MF was meaning what is it people take them for that leads to the addiction?
there are two separate (but often interlinked) types of addiction:
psychological – dependency caused by a desire to repeat the effects of the drug (which isn’t that common with OTC drugs due to the low level of opiates)
physical – as I set out, your body stops producing its own painkiller when it has a continous supply of opiates, leading to physical addiction. With OTC drugs, given they are limited to 12.8mg of codeine per tablet, if you stick to the advised dose, you’re unlikely to encounter much in the way of withdrawl symptoms when you stop. However, if you increase the dose and take it for a few months, you are obviously more likely to have a couple of rough weeks (although, I don’t imagine it’s particularly bad at all, in the past i’ve stopped Oxycodone after 3 months with fairly short tapering and only felt “bad”, and Oxy is exponentially more potent than OTC codeine).
The best advice anyone could ever give you in respect of opiate pain killers is if you don’t need to take them, don’t.
It will keep you tolerance low, which means you get the best effects when you DO need them, and will avoid becoming physically or psychologically dependent. Easier said than done though when you are in pain and there’s a miracle cure in your bathroom cabinet 😆