Opioids Codeine sending me mad

[Flowerpotman]

Hi all. My drug experience is pretty minor. I don't drink alcohol, dont smoke weed. But throughout my 20's I started getting pains. My mother would let me have the occasional cocodamol (60mg codeine) and I actually used to really enjoy it cautiously. Like I'd put a film on and just sit back as it worked its magic. I'd have like one of those a year lol. I remember one time having one when a friend's dad died and I felt this mad urge to go for a walk. So I went on a 4 mile hike up a mountain one night and photographed the view before heading back down. I dunno if it was the drugs or what but I had never felt so calm and at peace, I remember being sad about my friends dad but also thinking "well he was in so much pain that it must be a relief".

Finally I went to the docs with my pain and wowee I finally had my own prescription of these (to me, at the time) powerful painkillers. Then it all went to shit. I stopped doing a lot of hobbies and I work freelance/self employed so my work also suffered. I was only on them for like 4 months when the doc put me on Tramadol and that *really* fucked with my chemistry. I didn't know what to do. I was crying to my dog and became sad and paranoid all the time. I came off them and had one fucked up fortnight of misery. But all went good again.

Lets skip some time and here I am now after being on Tramadol I went back to codeine phosphate but my tolerance was fucked so I offset it with lots of CWE. I have between 500mg to 1500mg codeine a day now. Thing is I don't even feel it any more. I dunno if it's shitty liver enzymes but all I get is nausea even if I had straight up codeine phosphate pills. There's no high any more.

And here I am. I've noticed my depression getting a lot worse as the codeine usage has gone up. I recognize the pattern. On the days where I think "yeah man lets just have more because it's a saturday and I've got the day to myself"... the next day I get really depressed. I guess I'm wondering if anyone else gets depressed from opiates. I'm thinking the logical answer here is to simply stop codeine and yeah I'm definitely leaning towards tapering it.

It's all such a mess.

 

[Steady Scootin]

It's opioid tolerance, my man. Will happen eventually with any of them if taken regularly enough, for long enough. Especially at monster doses of Codeine like that, which to give you some insight, O could probably do five or more oxycodone 30's and still be dopesick. You don't want that, friend. Obviously I'm not one to preach, but where you are is a lot easier to skate away from than if you moved onto stronger opioids, amd the cycle would perpetuate...

 

[DETROIT*edm*JUNKIE]

this is what happens with everyone bro.... i was abusing the fuck outa my codeine script taking like 900mg a day similar to you... ended up on heroin as soon as my doctor cut me off of them.... my advice to you is quit while your ahead still.

 

[EP158207]

Tolerance builds I'm afraid. You will feel nothing good if you take it, but feel everything bad if you don't. My advice is to taper down, take a break and then if you still want to use get back on it. But don't go to stronger opiates unless you need to.

 

[Snake_Eyes]

Tolerance builds I'm afraid. You will feel nothing good if you take it, but feel everything bad if you don't. My advice is to taper down, take a break and then if you still want to use get back on it. But don't go to stronger opiates unless you need to.

Even then it's only temporarily, after a couple few uses your tolerance will be more or less back to where it was unless you keep your usage to say once a month...but lets be honest how many addicts have that kind of self control?

 

[EP158207]

Oh yeah you never lose your tolerence, I have noticed. Its almost like you go back to where you left off. Which brings me to the question, how long do you have to abstain in order to get close to opiate naitivity levels?

 

[Steady Scootin]

Oh yeah you never lose your tolerence, I have noticed. Its almost like you go back to where you left off. Which brings me to the question, how long do you have to abstain in order to get close to opiate naitivity levels?

Good question, I've wondered this myself, since, ya know, I'm a daily heroin user. You still with us, OP?

 

[Flowerpotman]

Good question, I've wondered this myself, since, ya know, I'm a daily heroin user. You still with us, OP?

Hiya. Yeah still here. It’s been a hell of a year so far. What happened was my pain got worse in December last year. Doc put me on tramadol. It did nothing for me, no pain reduction, no euphoria, but I noticed on Xmas day I went crazy. Since then I’ve been having codeine pills, CWE, loperamide.... it’s no good. I thought it was pregablin and gabapentin fucking me up so I tapered and stopped that. But a month+ with no gaba drugs and I’m not feeling well. I’m feeling so bad I just want to go to the ER room and tell them I’m fucked. I literally don’t know what to do.

Do I go to my doctor and confess all? What would they do? They’re really caring and good docs. But I’m scared.
Do I go to A&E (emergency room) and tell them what’s happening instead?

I’m just depressed nearly all the time, suicidal occasionally (but never would? If you know what I mean)

Drugs are new to me and I only need them because of pain that the physio docs seem to dismiss. Before I was on them I was happy to lucky, never sad, never depressed like seriously. When Inside Out came out and I watched it at the cinema with my partner.... There’s a line near the end where a character says “it’s only natural to have a bit of sadness with happiness”. But for me there never was! Lol! Help.

 

[Flowerpotman]

Hey everyone so I’m getting better on my own right now. What happened was I was taking a load of safe supplements. I was taking vitamIn b, tyrosine, zinc. One of them was causing me stomach problems. Small doses of codeine no longer worked it was just going through my system. So I took more and more just to get the same buzz and painkilling relief. I thought it was tolerance all the same but the mix of all these things caused me nausea. I realised. Fucking finally. That it might be these harmless supplements breaking my body. I stopped taking them days ago and since then my mood, sanity have improved drastically and my usage of these medicines lessened. I tried telling docs it wasn’t tolerance as it fluctuates (some days I forgot my supplements) and even other medicines stopped working too. THEY DIDNT BELIEVE ME of course.


I’m feeling more sane as the days go on. I’m feeling my old self and productive once more. I’m not fixed yet but I’m on the way with a slow taper (400mg codeine a day and 50mg loperamide) And it seems possible finally

 

[tacodude]

You would be surprised how intense of an effect things like vitamin c can have... Some swear by it to deal with opioid withdrawals. You also want to make sure you're not taking extra zinc or things like potassium in excess as that's actually dangerous.

You also need to cut the 50 mg lope doses as it can become cardiotoxic leading to prolongation of the QT interval (the second chamber heart filling before both reseting where if it prolongs to the point the first resets and it does not it leads to hear arrythmea where one side is doing one thing and the other the opposite). From what I remember reading people would wake up middle of the night pale as a ghost, develop difficulty breathing I think with extreme fatigue, and general physical weakness and reduction on circulation. Go to the lope mega thread to learn more and cease the lope use beyond 4 mg a day as 2 mg twice a day, which should not be continued even as you need to metabolise all the excessive lope, which takes a long time to eliminate from the system... Something like 5 periods of 72 hours or something. Use kratom if you need something to suppliment the codeine, which you could find online easily and worst case scenario you can find lower quality product in smoke/smart shops that will work in a pinch.

Now as far as the dependency your dealing with 50 mg codeine is not extreme, but will definitely lead to an opiod dependency so just look up acute and post acute withdrawal symptoms that you might deal with. When you want to get off drop something like 2.5-5 mg every 6 days and it should be relatively easy to handle. I would recommend waiting until after you drop the lope and stablize without having to use any extra opioids like kratom or tramadol. Now as far as tramadol it is not really an opiod, but an SNRI that is also a prodrug to a more classic opioid O-desmethyltramadol just be aware that when you use tramadol you are not just recieving opioid event, but SNRI anti depressant effects, which have their own rebound effects upon stopping.

Definitely research your meds as most doctors don't even know a thing about what they are prescribing just they it can help people feel good.

 

[Patrickforsterter]

Just to cold turkey op if it's ur first time it might be easier then you think make it to about day 3-5 at least longer if you can and if you don't think you can make it relax be calm prepare your normal codeine dose but split it into 10 doses of drink only 1\10 of it put the rest away you can always have more later if you really want to have something to eat because u prob won't have are much while you wait for it to kick in my advice a grilled cheese with tomato ketchup and a tiny bit of black pepper with a nice cup of tea by the time you eat your dose should kick in and you might find u get higher than in a long time or it might not work but you need to use these doses to cut down take another 1/10 of your codeine then the next day 1\11 then the next day 1\12 etc just take less and less each day u gotta find the sweet spot dose wise your taking way to much I'm to high to type anymore good luck my friend and I hope when you do quit you quit codeine and not heroin or something and you learn that it is impossible to use opiates without eventually getting addicted unless you get off them and more importantly stay off them peace.