To ask how long withdrawal lasts?

Bless you, you’re being so responsible.

Did you find the meds helped with your mood? I can deal with physical withdrawal but the psychological disturbs me. I just wondered how you feel about that and if it affects you?

The half-life is codeine is really short, which is why the usual dosing is every 4-6 hours. You should be over the worst and start feeling better. Make sure you are drinking plenty and be confident that your physical withdrawals will be ok.

Sorry for hijacking your thread Scunthorpee.

Anyone can die from dehydration, whether or not they are in withdrawal or not if they get a dose of the shits! In my entire career I have never seen anyone die of withdrawals. I have seen many people die from overdose.

When we are talking about deaths directly attributable to withdrawals we have to talk about things like respiratory depression, seizures etc. Opiate withdrawals are very unlikely to cause these symptoms, unlike alcohol and benzos.

I don't think it is helpful to people who are trying to reduce of small amounts of codeine these scare stories. It is not unsafe to reduce off these medications, thousands of people do it every single year without too much bother. Lots of people will be taking dihydrocodeine or other pain relief following surgical intervention, and they reduce of them with no help. Why? Because psychologically they expect to be able to do it. The few people who get stuck on low doses may need reassurance that they are not going to suffer unduly from withdrawal and they can do it safely.

Yes, if you are taking high levels of Neurofen Plus, the most risky drug in that is the Neurofen, and you might need to check out with your GP that you haven't fucked your stomach lining.

Yes, if you are taking co-codamol, you need to check that you haven't fucked your liver with the paracetamol.

The codeine, ironically, is the safest part of both of these drugs and yet people get head-fucked at the idea of reducing them.

Reduction off low levels (and high levels) of codeine is possible without medical intervention. A slow reducing dose, with some confidence that it is do-able is what is needed.

I am not minimising people's concerns... I am just saying I spend every single day of my working life discussing these things with clients, and encouraging them to be optimistic about their capabilities.

So, OP. You've got this! Be confident that you are likely to be through the worst, You can be confident that due to the half life of codeine the whole dose will have left your system in 16 hours and you you can expect any withdrawals to peak at about 24 hours and then improve and reduce. The physical withdrawals will ease, you need to find ways to manage your head. Good luck x

OP, you have repeatedly stated on this thread that you know for a fact "opiate withdrawal isn't dangerous". This is a very simplistic take and frankly, it's irresponsible to make such a blanket statement on a public forum.

Whilst in most cases opiate withdrawal symptoms are highly unpleasant but not dangerous, this is by no means guaranteed, especially when someone decides to discontinue opiates abruptly at home with no medical supervision or oversight. Due to long term use of opiates potentially causing significant damage to vital organs (which may have gone undetected), complications like dehydration (which is common during opiate withdrawal) can indeed be dangerous and there is also risk of aspiration (vomiting and breathing the stomach contents into the lungs) which sadly I know from experience can be fatal.

You may have assessed the risks and judged them to be low, as is your right, and in your case your assessment may be realistic. But people can and do become very unwell and even die withdrawing from opiates without proper medical care so it is wrong to make sweeping generalisations.

Thank you. Yes I am going to need professional help - but where the hell do I get that?!

I’m so angry at myself for allowing this to happen.

No, that’s one good thing, I really do eke them out. But staying awake for two days and nights at a time is killing me as I get older.

You’d be surprised, especially “old school” GP’s.

My aunt has been on Zolpidem for 20 years.

I completely agree, I have to take responsibility for my own naivety but why the hell did my GP keep prescribing?

I don’t sleep at all now unless I take a pill, I’m allowed 7 per fortnight. I’ve now been awake since 02,15 Sunday morning apart from a bit of exhausted catnapping. It feels like utter shit.

You can do it! Honestly, once withdrawal was over I felt so free.

After 30 years are you taking more than the prescribed dose to get any effect from them? Even after 3 years I was buying them from an online pharmacy to top up my prescription ones which was costing me almost £100 a month.

Even now I would say I “miss” them but would never, ever touch them again.

You can absolutely do it but please get a withdrawal plan from a professional who can monitor you, they really are awful drugs.

This terrifies me, I’ve been on zopiclone for 30 odd years and the thought of coming off them makes me lose my shit. Do you think it would be possible?

Changed username for this.

After surgery at 22 I became addicted to prescription co-codamol and Zopiclone.

I’m 32 now with a 2 year old and 30 weeks pregnant and haven’t touched either for 5 years.

I had diarrhoea for about 2 months when I stopped taking the codeine, the complete opposite of the constipation side effect which made sense. Other than the diarrhoea, I didn’t really have any other withdrawal symptoms.

Zopiclone was another matter, I had sweats, shaking, intrusive thoughts and insomnia for about 3.5 months, it was horrific.

I’d be concerned about your stomach lining and the constant use of ibuprofen without anything to counteract the damage which is what the GP would prescribe with things like ibuprofen. Keep an eye on that and get checked out if you have anymore stomach pain.

Good luck! You’re doing great.

Wow PharmacyFiend, well bloody done. So sorry you went through that.

I have name changed for this. I have experience of codeine withdrawal that may be helpful to the OP.

At my "worst", I was taking 72 Nurofen+ a day, in 'doses' of 8 tablets (so just over 100mg of codeine) at a time. My life revolved around driving to different pharmacies to buy them, cringing with shame each time I asked for them, dreading the odd occasion when the Pharmacist would refuse to sell them to me. It cost me an absolute fortune, got me in serious financial trouble, made me incredibly sly and secretive, and I ended up with a gastric ulcer which burst in the middle of the night and I then had a week long stay in ITU. I was very unwell.

When I was discharged, I contacted my GP and they agreed to prescribe me large quantities of codeine, so I could taper at home. I had been addicted (on and off) since I was 21, and the ulcer burst just before my 42nd birthday.

I initially cut my doses down to 4 times a day, but kept the dose at 100mg a time, and I didn't have any physical withdrawal symptoms to begin with. I cut down by 15mg per dose every 3/4 days, so around 3 weeks in I was taking 30mg 4 times a day. I then cut out one dose per week for 2 weeks until I was taking 30mg twice a day. That was when the physical symptoms kicked in. It wasn't too bad to start with, some nausea, lack of appetite, irritability (which was tricky, as I didn't tell anyone other than my Doctors about my addiction), and the worst of the symptoms; sweating, restless legs and the total inability to sleep. It was horrific. There were a few times when I just couldn't stand it, and ended up taking some extra just to stop my legs from feeling like they were crawling with ants.

The jump down from 30mg twice a day to 15mg twice a day was hard, but more psychologically than physically at that stage. I had relied on codeine to make the world ever so slightly softer and easier for virtually my entire adult life, and it was like coming out of a calm, quiet room into a busy train station. I was totally overwhelmed, and it was at this point I realised I needed to talk to someone about why I'd starting using codeine to ''take the rough edges off my life", rather than for pain relief.

I spoke to an excellent Therapist, and I continued with the 2 doses of 15mg a day for 6 weeks, while I worked through the psychological issues attached to my addiction. I was then able to go down to 7.5mg twice a day (at which point it was having no discernible physical effect, it was only the psychological dependency remaining). Then 7.5mg once a day for a week, then none.

I still had 10 x 30mg tablets left, and a couple of weeks after stopping completely, I had a really shitty day, and that little addict voice in my head said "Ah, go on, you deserve to take the edge off, you've earned it!" and I took 60mg in one dose. As the familiar feeling flooded through me, I got really scared, and realised how stupid I had been, as I could see that I would immediately be hooked again, and back in the old, familiar, lonely cycle. I crushed the rest of the tablets and washed them down the sink. I felt a flood of relief that they were gone.

Sorry, that was long! My experience was that the worst of the physical withdrawals lasted around 5 days, but the psychological withdrawal was much longer. Even now, years later, I have days when I think "I could just buy one packet..." I'm not sure if the psychological dependency will every be truly "gone" for me, I was addicted to those little bastard tablets for such a long time.

I really feel for anyone else who gets "stuck" on codeine, it really is a total arsehole of a medicine, far too easily available, and far too easy to get addicted to.

But not seriously enough to get proper help and guidance. You've risked, and might have achieved, opiate addiction with the codeine. You've risked, and might have achieved, liver damage from the paracetamol. You've risked, and it sounds like you have managed to get, damage to your stomach. All those things need dealing with. Those information leaflets in boxes of pills are there for a reason. Maximum dosage guidelines really shouldn't be ignored.

Well, no, because at high doses there can be a risk of death from dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea, and from heart failure. There are many serious and horrible side-effects from opiate withdrawal. Your repeat blanket statements minimising this are wrong.

You, on the other hand, will no doubt be fine - a little uncomfortable - but should have been on a PPI for protection of your stomach and duodenum long before this, and also should really get your LFTs done.

I was taking dihydrocodeine at the beginning of the year following a miscarriage, I managed to get a repeat prescription twice through A&E then through my GP (I lied to get it because it was the only thing getting me through that time) I ended up taking it for about 6 weeks straight, having up to 8 in one go at some points. Once I ran out I attempted to get another prescription but I was refused (I realised at this point it was starting to become an addiction) so I went cold turkey. For about a week I had awful flu-like symptoms - nausea, very painful aches in legs, bad tummy etc but after a week I felt absolutely fine. I should have tapered off them really but I’ll never go back on them again.

Can I join this thread please I've been taking solpadeine max for many years, I'm down to five per day, I need to break this habit x

You don't say. Might be time to brush up on your knowledge.

Yes, people can die from opiate withdrawal