Day 20 Codeine/Paracetamol 500/30 Cold Turkey

[KJanieS]

I'm getting a little frightened that I don't seem to be improving. Symptoms: insomnia every other night, not quite totally restful sleep other nights (using various OTC sleeping aids), lightheadedness with some dizziness, shakiness (more on days after sleeping), weakness, some achiness. Doesn't sound terrible but fine motor coordination not good and no strength to garden, much housework, etc.

Background: 4 years, with only a couple of short breaks. In the last year or so, usage increased to up to 16 a day, altho as little as 6, depending on circumstances. I was quite frankly worried more about the damage caused by paracetamol than addiction (would happily take them on a less extreme scale rest of my life).

I decided on cold turkey because having tried tapering, I realized the time it would take would always involve stresses where I would have to make exceptions. From reading quite a few posts here, I got the impression a short but intense withdrawal  through cold-turkey would work better. I had the impression the worst would be over in about  

[KJanieS]

Thank you so much for such a fast and supportive answer, I feel greatly relieved. I do realize one of the WD symptoms is anxiety -.so if it's not surprising that at day 20 I'm still in WD and not dying of some weird tropical disease....

I had stopped OTC except for now have a herbal prep of 4 herbs/flowers (valerian, passion flower and 2 others - in Italian so not sure of Engl.

Unfortunately, no tub and relatively limited hot water - when I was reading this site before i quit, i saw several comments along the lines of "try to stay in a hot bath the whole time". Would love to....

Now, if only I could attack my wilderness outside, I did manage to water what I planted before all this but no way to work on the jungle in the rest. Have a very judgmental neighbor so it's a bit embarrassing. Luckily, no "regulations" from the gov't (live in side of mountain, remains of village (5 structures) where everyone left 100 and more years ago)

Very tired now, may add to this tomorrow - I'm in Switzerland so I'm 6 to 9 hrs "in the future" so doubt I'll manage more today.About 7 pm here.

Thanks so much again!

[IBKleen]

Hi & Welcome,

I am sorry you are going through all of this and I do hope you will be feeling better soon. Truthfully, you are probably right on schedule for being 20 days out. You used them for a decent amount of time and it is going to take time to get your body and mind back to "normal". Our brain chemistry is altered during active addiction so producing natural endorphins can be a slower process than we would like. It may take you a solid 90 days to really begin feeling that but in the meantime I have a few suggestions.

I personally believe the otc sleeping aids do more harm than good. Not in the same way an opiate does but they do change the brain chemistry that I talked about so it is possible your mind is confused if that makes sense. The idea here is to get everything out of your system and clean your body. If you haven't tried anything herbal, I would give that a shot. Also hot baths before bed. Get yourself a good book and read to make yourself tired. Never lay in bed tossing and turning if you can't sleep. It is not helpful and can raise your stress level. Get up and take a short walk to tire yourself. Exercise, even a little, is so important during this process. Push fluids and make sure to nourish your body with fresh foods.

Also, I always suggest to people that they see their doctors and get a good check-up after stopping opiates. You want to rule out anything being wrong and that is a good start.

I am glad you found your way onto the site. There is great support here and hope you stick around. It will get better.