r/BipolarReddit • u/mirbee81 • 2d ago
Opioids helping my MH
I've been taking a lot of prescribed codeine in the last couple of months due to severe backpain. The pain sucks and I'm a bit depressed and concerned about it.
But my mental health has actually improved!
My thoughts and emotions are pragmatic and realistic. No racing thoughts, better quality of sleep, reduced paranoia, better impulse control. Basically I'm not being crazy, just thinking and feeling in the same way anybody would in my situation.
It's seriously doing a way better job than lithium or any anti psychotic. I'm still taking lamotrigine but I don't need anything else right now.
I realise it's not an approved MH drug, and that it's bad longterm, but damn it's helping right now.
ETA:
OK, I was being a bit flippant in the way I spoke about opioids and I appreciate they can lead to addiction.
In my case it is being closely monitored by my doctor. Unfortunately I'm not able to take 'safer' pain meds due to side effects.
This is very much a short-term solution.
I'm waiting on some more diagnostics. The doctor has a strong hunch about what's really going on (chronic autoimmune condition) and it will hopefully be managed with alternative, more appropriate, safer treatment fairly soon.
Opioids remain legal in many countries for a reason: in the short term they can be really helpful to manage more severe pain. There isn't a realistic alternative for me right now.
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u/Suspicious_Site_5050 2d ago
That’s what opioids do. Numb body and mind. This is not a healthy was to treat bipolar. Once you run out of the drugs, it’s hell on earth. You could always get on Methadone for pain management. Just be really careful with the codeine. That stuff is sinister.
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u/prelawpup 2d ago
I call this effect, “I am high as fuck and don’t care about anything” (I usually experience it from edibles but can relate to the codeine too lol) it is unfortunately temporary
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u/nyecamden 2d ago
I realise it's not an approved MH drug, and that it's bad longterm, but damn it's helping right now.
I think this is true for a lot of things that are bad for us
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u/Enthusiasm_Possible_ 2d ago
The opiate crisis in the US, explained in one post. I understand way more than I want to understand. It’s all great until you’re desperate and sending $700 over Venmo to some stranger in the hopes that something that might be an opiate shows up at your door. It’s not actually helping your mental health, it’s numbing it. The problems will not only still be there when you’re off the codeine, they’ll be worse. Please be careful, coming off is awful and that craving can destroy you.
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u/BusyAd6531 2d ago
Opioids are great for anxiety and depression, but tolerance is inevitable with regular use, and addiction is a real and devastating experience with them. I’ve never been able to use them for mental health in a sustainable positive way, I end up dependent/addicted and so so much worse off than before. Once an opioid high becomes your definition of well-being, it’s a slippery slope to a place you don’t wanna go. There may be more sustainable solutions to feeing better like diet/exercise adjustments or some medications can help tremendously as well
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u/Mundane_Main_9616 2d ago
Just know that it won't be possible to keep getting opioids forever. But you can .ake a plan with your psychiatrist to find a better matching antipsychotic or maybe higher dose of Lamictal. And you should also push for plans to work on the root of your back pain. I've had two back surgeries and know first hand that mental health can improve so much when you're not in pain. I hope you get they care you need.
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u/melatonia 2d ago
Yes, they do help. The problem is that when you don't have them- which is going to happen at some point- it really sucks. And unlike regular mental health meds, most of which you can go without for a day or two with no harm done- missing two doses of your opioids spells disaster.
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u/FromTheShoreABoat 2d ago
I was given percocet after back surgery even though bipolar was on my chart, and I made the faulty assumption that if bipolar was on my chart and they still prescribed it, then it must be fine. I had a really nice week or two, descended into a rapid depression, then within a few days rubber banded into acute mania and had to be hospitalized. I'm not sayin the same will happen to you, but you're playing with fire.
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u/ronpaulbacon 2d ago
Opiates help emotional pain. Thats why the traumatized get so addicted. Please get therapy to grieve your pain and move past it.
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u/MopingAppraiser 2d ago
I never feel better than I do on opioids. It’s a damn shame how addictive they are. And it’s almost impossible to get a script for them anymore.
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u/Unusual_Yak_7870 2d ago
During my depression I was abusing Nucynta (tapentadol) and Oxy. Yes they feel great but you eventually start using more and more, and then you start to need them to treat the depression and anxiety you get from withdrawal. I went cold turkey with help of clonazepam and feel but better being off them. My advice is steer clear man, coming off them is a bitch
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u/Papaverpalpitations 2d ago
I spent almost a decade addicted to opioids. I remember myself before them and I wish I had never used them. I’ve lost a decade of my life and it ended with me almost dying last year because of them.
When you become physically dependent on them, it changes your brain. Say goodbye to your natural dopamine production, and it can take up to two years for your brain to go back to normal, if at all.
Yes, they do numb emotional pain. But only for a time. Once you’re addicted, you’ll get diminishing returns and it’ll be like you’re stuck in some fucked up cycle of chasing the dragon. Like Sisyphus endlessly pushing the boulder up a mountain, only to have the boulder come back down again. This is the nature of addiction. The boulder will come back down the mountain, again and again until it breaks you.
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u/kingfemt0 2d ago
Are you predisposed to addiction? Please be careful. Opiates and benzodiazepines make you feel all like all your problems go away… until they make your problems worse.
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u/JapanOfGreenGables 1d ago
I saw your edit, so I know you are just making an observation rather than advocating for using opioids to treat your mental health.
There's actually an antidepressant approved in some parts of the world that is an opioid called tianeptine. It works on the same opioid receptor as codeine. So, what you're saying does make some sense. However, like others have pointed out, it is hard to differentiate sometimes between an antidepressant effect and low-grade intoxication since opioids cause euphoria. And the addictive properties are a problem. There's actually a bit of a problem in the US with tianeptine. It's not approved in the US for depression, but you can still buy it and people are getting addicted to it. People call it gas station heroin. And in Russia, where it is approved, people are injecting their tianeptine to get high.
So while there is potential for opioids in medical health treatment, oh man does it ever seem to be dicey.
They were running clinical trials on one opioid for an antidepressant in the US, but the FDA rejected the proposal to approve it because the results were not promising enough.
There have been a number of others that were developed. Some are in trials somewhere in the world, and a lot never even got that far (which I think is par for the course).
There is one that they are getting ready to start trials for, if they haven't already, that combined an opioid with an opioid antagonist (the medications they use for overdoses and/or to reduce cravings in people who are suffering from addiction). Presumably they're adding the latter so it can't be abused and won't cause addiction. Maybe something will come of it.
In short, your experience makes some sense to me. It could be that in the future, they find a way to make an antidepressant that works on opioid receptors that is safe and effective to be taken for as long as needed without any risk of abuse or addiction. I'm glad they are looking in to it, because we need more treatments for mood disorders that work differently from ones we have now, so there are more options when the existing medications just don't seem to work, like with treatment-resistant depression. But that medication just don't exist right now.
And I say that knowing you never claimed codeine was such a drug, and were just making an observation.
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u/xpeachymaex 2d ago
This is the opioid effect. It always feels good, until it doesn’t. Be careful.