Week 3

Treatment and medication
1

So here i am week 3.......

I feel so apprenhive about this week for some reason?

On week 2 i was taking 2 tabs in morning and then alternating between 1 and 2 tabs every 2 hours, this week i am taking 2 tabs in morning and then 1 tab every 2 hours. I feel so nervous and a small part of me does not want to go any further i feel i just having cut back from 16 a day to 11 tabs a day is an achivement and feel proud as this is the least amount of tabs i have taken in 2 1/2 years. But i also really really want to go all the way in the sense that my aim is to be codeine free by xmas . I know i can do this but change is hard and i admit at this present time 2 mins away from taking my 1st 1 tab i am having serious doubts.

Is this normal?

Why am i feeling like this?

I feel weak that i am considering giving in at this stage.

Last week i felt stronger and more determined than this.

On a plus side i have hardly visited any pharmacies for my weeks supply and strangely am missing them. lol

2

Hey Teresa, 

Don't even think about giving up at this stage, you've come so far! I know what you mean about week two. Week one your all reved up, enthusiasm raging...but then that wears off and the reality of the path ahead kicks in. You're bound to have your moments but just remind yourself of all the benefits of being codeine free, health, head, financially. No more walks of shame out of the pharmacy. Today I don't have work until later so I'm going to give my house an autumn clean, book a fitness class and soldier on!

Keep on sweets xxx

3

Firstly, we're human! Addictions or not, we all have mood swings, but in the midst of a codeine crisis, it's only natural to point the finger at codeine. You say in week 2, you had 2 in the morning and were alternating between 1 and 2 ever 2 hours, and now, week 3, it's 2 in the morning, and 1 every two hours. May I ask what strength these tablets are?

Whatever, week 2 was alternating between one and two every two hours, which you've done and week 3, try perhaps one and a half, and instead of every week, try ever two weeks so your body gets a chance to adjust.

This way, you'll have 8 halfs over 8 weeks to deal with. Make no mistake though and do not underestimate the power of codeine - a large part of this is habit, and a fear of not having or losing a crutch - it's quite normal. When I was 20, I coined a phrase called FOBRO - Fear of booze running out. A bit of fun, but it's true, we do have a fear of things running out - just another thing to address I guess.

In a nutshell, yes, it's normal and you feel like this because that is your body 'punishing you' for denying it. As we have mood swings or cycles, then reassure yourself that that feeling of feeling strong and determined will return.

Hope this helps,

 Rich

4

Hi, I couldn't do what you have, taper off, I just want more when they are there. I've gone cold turkey and I'm now on day 6.

They are still bound to be a crutch for you and because you know you need to cut down makes you want more... It's human nature. Like telling kids not to touch something, it makes them touch it.

It's great you felt strong last week. Did you do anything else differently like exercise or talking to people about it?

Don't take more than the one you promised yourself. Think how proud you'll be. You can do it.

K

5

Hi Katy , i kept myself really buy at work and i now plan on the doing the same again this week.

I am starting to reliase it is all mostly in my head, i need to break the cycle.

Well done to you for going cold turkey that must of been hard? How do you feel knowing that you have been codeine free for 6 days.

Did you suffer badly?

Keep up the hard work, you can do it. It will be well worth it at the end. x

6

Hi,

Going cold turkey was the only way I knew I could do it but actually doing it was quite a milestone. I waited until I had run out of my prescription, made sure I didn't order another, and I saw my doctor about my contraceptive pill, although I didn't give much away about my cocodamol dependency. He did say to me that my frequency of ordering meant I was taking some serious pain relief. That scared me, especially when he said long term use can affect my mood and potentially damage my liver and kidneys.

So, I decided, that was it. And I haven't taken one since. So yes, day 6. I was topping up my 30/500's with across the counter cocodamol so I thought I was in for a hard time.

I did the same as you and kept myself busy at work which helped a bit, and to be honest, has it been hard, yes, but have I felt myself waiver or want to give in, no. The first few days were the worst, I was in pain, my legs were killing me, my tummy hurt and I had the runs but by day 4 it was calming down, and day 6, the only thing I think is not quite recovered yet is my energy levels and sleep pattern but that is bound to take a while.

I'm feeling better inside, I'm not tired even though I expected to be with less sleep, I am eating properly, making sure I still get out with the dog twice a day, taking vitamins and looking forward to the rewards I have planned for myself when I reach various milestones.

Best thing I ever did. I'm sure I may still have a bad day or two but nothing will get me back on those pills!

Here if you need to talk though. You can do it too, like you say, once you break that mental cycle telling you to have a dose... Or two!

K xx

7

Day 6 is very cool. From my personal experience of cold turkey was I was challenged at day 10. You've definitely broke the cycle. Good on you! 

Best,

Rich

8

Hi am on week 2 and feel like am so up and down with my self . And can't sleep 😴 properly i give in last nite and ad a. Amitriptyline Slept like a baby but feel so ruff to day just feel like am on a rollercoaster thanks John x

9

Just think how brilliant it would be to never visit a pharmacy or, if you do, that it is for a genuine normal reason. I think you are missing the habit. Try not to let your resolve go. You can do this. You've done very well so far x Drew

10

Hi John, 

Week 2 well done, i can toatlly relate to you i also did find my moods switching from happy, depressed and sad. I know from what i have read on other posts that these symptoms are short lived and then we should be back to our normal self if we can even remember who that is.

Stay strong and keep going. You can do this.

11

Hi Drew, i know i cant wait. I do still think i will be looking for the codeine products on the shelves just not buying hopefully. I stayed strong but feel ileft myself down slightly. I was in a meeting when i was due to take a tab, i was busy and never really thought anything of it but when i got out 1 1/2 hrs after i was due to take tab i thought sod it a took the missed pill and my next one together. Feel disappointed that i could not just leave it out totally but on a plus i took no extra tabs in the day.

I do think you are right in it being the habit i just need to find a new habit, a good habit. I plan on sorting out my codeine addiction before xmas and then after tackling my weight issues, i use to be slim but i found the high from codeine like being slightly drunk where you want a g ood old munch and so i munched and now i am very overweight. Seems right now i have many issues to deal with but am trying to think with a straight head and tackle one at a time one day at a time however long it takes.

Thanks, i appericate the apperication

12

teresa36659, even cutting down your intake by one tablet each week is something to be proud of.You are doing really well. Almost everyone who has addiction problems has some kind of underlying problem. I was fairly athletic when I was younger and then in my twenties I began to eat too much and put on a lot of weight. I knew I couldn't go on like this so I got down to it and lost that extra six stone.However I always had the idea in the back of my mind that if I lost the weight not all of my problems would go with it. But I was only partly right in thinking this. All my problems did not go away, but they became much easier to manage,  I was addicted to codeine as in co-codomol for fifteen years. When I finally went to the doctor for help he said I should have been dead years ago, but the fact  that I am such a big man saved my life. By then my weight was back to normal and he meant big as I am  6' 4''. Everyday during my addiction I woke up at dawn after a sweaty restless night watching the clock waiting for the pharmacy's to open. I reached rock bottom one Monday morning when I visited the usual pharmacy where the rather timid pharmacist gave me what I needed and took the money without saying a word, Despite this I would always say please and thank you., One morning I dropped the coins from my change and as I picked them up a lady asked the same pharmacist for 24 nurofen plus, he refused. She then asked him fr twelve and he refused even more rudely. It suddenly dawned on me that this pharmacist was intimated by me, and my beard and longish hair and of couse size. I was mortified as I am not this kind of person, if he had said no, i would simply have said thank you and went somewhere else. I was out the door just before the lady who had been refused when she tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to sell her some of the nurofen plus I had bought. She was well dressed, well spoken, and obviously well to do, but addiction knows no boundry's, She was in bits and obviously desperate for codeine. I refused her money but gave her twelve tablets for which she was very grateful. Now she said when these had taken the edge off her withdrawls, she would drive to some nearby towns and replenish her stock. I was shocked that my appearence would intimate a pharmacist and that such a respectable middle class lady would sink so low because of a substance that their are almost no places in treatment centres for. I hadn't been to a doctor for years, but he was sympathic and put me on a reducing dose of pure codeine and as I was taking so much it was almost a year before i was completely free of this poison. There were days when I took seventy tablets and this didn't happen overnight. It gradually takes more and more codeine to have the same efffect. teresa36659 you are well on your way to overcoming your addiction. And when you do become clean, you'll find you problems are not that serious afterall and you'll be able to handle them much better. I too missed the routine of the daily ritual of trying to figure out which pharmacy to visit to procure my fix........I can only wish from the bottom of my heart, that you will suceed in beating this viscious monkey off your shoulder......I'm sure you will........kindest regards Banesh

13

Hi Tim

Thanks so much for your kind words it means so much.

So glad and pleased for you that you have managed to beat your addiction.

It suprises me everyday when i read some posts or see people that this addiction has no class it effects anyone. I know that i always am warned 'only for short term use' 'no longer than 3 days' but it is the responsibilities of the paharmacists and the pharmacy colleagues to reconise when people have a problem and there should be treatment centres. This addiction is worse than anyone can imagine as many people including myself hide this from family and friends. Something needs to be done cause like you mentioned if you were not a tall man you may be dead now and that thought must have been very scary.

One of the reasons i firts cut down was i was scared of the amount of paracetamol now i want to cahnge and i am fed up with the walk of shame.

Today i feel much more determined, i have to remember that i must take each day as it comes and that this can be done you and many others on here are proof of that.

14

Hi Tim, Teresa, Drew, Nikki, Katyp et al,

You are correct - this drug knows no stereotypes, and I am shocked at just how deep within our society that this 'respectable' drug goes. I know the feeling of refusal - from someone who doesn't know, doesn't understand and you feel judgementalism seeping from their power tripped pores.

What a  guy in giving that lady some help Tim. We all know that the problems we face seem hugely amplified when priority number one is to sort out the fix first. We can use drug terms here no matter how uncomfortable that may sound, and as there exists programs for heroin users to get clean, there also too exists treatment centres for people like us, addicted to readily available OTC codeine.

I'm a film-maker and intend to blow the lid off this, and as part of this documentary will need to speak to doctors, pharmacists, psychiatrists, addicts for two reasons: firstly, this needs the same exposure as alcohol awareness. Although we don't go out to pill pubs and socialise, no-one questions anyone about popping a pill - easily excused by any number of resonable excuses - even selling it to our partners. But secondly, it's a killer. Apart from costing us an absolute fortune, it costs the NHS an absolute fortune, and worse, I am in no way a conspiricay theorist but when I voiced an opinion that codeine phospate just does not work, what exactly is in nurofen plus? It says ibuprofen and codeine phosphate, so, if that's the case, by just taking prescribed codeine phosphate should make one feel exactly the sameas taking nurofen plus minus the horrible belly feeling of ingesting quantites of ibuprofen.

Also, it is recommended by the makers that we should take no more than 6 per day for a max of 3 days. That's 18. So why on earth do they sell boxes of 32?

As far as getting off the stuff goes, for me, taper does not work. Cold turkey does not work. The only thing that is working (very well) is buprenorphine. Yes, it is an opiate. Yes it is addictive. Very yes, it takes every single thought of chemists and codeine away without blowing your face off in the process. Plus, it iws managed at YOUR rate. You dictate the terms of taper. I know I just said taper doesn't work for me, but this is different. I'm now down to 4mg from 6mg, coming off at  400 microgrammes (o.4mg) every 2 weeks. Because of it's very long half life, when my daily dose is very small, I will be reducing to virtually nothing.

I was admitted to hospital two weeks ago after an 88 N+ binge - a computer error reduced my buprenorphine by 1mg, so be careful with it - it is slow releasing and powerful, but it will get you off codeine. Remember well though, this works for me, and the last thing I want to do is preach - though, I was given a thorough MOT and a clean bill of health after slamming these b'stards for 3 years. Indeed a wake up call.

All the best,

Rich

 

15

Hi Teresa. I want to deal with mine before Christmas. Last year, I had a far from normal one. The pharmacists are shut and it is really difficult.. I never want to visit relatives because I can't eat meals without feeling groggy. When I eat a large meal, I have to have twice the amount of codeine to recover from the sluggishness... then come the awful stomach cramps. What a mess! You are doing well. Don't beat yourself up over the odd tablet... the trick is to keep the overall trend downwards! Good luck and I hope you beat this xx D

16

Hi Tim. Thanks for sharing that story. Really helpful. Are you completely clear now? Regards x D

17

Hi Drew are you on co-codamal or N+?

I feel for you, its nothing worse than the codeine sickness.

Its strange how it affects people differently. I could eat for England, i loved the high the feeling when you had a drink and you want to just eat anything in sight, thats me, hence why i am overweight.

I know how anxious the xmas period can be, many pharmacists are closed and there are only a few to visit but that then leads to them catching on to you. I use to stock pile the few weeks leading up, as a matter of fact i use to always stock pile for the week ahead, i needed to know that i had my fix for the week. These last few weeks i have just been getting them as a when i need them so i am taking that as a good sign.

Your help and advice like many others on here is really helping me. I was unaware just how serious this addiction is and how wide spread.

You can beat this but like all addictions you have to be ready and it has to be the right time for you. That is what i have learnt from this i am just now at the stage where i am fed up with this addiction. I am hoping that my mood swings which are alwful, one minute i feel happy, elated the next i am short and sharp tempered for no apparent reason to myself or anyone else , i bite really easily on the smallest thing mentioned to me i just hope that i go back to me???

 

18

Hi Rich

I hope you do make a documentary on this serious situation, the public need to be aware of how serious this stuff can be. It is so worrying as i know from working in a pharmacy that young people from 18 on wards are buying this for minor pain such as period pain or toothache, my daughter was 13 at the time and she was prescribed it for migraine. I of course never let her touch the stuff out of fear of what could happen (i took them of course).

Well done for what stage you are at now. However you got there it could not have been easy and how scary being addmitted to hospital over it.

I know you mentoned there were clinics available for this addiction but i have done abit of research in my local are of Essex and there dont seem to be any at all that cover that addiction, there is the usual drink and illegal drugs. It is such a shame cause the pharmacists are aware of the addiction i just dont think that the GP's are willing to admit this so much. They are just happy to prescribe this alwful drug as it is cheap.

Keep us informed on how the documentary goes.

Keep working hard to beat this addiction, you will do this.

Teresa

19

Hi drew, yes I am completely clear of nutrofrn plus now and  having wasted the best years of my life on this stufff, not to mention the financial cost. I'm convinced that addicts are made not born and like people who lose lots of weight, many of their original problems still remain, but they are far easieer to handle. You'll hear people say that going cold turkey while giving up codeine is as hard as giving up heroin, but this is not true, Have you ever heard of a person craving codeine mugging some old lady for his next box of nurofen plus? I saw people coming off heroin years ago and there is no comparison. Not many survive the ordeal without expert help. Anyone who tells you that coming off codeine is as hard as coming off heroin simply doesn't know what their talking about. Coming off codeine is very difficult and it seems  that tapering the amount you take is maybe the most advisable option. But tapering implies that you have extra pills in the house if you need them. Very few codeine addicts could resist taking extra tablets if they fell the effects of tapering in the middle of the night. You need to keep the minimum amount of pills to enable you to taper off, and perhaps leave any extra you might have with a trusted family member or friend. If one doctor won't help you  with meds to lesson the withdrawl symtems then you can easily find one who will. Amazingly doctors and similar health workers are the proffessions with the highest number of people who abuse meds.  You can control some of the effects of coming off codeine youself such as arrett or motilluim for the runs, but paracetimol won't make much of an impression on your headache. You can't control your restless legs and sleepless nights without strong willpower or your doctors help. One minure in bed you'll be pouring with sweat, the next you'll be freezing. IF you can get through seven days without codeine than the cure is in your own hands......Everyday you stay on codeine is a wasted oportunity to do something else with your life, who knows what a persons life could become with being lost  in the fog of what is effect morphine.  I can't buy nirofen plus in my towm now, even if I wanted to, but a friend of mine who is a postman is forever complaining of the increase in his burden of packages since the restrictions on nurofen plus came into effect. People are buying all they need  online. My liife has inproved beyond all recognition since I kicked this habbit. My old and battered computer has been replaced and I'm even back driving. Don't waste anymore of your life and money. Look around your house. Think of what the money you spend on you habit could do to make you so much mor comfortable, but most of all think of your healtj, it'll be too late when your kidneys have failed of your being operated on for bleeding ulcers!,,,,,,,I genuinely wish you the best and I'll always aswer any question you might want to ask me...regards Tim

20

Thank you so much Teresa. Your words are always helpful. We seem to be building a lovely community of people who are suffering from this horrible addiction. Yes, for me, it has really affected my eating. If I eat, I feel groggy and have to take more codeine to feel human. My stomach always aches too and I get constipated. By the way, it's NP I'm on. It shows how crazy this is because I won't take co-codomol because I know that paracetomol affcts the liver. Instead I am ruining my stomach with ibuprofen... so stupid. I hope you are ok. Keep going strong xx Drew