Fighting for codeine

...and remembering that we do not all have the same response to meds/drugs.

What more is there to say?

What is the codeine for? Do you have a chronic pain issue?

Do you want to share more information so that you might get the right helpful responses ?

Actually... yeah I do. The point would be to recover from a long stretch of sleeplessness and thus remedy the anxiety. Cause yes I believe codeine can cure that stuff. But who cares amirite?

opioids can be a godsend for all kinds of stuff. doctors...often don't see it that way, sadly...

There are lots of things,to try for sleep before options that wouldn't have the addiction potential.

Codeine isn't going to "cure" anything. At best, it'll help with sleep for a few nights until you start developing a tolerance. At worst, you'll take it more than a few nights and start having a problem with opiates

Using natural sleep aids is a much better solution because it works with the natural chemicals in the body. However there are times when something stronger is necessary. For about 2 years after a trauma I experienced, nightmares kept me awake. I was already on a high level of narcotics for horrible cintinual migraines so my PDOC prescribed seroquel. It is great for sleep & does not cause a dependence on the med.

I once took codine for bronchitis. My H was known for making me angry but my reaction on codine was to pick up a huge ski boot bag packed & ready fir vacation & I threw it across the room at him. Never toom codine again after that.

Now I find other methods to to help with sleep.

I think that a few nights of codeine to help break a bad sleep cycle could be very helpful. To use it for, say, more than a week will probably lead to tolerance and addiction issues. Then your sleep will be even screwier.

Actually if you don't have addiction issues in your life one still creates a dependency wirh long term use. My pain specialists defined th difference. I was on a narcotic for almost 20 years at a high dose & never became addicted to it (wanting higher & higher doses to get the feeling the drug causes that one likes) The only thing it ever did was control my pain so I could FUNCTION lime a normal person. But EVERYONE who takes narcotics long term becomes DEPENDENT on it which just means that if you go iff the med suddenly yiu will go through withdrawal.

Everyone who us addicted is also dependent HOWEVER NOT everyone who is dependent is addicted. Every pain specialist I had for those 20 years said the same thing.

With dependence can come tolerance which makes it hard for MD's to distinguish between tolerance & addiction but it all has to do with what the patient is seeking from the drug (& usually an addict will NOT be honest. That is why they have svrewed things up for those of us eho have truly benefited from narcotics.

That's an excellent definition of the difference between addiction and dependence.
Addicts often cannot be truthful about their addiction because they're in such denial and/or fear losing the substance. It angers me that the medical profession and the government blame the addicts, rather than seeking to treat the underlying causes of addiction. The faulty approach makes it bad for everyone, both addicts and those who are not addicts, but need pain meds.

Actually they are more blaming tje pain specialists for prescribing narcotics in the first place. They have actually developed a drug when a heroin ID occurs that if given promptly will counter the OD. so what addicts are doing now in our area is shooting up in the hospital parking lot. I know the director of the hospital lab, he is also the chaplain...he said they find used needles in the hospital parking constantly.

They have lots if successful treatment centers here...but there are some who just don't want help so they are pressuring the pain specialists to lower doses of all narcotics to a very low morphine equivalent.

I told them that if I dropped it to that level I might as well NOT be on it. They insisted that it could help a little. I said the difference between pain level 9.5 & 10 still would leave me non- functional. Thank heavens a treatment they started with viscois lidocaine & the finding of CBD oil that seems to stop the migraine within 15 minutes. I was able to lower my dose with the stock pile I had accumulated for emergencies. Halfed the dose every few months for a year & never experienced withdrawal. But it is important for people who want to get onto a narcotic....even a synthetic one that they end up having to go through this process when they come off of it. Not a fun process & some MD'S just stop prescribing it if they suspect the person is addicted.

I had a period of time when there was a recall on the patches. If my friend wasn't the head pharmacist who knew the system & had contact with other stores to find it for me, it wouldn't have been a good situation.

It is nice not to have possibiluties like that hanging over my head....& I am thankful that my pain isn't as bad as it had been even when initially taking a lower dose (they still considered high) maybe the stressful marriage I was in added to the migraine pain making it continuous. Just glad it's not bad like it was. I couldn't take migraine meds because they messed with my heart so the narcotic actually had the least side effects.....however EVERY narcotic will cause bad constipation to the point hospitalization may be necessary. I can't use morphine or it's derivitives as it causes me to itch from head to toe