Younger people are becoming smarter in tricking drug stores and finding a way to take some medication to have fun, but most of them don’t know how bad it can become. In younger age, we are more curious, and without knowledge, they can get in situations they never could imagine. It is very important to give the right information to kids about addictions and what it can cause.

Most of the addicts discover a certain opiate when they were teenagers. So, when something stressful comes around, they won’t turn to a person for help, they will turn to the drug. When they have to visit clinics like a rapid detox center in Michigan, a lot of the time it’s too late to think what they could’ve done to prevent the addiction. With the right education, the number of people that end up in these situations would be lower.

Codeine in Culture

The biggest Codeine is the people who are promoting it and the lack of knowledge. In recent years, Codeine has become a very popular “way of having fun” because many hip-hop artists are promoting it in their videos. Even when they end up in the hospital people start talking about it for a couple of days and get back to using it.

They call it Syrup because they take it from the cough syrup and mix it with beverages. It isn’t addictive like heroin, but there are many bad side effects when used in large amounts. There was a study in 2017 that showed that more than 30 million Americans used codeine. The main use of this opiate is for pain relief, so it can easily be prescribed.

Get more information here: https://www.vulture.com/2018/02/the-drugs-influencing-pop-culture-right-now.html

Withdrawal Symptoms

When used regularly there is a wide range of physiological and psychological symptoms produced by codeine. They are used in cough syrup because they aren’t life-threatening in small dosages, but when misused, there could be deadly complications. When we have someone that is a chronic user, the best option for them is to go to the detox facility where the recovery will be monitored and done properly.

When someone enters such a facility, the first thing doctors need to do is to evaluate clients using a variety of measurements and clinical tools. There is something called Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale where they can see in which state is the client through a predetermined score scale. Further on, they will determine which is the optional therapy individual should take.

There are a lot of symptoms a client can experience which depends is the early or late stage of withdrawal. Most of the users will experience mood swings, disorientation, dehydration, vomiting and nausea, digestive upset, fatigue, sweating, muscle pain, fever, insomnia, and headache.

Withdrawal Timeline

Acute Phase is a phase that people are going through the first four days of withdrawal. In these four days, the symptoms are the strongest. After five to seven days is the moderate phase where certain physical symptoms are diminishing, but there is an increase in psychological symptoms as psychosis and agitation.

For most of the people that are addicted to codeine, symptoms won’t last longer than 1 to 2 weeks, but some long-term symptoms can be experienced after months or also years. PAWS or post-acute withdrawal syndrome is when you experience something like that after a long period of time. The main goal is to do it steadily so someone won’t have those long-term symptoms.

Another great thing to know is that the effect that causes satisfaction in codeine lasts for about 3 to 4 hours and the main effects will leave the body after 16 hours. If you want to do testing on someone, you should know that it stays in the blood for 16 hours, in the urine it can last for over a week and in saliva up to four days. If you think someone took it a month ago, you can use their hair sample where they can detect codeine after 3 months of the last dosage.

Inpatient Treatment

There are many treatment methods you can use, but one is that is very popular is inpatient method. It is a proven way of treating where the user is placed in a designed department where he has to stay for a month, sometimes longer. Like every treatment, they are receiving intensive clinical supervision and medical management.

What makes it different is its increased camaraderie, a strong sober support network, and 24/7 staff monitoring. There are a lot of cases where this method was proven to work, so some of the clinics added recreational activities, meditation, yoga, and ongoing aftercare services.

Detox at Home

Many people look at codeine as a weaker drug than cocaine or heroin, so they try to fix their issue on their own in their home. There are a lot of aspects you should consider when doing so. It is much easier to get clean when someone is beside you that have been through it a lot of times.

Everyone who recommends you to try doing it alone doesn’t have any experience. It is much easier to get back to bad habits when you are on your own. Professionals will always recommend proper treatment with supervision. Most of the users try doing this by a tapering protocol which isn’t safe if you don’t have someone experienced by your side. This method involves using controlled doses and lowering the dose until the user phases out of active use.