Opioids Questions about Codeine use and opiate addiction

[glennquagmire]

Chronic depression and anxiety has put me on the fast track to become yet another statistic but I just cannot take it anymore. After having tried out many anti-depressants the only drugs that alleviate my symptoms are opiates and I have decided to go down this route. Whether they only mask my symptoms or treat any possible "Endogenous Endorphin Deficiency" is of course subjective and up for debate but what I want to know for the time being is:

1. Is there a ceiling dose with Codeine? Or will I have to increase my dose to ungodly amounts? (like 400-500 mg a day) I am not looking to get really high and nod out all day, all I want is to be functional but have that peace and quite in my mind that opiates so masterfully bring about.

2. Assuming I progress to heroin or other harder drugs, which I will most certainly do sooner or later, will buprenorphine help me avoid withdrawal symptoms?

3. Is it possible to still feel any kind of positive effects years into being an addict? Or will any use at that point only keep withdrawal at bay?

4. Regarding buprenorphine, which I have recently unsuccessfully tried to get from my psych for my depression, would any former addicts who use it say that it makes you feel better than how you felt before you started dabbling with opiates? I read some interesting articles saying that through its Kappa antagonism, it my be an effective anti-depressant.

I must say that luckily I live in a western European country which has a top-notch health system, so I am positive that if my (future) addiction would get out of control, my insurance will cover buprenorphine.

Thanks!

 

[burn out]

1) the ceiling is around 500 mg I think

2) yes

3) the relief from withdrawal IS the positive effect of opiate you feel years into addiction, but if you increase the dose yes it is possible to experience a mood lift but it is overall outweighed by the negative effects

4) no, being on bupe long term makes does not make me feel better than i felt before opiates.

I understand why you want to go on opiates, it is natural for humans to seek pleasure and avoid pain. But this story is not going to have a happy ending.

I am curious as to what else you have really tried. Its easy to convince yourself that "opiate are the only things that alleviate your symptoms" but I doubt its true. Not judging, just trying to help you avoid the suffering I have been trhough with opiates.

 

[glennquagmire]

1) the ceiling is around 500 mg I think

2) yes

3) the relief from withdrawal IS the positive effect of opiate you feel years into addiction, but if you increase the dose yes it is possible to experience a mood lift but it is overall outweighed by the negative effects

4) no, being on bupe long term makes does not make me feel better than i felt before opiates.

I understand why you want to go on opiates, it is natural for humans to seek pleasure and avoid pain. But this story is not going to have a happy ending.

I am curious as to what else you have really tried. Its easy to convince yourself that "opiate are the only things that alleviate your symptoms" but I doubt its true. Not judging, just trying to help you avoid the suffering I have been trhough with opiates.

hi brother,

I tried healthy eating, regular exercise, psychotherapy, various tricyclics, SSRIs and one atypical (venlafaxine), including stimulant augmentation with dexedrine.

How's your life on bupe? In case you weren't depressed when you started using opiates, is your life "like before"?

thanks for your reply!

 

[burn out]

You're welcome brother. I am not on bupe anymore, I switched to kratom which I find less overall more desirable than bupe but still inferior to being clean. When I was on bupe, it was frustrating because I would always be hoping/trying to get more enjoyment out of the bupe than I was actually getting. So I was always looking ahead to my next bupe dose hoping to get that glowing feeling bupe sometimes gives you and then being disappointed when the feeling didn't show up or was only very slight and short lived. Basically with long term bupe you continuously get a slight taste of opiate joy, but you never actually get there. Very frustrating for me. Another thing with bupe is 8 hours after dosing, I would already feel slight WDs but I knew if I wanted to feel anything from my next dose, I would need to wait at least 12 hours. So I would spend 4 hours in slight WD every day hoping to get something worthwhile from my next dose but usually being disappointed.

Kratom is better because I dont crave it between doses and I can redose it after 4 hours with good effect. With bupe it gives you at most 4 or 5 hours of pain relief AT MOST but then you cant dose again and get any sort of decent effect until the 12th hour. So if I had severe pain 6 hours after taking the bupe, there was absolutely nothing I could do about it for another 6 hours. With kratom, at least I know if I find myself in serious pain, I can always take more kratom and it does help.

Anyway, it sounds to me like there is a lot you haven't tried that you should try before jumping into one of the worst addictions known to man.

Just read on this forum. Many have had success with various treatments such as low dose ketamine, high dose ketamine, low dose psychedelics, high dose psychedelics, meditation, yoga and/or prayer, other herbs (kava is a really good one I recommend) and more things I cant think of off the top of my head.

Personally, I have received benefit from spirituality and natural psychedelics used shamanically. Another thing which has helped me tremendously is my discovery of the benefits of amanita muscaria. I could write pages and pages about that mushroom.

But my point is, there is a lot you haven't tried. I can tell you straight up opiates won't provide you with what you are longing for. They only appear to do so at first, which tricks and hooks you, then you are lead down into a dark hole which proves very difficult to get out of and you are much worse off then when you started. Your life sort of returns to the same level of misery (perhaps slightly more) than before opiates, only now you have the extra worry of always needing to take opiates and plan your life around that. Why would you want that huge extra burden when it does not benefit you?