Need help getting off codeine

[Super4ndyP00]

Hello everyone, this is my first post, but I have been a long time lurker and I am now seeking help and advice for getting off codeine completely. I have taking it for a couple of years now everyday via codeine linctus.

I am starting to despise having to go to the chemist just to buy a bottle and now a lot of places are discontinuing it it seems. I pretty much cannot be bothered with it anymore and it would be a weight off my shoulders not having to worry about procuring it everyday.

Right now I have 15 10mg valium tabs that I have and was thinking of using those to help with the withdrawals. I have of course had a taste of the withdrawal symptoms when I could not get any with the RLS and hot and cold sweats, which is horrible. I would MUCH prefer to do this on a week off, but would it be too difficult to also attend work whilst doing this?

How do I taper off the codeine exactly (maybe a stupid question)?

Thank you loads for any advice, Andy.

EDIT:
Sorry about that. I typically dose around 500mg a day (before bed). Thank you.

 

[simco]

About how much do you typically take in a day? It will be easier to suggest a tapering schedule if we know your dose.

 

[dood42069]

Yeah a dose would be helpful but lets say if you were doing 510 MGs a day, then do 480 for two days, 450 for two days, 420 (lol) for two days 390 for two days, etc until you are down to zero. I think that would minimize withdrawls that way but the higher your daily dose, the longer you have to taper off.

 

[XopanaMinded]

Will this be the first time going through any type of significant whithdrawl? if so what's the longest you have had to go without? As said above, I also would like to know your current dosage before I put my 2bits in. With the info provided there are too many unknow variables about your situation to give any meningful advice. One thing I know for sure is that planing to work straight through never once turned out well for me. Good luck tho. Wanting it's the first step.

 

[Run2421]

First and foremost want to say that I too just recently decided to join the bluelight community after years of using the website to seek out advice. You even wanting to quit is a good step man good job putting the first foot forward. I can pretty much tell you how how I have throughout years of taking strong painkillers, everything from hydro to opana fentanyl and dilaudid. All of those are stronger opiates than Codiene but that doesn't mean your withdrawals will be any easier unfortunately. The Valium is a good start as anxiety is a major symptom of WD, for me probably the worst. During my WD period I've taken .25 mg or .5 of xanax just to be able to deal with onset of depression and what not that comes with it. But it definitely helps. I would reccomend taking as little of the Valium as possible as you don't want to create another drug centric reward system for your brain to possibly like as much as it does the codiene. Another supplement that really helps is the Kratom leaf. You can buy capsules of it a lot of times at headshop depending where you live at. This has also helped me a ton, though I take less than the reccomended 3g doses, at most I've done 2 at a time but today I only took 1g of kratom in the morning and .25 of xanax twice throughout the day about 7 hours apart. I have long days where I work 8-10 hours then have school afterwards so I feel you on wanting to take a day off. Overall I'm not going to get too in depth with my story but I can relate to what you're going through rn as I'm about 6 days sober with 1 little hiccup and I actually feel pretty decent right now which is insane too me. But everybody is different. hot showers and small moderate self medicating with the things I talked about should make the WDs pretty tolerable and after that man it's all a mental game. Good luck too you and keep the forum updated.
Godspeed.

 

[Run2421]

PS
Sorry I didn't add more detail about kratom, it's late and I've got to try and get some shut eye soon, but if you do a little research you'll get the jist of it. I can personally tell you it helped me greatly. Good luck.

 

[Super4ndyP00]

About how much do you typically take in a day? It will be easier to suggest a tapering schedule if we know your dose.

Sorry about that. I typically dose around 500mg a day (before bed).

Thank you.

Hi Run2421 thank you so much for this. This does indeed motivate me to quit codeine and I appeciate you taking the time to tell me part of your story and would love to hear more about this if you would like to PM me! Thanks!

Will this be the first time going through any type of significant whithdrawl? if so what's the longest you have had to go without? As said above, I also would like to know your current dosage before I put my 2bits in. With the info provided there are too many unknow variables about your situation to give any meningful advice. One thing I know for sure is that planing to work straight through never once turned out well for me. Good luck tho. Wanting it's the first step.

The longest I have gone without ANY codeine was about a day and I get hot/cold sweats, aches all around my body and constant RLS.

 

[Run2421]

Not sure how to PM, still pretty new to bluelight... definitely would enjoy talking with you more about it though.

 

[Jabberwocky]

OP, can you get anything like clonidine and gabapentin? It will make the acute withdrawal process far more managible. Also replacing the codeine with something longer acting for a week or two to allow for the acute detox to happen will also make things far easier on yourself.

 

[Super4ndyP00]

OP, can you get anything like clonidine and gabapentin? It will make the acute withdrawal process far more managible. Also replacing the codeine with something longer acting for a week or two to allow for the acute detox to happen will also make things far easier on yourself.

All I really have access to at this moment in time is valium. I work as a full time driver, which makes this even more difficult.

Thank you everyone for your answers so far, I really appreciate them!

 

[Jabberwocky]

Oh that is a drag. Diazepam will be super helpful, but of coursing relying on it to manage withdrawal and driving is very dangerous (I speak from personal experience lol 8)) and should absolutely be avoided. At least you'll be able to get some rest at night though.

With the driving, something I always struggled with detoxing on long hauls was the shits. I hope you'll have access to loperamide and a bathroom regularly

 

[simco]

I second the recommendation of loperamide (available OTC in most locations). It's definitely preferable to have other comfort meds available. But in a pinch, withdrawing with only loperamide and a benzo is doable.

In terms of your taper, the schedule that dood42069 outlined above is good...that's very similar to what I would have come up with.

 

[Super4ndyP00]

Oh that is a drag. Diazepam will be super helpful, but of coursing relying on it to manage withdrawal and driving is very dangerous (I speak from personal experience lol 8)) and should absolutely be avoided. At least you'll be able to get some rest at night though.

With the driving, something I always struggled with detoxing on long hauls was the shits. I hope you'll have access to loperamide and a bathroom regularly

Thank you again toothpastedog, I really would love to quit the codeine as soon as possible, but I would much rather do it when I'm not driving and of course I will never use the valium before driving, only at night for sleep and it helps me A LOT the next day, keeping me im a good mood. I will try the loperamide too as it sounds great!

I second the recommendation of loperamide (available OTC in most locations). It's definitely preferable to have other comfort meds available. But in a pinch, withdrawing with only loperamide and a benzo is doable.

In terms of your taper, the schedule that dood42069 outlined above is good...that's very similar to what I would have come up with.

Thanks simco, I have read up on the loperamide and apparenrly it is a mircale drug for codeine withdrawals so I will definitley be getting some of that!

 

[Super4ndyP00]

Guys I have been reading your ideas and I don't think I am capable of tapering off, I would end up just using more and more! So I think I may just try going cold turkey as I have the valium and will buy some immodium. What do you guys think of this? Of course more tricks and tips would be much appreciated.

I would just like to get off of this stuff as soon as possible.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Tapering a short acting opioid like codeine is really difficult and not recommended. In terms of loperamide, it isn't exactly a miracle drug.

I really caution you again taking super high doses given the possibility for adverse health consequences. That said, more moderate (although still rather high) doses can really help. If kratom is available in your area, that is probably preferred in terms of a detox aid.

In terms of OTC detox aids that will keep you functional, is dihydrocodeine available in your area? Switching to that for a few days and then onto kratom/loperamide would probably be the easiest "OTC" cure, although I guess DHC and kratom are generally not OTC in the same places (like kratom isn't legal in the U.K. but DHC is; in the states kratom is legal but DHC not so much).

Really nothing will work as well as buprenorphine or methadone for detoxing, but hey you gotta work with what you have. It's a shame you can't get more appropriate meds from an MD, even if just gabapentin and clonidine.

 

[echohead]

Tapering a short acting opioid like codeine is really difficult and not recommended. In terms of loperamide, it isn't exactly a miracle drug.

I really caution you again taking super high doses given the possibility for adverse health consequences. That said, more moderate (although still rather high) doses can really help. If kratom is available in your area, that is probably preferred in terms of a detox aid.

In terms of OTC detox aids that will keep you functional, is dihydrocodeine available in your area? Switching to that for a few days and then onto kratom/loperamide would probably be the easiest "OTC" cure, although I guess DHC and kratom are generally not OTC in the same places (like kratom isn't legal in the U.K. but DHC is; in the states kratom is legal but DHC not so much).

Really nothing will work as well as buprenorphine or methadone for detoxing, but hey you gotta work with what you have. It's a shame you can't get more appropriate meds from an MD, even if just gabapentin and clonidine.

IMO
Codeine - - - - > Methadone = Complete insanity

Methadone has absolutely destroyed lifetimes in its own right. I know so many people who are on methadone for over 20 years and not one of them have had any kind of happy outcome.

 

[Jabberwocky]

IMO
Codeine - - - - > Methadone = Complete insanity

Methadone has absolutely destroyed lifetimes in its own right. I know so many people who are on methadone for over 20 years and not one of them have had any kind of happy outcome.

I should clarify.

Using methadone to come off a high dose long term habit of codeine is probably worth considering - especially if tapering the codeine isn't working well.

If tapering the codeine is working well, that is preferable to switching to another opioid.

Switching to another longer acting opioid (buprenorphine or methadone in the US) is probably a good idea to treat the acute withdrawal when finishing the codeine taper.

So it isn't so much either/or methadone/codeine for this. Methadone or buprenorphine (or whatever other options there are) is probably only useful to taper, for maintenance or to be used as part of an acute detoxification process.

Thanks for making me clarify my error echohead!

 

[echohead]

That's a very well considered and reasonable response, but we will have to agree to disagree about methadone.

 

[Jabberwocky]

That's a very well considered and reasonable response, but we will have to agree to disagree about methadone.

Perhaps you could expand on that a bit?

I can imagine a number of situations where methadone wouldn't be appropriate for sure, but I can also imagine a number of situations where methadone, buprenorphine, DHC, tramadol or any number of other meds/substance woulds be useful for something off a longstanding codeine habit.

I'm not trying to attack you (I need to work on coming off so strongly generally speaking), just curious where you're coming from.

 

[echohead]

Perhaps you could expand on that a bit?

I can imagine a number of situations where methadone wouldn't be appropriate for sure, but I can also imagine a number of situations where methadone, buprenorphine, DHC, tramadol or any number of other meds/substance woulds be useful for something off a longstanding codeine habit.

I'm not trying to attack you (I need to work on coming off so strongly generally speaking), just curious where you're coming from.

Well, I don't know if you are in the UK, but my take on it is that virtually every heroin addict is put on methadone, a programme which is pretty much seen as a complete failure *in terms of long term cessation FROM the methadone itself. I know so many people who have been on it for years, decades even. Obviously I don't want to cast any kind of flimsy judgement as to the efficacy of methadone in any circumstances, or at any point in withdrawal from heroin, but with regards to codeine it would be a flat no from me.

We have a massive codeine addiction rate, which I believe dwarves the number of heroin users, and AFAIK there would never be a codeine > methadone exit strategy. I'm currently withdrawing from codeine, and methadone would be the absolute last choice for me, perhaps even worse than using heroin to get off codeine.