Hi all, just jumping in to give some hope to anyone with a seriously heavy codeine dependency. I was taking somewhere between 28-30 x 30mg codeine tablets every single day – that’s about 900mg or thereabouts. Whilst being a mum to two, holding down a job and to the outside looking ok.
I knew i couldn’t cold turkey off that amount, i’m sure some people can but I knew I wouldn’t be able to. I’m in the last two weeks of a 2 month taper down, and at the end of next week should be down to 0!
To be honest the slow taper has meant the physical symptoms have been not too bad, some aches and pains (although these have only been worse in the last couple of weeks) and a runny nose. Psychologically it has been harder, i’d become so used to a lift from the pills in the morning and another lift in the afternoon there’s a definite feeling of low mood and loss of the thing I used to look forward to each day – my ‘little helper’ (even though in the end it didn’t even really make me feel good).
Anyway, I’m just posting to say that tapering is an option if cold turkey doesn’t work for you. I’ve managed not to need a day off work or anything in this 2 month period, although it has been hard sometimes.
Good luck all
xxx