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Nurofen plus withdrawal

Hi everyone - I have just come across this forum - and would like to ask help and advice.  I have been taking nurofen plus (ibuprofen + codeine sulphate 12.8 mg per tablet) for 5 years - I take about 24 tablets per day (all at once - like the feeling along with the pain killing effects)
I must give these up - for I understand this is addiction - and must find another way to deal with pain.
I guess nurofen is much like tylenol (2? 3? 4?) - dont know which one.
So on Sunday I took 24 and on Monday I took 12 - felt lousy today and took another 12 - the plan is to stay on 12 for 3 days and then go to 6 for 3 days.
Do you think this is feasible?  I have to continue working and functioning - I have a family of 4............ So - I cannot just go c/t.  I am thinking that perhaps cutting to 6 on Thurs might be too much, but I am due to go to the US on the 14th for a week with my daughter - work and fun - and I want to be off for that trip.
Any advice would be so helpful.
Thank you in anticipation
chewey
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Avatar universal
I'm now three weeks off a 2-year habit of 24-48 N+ per day. For me, the cold turkey withdrawal (though hell) was the easy part. The hard part is staying clean through the following months of vague depression, lethargy, restlessness and low motivation. I don't know if or when this will ever end -- it scares me to think perhaps I've *always* been (and will always be) this way, and that the N+ habit was simply a means of self-medicating a preexisting condition.

My wake-up call consisted of bloody vomit one morning followed by the three weeks of debilitating gut pain thanks to the ibuprofen. Fortunately these symptoms have almost completely subsided.

I notice my days tend to be much better when I stay busy and productive. Exercise helps a lot too. Anything, really, to give me some sense of self-satisfaction. I'm hopeful but worried that I won't ever feel truly normal again.
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Avatar universal
Hey u still on here,I would like u to send me your tapering plan,I'm trying to stop taking n+,on day three but feel really bad,this cold turkey thing is not working.
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Avatar universal
Hi there, do you still want that tapering plan or am i too late?
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Avatar universal
Hi Dave -just read your post and would very much appreciate the tapering plan you have been on.  I am trying to get off Nurofen Plus - take between 12 to 14 a day and really need to stop!  I tried CT and got to Day 3, but the depressed feelings were horrible (not so much the physical symptoms) - I need to taper gradually to cope with this.  Hope you are getting on well! xxxxxxxxxxxx
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Avatar universal
Thank you for that positive message - I am on the first day of going CT having been on about 20 NF+ per day.  feeling  bad now but want to make it to th other side xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Avatar universal
are you still not taking the nurofen plus.
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Avatar universal
Hi everyone, I have been addicted to Nurofen Plus for over seven years and have been in and out of hospital because of this horrible drug.  I have suffered from a perforated ulcer, low blood count, low iron count and various other sicknesses.  I have tried to go cold turkey on a number of occasions to stop taking N+ but with no success I get to the end of week one and the withdrawls are just too much, having to sleep in a hot bath all night because sleeping in my perfectly good bed does not happen, having to lie to everyone and say I have stopped taking them when really they know the truth just by the way I act.
This time I am going to ween myself off them, I have the support of my fiance not so much my parents.  My parents do not know how to deal with this situation, my mother thinks I am just another attic, her exact words "its like heroin and your an attic" my father is a businessman and deals with it like a business deal.  They wonder why I dont talk to them.
I am so determined this time to get my life back on track, I have tried to get in contact with Dr Grieve but with no success yet, I am going to attend Narcotics Anonomys, when I talk about it its feels good.  I am so happy my fiance found this forum, I CAN DO IT!!!
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Avatar universal
great post  makes me feel more empowered and ready to start on the journey of becoming clean and nurofen plus free ,  why oh why when did i ever think that a small white tablet would rule me ,destroy me, depress me and so cunningly convince me to buy it because for a few tiny seconds it elated me , must be a little crazy i suppose to succumb to it in the first place , actually i find it quite frightening now that i did not heed the warnings . i need to be a warrior not a coward the more i write the more i realise, thank you for sparking off a response in me finally. good luck on your journey , you truly are a warrior bless you.
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Avatar universal
hi just read your post , feel very happy for you please can you tell me a plan for me I am so sad that I am addicted to nurofen plus and feel so hopeless as to stop frightens me so much .
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Avatar universal
My bf as been taking a packet a day ...goes searching for them. He told me he is addicted. Hes got bad stomach pains and doesnt eat much. Sleeps after work ..hardly talks to me .,in his own little world ...no sex for 6 months . I feel so lonely and depressed as his addiction is making me unhappy .
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Avatar universal
an you die from over use of nurofen?
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Avatar universal
Thank u and GREAT willPower.
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Avatar universal
Woo hoo - 5th May 2014 and I am 3 years clean and sober today!!!! Thought I would share my good news with you - 3 years clean of those awful, insidious white pills otherwise known as N+!

And for me, staying clean has only been possible thanks believing in a higher power, who in my case happens to be God, going to Narcotics Anonymous, and ACCEPTING UNCONDITIONALLY THAT I AM AN ADDICT, and am powerless over drugs, as is N+!!

Wishing you all the best!
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Avatar universal
Counting down to 5 May 2014 when, god willing, I will be 3 years clean and sober; clean of that insidious pill - N+ - which nearly killed me Easter Bank Holiday Monday in 2011, resulting in a 10-day stint in hospital.

By the time N+ was ready to finish me off, kill me, I was on 32 per day, having started on 2 here and there 2 years beforehand.

My view, and it is my personal one, clean for me means ZERO N+ pills, not 1 or 2 here and there or every fortnight. If I have this attitude I leave the door open for that insidious pill to ensnare me when I least expect it.

Clean for me means complete abstinence from N+, and I say this because with hindsight and recovery helped by NA, I can see how those white evils got me.

I thought I had them “licked”; but what I didn’t realise is that I had unwittingly crossed that line where I wanted to stop, couldn't stop taking the white evils, but had to take them in order to feel normal, keep off the shakes, sweats, function, live, go to work etc. I was the walking dead, and I never ever want to feel like that again.

And thank god recovery is possible! And recovery for me means:

1) Accepting on a daily basis that I am addict, my life becomes unmanageable when I use N+ of which I am completely powerless. I apply the same thinking to alcohol.
2) Going to NA meetings, sharing and developing a spiritual connection with a higher power of my understanding.
3) Doing the NA steps.

Wish me luck that I get to 3 years, and in order to get there I will continue as I have being doing for nearly 3 years.

It is a good feeling to say today that by 5th May 2014, god willing, I hope to report that I will have had a 100% success rate – I will have not had had a single drug or drink – over the last 3 years!

Best of luck to all.
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Avatar universal
Hi I've been taking N+ for 3 years and know exactly what you mean when you say, you enjoy taking them - me too, I like the high and the extra confidence they give me. Now I've started to see that I'm an addict and must stop, which I've began today by only taking 6 N+ instead of 36.
Good luck to you
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1549928 tn?1310079585
Hi everyone, I last posted in 2012, September. I kept on taking these things but last September I stopped and now only take them occasionally, perhaps 5 or 6 once a fortnight. It's good, I don't crave them or think my evenings are torment without them. I just live a regular lifestyle and deal with real feelings as I get them. That's life and it's good. It's good to be truly yourself and not to be poisoning yourself, wasting money, lying to people, driving miles to find new chemists, living an illusion. I just hope I haven't done too much damage.

It took me a few days of getting it down in halves over a week and now I've been clear long enough to know I'm never going back. Good luck, everyone, there is easily enough good stuff about a sober life to make it worth trying!

Cali.
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Avatar universal
This New Year marks the anniversary of me taking N+ for 10 years straight. not something I'm proud of I started taking 2 a day, the thing is I didn’t take it for anything in particular I took it knowing that the last time I had a head ache they made me feel good so it was purely a feel good factor and then it escalated and now I’m taking 32 a day and have been taking that amount for the last 2 years it's been increasing, the new year marks a change and I think I've done pretty well so far I've taken my dose down to 6 a day and with in a few weeks will bring that down to 4 and so on I started well before Xmas and it's a long road but I've been here before when I gave up smoking so I know I can do this, the trouble is N+ is like smoking to me I love taking them I enjoy the kick they give me it's sad and pathetic that I see it that way and very shameful but that's why I never wanted to give it up I'm giving up now as I feel generally unwell all that N+ is toxic for the Liver and Kidneys and if I don’t stop soon then Ill be pushing up daisies plus I’ve just recently got married and I don’t want my wife to be a widow, she does not know about my addiction…nobody does but you get to a point where you grow so tired of travelling the 4 corners of the globe telling lies to pharmacist’s just to get me a fix, nothing worse than when you go into a chemist and you hear whispers from the staff “oh look there’s than man again”

So new year and plenty of changes,  when I first dropped my dosage I felt it, really did feel like crap so while easing off N+ I've been taking a Vitamin called Wellman which really does help me no end it takes the edge off the N+ withdrawal but with a bit of wheel power I can beat this once and for all, what would make me happy is not having to be a customer in a chemist for the wrong reasons… no more lies…and a bit more money in my pocket, each box of 32 in the UK is £7 that is £49 a week, when I think how many pills I’ve sank in the 10 years I’m surprised I’m still here to tell the story I mean even if I was taking only 32 a week I would of put away 16640 tablets over 10 years, yet mine is over that figure and to think I’ve spent well over £4000 it’s ridiculous and has to stop, I take each day as it comes, I find the secrete is not to sit around being idle…do things and keep the mind occupied, I’ve recently gone back to the Gym as this help’s a lot I don’t feel like it at all but I have to burn this out of me and get the body back to normal again and hey I feel so much better in health thank god
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5347058 tn?1381188426
Hi there and welcome! This is an older thread that you are posting on. You will get much more support if you create your own post. Just go to the top of the page and hit the 'post a question' link. There is also a forum called 'living with an addict' that would be a great place to get support from others going through similar things. Please don't let your husband's behavior make you feel like any less of a wife. Unfortunately he is doing what addicts do best. Lying, making excuses, and manipulating. You are going to have to give him a big dose of tough love. Don't enable his use in any way. That may mean making some serious ultimatums and standing behind them. I know it's a very hard thing to do, but it may be necessary. He is going to do what he wants regardless of how it affects you or anyone else. It doesn't have anything to do with how much he loves you, or how good of a wife you are. Addicts can be very selfish and get so wrapped up in their addiction that they can't see anything else. Please get yourself educated about the disease and get some support. Don't let him drag you and your family down with him. Take care of yourself and please try to keep your head up.
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Avatar universal
I'm in desperate need of help.
My husband once had an addiction to tramadol about 18months ago. He had to stop taking them due to having two seizures one of witch we could have been in our car with him driving the other he had in work.
He stopped taking tramadol and went cold turkey, he didn't suffer any symptoms of cold turkey,  but I just thought he was doing really well.
I've recently found toilet roll rolled up in a bunch with 16 tablets of n+ inside. There where 5 of these toilet roll bundles all with 16 tablets of n+ inside.
I didn't know how to handle this again. I confronted him about this and he told me he had to go back on them because of the way we have been arguing. I feel so hurt I've tried to be there for so long I just don't know where to turn. He's now saying he has stopped taking n+ but yet again  is showing no symptoms of withdrawal.
please can someone help and give me some advice as I don't know where to turn next.

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Avatar universal
Hi all im about to quit (tapering) N+ from today - was on 30 a day - x2 lots of 15 throughout the day.
Just to feel bloody normal....!!

I have tried to come off several times but to no avail - it just cannot carry on - i can't continue to take the time off work to get to various chemists - the money side of it is 'killing' me.

I am on Christmas break (New Zealand)  from work so figured its the best time to start tapering as i work a 9.5 hour day on my feet for 90% of that 9.5 hours.

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Avatar universal
hi..
Ive never actually been hooked on N+ but I just spent a week inside a hospital detox facility, trying to get off heroin, and they stuffed me up with the N+ pills instead.I'm no stranger to heroin withdrawal, it ends in four days, six maximum...however, its been ten days, and the damn chills aren't going away,i'm still weak as a sick dog. How long do the chills last? I wake up with them and they last....I'm living somewhere where its still summer and people are turning on their ac's and i don't even have a fan on and am shivering under the sheets. HELP.
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4522800 tn?1470325834
MARA2412..You are in a really old post..Go up to the top and hit the Orange Button that says POST A QUESTION..Then you will get some replys..OK! You will be starting your own POST..




-------------OLD POST-------------------------------------OLD POST------------------------------
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Avatar universal
Can someone tell me if they think i have an addiction to N+.
I have to take some everyday...although i can manage just two but just for the hell of it, i will take up to 12.
I don't have any bad symptons or anything...however i have lost interest in sex completely but that could be due to my anti anxiety pills.
I have taken N+ for many many years...like more than 10...
Is what i am doing a problem........i notice you all are talking numbers in the range of 60 per day...
Or perhaps i am reaching for excuses to give myself a reason to keep doing it?

Tam
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Can someone tell me if they think i have an addiction to N+.
I have to take some everyday...although i can manage just two but just for the hell of it, i will take up to 12.
I don't have any bad symptons or anything...however i have lost interest in sex completely but that could be due to my anti anxiety pills.
I have taken N+ for many many years...like more than 10...
Is what i am doing a problem........i notice you all are talking numbers in the range of 60 per day...
Or perhaps i am reaching for excuses to give myself a reason to keep doing it?

Tam
Helpful - 0
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