Kasserine

I am new to this forum and if possible would like some advice.

I have using codeine recreationally for a number of years now. I take 100MG with 3 beers.

Is this a high amount? I have tried to taper it to 50G coupled with abstaining on some days. I do not experience any physical withdrawals, but mentally I feel depressed and down.

Is it that I'm in denial and I am an addict?

I have never increased the dose over 100MG and have never drank more than 3-4 beers. I always have dinner shortly after, so the food soaks up the beer.

Stopdropburn

It depends on how often you're doing this, but the reality is that, yeah, you probably are an addict - otherwise you wouldn't be here, and you wouldn't have an established routine of use. You're better off not taking them, clearly there's no reason for it, and the amount of aspirin in the codeine plus the beer is going to kill your liver. I'm pretty sure you answered your own question. Good luck.

Kasserine

Thank you for your response. You are right. I have answered my own question.

Where I am at now is that I miss the mellow feeling it gives me. I am going to AA to about 4-5 meetings per week. What I hear from other member are stories of uncontrolled drinking and drugging, which is not my case.

I am trying to find a middle way. Taking the codeine and beer 4 times a week. Abstaining 3 days.

I kept it at 100MG all of this time. Never increasing, thinking that I would avoid/ reduce damage that way. I read other forums here saying that the average daily amount is 400MG per day.

I know. I hear it every day in AA. You can't do it your way. Maybe I will get to that point and quit struggling.

Thank you for sharing

larrylive

There are many healthy ways to obtain that mellow feeling..pick one.

Kasserine

Does anybody else have any experience in this area?

Maybe I am delusional, but is this excessive use?

FMTT

Look, the term excessive can be very subjective. What is too much for person A is just right for person B. I was legally prescribed what seemed to me to be a boatload of opiates. All legal but as the years passed, my crutch became chains of bondage. Only you can decide where you're at there. Does your life seem to revolve around your drug of choice?, do you regularly run out?, are your "friends" using too? Then again, if the answers to my above questions are no, then maybe you don't have a problem. What do YOU think? That's the million dollar question and unfortunately, most addicts who start asking these questions already know the answer. Good luck in your journey.

doggonecarl

Yes.

It's not about the amount of the drug, but the reasons we feel we need to get high in the first place. It sounds like you want to tag it as a recreational drug use. There is no such thing. In the quest of feeling mellow, you are slowing rewiring the pleasure seeking parts of your brain. Eventually you open the door to addiction. Then you won't be here asking, "Is this too much?"

You'll be asking, "How do I quit?"

Good luck. I pray the curtain of delusion is lifted for you.