Codeine Withdrawal

[Sonya]

I recently (two weeks ago) had microscopic back surgery. Although the surgical procedure was successful, I believe I am now paying the BIG price for those "wonderful" little pills that "held me over" in the interim for the severe pre-op pain that I experienced as well as the short period of post-op pain that I endured. I was prescribed Tylenol#3, Lortab 7.5, Lortab 10 and Percocet and LOTS of it. I was legitimately in a GREAT deal of pain! The problem was, the more pain medication I took, the more I needed (and the more I TOOK). NOW, I don't HAVE anymore. I also have no legitimate NEED for the pain medication to ask my physician for. It's not that I "want" to take the pills - but my "body" is telling me otherwise. I can't sleep at night. I'm breaking out in sweats and chills simultaneously throughout the day AND night. I'm extremely irritable, depressed and cranky. I am convinced that these are the symptoms of codeine/hydrocodone withdrawal. WHAT do I do about this? I can't STAND it!!! I have three children to take care of (two of them are babies). I can't take care of myself now because I am "sick" so to speak. I have been completely honest with my husband about this. He agrees that this is probably withdrawal, I need to do "cold turkey" (what choice do I have anyway?) and tough it out for the next week or so. IS THIS WHAT I HAVE TO DO or SHOULD I INVOLVE MY PHYSICIAN WHO PRESCRIBED THESE NASTY DRUGS IN THE FIRST PLACE? Like I said, what choice do I have but to do "cold turkey" and SUFFER anyway? You're prescribed all these highly addictive pain medications pre and post operatively. Then you're "cut off." Two days ago, he told me that he was "concerned that I was becoming addicted to pain medication." I think we're way beyond "becoming." I had my husband tell him that we were already concerned about addiction and I had my husband ask him what the symptoms of addiction and withdrawal were. All he told him was "daily, ongoing use." That wasn't the answer I was looking for. I wanted to hear PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS! Should I call my physician back and tell him that I am SUFFERING here??? My husband and I like and respect my doctor SO VERY much. We're not angry nor do we hold him responsible for this. We just want help in getting me "back to normal." I am TERRIFIED that I am going to go back into a "withdrawal" state again today. The last time I had codeine was 5:00 PM yesterday and I have NO more resources to prescriptions. I WANT TO STOP TAKING PAIN MEDICATION NOW! Would you please give me some GOOD SOUND ADVICE RIGHT AWAY SO THAT I MAY GET MY LIFE BACK??????? Thank You SO MUCH and GOD BLESS YOU!!!!! Sonya :-)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[captainfacepunch]

if you r going to continue you should look up cold water extraction it will save your liver i just lost a friend to the same  combination your on

[jackiegear]

Neurofen is bad for your stomach and taken over a long time together with  Codiene will end up giving you and ulcer. I had to take zantac, a stomach acid relief tablet to combat the stomach pan. Giving them up was so easy as it really hurt to take them. I swapped over from Neurofen to Paracetomol and codeine, and the paid went away so quickly that I ended upping my dose of 2 x 60mg of tablets to 4, then 6. I was gagging when I took them but I was getting a buzz out of them. I eventually, for the sake of my dignity, and life probably, reduced them back down to 4 a day, about 4 or 5 times a day. Eventually the Dr decided I was addicted, even though I had gone to see the doctor in order to tell him first. He wrote it on my records that I was an opiate dependant-rich when he put me on them in the first place. I argued with them and said they just couldnt cut me off, so they reduced the tablets to 30mg and 500 paracetomol. In all this time, it wasnt the codiene that bothered me but the paracetmol is more bound to harm your liver as it builds up. I went back to the doctor and got codeine phosphate without the paracetomol and went back up to 6 x30mg of them about four times a day. They didnt seem to work with the same high as the codeine and paracetomol, so I changed back to the paras and codiene 30mg. I have now been on them in various doctors, when they get fed up of me, I move on complaining. But I have made a constant effort to get down. I am still on them 14 years later, but have now restricted myself to 3 in the morning, and four in the afternoon, not a good dose to have but certainly in the allowable daily limits, and the four I leave until 5pm to reward myself with a more or less instant high feeling. One that is better than the depression I get when coming off them. I have had plenty of cold turkeys when I run out for two days. I go on over the counter drugs then and persist on taking four lots of 4 just to keep my dose high enough to stop cold sweats. It works and although I get pretty low and depressed I have a good cry, a sceam at my husband, a promise of changed life style and then I go back on to my 3 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, ie 90mg am and 120mg later. I have been noticing that I can make the time in between taking the three in the morning and the four later, a bit longer in between to the point that I am forgetting to take them. However, I always start feel down and achy and that reminds me to reward myself with the four again. I am now quite frightened as today I took my early ones at 9.30 and forgot to take the others with me. I had been thinking of changing my whole life style so go some exercie wii fit that wanted to know my heart rate before it set me a fitness regime. I went to the doctor who told me my blood pressure was 146/94 and I freaked. I said it was too high and unbelievably she said it was normally. Look it up anywhere and that is not normal. I then went to Llyods pharmacy and ask them to take my BP again, having told them the story. This time it was a staggering 166/102. Now I think I am in danger of a heart attack and things have become serious stuff. I am 62, been on all sorts of things all my life being an adventurer  but I cannot cope with a heart attack and needs must at long last I must give up. However, again, I am wondering whether the extra time in between the tablets caused my blood pressure to go up unwhittingly, and so to stop myself from the with drawal of codiene causing me a heart attack I took another three. I think the way I will have to do it tomorrow, is to take three, morning, three afternoon and three in the evening. This may calm things down and let my body get used to. Things cannot be stopped just like that. They can cause more harm that good coming off something the body has been used to. Well the fact is though, I am now determined to avoid the nice feeling it gave me and just peeter them out slowly. Feeling bad is worse than feeling high-depresssed repeatedly. I have also taken other steps to get my addictive life style in order. I have bought my wii to give me sodding boring exercise, never liked exercise and found it boring, although I dont mind housework. I have given up on drinking 4 glasses of wine a day and a gin and tonic, and am now down to one glass of helpful red wine. I am off sugar and salt and eating fruit. So all in all I feel positive about a way out of this damn chain. I want to live a long life. Iknow that now. Depression often makes me wish I was dead but when it happens that your life is threatened by the real harm it is doing to your body, you and you  alone have to take control of it and instead of asking others for help, and others to assure you that youre ok, then go down your own path of courage and fitness. Do you want to live a long time or not? SImple as that. Frightening when you come confronted with death. I had a car crash where I nearly died, infact this was the cause of my addiction, followed by a ski accident, followed by being unsure on my feet a few times because of the other accidents. It never ends the worry we have if we over do things. SO simply cut down. I gave up smoking after trying for 5 years. I got up to 60, ( 3 packs) a day. I loved smoking, loved waking in the night for a smoke but in the end I got chest pains. The doctor said I had the beginning of a fatal emphesema, inability to breathe air out from the lungs. I gave up smoking that moment and never had a withdrawal at all. My will to live was stronger than addiction in the case of cigarettes, and now I think after hearing about my blood pressure, that will to live is going to help me get things adjusted slowly and in the right balance, not too quickly off, not too slowly, not too many rewards,and definitely a goal to be on less every month, be it only half a pill. Then I will concentrate my addictions on diet, and fun fitness games, like SPORTS RESORT, or Zumbra dancing. Whatever. I am in charge of my body NOT some damned addictive pill which I did not go out to get in the first place. I think we all ought to keep in touch and write diaries about how our addictions can reduce a tiy bit each day. If you are on too high a dose, then replace half of your first tablets with lower stength over the counter tablets. I could go on and on, and when I succeed, I may write a handy step by step book on how to avoid pains, withdrawals, and depressions. Lots of love to you all. I am actually a registered nurse so I know a lot about a lot!! I especially wasnt put on this earth to degrade myself by the indignity of letting a few little pills ruining my life. MY PILLS WILL DO AS I SAY FROM NOW ON. xxx

[george249]

Thanks for all your comments here. I've been taking Codiene for awhile now. The worst part was that I'd quit for YEARS and totally thought I had a hold on it. Then a stressful job made me decide that I needed it to cope. It did help at first, but now it's just a pain and I've risked hurting my marriage. I was taking Methadone for pills years back (I would've been better off staying on the pills!) and that took over a year just to quit effectively. My wife has been suggesting she knows something's up and I finally admitted to it. Yeah, she's upset and confused wondering if she can trust me anymore...but it's still pretty early and things aren't so bad yet. Her big thing is "what if I hadn't noticed or asked? When would you have stopped?" Part of me thinks this will be EASY to beat with someone supervising that I trust...compared to methadone it has to be. I'm so sick of this **** in my life...all the time and energy I've wasted. Even the money doesn't bother me as much as how it's deflected energy I could put into so many more productive things. I'm in my early 40's wasting my life on this ****. I don't blame anyone else...not doctors nor the pharma industry...just me. I'm taking anywhere from 10 to 30 30mg tablets a day. Where I live you can buy them OTC as long as you can convince the pharmacist to sell them to you. I just want this monkey off my back. I was able to quit in a few weeks before, so I want to set a calendar and do the same again. Once you get past the little "moments of panic" then you have a fighting chance. I can deal with the pains...just the fear gets to me sometimes. Cheers and good luck to all.

[thismachinekillsfacists]

For those of you who can't sleep: Benadryl is a relatively benign OTC med that will help you sleep. Doctors like to prescribe stuff like Ambian and anti-anxieties to aid sleep, but they can have bad side effects, especially anti-anxieties, which can cause depression and can be habit forming.

I happened to stumble upon this site and it's horrible how many people are addicted to this stuff. I've always had an addictive personality and have had problems with drugs when I was younger. Even though I don't do any drugs, I'm definitely prone to prescription drug abuse. It's weird, because I've had these T3's in my closet forever, from some past surgery or toothache or whatever. Haven't touched them in five years. Now my back is killing me every day so I started to to take the pills. After like three days all I wanted was to take them every day. I'm only on day 10 or so and I realize I have a problem here. Today my stomach was so sick I didn't take any, but I know tomorrow I will. I only have about five pills left and I'll take them. When they're done, they're done. I'm not going to my doctor for more. I can't be bothered. I'm lucky I don't have a huge stash, because I would take them. What blows my mind is how insidious this addiction is. It's can get pretty bad. I realize that I'll always be prone to addiction, particularly to drugs that make me happy and relaxed, because I'm not all that happy and I'm not relaxed! Hey, NA and AA are great places for help and support. I've done it before but hopefully I won't have to ever do it again.

[lockocorm]

Just wondering... does anyone else think that it is OK to take a few Nuerofen Plus tablets a day?...say x4  12mg at a time just for a bit of energy or a concentration aid? They could almost be used it as an anti anxiety aid. If you eat well and take all your vitamins whats the problem with it?
I have been using codeine in this fashion for 6 years. Does it do any damage? I have full blood tests every 6 months and there is never any abnormal readings an d my organs are OK
I haven't read anyone else post that they are content and happy to continue with their codeine use and actually enjoy it. What do you think of my view on codeine...do i have a problem?

[jacko028]

hi kim i dont know how long ago you put up this post. im on day 7 of cold turkey, taking at least 40 nurofen plus a day. my mind feels better but i still feel like ive no energy, although im better than what i was. i will never take them tabs again i was taking them for four years.