How codeine helped me.
Last booze: April 10 2015
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: London
Posts: 98
How codeine helped me.
I signed up on here yesterday and would just like to share something with you. Hopefully this is in the right forum.
Firstly - apologies for a slightly misleading title - let me explain. I've been drinking for over 30 years, the last 10 or so pretty much daily. I rarely get hammered these days but I probably average 3 pints of lager a night - sometimes finished off with some red wine with my late dinner. Weekends are usually heavier - particularly Friday night and usually Saturday daytime, heading in to early evening. Until recently (apart from the expense) I was doing ok with that. It didn't particularly disrupt my life and I wasn't hugely concerned. However, I started to get quite bad and sometimes awful hangovers, sometimes after only about 4/5 pints (which was quite odd for me). Enter Nurofen Plus (an over the counter mix of codeine and ibuprofen). It was a miracle! I took it to rid myself of hangovers and it even enabled me to get fairly boozed up during the week and still get up bright and early for work. The advice on the packet was to not take it for more that 3 days - well, over a relatively short period of time - maybe a year - I started taking it almost every day and until 10 days ago I was having it for breakfast. It was the first thing I thought of in the morning - I would take 3 pills and then another an hour or so later. It worked great for a while but more often than not I was taking it for the buzz rather than to relieve any pain. However, the effect of the dose I was taking was starting to wane and I started to take more, partly to relieve the withdrawal symptoms I was now getting. At this point I realised I was addicted and went online for advice and to read stories of others in the same boat (invaluable!). Luckily I wasn't as hooked as some poor souls who were literally driving from pharmacy to pharmacy all day every day to keep their supplies up. Some of their tales were pretty horrible. I threw my last pills away and endured the somewhat unpleasant withdrawal, but it's done now. Never again. Anyway, to my point about how it helped me to quit alcohol - it was quite simply the speed at which the addiction occurred. It was like an accelerated version of alcohol addiction and suddenly I was able to see alcohol for what it was - an addictive drug which over time makes you need more and more. The only reason I haven't spiralled out of control on booze is that I have to go to work (and couldn't afford to spend much more money than I was) - that's probably about it - or perhaps I just hadn't given it enough time? With my intake of codeine it was affordable and I could take it whenever I wanted, so the addiction was rapid and clearly identifiable.
I realise that this addiction process is probably common knowledge to a lot of you, but as I said, it was being able to see what was happening by me taking codeine was what made me realise that alcohol was in effect just the same only slower. It was like a revelation for me! I came to loathe codeine and am so glad that I saw the signs before things got really out of hand. It was this relatively brief but unpleasant spell that prompted me to properly question my drinking and my addiction to alcohol. Now I am here with you good people!
Sorry for the extensive post - hopefully I've made sense and that my 'revelation' may help others a little. It certainly helps me by writing it.
Best Wishes and thanks for reading.
C
Firstly - apologies for a slightly misleading title - let me explain. I've been drinking for over 30 years, the last 10 or so pretty much daily. I rarely get hammered these days but I probably average 3 pints of lager a night - sometimes finished off with some red wine with my late dinner. Weekends are usually heavier - particularly Friday night and usually Saturday daytime, heading in to early evening. Until recently (apart from the expense) I was doing ok with that. It didn't particularly disrupt my life and I wasn't hugely concerned. However, I started to get quite bad and sometimes awful hangovers, sometimes after only about 4/5 pints (which was quite odd for me). Enter Nurofen Plus (an over the counter mix of codeine and ibuprofen). It was a miracle! I took it to rid myself of hangovers and it even enabled me to get fairly boozed up during the week and still get up bright and early for work. The advice on the packet was to not take it for more that 3 days - well, over a relatively short period of time - maybe a year - I started taking it almost every day and until 10 days ago I was having it for breakfast. It was the first thing I thought of in the morning - I would take 3 pills and then another an hour or so later. It worked great for a while but more often than not I was taking it for the buzz rather than to relieve any pain. However, the effect of the dose I was taking was starting to wane and I started to take more, partly to relieve the withdrawal symptoms I was now getting. At this point I realised I was addicted and went online for advice and to read stories of others in the same boat (invaluable!). Luckily I wasn't as hooked as some poor souls who were literally driving from pharmacy to pharmacy all day every day to keep their supplies up. Some of their tales were pretty horrible. I threw my last pills away and endured the somewhat unpleasant withdrawal, but it's done now. Never again. Anyway, to my point about how it helped me to quit alcohol - it was quite simply the speed at which the addiction occurred. It was like an accelerated version of alcohol addiction and suddenly I was able to see alcohol for what it was - an addictive drug which over time makes you need more and more. The only reason I haven't spiralled out of control on booze is that I have to go to work (and couldn't afford to spend much more money than I was) - that's probably about it - or perhaps I just hadn't given it enough time? With my intake of codeine it was affordable and I could take it whenever I wanted, so the addiction was rapid and clearly identifiable.
I realise that this addiction process is probably common knowledge to a lot of you, but as I said, it was being able to see what was happening by me taking codeine was what made me realise that alcohol was in effect just the same only slower. It was like a revelation for me! I came to loathe codeine and am so glad that I saw the signs before things got really out of hand. It was this relatively brief but unpleasant spell that prompted me to properly question my drinking and my addiction to alcohol. Now I am here with you good people!
Sorry for the extensive post - hopefully I've made sense and that my 'revelation' may help others a little. It certainly helps me by writing it.
Best Wishes and thanks for reading.
C
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