Percocet is a powerful opioid painkiller made from oxycodone, an opiate, and acetaminophen, a filler. As a medicine, Percocet has legitimate medical uses. It’s also highly abuse-prone. Addiction to Percocet as well as pure OxyCodone is incredibly common. Many painkiller addicts resort to heroin—a cheaper, more powerful stimulant—once their tolerance to the pills becomes too strong.
PERCOCET DETOX
The first step in beating a Percocet addiction will be ridding your body of any and all traces of opiates. Opiate abuse causes adaptations in the brain’s neural circuits which cause problems once the drugs are out of the body. There are two ways to detox: going cold-turkey or tapering. Either way, Percocet withdrawal can be intense and incredibly difficult to manage. It’s best to detox at a medical detox center, where physicians can monitor your progress, offer counseling, prescribe medication, and overall make the pleasant experience as comfortable as possible. A Percocet detox can last for several weeks.
PERCOCET ADDICTION THERAPY
Even after the body is clean, opiate tug at the mind and spirit. Acute withdrawal may be over, but the protracted withdrawal—depression, cravings, anxiety—can persist for weeks, sometimes months. Getting familiar with a psychiatrist or psychologist will be the key to preventing relapse. Most symptoms of PAWS can be treated with medication, therapy, or a combination of both.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy will probably be recommended. This form of psychotherapy targets the psychological aspect of drug addiction at its core: the illogical beliefs and thought processes that lead the addict to crave Percocet or any addictive illicit substance.
PERCOCET ADDICTION SUPPORT
Drug addiction recovery requires a large amount of outside help—not just from physicians and psychologist, but from friends, family, and peers. Join a support group such as Narcotics Anonymous, attend meetings as regularly as possible, and keep the possibility of relapse in the front of your mind no matter how confident you feel. Stresses happens unexpectedly. Opiate are infamous for their ability to cause relapse after several months, or even years, of sobriety.
For information on how to enter detox, how to get into treatment, and how to build a strong support network for your Percocet addiction, give us a call here at
