Is he addicted to painkillers?

[gdrcclmn]

I've been with my partner around 18 months. We don't live together but he's here around half the time. I was doing his washing and some tablets fell out of his pocket, and I noticed him taking something a couple nights ago but I thought maybe they were just paracetamol. Today Ive found 300 co-codamol tablets in the wardrobe that were delivered here about a week ago. There seems to be just over 100 left.

I don't know how to talk to him about it. If he's taken almost 200 tablets in a week that seems like a pretty serious addiction to me. My ex-partner lied to me about substance abuse for over a year so I have previous with this and it honestly feels like a betrayal keeping something this huge from me, although I dunno if that's an overreaction.

WWYD?

You don’t know if he’s taken 200 in a week, that’s an astronomical amount. Is it a prescription? I think prescribed would be max8 per day.

@SBTLove

You don’t know if he’s taken 200 in a week, that’s an astronomical amount. Is it a prescription? I think prescribed would be max8 per day.

It isn't a prescription, he's been buying them online. I think perhaps he already had a box when he came here and maybe he's had 200 delivered here.

Is it solpadeine OP?
It's incredibly addictive my ex boyfriend was the same. He ate them like sweets, around 16 a day

Sorry your OP isn’t completely clear, you say you’ve found 300 tablets but there are 100 left. So how many tablets have you actually found? 100? And there’s something to make you think he ordered 300?

He could be doing cold water extraction. That's way too much paracetamol.

Or he could be selling them.

I think if he was actually taking that many tablets, you would have had to have seen him doing it at some point.

I'd be very suspicious.

It's co-codamol.

There are boxes of 300 but one box is empty, one is almost empty. I've seen him taking tablets and they have fallen out of his pants and jacket pockets when I've hung up his clothes so they're definitely for personal use.

That doesn’t sound great. Which strength was it? I’m not sure it really matters though.

Is he in pain? I mean, does he have a ‘reason’ for taking them?

I took two before for toothache and was asleep in half an hour, how does he seem?

It's 30mg.

He's just gone back on antidepressants which he was on when we met but came off around Christmas last year. He sleeps really poorly which I suppose would be his reasons for taking them, although they aren't working because he's still awake every hour or two.

I try to speak to him about how he feels but he mostly just says he's fine so I try to just crack on with things. I don't really know how to approach the topic because he completely shuts down if I try and talk about his feelings.

I also have a DD from a previous partner so I don't feel very happy that there are that amount of tablets that she would have access to if she was to go snooping around one day.

The maximum doseage is 8 in 24 hours (whichever strength, because of the paracetamol).

8 tablets in 24 hours is the normal maximum recommended, and for no more than 3 days. The numbers you're talking about suggest almost 30 in a day! I imagine his liver would be destroyed by the paracetamol pretty quickly, so would deal with this quickly.
Are there numbers on the packet, e.g. 8/500? The 500 is 500 milligrams of paracetamol, the first number indicates the amount of codeine. Usually it's 3 or 15 or 30, the higher the number the more codeine there is. Unless you have built up a tolerance for it, codeine makes you very sleepy.

I took two before for toothache and was asleep in half an hour, how does he seem?

Thats presumably because you're not used to them though, I'd imagine 2 wouldn't even touch the sides if you were taking say 16 a day as pp said.

Just saw it's 30 mg, that's very high and if he is consuming that amount he will destroy his health.

I think it's more likely he's moved some of them to a different location for access then. You would die if you took that amount of paracetamol every day.

@SBTLove

I took two before for toothache and was asleep in half an hour, how does he seem?

Not everyone reacts the same way to them either.

@HelenUrth

Just saw it's 30 mg, that's very high and if he is consuming that amount he will destroy his health.

And move onto a stronger opiate.

Are you sure he’s not just taken some to keep at work or something? It may not be that he’s actually taken 200 ...

@GreyishDays
I don’t imagine an average person could use 100s in a week, hence why I asked how
he seemed.

Maybe keep a close eye on how the numbers change from now on.

[quote SBTLove]@GreyishDays
I don’t imagine an average person could use 100s in a week, hence why I asked how
he seemed.[/quote]
Well of course people do use large amounts of opiates, unfortunately. You might not be able to imagine it.

I’d be more concerned about the amount of paracetamol that is in the cocodamol that he’s taking. He will end up with severe liver damage which will result in death if he’s not careful

Second what a PP has said about cold water extraction.
It's possible to extracts around 70% of codeine without ingesting the residual paracetamol.
It would indicate a serious problem if this is the case.

That many tablets in the house with a child is a worry. But tablets in random trousers or jacket pockets is a bigger worry. If he doesn't live with you, he doesn't need all those tablets in your house, or to have them delivered there. It's your home and I think you've got every right to ask him what's going on.

You can't order these online without a prescription