DOSE:

240 mg

oral

Codeine

BODY WEIGHT:

18 kg

I landed with a bump. Someone was screaming. I could hear them, they were screaming 'my back, my back, shit my back'. I wanted to look around to see who it was, then I realised it was me. As I sat in Accident & Emergency waiting for the doctor, I wondered what had happened to my back. I couldn't stand, couldn't walk, but I could wiggle my toes and fingers.

They gave me codeine when I was discharged. Mainly because Paracetomol and Nurofen had no effect. I started with the normal does, 60mg. It had a mild effect, but nothing major. I didn't realise it made me constipated, and worried for a day or two why I hadn't been to the toilet since I fell, so I stopped.

A few days later, the pain was subsiding but still present. I decided to have more codeine. This time I had 240mg in one sitting. At first, I felt mild euphoria, coming on in waves. The effect was similar to methadone, but much milder. I called my parents and my friends, chatted briefly but my thinking wasn't clear so I stopped talking to them.

Then after about an hour, the itchyness began. I was scratching all over my head, it was annoying. Shortly afterwards I felt a numbness in my face. I went to the mirror, my pupils were like pin dots. I'm currently still feeling numb (I'm about 90 minutes in), but it comes and goes in waves, again like methadone. The tablets tasted awful, and whilst normally I never go for opiates, this is one of the good ones. I can see its addictive qualities, but I'm not sucked into it. I know that if I were to try heroin for example, that I'd be stuck on that straight away.

To put it bluntly, codeine is to pain as chicken soup is to the flu. Not a cure, not even for the symptoms. But at least it makes it more bearable, if only for a while. I wouldn't want to do this too regularly, but I could quite happily have the occaisional 'codeine evening'.

It's quite an introverted substance, I don't feel particularly sociable. I get occaisional moments of near lucidity, then I drift back into a monged out state. I appreciate the living hell opiate addicts must go through. I wouldn't want to stay like this forever as I couldn't do anything. But if the pain was unbearable, this is more bearable than the pain.

Exp Year: 2002	ExpID: 17938
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Nov 8, 2007	Views: 22,921
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Codeine (14) : Unknown Context (20), General (1), Medical Use (47)