16 and Possible Drug Addiction This Is Hell Please Advice Needed.?
Question by Ihatebirds: 16 and possible drug addiction this is hell please advice needed.?
Hi, recently I’ve been taking codeine(nurofen plus 12.9 mg codeine 200 mg ibuprofen) for neck pain. I have a herniated disc in my neck and its very painful, Im only 16 years old. About a month ago I was prescribed tylenol 3’s…but the doctor only gave me 6 for fear of me being tyoung and getting addicted. Then I got the otc nurofen and have been taking one everyday for a month. Except, I chew them instead of swallowing whole, and I feel like its released into me stronger. Recently Ive been scared and take about 4 a day. I stopped for one day and noticed I had headaches in school, one moment had 101 fever then felt cold, weak, I felt like I had the flu. I took a codeine an hour ago now im fine. Can I really be addicted or is this just starting the addiction? Today in school it was like a damn slap in the face, 1st day off it and guess what we’re learning about the opium wars in global class WTF. Idk if its all in my head or im really addicted or maybe I legit do just have the flu. I need help, I think but I can’t tell my parents I need rehab they have no idea about this and I won’t disappoint them. Ive been feeling so weak and depressed and cry for no reason when Im off them. I need advice am I addicted and how do I stop it has only been 1 month. What should I do??
Sorry this is a repeat, no one really answered and I put it in the wrong section before D:
Best answer:
Answer by Just Call Me D
Pretend “addiction” doesn’t exist for a moment.
You are experiencing something called withdrawal. This means once you are deprived of a substance that your body enjoys or gets used to, it will want it back. Only a few medicines have this side-effect, “withdrawal”.
Given time, it will pass and you won’t have to worry about the substance again. Codeine and other opiates are very “addicting” or in other words have a horrible “withdrawal” stage that one needs to get through in order to be put at peace again.
Just get through it. The more you do, the worse it is when you don’t have it. You need to continue taking Ibuprofen or whatever you are prescribed and try to forget about the codeine, which is a MILD MILD opiate, to say the LEAST.
Oxycodone is 60x the strength per MG than codeine. To put that into perspective would be a bad thing….just stop while you’re ahead please. =) Withdrawal doesn’t last long. 2-3 days max since last dosage, but is usually a 24 hour occassion.
Answer by Lexa
If you stop the codeine or synthetic codeine, and you have withdrawel symptoms (headaches, nausea, dizziness, shaking, fevers), then take the drug again and the symptoms go away, guess what — you’re ADDICTED!
You could have the flu IN ADDITION, but that’s secondary. Flu would also involve stuffy nose and coughing/sneezing. If you don’t have that, it’s not the flu.
You need to talk to your doctor ASAP. They need to put you on something NON-opiate, which unfortunately, will do NOTHING for pain but will keep you from being addicted. Some studies say Neurotin works for nerve pain (they use it for neuropathy in diabetics), but I don’t know if that would affect a herniated disk the same. You may just have to get used to being in pain for life.
I don’t know how you managed to give yourself a permanent, non-fixable, chronic injury at 16, but you are well and truly screwed, because herniated disks don’t go away, they don’t get better, and they can’t be surgically fixed, only removed (and in the neck, that’s kind of impossible anyway — they’d have to put a rod in and fuse your neck in one direction).
We treat people in the ER for chronic back pain all the time. All they can do is throw pills at you. Medical science needs to catch up.
Here’s a website with withdrawel symptoms.
http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/c/codeine_withdrawal/symptoms.htm
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