Chat to others

Hi, great to hear your wanting to stop, I read so many story’s on here where people only stop because they have ran out. You say that you want to stop for your health and children which are great reasons and in my opinion it’s the people like yourself who conquer the addiction as you have genuine solid reasons to quit. I will be happy to support you through this also, keep a positive mindset regarding the withdrawals, you might be lucky like I was and just have mild symptoms throughout, I was on around 20 x 30 mg tablets a day and should have really had heavy withdrawals but that never really happened, it was always like a mild cold to me although the insomnia was tough. Speak to your doctor and ask for help sleeping if it gets too difficult. Also start taking vitamins as much as you can, vit c, magnesium, 5 htp, get tonics from boots (megatone) it’s around £8. You will feel more positive when you start replacing the codeine with healthy vitamins etc. Also if you are struggling with appetite get protein shakes etc to help keep you nourished and to keep your strength up. Get out and walk even if you feel like shit, the busier you are the less time you have to think. I spent my second day of withdrawals being dragged around Newcastle city centre by my wife shopping, but anything that makes the day go by is good. I’m 4 month clean now and honestly have forgotten that I was an addict, I sleep like a baby now even though back then I thought I’d never sleep properly again. Believe me you can do it and believe me it gets better everyday. That song is a great song for what codeine made me feel like. It’s our sneaky little friend that nobody knows about. Stay strong and mail anytime for advice ! Neil x

Good evening, Thanks for reading my post and I’m glad to hear you have ran out of codeine as those levels of intake could have been fatal. I’m not going to congratulate you or tell you well done yet as you have not yet achieved anything as your cold turkey has been brought on by simply running out. However what is positive is that you’ve recognised that live will be better without drugs and also perhaps more importantly you are aware of the effort it takes and getting through one day you can then get through the next. Ask yourself this question, if you were to go to your medication cupboard and find a box of codeine would you a) take 16 immediately and enjoy the high telling yourself you’ll quit next week instead or b) realise that you’ve made it through day one and decide to flush the tablets as you really wish to quit. If you answer a then it’s unlikely your ready to quit and will probably take again as soon as you can replenish your supply. If it’s b then I am willing to mentor you through this and help you as much as I can. I may sound harsh but recovery is hard and you have to mentally want to quit 100% to have any hope of achieving the goal of being clean. When I quit I had 260 codeine tablets in my cupboard 3 days after quitting I burnt the lot. That’s a lot different to simply running out. Let me know how you answer the question and if you believe your ready. There is no right or wrong answer as it took me several attempt before I mentally knew the time was right. The best way to look at Recovery in my opinion is that it’s like recovering from a badly broken bone. It’s bloody painful at first, then the pain eases as the weeks go by but your not going to be fully fit for at least 3-6 months if not longer. In essence you have broken your body and it needs to heal so even from day one you are healing. But be prepared for hard work and effort especially in the early days, then it gets easier and I would say I’m almost fully healed today, 4 months clean now. I will help you if you want it !

Thanks for this Jaleigh, that is upsetting that things have turned out not so well for you, but you have beaten this once and you can do it again, maybe try and follow my routine on my first post with the vitamins etc, it just worked so well for me. I’m so glad to hear somebody say that things go back to normal fairly quickly as I really think there is so much negativity online with so called information sites saying that it can take 2 years to get your energy back. That really could put so many people off quitting, keep in touch on here we are all here to support each other. Thanks again and good luck to you

Hi Dfk, Dadict has filled you in with some great points so nothing much extra for me to add, one seriously important thing which i have found hugely important is taking supplements. get him on good quality multi vitamans Centrum is one the best also floradix is good for energy, get him extra magnesium tablets also. and holland and barrett do a CBD oil which is proven to do wonders with withdrawal. if hes struggling with appetite protein shakes can help get good nourishment into your body. If you introduce him to mine and dadicts story and get him to chat to us on there we can help. Where just 2 blokes going discussing a similar issue and are both winning our battle. theres certainly room for a 3rd to jump in with us and support each other. discussing this really does help. oh and also try and get him out at least for an hour a day for a walk no matter how bad the weather is right now. its the biggest and best cure for this by an absolute margin! look forward to hearing from him. Neil x

Hi There, I have been addicted to codeine for 7 years and have been taking similar levels to your self, i have known for a long time that i needed to stop, not just from a health pov but also the effect that it was having on my life. my routine was to take my pills at 11pm ish and sit up till after midnight often into the early hours even though i had to be up for work at 7am. it also affected my relationship with my wife as we would always go to bed together at the same time, but obviously this changed with me sitting up late hence all aspects of our relationship were affected. I had tried to taper down many times but constantly would "reward" myself after a few days of lower dosage thinking to myself that i would start the taper again tomorrow which never happened! 11 days ago for no apparent reason (i had not planned this) i simply stopped taken them. withdrawels kicked in the next day however they felt like a heavy common cold, i got through the second day ok and then the third. I armed myself with an array of multi vitamins (taking double doses), max strength flu and cold tablets, immodium and dioralyte (for dehydration) Floradix for energy. i dont know if this has helped me at all or if it is just a mental thing but knowing i putting goodness into my body has replaced the craving as i just pop another vitamin tablet when the cravings hit. Im not going to pretend to you that it is easy i am on day 11 and still feel very very fatigued, at times i feel as though i have run 2 marathons followed by 2 hour gym workout and that is not an exaggeration, and sleeping is difficult everynight for the past 11 days i have had broken sleep. but so far this is a small price to pay to know i am now free from these toxic pills and despite what i have just said, my life has already taken a more positive turn. I am up early and wanting to do things such as take the dog on long walks, (maybe a bit to much info) but our sex life has returned. and although difficult to sleep i am now going to bed at 10.30 in which i know when my sleep returns to normal that i will feel so energised and invigorated. I hope reading this gives you some sense of optimism. I cant advise you which way is best to detox, if you are disciplined then i am sure tapering would be the best way but i feel that unless you give your tablets to someone that can remove them from you and only give you the set amount each day then i think you will struggle to stick to it it takes an inhumane amount of will power when they are just sat there in a cupboard. I initially couldnt bring myself to throw them out so i removed them to my allotment which was away from my home which stopped me getting them late at night, however 3 days ago i went to the allotment and had a large fire an burned the lot ( huge sense of achievement) Please get back in touch if you need any further help Neil X