Codeine addiction.

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FapCop

FapCop

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A close friend is in a pickle. His wife (also my close friend) consumes about 8 Adcodol tabs a day and has been doing so for the last 5 years.

The stuff is evidently making her sick. Daily migraines, muscle pain, depression - she's a downer to be around and it's basically killing their marriage.

The gets very angry at him when he tries to talk her into stopping taking them and gets even madder when he suggests she has a problem.

Something that complicates the situation even more is the possibility of her having Lupus, which shows symptoms nearly identical to codeine addiction. The guy is a mess.

What do?
 
They have kids in the house?
 
She gets made at him when he brings it up, have you tried having that discussion with her?
 
She needs professional help - might not be something she will consent to.
 
He probably needs to sit down for an hour with a therapist / drug addiction specialist etc. and have an honest discussion about the situation. I'm guessing he hasn't just divorced her because he loves her and it pains him to even think of leaving her when she's down and addicted? At least one of them needs to make progress, and if not her (she's not even willing to talk about it) then he needs to get his head out of the situation and talk with someone who can let him see more clearly the options available to him. Else he's just going to stagnate and walk out in a moment of frustration and end it even worse that it already is.

Damn.
It's a tough situation to be in.
 
Personally I would worry more about the acetaminophen than the codeine. One may be addictive, but the other can be both acutely and chronically poisonous, especially if combined with alcohol. At the dose she is taking it(you know of, it may be far higher), I would really suggest some liver tests.

If someone doesn't want to change, there is unfortunately not much you can do about it. In the very least I would suggest that she use an ACC200 (NAC) with every Adcodol to help replenish the liver's glutathione levels. It may slow down the need for a new liver...
 
Not really a question for an internet forum but fine...some thoughts by someone definitely not qualified to answer:

Might be wrong here but 80mg codeine a day isn't crazy high. Obviously not good, but probably salvageable.

The >3g of paracetamol on the other hand...for 5 years straight. Jikes. That'll score you some liver damage for sure.

Sounds like she is depressed primarily.
 
Codeine is not to dissimilar from heroin. They give heroin addicts a cough mixture with a high codeine content to take away the "cold turkey" while they try to make you understand that you have a problem. Its becoming the in thing now to drink lean. One thing is for sure she will need to be booked in for treatment but she has to do it on her own accord.
 
jdido87 said:
Codeine is not to dissimilar from heroin. They give heroin addicts a cough mixture with a high codeine content to take away the "cold turkey" while they try to make you understand that you have a problem. Its becoming the in thing now to drink lean. One thing is for sure she will need to be booked in for treatment but she has to do it on her own accord.
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Nonsense. They give them methadone, suboxone or subutex - synthetic opioids which work very differently.

You can't kick cold turkey with codeine or any opiate. As soon as you stop it you go back into cold turkey.
 
jdido87 said:
Codeine is not to dissimilar from heroin. They give heroin addicts a cough mixture with a high codeine content to take away the "cold turkey" while they try to make you understand that you have a problem. Its becoming the in thing now to drink lean. One thing is for sure she will need to be booked in for treatment but she has to do it on her own accord.
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What's "drink lean"?
 
Arksun said:
A close friend is in a pickle. His wife (also my close friend) consumes about 8 Adcodol tabs a day and has been doing so for the last 5 years.

What do?
Click to expand...

She needs professional help from an addiction treatment centre, starting off with at least checking in for a detox. You don't just stop 80mg codeine a day and go on with your life like nothing happened. She will need continuous counselling for a while after. Ideally some kind of support group. A GP could prescribe her subutex which will get her through the initial 7 days of withdrawal which is the worst, but the real recovery is the emotional mess afterwards.

The amount of paracetamol she is taking in every day is dangerous. What often happens to people who get addicted to pain pills at advanced stages is their kidneys start to fail from paracetamol poisoning, since the 2 drugs are often in the same pills.
 
Sensorei said:
Nonsense. They give them methadone, suboxone or subutex - synthetic opioids which work very differently.

You can't kick cold turkey with codeine or any opiate. As soon as you stop it you go back into cold turkey.
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Both are derived from opioids and both are addictive. From my understanding codeine is the more natural form. Cold turkey comes back after the medication is stopped for obvious reasons. What experience do you have with substance abuse?
 
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jdido87 said:
Whatever it's called I am not a chemist. Cold turkey comes back after the medication is stopped for obvious reasons.
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Actually no. Methadone and Subatex are designed to be similar enough to opiates to make the person feel like they don't crave the codeine/heroin like they have to have it, but they are different enough so they mask the physical withdrawal symptoms and after a week of using either one experience's none of the severe physical withdrawals.
 
Physeptone over subutex for withdrawals. Subutex did not work.
 
jdido87 said:
Physeptone over subutex for withdrawals. Subutex did not work.
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This thread is about a lady using 80mg codeine a day. Subutex is spot on for addiction with lower doses of opiates. Physeptone is generally for heavy heroin junkies.
 
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