The Student Room Group

How bad is it to take 30-50mg of codeine a day

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Original post by girl_in_black
Dou you really have a healthy lifestyle or do you have disordered eating and a problem with alcohol?

Relatively healthy, I eat a lot of fruit and veg and I have genuinely tried all the things doctors have suggested
Do you suffer with stress/anxiety at all?
Original post by Jakson123
Do you suffer with stress/anxiety at all?

yes but not any kind of diagnosed anxiety disorder
I would look at doing all you can then to reduce your stress and anxiety, stomach ache is a very common result of stress and stress is a common trigger of headaches. Not being able to get to sleep as well of course is also related to stress/anxiety. If you can sort out your stress/anxiety levels then I bet all your other issues would be solved or much reduced. Codeine also often gives people a feeling of well being - you might also be inadvertently medicating your stress and anxiety with it. I'd go to the doc and get help with your stress and anxiety and stop the codeine.
Original post by Jakson123
I would look at doing all you can then to reduce your stress and anxiety, stomach ache is a very common result of stress and stress is a common trigger of headaches. Not being able to get to sleep as well of course is also related to stress/anxiety. If you can sort out your stress/anxiety levels then I bet all your other issues would be solved or much reduced. Codeine also often gives people a feeling of well being - you might also be inadvertently medicating your stress and anxiety with it. I'd go to the doc and get help with your stress and anxiety and stop the codeine.

I’m not stressed about anything in particular, just generally a very anxious person (everyone in my family is) and normal uni stress so there isn’t much I can do to eliminate stress
Original post by Anonymous #1
Relatively healthy, I eat a lot of fruit and veg and I have genuinely tried all the things doctors have suggested

There is a lot more to a healthy lifestyle that eating a lot of fruit and veg. Being underweight and drinking every day are certainly not helping your lifestyle and your pain issues.
Original post by Anonymous
That was me. I buy it from the two different pharmacies in my area, and now from 3 pharmacy websites and if I’m getting the train home from uni, I get off at every train station that has a pharmacy

Going to two different pharmacies without telling them you're going to other pharmacies to buy it in then going to three different pharmacy websites to procure it and then getting off at multiple train stations to stop at different pharmacies to amass a stock of codeine doesn't exactly sound like the actions of someone who doesn't have an addiction does it...?
Original post by girl_in_black
There is a lot more to a healthy lifestyle that eating a lot of fruit and veg. Being underweight and drinking every day are certainly not helping your lifestyle and your pain issues.

It’s not helping but I don’t think it’s making it that much worse either. The headaches especially have been an ongoing issue since I was about 12/13, which is far longer than any of the other issues have been going on
Original post by artful_lounger
Going to two different pharmacies without telling them you're going to other pharmacies to buy it in then going to three different pharmacy websites to procure it and then getting off at multiple train stations to stop at different pharmacies to amass a stock of codeine doesn't exactly sound like the actions of someone who doesn't have an addiction does it...?

I’m not doing all of that on the same day, one packet of 32 takes me about a week
Original post by Anonymous
I’m not doing all of that on the same day, one packet of 32 takes me about a week


It's not about the amount you're using I'm pointing out (that's an issue others have already mentioned), it's the behaviour patterns.

Do you think it's the kind of thing people who don't have a dependence issue do? Even if not on the same day, you're going (literally) out of your way to procure more to feed the need for using it, you're also doing so in a way that obscures what you're doing (I am assuming you aren't telling any of these pharmacies what you are doing), from the professionals you are dealing with - and you don't seem to have any awareness or insight into that.

How do you think the pharmacies would respond if they were aware? Or your GP? Do you think your family and friends would consider that the normal, healthy behaviour of someone without a dependence?

I think you may not be fully recognising just how far into this hole you may have gone. Consider if someone was doing this with alcohol - going to multiple different shops to avoid being recognised buying alcohol repeatedly, misleading the people selling it about how much and how frequently you have bought it, and not having any insight into that not being healthy behaviour. Most would consider that to be a sign of alcoholism.

By extension then I think it's not surprising that this does seem to me and others to be the behaviour of someone with a different substance abuse/dependence issue - in this case codeine.
Original post by artful_lounger
It's not about the amount you're using I'm pointing out (that's an issue others have already mentioned), it's the behaviour patterns.
Do you think it's the kind of thing people who don't have a dependence issue do? Even if not on the same day, you're going (literally) out of your way to procure more to feed the need for using it, you're also doing so in a way that obscures what you're doing (I am assuming you aren't telling any of these pharmacies what you are doing), from the professionals you are dealing with - and you don't seem to have any awareness or insight into that.
How do you think the pharmacies would respond if they were aware? Or your GP? Do you think your family and friends would consider that the normal, healthy behaviour of someone without a dependence?
I think you may not be fully recognising just how far into this hole you may have gone. Consider if someone was doing this with alcohol - going to multiple different shops to avoid being recognised buying alcohol repeatedly, misleading the people selling it about how much and how frequently you have bought it, and not having any insight into that not being healthy behaviour. Most would consider that to be a sign of alcoholism.
By extension then I think it's not surprising that this does seem to me and others to be the behaviour of someone with a different substance abuse/dependence issue - in this case codeine.

OP clearly has a lot of issues and based on past threads, I really don't think the efforts of you or anyone else here is going to change what she does. Don't waste your time - she is not in a place to accept this is a problem.
Original post by black tea
OP clearly has a lot of issues and based on past threads, I really don't think the efforts of you or anyone else here is going to change what she does. Don't waste your time - she is not in a place to accept this is a problem.

Perhaps not, but for posterity I think it merits being said at the least!
Original post by artful_lounger
It's not about the amount you're using I'm pointing out (that's an issue others have already mentioned), it's the behaviour patterns.
Do you think it's the kind of thing people who don't have a dependence issue do? Even if not on the same day, you're going (literally) out of your way to procure more to feed the need for using it, you're also doing so in a way that obscures what you're doing (I am assuming you aren't telling any of these pharmacies what you are doing), from the professionals you are dealing with - and you don't seem to have any awareness or insight into that.
How do you think the pharmacies would respond if they were aware? Or your GP? Do you think your family and friends would consider that the normal, healthy behaviour of someone without a dependence?
I think you may not be fully recognising just how far into this hole you may have gone. Consider if someone was doing this with alcohol - going to multiple different shops to avoid being recognised buying alcohol repeatedly, misleading the people selling it about how much and how frequently you have bought it, and not having any insight into that not being healthy behaviour. Most would consider that to be a sign of alcoholism.
By extension then I think it's not surprising that this does seem to me and others to be the behaviour of someone with a different substance abuse/dependence issue - in this case codeine.

I don’t think it’s normal and I’m well aware they wouldn’t sell it to me if I said that’s what I’m doing
Original post by Anonymous
I don’t think it’s normal and I’m well aware they wouldn’t sell it to me if I said that’s what I’m doing


So why are you resistant to actually speaking to your GP about this and other problems?

Nothing is going to change if you don't engage with the issue.
Original post by artful_lounger
So why are you resistant to actually speaking to your GP about this and other problems?
Nothing is going to change if you don't engage with the issue.

Based off past experiences with doctors, it wouldn’t help anything. I’d go in there and tell them I take too much codeine and they’d say just stop doing that then without actually giving me an alternative. It would also make it easier for them to dismiss me as some sort of drug seeker or as making things up.
Original post by black tea
OP clearly has a lot of issues and based on past threads, I really don't think the efforts of you or anyone else here is going to change what she does. Don't waste your time - she is not in a place to accept this is a problem.

This is a completely separate issue from past threads though and none of the other stuff really needed bringing up at all
Original post by Anonymous
Based off past experiences with doctors, it wouldn’t help anything. I’d go in there and tell them I take too much codeine and they’d say just stop doing that then without actually giving me an alternative. It would also make it easier for them to dismiss me as some sort of drug seeker or as making things up.


Stop focusing on the past and just focus on the now and act accordingly. See a doctor and talk to them about the issues and go from there.
Original post by artful_lounger
Stop focusing on the past and just focus on the now and act accordingly. See a doctor and talk to them about the issues and go from there.

I can’t imagine it would improve anything to have them put in my medical records that I’m some sort of opioid addict
Original post by Anonymous #1
This is a completely separate issue from past threads though and none of the other stuff really needed bringing up at all

I disagree. You wouldn’t even have disclosed the lengths you are going to to get this much codeine unless I hadn’t recognised you from one of your other threads. That’s plainly relevant and ties into you giving piecemeal parts of the picture to increase the chances of being told what you want to hear.

If you are the same person from the regular drinking thread I’m going to be annoyed as you’re portraying yourself as otherwise relatively healthy here.
Original post by Anonymous #1
This is a completely separate issue from past threads though and none of the other stuff really needed bringing up at all

I haven't brought up any of your other issues (though the fact it's so easy to work out which other threads you have made says a lot) . Your past threads do suggest a pattern of behaviour that is relevant though.

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