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Opioids How long do codeine dependences take to develop?

isaaccain

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 1, 2016
Messages
285
14, male, 54 kgs, 1.77 m

Been using small amounts of codeine, 120 mg to start, then over 4 days, gradually went up to 300 mg. By day 4 I had noticed a tolerance. I was wondering, if I'd developed a tolerance over 4 days, approximately how long would it take for me to get addicted, factoring in my age and weight, psychologically and then with physical withdrawals, and how long should I wait before my tolerance should have reset and before I try again
 
Psychologically maybe you already are, maybe after a few more uses, maybe more.
Physical withdrawal takes a much longer time, probably more than a month, maybe less, maybe more
You should try again in 4 years when you're 18 and are more experienced or better never/only if you have to for pain.


You're way too young for an opioid addiction. Yes this sounds cliché, but your brain isn't fully evolved yet and at your age it was impossible for me to grasp the long term effects dabbling with drugs would bring.
The drugs will wait, so come back in a few more years, when you're older.
 
^ This. Also keep in mind that codeine usage isn't a race to the top, it's not about who can take most codeine. Lower your dosage and stop increasing it.
 
I would figure in terms of physical dependency an opiate is an opiate , and for me, it literally took a year to get physically addicted. I remember shooting heroin for eight months straight and finally felt physical dependency at that point . Whenever I get clean from opiates NOW, I notice after my second relapse physical symptoms. If this is your first run with opiates such as codeine , it's tough to say when you will get hooked, I guess at any point if its longer than 2wks to a month straight
 
14, male, 54 kgs, 1.77 m

Been using small amounts of codeine, 120 mg to start, then over 4 days, gradually went up to 300 mg. By day 4 I had noticed a tolerance. I was wondering, if I'd developed a tolerance over 4 days, approximately how long would it take for me to get addicted, factoring in my age and weight, psychologically and then with physical withdrawals, and how long should I wait before my tolerance should have reset and before I try again

It depends on many factors, but the two largest variables are dosage and frequency of use. If you use 300mg daily, I would suspect physical dependency to begin within 3-4 weeks. But's that's a guess it could happen sooner.

Usually waiting about a month is a good amount of time to reset an opioid tolerance.
 
You should ideally stop this until you're older, but that said... If you're gonna do it, make sure you do a proper Cold Water Extraction if your codeine pills contain paracetamol / acetaminophen. How you will manage this and hide the evidence from your household is another matter entirely.

As you are asking these questions you are already mentally addicted. As you have a tolerance now, you are becoming physically addicted. It will creep up on you and bite you in the arse and it will be too late. All the heroin users I have met started with codeine. Try whatever you can to do something else more productive with your time.

The pleasure you get from opiates will prevent you enjoying everything that is real in the world.

In answer to your question however, to avoid physical WD, keep it to once at the weekend. Don't start doing two days in a row (or more) and don't do it during the week. Any regular pattern more than once a week could be problematic. From personal experience there is no 'only once a week', you will think you can slip a few sneaky ones in between doses or a couple of days in a row and it won't hurt, soon you need it everyday to avoid WD. Thankfully I didn't travel up the opiate ladder to much stronger opiates, but many have.

I would recommend trying to deal with any potential addictive personality traits while you are still young. While many people manage to be purely sporadic recreational users, many cannot.

Being here at 14 shows you are sensible enough to research what you are doing properly, but also shows you are potentially at the beginning of a slippery slope. In the least you need a break now. Can you go a month without do you think?
 
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I know this doesn't answer your question and i don't mean to be that guy but just wait. Also i would try to find stronger opiates than codeine. And ASSUMING your'e sipping it, just find the pills. they're cheaper and no hassle. But i don't know how long it takes. Psychological dependance can be instant, as with anything substance or non substance related. But Opiate withdrawl is nasty and not worth the risk at a young age. :)
 
Maybe if I start smoking again I can go a month but I don't know it's mainly due to boredom like I got some DXM cough syrup and stuff too but's it's only really good for one use (200mg in the bottle)
 
^ Don't they sell Nicorette gum at those pharmacies? They have to. Sounds better than smoking or drinking syrup.
 
For a general assessment take a break from the codeine and try to remember how often you find yourself thinking about it, contemplating obtaining more, planning future use, etc. If it preoccupies your daily thoughts you are well on your way to losing the control you have now. There are thousands of people on BL as well as myself who started down a dark path and they made that choice at a similar age as yourself, not even remotely aware of what lie ahead.
Not to sound like a preachy square but the second time I used opiates it was all over for me. Some can keep it contained like a campfire for a while, but eventually it's getting out and burning down the mountain that is your life.

120mg to 300mg of codeine equals out to about 12-30mg of Morphine which could produce physical dependency in 10- 15 days in a 118 lb adolescent with little tolerance. 2-3 weeks of abstinence should bring you back to baseline. But there is no set rule with a developing Basal Ganglia in a growing brain. Use that time to contemplate if it's worth it at this point in your life.
 
Maybe if I start smoking again I can go a month but I don't know it's mainly due to boredom like I got some DXM cough syrup and stuff too but's it's only really good for one use (200mg in the bottle)
Find yourself a hobby...
 
I was 14 when I started taking codeine, got dependent on it (obviously) and addicted in no time, can't say how fast exactly, but very fast, 2 weeks at most at the very beginning to need it and then a few months to sink in properly. Withdrawal from codeine isn't that painful or hard to cope with compared to stronger opioids, well, the first few withdrawals from any opioid are a walk in the park in comparison if you can make one of them the last one, but with time withdrawals get much more heavy, it's the higher tolerance and likely changes in opioid receptors (which is tolerance too). Then I took morphine and other pharmaceuticals, then heroin, then methadone, to eventually land on buprenorphine. I started taking benzodiazepines when I was 14, don't know how, but managed to quit them after 9 years of taking them every day. I'm 26 and I wish I had never touched drugs. You're going to ruin your life if you continue and fixing anything is going to be extremely hard when/if you eventually decide you want to stop, and going deeper is the easiest thing to do at this point, it's so easy you don't even know it's happening and years pass by in no time. High school/secondary school used to be a big blank page for me for a very long time with only single foggy memories, yet it was then when I managed to transfer to heroin, escalate with my tolerance, get even more dependent on methadone even though it was supposed to be a short taper off heroin. Funny thing is I was never adept at making new contacts, but finding a person who could get me heroin in a city 200km away from where I live was worth sending one message to a certain girl.
 
At his age peer pressure is an important factor. I know I was in a "gang" in high-school, and the most popular figure was David. This meant I was free from detentions or any form of in class discipline or bullying. One time this guy David went and bought regular Tylenol pills, I'm like dude why you buying Tylenol, you got a headache? He's like no, just watch me. He then withdrew 100$ in 20$ bills from the bank and went back in the classroom. When the teacher showed up, he had those Tylenol pills in a bag on his left, counting money on his right, put both pills and money on the table.

They called the Police on him twice before and both times Police said he was clean, he had nothing, Police told school not to call them for David ever again. But to the eyes of the others, he was selling drugs, was involved with the Police and he was violent. If you tried to disrespect him he would casually say "If you're looking to get hurt you got the wrong guy, I suck at hurting people, I can kill you just fine though..."So it's that type of "coolness" that might incite the OP brother to use drugs.
 
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No peer pressure, in fact, most of my friends - and some girl I have a crush on - are all telling me to stop. Even some of the older kids flushed some of my pills, and one dude's always asking if I'm doing ok and everything. If it were peer pressure, I'd be doing MDMA or lean (same thing pretty much, I know, but everyone always looks at me funny when I say I take it from a fistful of pills). I think everyone probably sees me as the biggest junkie in school. A lot of really cute girls are always trying to get me to stop, so wouldn't stopping be giving in to peer pressure?


I don't know anymore to be honest

Anyway don't worry about it lads, I'm in hospital right now for a week, then I'm going on holiday for a week, so that's two weeks I'm being forced to take off anyways
 
mate i'm 24, I'm too young for this shit.
biggest junkie in school isn't an accolade, your logic about being peer pressured into stopping doesn't make sense.
your friends sounds like good people and you should listen to them. don't lose your childhood to opiates, smoke some weed, get drunk yeah but not that junk.
come on son, you should be after those cute girls - fuck this stuff.

*edit*
ah sorry man, i'm getting a little too worked up over this and i'm not providing any constructive or insightful points, so i'm gonna stop posting in this thread. feel free to message me if you want to talk - I'm from the UK too.
take care of yourself mate
 
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Dude... Opiates are the worst drug to use more than once in a while and what I mean by once in a while I mean, your birthday, chrismas, friend's birthday. As long as you do not define a routine of using/not using you are ok just dont use them more than twice a month.. Those drugs can be used recreationnaly but you are obviously not. Why do you take them every day? Do you lack social life? do you lack hobby? There might be a reason why you use them on a frequent basis, this reason is your out of jail card (opiate jail). If you get addicted before you have a diploma, you will regret it because studying is hard and doing so while fighting a opiate addiction is nearly impossible, you are not just playing with possible WD you are playing with the potential job you will have and the maximum real pleasure you will be able to get once older.

Just stop them, find the reason why you took them, then forget about them and work on getting rid of that reason. Then if you want to get high, just use cannabis, its far less destructive in every sense of the word. Don't destroy your life by ignorance or because you are hard headed. believe me life do not need opiates to be pleasant.

Hope you listen to every1 and get rid of this and have a good life.
 
I can't believe you are foolish enough to take opiates at such a low age. I've read you're wanting to get into benzos as well and talking about hydrocodone and oxycodone and shit.

When I was 14 I was just about getting into weed, like even at 21 and a very avid opiate user and the rest can't even source codeine half the time nevermind hydrocodone and oxycodone.

Trust me when I say this, stop it. Come back and revisit it when you're 18 at least. You're just going to ruin the most fun part of your life by doing this. At 18 you'll be on hard drugs and you're life will be a sham, all because you wanted to get high at 14 when being 14 alone is already fun enough? Maybe start drinking or smoking weed but cut the opiates out for now, and don't even think about using benzos.
 
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You're fucking stupid to take opiates at such a low age. I've read you're wanting to get into benzos as well and talking about hydrocodone and oxycodone and shit.

When I was 14 I was just about getting into weed, like even at 21 and a very avid opiate user and the rest can't even source codeine half the time nevermind hydrocodone and oxycodone.

Trust me when I say this, stop it. Come back and revisit it when you're 18 at least. You're just going to ruin the most fun part of your life by doing this. At 18 you'll be on hard drugs and you're life will be a sham, all because you wanted to get high at 14 when being 14 alone is already fun enough? Maybe start drinking or smoking weed but cut the opiates out for now, and don't even think about using benzos.

The man came here for advice not a lecture lay off yer
 
The man came here for advice not a lecture lay off yer

What's your problem? You've literally posted on everything I've posted.

You say he came for advice, and I gave him my personal advice on taking opiates at his age. End of discussion, this website is for HARM REDUCTION. I believe the best possible harm reduction for this person in question would for him to stay of opiates until he's a bit older and especially not try and use benzos.
 
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