close
Home > Oxycodone

Oxycodone

Oxycodone is a chemical that is used as the main ingredient in several brand name pain relief medications, including Percocet and OxyContin. It comes with potent pain relief characteristic. However, this also makes it one of the drugs that people abuse and eventually end up struggling with.

It can be difficult to recognize a case of oxycodone abuse and addiction especially if you are not sure about what you should look out for. Many of the people who misuse this drug simply swallow it - leaving no paraphernalia behind. For this reason, it might be relatively easy for them to conceal their substance misuse problem.

About Oxycodone

Oxycodone is commonly found in Percocet and OxyContin. It is a potent pain relief medication. Further, it is among the most commonly abused prescription medications in the United States.

Most of the people who misuse this drug often start by using it after a doctor wrote a prescription for it. Over time, however, their bodies become tolerant to its effects. As a result, they eventually find that they need to take it in higher doses to be able to achieve the pleasurable effects that it produces - including but not limited to pain relief.

That said, it can be easy to make the transition from drug use to misuse. This is particularly true in the case of oxycodone, which is a potent drug. Even so, this medication is still useful for painful and terminal conditions. Since it offers relief to people who are struggling with these conditions, it might be difficult to control it.

It is essential that you learn how to identify an addiction involving this drug, because doing so could potentially save a life. Apart from being debilitating, this kind of addiction is also expensive. Further, those who overdose on the drug can potentially end up dead.

That said, doctors typically prescribe oxycodone for the management of moderate to very severe pain. It is available in pills of different colors, sizes, and shapes - and all this will depend on the brand and the dose of the drug.

Sometimes, doctors also prescribe it in the form of a liquid or as a combination of different products - including ibuprofen, aspirin, and acetaminophen. All these drugs are available in varied brand names, which mostly depends on the particular combination of chemicals.

On the streets, the drug is known by different by people who are looking to avoid detection by figures in authority. Examples of the street names for this drug include but are not limited to Roxi, Percs, killers, berries, hillbilly heroin, Oxycotton, Oxycet, Ocs, and oxy.

There are also many different reasons why a doctor would give a prescription for oxycodone. These include but are not limited to conditions like physical disorders, arthritis, and cancer. You may also get a short term prescription just after suffering a traumatic incident or after going through a surgical procedure. All these prescription forms of the substance would be able to provide you with pain relief around the click.

But how is the medication produced? Essentially, it comes about after thebaine - the organic chemical that is found in opium - is modified. For this reason, oxycodone is classified as a semi-synthetic opiate or an opioid. As such, it is in the same category as oxymorphone, hydrocodone, and heroin.

The DEA - the Drug Enforcement Administration - has classified oxycodone as a schedule II drug in the Controlled Substances Act passed by the federal government. This effectively means that it comes with some medical uses but also carries a high risk of abuse and addiction.

Oxycodone Addiction

As mentioned earlier, oxycodone comes with several medical uses - including but not limited to pain control for people who are struggling with extremely severe pain. However, the drug is also addiction.

It is similar to other opioid pain relief medications in the sense that you can become dependent on its effects after using it for a long period of time or in any way other than your doctor prescribed.

During the 1990s, many people received prescriptions for oxycodone and other opioids. Many of these people were not aware of the addictive potent of this class of drugs - and neither did the doctors.

To reduce the instances of opioid-drug related overdoses and abuse instances, state and federal governments started implementing greater control over the drugs. Through prescription monitoring programs, there was a reduction in the misuse of opioids such as oxycodone. These programs effectively reduced the instances of doctor shopping and over prescriptions written by doctors.

However, this did not end up working in the long term. The fact that many people were no longer able to access the prescription opioid medications that they were already dependent caused them to look for another alternative - one that was easier to access and potentially cheaper to buy. This led to the increasing popularity of illicit drugs like heroin. Research studies have now reported that close to 80 percent of all the people who use heroin first started abusing prescription opioid pain relief medications like oxycodone.

But how can you tell that you are struggling with a substance use disorder, an opioid use disorder, or an addiction involving oxycodone? Essentially, the following are some of the signs that you have developed this type of disorder:

If you are struggling with an opioid use disorder involving oxycodone, you will typically require medically supervised detoxification and rehabilitation programs to be able to reduce your risk of suffering a relapse later on.

Dangers of Oxycodone

There are several dangers that are associated with this opioid drug. But what is considered a form of substance abuse? Essentially, you would be considered to be abusing the drug if you take more than the dosage that your doctor prescribed, using the drug for much longer than your doctor recommended, crushing and then snorting or injecting the drug, and chewing the pills.

If you engage in this form of substance abuse, you would probably do so because of the pleasurable and euphoric effects that the drug causes. However, you need to realize that oxycodone is an opioid, meaning that it produces effects that are quite similar to other opioids, such as heroin. Many of these effects are linked to the dangers of the drug, and they include a false sense of:

The other danger that comes with oxycodone involves mixing it with other substances, such as benzodiazepines and alcohol. All of these drugs work to depress the CNS - or the central nervous system. Mixing them, to this end, can turn out to be potentially fatal and extremely damaging.

Taking this cocktail will typically slow down your cardiac function and breathing to a point where they fail completely. Even though you might be saved from death after taking this cocktail, it might end up causing permanent brain damage as well as issues with your other major organs.

If you are addicted to oxycodone, you may also abuse stimulants, benzodiazepines, and marijuana. This is because you would be trying to either mitigate or amplify the effects of the opioid drug.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this drug can lead to heroin abuse and misuse. If you are addicted to oxy and you get to a point where it is becoming more difficult for you to fill your prescriptions, you may start turning to heroin. This is because you would be looking for a more accessible and cheaper drug that offers similar effects.

Oxycodone can provide relief from severe pain. However, you need to realize that the drug is quite dangerous. As a result of the euphoric effects that it causes, for instance, you may still continue abusing it in pate of the dangers that it causes.

If you start abusing this drug early and on a regular basis, there is a high risk that you may become dependent on it as well as start struggling with an opioid use disorder or addiction.

However, the greatest danger posed by oxycodone is the fact that it can potentially lead to an overdose that might end up being fatal. The drug works by depressing the respiration as well as decreasing the blood pressure. During an overdose, this could easily give rise to cardiac arrest, coma, and seizures - especially when you are injecting, snorting, or ingesting the drug.

The risk of an overdose turning out to be fatal will be increase if you take oxycodone alongside alcohol and other depressant drugs. However, most of the dangers associated with this drug arise from the route of administration.

If you take it in methods that increase its euphoric effects - such as crushing the pills before injecting or snorting the resulting powder as well as combining the pills with other drugs - there is a risk that you may suffer more adverse consequences.

That said, the following are some of the additional dangers of abusing oxycodone:

Oxycodone Overdose

On the other hand, if you take oxycodone in too large a dose or if you mix it with another drug of abuse, you could increase your risk of suffering a drug overdose. This is because oxy is a highly potent opioid drug. Even if you use it in the amounts that your doctor recommended, there is a risk that you may suffer some negative side effects.

Apart from the pain relief that it produces, the drug can also cause you to feel nauseated, constipated, confused, dazed, and drowsy. If you use it in too great a proportion, you may suffer an even more severe overdose. This could be accompanied by the following signs and symptoms of a drug overdose:

If you suspect that you are overdosing on this drug, it is necessary that you seek emergency medical assistance to reduce your risk of suffering more from a situation that could potentially turn out to be fatal.

Best Oxycodone Addiction Treatment

When you check into an addiction treatment center to manage your oxycodone use disorder, you will first be required to undergo a medically supervised detox process to manage the following withdrawal symptoms:

After that, you will receive other therapy and counseling services to help you manage your substance use disorder, deal with the underlying causes of your oxycodone addiction, as well as eventually achieve sobriety and abstinence from this drug.

We can help you find the right treatment facility that best fits your overall needs and financial requirements.

Ready to get help?