I believe that there could be an effective antidepressant hiding somewhere in Opioid chemistry, but I have doubts about the usage of self-administered Opioids as an effective, long-term treatment for depression. There are a lot of questions that are still unanswered in the annals of medicine and psychiatry regarding Opioids. Something I'm coming to learn, having been involved with drugs and HR learning for years, is that long-term effects of many substances are the great unknown. We have people who have taken Opioids their entire life and we are aware of some of the long-term effects in general, but if anything, the antidepressant effects of Opioids are an unimportant sideshow in contrast their abilities to produce physical analgesia.
Most folks I know who use Opioids chronically state that the antidepressant value of the drugs begin to wane after a couple of weeks and are barely present, if at all after a couple of years. A lot of Opioid users, myself included, become attached to the drugs for their ability to take away the pain of withdrawal. Relief from withdrawal is an ecstatic relief in its own right, so, powerful, but shitty when you realize you're only bringing yourself back into the same "normal" world you were living in prior to ever using Opioids in the first place. Still, this combination of potent, initial euphoria in the honeymoon period of usage, blends with the ecstasy of that same drug ending you're withdrawal misery every day instills an extremely lustful codependence in the drug. As any semblance of an outside life disappears, you turn more and more in on the drug.
In the end, it's pretty hard to break away. The main point is that these antidepressant effects seem to be temporary for nearly everyone. I could say, maybe you're a different type of person than the "typical" and you very-well could be, but you're coming here already saying you're willing to go against the grain and take a huge chance in this drug making your life okay. This leads me to believe you're probably going to follow the same path as every other person before you who was desperate enough to throw their eggs in that basket.
I know this is probably melodramatic. The gist is, whatever relief you're getting from the Codeine is likely going to fade, leaving you with an Opioid dependence and all of the same problems you started with. I just don't think it's actually what you want to do with your life, but I wouldn't fault you for trying. I did the same thing.
