During my time at university, I lived with a friend who was going through a tough time mentally, but I didn’t realize it at the time. We all enjoyed typical university behavior – laughing, drinking, and smoking. One night, during exam season, my friend came to me in tears and revealed that he had ingested 32 co-codamol tablets, each containing 500mg of paracetamol. 

As someone who had worked in pharmacy, I knew that this was a bad idea as it could lead to liver damage. We made him vomit up as much of the tablets as possible and I looked up the threshold for how much paracetamol could cause irreversible liver damage. Fortunately, my friend didn’t ingest enough to cause permanent damage, but it was a close call.

We had a heart-to-heart conversation and he opened up about how everything was getting on top of him, including his exams, and how he wanted a way out. I explained to him that taking more pills or not throwing up could have caused liver failure, a painful way to die.

My friend was still feeling the effects of the codeine in the morning, but he managed to pass his exam. The lesson I learned from this experience is to always talk to your friends if you’re struggling and to take medication responsibly to avoid unnecessary pain.