Paranoia on opiates

[Pagey]

Heey,
I've been doing various opiates for about a year now and something has been happening more and more that's really bothering me: whenever I'm on codeine or heroin I get extremely paranoid. It's also always about the same thing, which is that someone or *something* is standing in my room, watching me, and about to kill me or something. I'll tend to see a sort of shadow in the corner. For instance after watching American Psycho the other day I was lying in bed on codeine, lights on and all, and was convinced the dude was standing in the corner of my room with a chainsaw. A few weeks ago I could have sworn the guy from Saw was standing in my closet while I was on h.
I'd also like to stress that this happens only on codeine and heroin. I've done hydrocodone/oxy/methadone/bupe as well and never had any problems with those. It was also considerably stronger on the heroin than on the codeine.
If it's of any help, I don't get paranoid on any other drugs.

Has anyone else experienced this/heard of it/any idea what it's due to?

Thanks!

 

[debaser]

Hey Pagey,

You can have small bouts of paranoia on opiates, it happened to me a few times. It's not something widespread or even well known, but it happens.

Also, you didn't choose the quietest movie if you're prone to that sort of side effects!

As to why it's only happening to you with these two opiates, everyone reacts differently to a drug. That would be speculation to tell you why only these two drugs are affecting you like that, in my opinion.

 

[Jabberwocky]

do you take anything else along with the codeine/heroin?

have you ever taken morphine out of interest?

morphine in some cases causes hallucinations (codeine is a pro-drug of morphine, it's converted into it through the liver). heroin is similar but is much more potent of course hence why the hallucinations would be more intense. both are derived from different parts of the poppy plant, unlike hydro and oxy which come from thebaine i think (correct me if i'm wrong!).

i think you may just simply be intolerable to morphine. many people are.

personally i've experienced paranoia and hallucinations on morphine when i've taken far too high a dose. with codeine i don't experience it but sometimes, again when dosed too high, i feel more anxious and a little paranoid too.

 

[Pagey]

Thanks for the quick answers!

Hey Pagey,

You can have small bouts of paranoia on opiates, it happened to me a few times. It's not something widespread or even well known, but it happens.

Also, you didn't choose the quietest movie if you're prone to that sort of side effects!

As to why it's only happening to you with these two opiates, everyone reacts differently to a drug. That would be speculation to tell you why only these two drugs are affecting you like that, in my opinion.

Thanks, I wasn't aware it could happen, no one ever seems to talk about it - especially considering they're supposed to be calming, ha. And yeah, next time I plan on using don't think I'll be watching that kind of movie again!

do you take anything else along with the codeine/heroin?

have you ever taken morphine out of interest?

morphine in some cases causes hallucinations (codeine is a pro-drug of morphine, it's converted into it through the liver). heroin is similar but is much more potent of course hence why the hallucinations would be more intense. both are derived from different parts of the poppy plant, unlike hydro and oxy which come from thebaine i think (correct me if i'm wrong!).

i think you may just simply be intolerable to morphine. many people are.

I do sometimes do combos but not the times I'm referring to. And no, the only time I've had morphine is in the hospital so I don't know how it would affect me - that's a very interesting theory though and if I ever try morphine recreationally I'll definitely pay attention to that.

 

[Jabberwocky]

considering you react much differently to the other opiates which aren't derived from the morphine alkaloid i believe it has something to do with it in my opinion. lots of people experience problems with morphine derived opiates and switch to semi-synthetic ones.

it's not really been documented as to why morphine causes hallucinations and paranoid thought but it does occur in quite a lot of people! so don't worry, you're not alone and it's not an uncommon thing.

if i were you, i'd just stay away from the morphine derived opiates. that includes codeine, morphine, heroin, and diluadid (hydromorphone).

i'm surprised you didn't have the same kind of effects from hydrocodone though - perhaps because it is a mixture of two alkaloids it didn't have such a profound effect and thebaine side of it removed the negative effects of the codeine.

 

[Pagey]

Yeah, that would make sense, thanks a lot for the explination/educated guess. I never would have suspected morphine could cause this as you never really hear of paranoia in relation to opiates - always weed, acid, coke etc. but never opiates.

I'll have to decide whether it's worth staying away from those though...might be difficult haha. I'm wondering if there might be some way I could keep the hallucinations under control? Thing is those are theo nly opiates I manage to nod on and well, that's sort of why I take opiates so don't really wanna lose it

As for the hydrocodone, to be fair I don't get any effects whatsoever from it, for some reason - doesn't even relax me or anything. So the fact that I wouldn't get the paranoia either makes sense.

 

[EEhouseEE]

Man for me Morphine can do the same thing but it usually happens only when i try to go to sleep at night. I start feeling all scared and i swear i see little showdy shit around my room when the lights are off, it has happened with oxycodone too at night, this only happens at night when i try to go to sleep though. Honestly man everyones just different and i doubt its anything serious but if it keeps happening then just try not to do them so much you know...i mean its ur choice lol

 

[Pagey]

^Yeah, now that I think about it it only happens in the evenings/ at night (that's mainly when I take them so I hadn't thought about it that way), so only when I'm kinda tired as well. I'm happy to hear I'm not the only one!

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Opioids can cause anxiety and paranoia, it's not the norm but it's certainly not rare. They can also cause irritability, which is a better-known side effect. Different opioids affect different people differently as well, it's not like all opioids are the same.

For me:

Heroin has on occasion made me paranoid and a little OCD (like thinking if I didn't do certain things something bad would happen, sounds ridiculous in retrospect) but who knows what is in that shit, in my area dealers have been known to cut it with all sorts of drugs, (including other opioids/cocaine/meth ), and it seemed to happen only with certain batches, so not sure what that's worth. Nothing like being convinced a horror movie character was in my room though, but everyone's different.

Morphine I have sometimes had a similar kind of paranoia to what EEhouseEE is talking about, where I would only get it when lying down trying to fall asleep, but I wouldn't get noticeable hallucinations per se (just a little hypnagogic imagery which doesn't bother me at all, so not something that would freak me out), more just obsessive worries that my breathing or heart seemed weird/slow, or irrational thoughts that I had taken too much, or there was something else wrong with me and I might die, and was afraid to fall asleep, even though in reality I had taken only a reasonably low dose.

Hydrocodone did make me a little paranoid once, I had taken it with a combination of other drugs and made an idiotic post on here in the middle of the night asking if I would be ok etc, when in reality I had taken low doses of everything.

Codeine, I seem to have a sensitivity or mild "allergy" to, so it gives me a number of weird unpleasant effects, so I never take it anymore.

Never noticed a problem with hydromorphone.

Methadone has never caused anything like that for me and I've taken it thousands of times. The other opioids you mentioned I don't really have enough experience with to know if it could ever happen for me.

. . . . . .

There is another thread here somewhere on a related topic, about trippy half-awake dreams and hypnic jerks causing anxiety/paranoia when trying to fall asleep after using opioids. You can try lower doses, not taking them close to bedtime, or using relaxation techniques to calm yourself (like talking yourself out of it, deep breathing etc).

 

[Pagey]

Thanks for the long answer.
It's true the hallucinations tend to be more powerful when I'm trying to go to sleep, although they're there as well if I'm not. I also just remembered I had the exact same type of hallucination when I went to bed drunk a couple months ago. It's never happened again since so I didn't think too much of it but I wonder if that might have anything to do with this?
I should add I'm not usually the type to start seeing figures in the dark or get scared at night etc.

I'll try to look for the other thread and yeah, I'll definitely have to take stopping them before bedtime. Usually I manage to calm myself down when it happens by just repeating to myself that's it all in my head etc., but still, it feels like a waste of the drug if I'm spending half the time on it scared and angsty rather than relaxed.

Thanks again!

 

[laCster]

Do you have any symptoms when not on opioid?

 

[Pagey]

Mmh - well the only thing I can think of is that I've been getting a bit paranoid (same - about horror movie characters being in my room) at night even when I'm not on opioids but that's only started happening very recently so I figured it was because of what I thought I was seeing when I was on them?