Codeine - Treatment for Habitual Users

Treatment for Habitual Users

As previously described, stopping opiate use abruptly (or going "cold turkey") takes both a physical and psychological toll on the user. Someone wishing to end a codeine addiction can find assistance from a licensed physician who may prescribe methadone to ease the symptoms of withdrawal. Methadone is itself an opiate, but it works differently in the body. It releases slowly, so that the user does not feel a rush of euphoria or a backlash when the euphoria ends. Recovering addicts slowly reduce the dosage of methadone under a doctor's care until they become drug-free. (An entry on methadone is available in this encyclopedia.) Another drug, buprenorphine, also provides some sedating effects while blocking the brain's absorption of opiates.

Any successful drug-treatment program requires some sort of psychological intervention. Former users have reported remarkable benefits from talk therapy and the support of other recovering addicts. Narcotics Anonymous is built on the philosophy of the better-known Alcoholics Anonymous. The organization offers free group therapy, online information, telephone hotlines, and other services to recovering addicts worldwide, no matter what type of drug abuse led to their addiction.

Words from a "Junkie"

Experimental American author William S. Burroughs (1914–1997) was very honest and open about his experiences as an opiate addict. Here, in a passage from his novel Junkie, he describes the process of drug withdrawal.

"The last of the codeine was running out. My nose and eyes began to run, sweat soaked through my clothes. Hot and cold flashes hit me as if a furnace door was swinging open and shut. I lay down on the bunk, too weak to move. My legs ached and twitched so that any position was intolerable, and I moved from one side to the other, sloshing about in my sweaty clothes." Burroughs added: "Almost worse than the sickness is the depression that goes with it. One afternoon I closed my eyes and saw New York in ruins. Huge centipedes and scorpions crawled in and out of empty bars and cafeterias and drugstores on Forty-second Street. Weeds were growing up through cracks and holes in the pavement. There was no one in sight."