in an addiction from one fairly weak opiate to an extremely powerful one, but at the levels that I was taking (and you) its something to consider.
Anyway, I had done some research and thought that Suboxone might be the right treatment option for me. I started on 10mg daily which I had to go to the clinic to pick it up from. I've been on it for about 18 months now and slowly tapering down and am now down to 0.8mg. This has been a god send for me. The Suboxone was enough that there was no pain or withdrawal and I didn't feel the need to get high or take codeine. No more chemist hopping. No more smashing 50, 60, 70 pills a day. No more taking massive amounts of ibuprofen just to try and get the codeine. I've stayed out of hospital, my iron levels are back to normal, I feel healthy. I see my GP/addiction doctor every few weeks and he monitors me. I'm hoping that soon I can try and get off the Suboxone. I understand I've still got a way to go, but it has been such a better experience.
Please let us know how you are doing.