Codeine withdrawal

[SleeperTrain]

Has anyone been through this and would be willing to share their experience? I’m struggling a lot. It’s mostly the sleep, I didn’t realise how much of a bloody insomniac I am!!! Is this normal?

My brain is so wired up, I’ve spent the last two nights wide awake sitting up in bed all night and catching a couple of hours around 9am. Being perfectly awake to carry on through the day. Duracell bunny keeps coming to mind...

It’s so weird, I don’t even feel like myself typing this right now I feel hyper alert and the most mentally sharp I’ve felt in years.

Just a week ago my night routine was unrecognisable compared to this, I’d fall into bed, read for ten mins , watch an episode of something on Netflix and not even manage to keep my eyes open for more than a few minutes!

I’ve tried googling about these feelings and weirdly can’t find much, I don’t know if this is normal. I’ve had around 5 hours sleep over the past couple of days and am getting MORE energetic not less, is this really how much of an effect codeine has?

I was taking codeine after falling down the stairs and ripping the tendons and ligaments in my ankle. I was in a soft cast for it. It was only about a month of taking the codeine, and when I started cutting down the restless legs were a nightmare with my ankle damage. The addiction forms so fast! But I was over it in about 2 days. I hope yours is pretty much over now.

I'd also recommend looking for local support groups such as NA (narcotics anonymous) anything is easier in a team for support.

Also

"Be very careful about telling your GP. They will have to tell DVLA and you’ll lose your licence."

This is not exactly true- if it was to be done they would discuss it with you first and much much more likely to be done if you were working with a drugs team and not engaging

Well there's a coincidence, just had a message from G.P surgery to discuss a medication review.
He has spoken about reduction before so I expect now he will want to see some results, also the pharmacist has said he's worried about the length of time I've been on the tablets.
Maybe I've just taken it too slow and need to be more pro active??
Damn tablets, I can't speak to anyone in real life as I feel ashamed that I'm still on them so it's been very useful to read others experiences here, thank you.

Perfect timing - you can go in and talk about how you've reduced them down and you've gone from the maximum dose to x OTC ones a day, intending to stop over the next week or so - that clarity you've mentioned will be obvious to your GP and all will be happy in the world (and you'll get prescribed whatever you need in the future, because they'll know you aren't at high risk of misusing medication).