DOSE:	5 mg	oral	Hydrocodone
	500 mg	oral	Acetaminophen

BODY WEIGHT:

200 lb

Just...wow, this stuff is bad. I took an extremely small dose- a dose that's barely considered threshold in even an opiate-naive person- and it was still pretty bad.

Hydrocodone comes on quickly, so I decided to take a hot bath and wait for all of the so-called pleasurable effects while relaxing the tight muscles in my lower back. About twenty minutes in, I notice that I am unpleasantly dizzy, and my head feels as if it is stuffed full of damp wool. I feel a little sleepy, but there is absolutely none of this euphoria I've heard so much about from all my loser vike-head friends. It wasn't pleasant at all.

About 90 minutes after I took it, I not only feel nauseous, but I notice that I feel a tightness in my chest. I'm in pretty good shape, and I have neither asthma or allergies, so I was quite concerned. Also, in addition to the nausea, dizziness, and chest tightness, I feel a big ol' wave of anxiety rolling on down my consciousness.

I break open the trusty nurse's drug handbook and read up on some particulars of this crap (of course I had glossed through it before I took it, but hey, it's an opioid- I give them to people all the time in the course of my work, and all they ever do is smile and take a nap and maybe have a little trouble pooping). Hydrocodone has a surprisingly short list of side effects, and they are all common to opiates: sedation, somnolence, nausea, etc. However, apparently hydrocodone quite commonly causes respiratory depression, anxiety, and dysphoria.

Well, I didn't take enough to cause any respiratory depression. My respiratory rate is fine- I just feel like I can't fucking breathe. I can vouch for the anxiety and dysphoria.

Anyway, about two-and-a-half hours after taking 5mg of hydrocodone, the unpleasant feelings had disappeared, leaving me sleepy. No euphoria, just sleepy, with a rather heavy and not-quite-enjoyable body load. I went to bed...

...and woke up four hours later, sweating like a pig, gasping for air, clutching my chest, and scaring the shit out of my poor wife. I am NOT allergic to opiates (I've had morphine and Dilaudid in the hospital after surgery with absolutely no problems), so I don't know what the fuck this was about. As you can see, it scared me and made me angry more than anything. All I wanted to do was to experience the nice, floaty opiate-buzz all my pillhead friends rave about, and instead it made me anxious and dysphoric, and it fucked with my breathing .

What's really puzzling is that this stuff has a half life of 3.8 hours, I dosed over 16 hours ago, and my chest is still a little tight. I'm not about to die or anything; in fact, I just walked four miles to assure myself nothing was terribly wrong. I slept poorly, I'm in a pissy mood, and I sincerely regret taking this crap.

Remember, not everyone reacts the same way to a certain drug. Listen to your body and start out with a small dose of any unknown substance. I had the opportunity to basically take as many of these things as I wanted, and right now I'm very glad I started small; I now know that myself and hydrocodone don't get along at all, and I'm never going to take it again.

Exp Year: 2010	ExpID: 85420
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 30
Published: Oct 4, 2019	Views: 13,092
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Hydrocodone (111) : Alone (16), Difficult Experiences (5), First Times (2)