Oxycodone

Hi,

I was reading old threads from this forum with people trying to get off of oxycodone.  I was in a car accident and the result was a back injury.

I admit it plain out, i abused the medication.  I only get 5mg oxycodone imm release tabs.  about the abuse of the medication, the more I take of it, the better I feel.

I am hoping that i cought myself in the right time.  I want to taper down my dose, but not stop it.  The most I've taken in a single day was 80 mgs.  I have experienced with OxyContin, but never again.

Is there a way to get my tolerance back down to 20 mgs a day?  I guess the worse part of withdrawal is the anxiety, being restless, and feeling like the world is going to end.  Thanks for any help.  I am deadly scared of stopping this medication because i don't want to be in pain.  I just don't want my tolerance to be too high and I don't want to become addicted.  I've taken it for other purposes, even though I am in chronic pain.  But it takes away anxiety.  I think in a weird way, my mind tricked me into thinking that the oxycodone was a small cure for anxiety.

I just want to hit myself in the head for abusing this med.  I have read several times in these forums (but they are all from 05-07 and just stop) that oxycodone is evil.  It's half evil half good.  It helps with the pain but so easy to abuse.

Am I doomed now that I have over-taken the suggested dose?  In all reality, I could take 8 a day or 10, because on the bottle it says take 1 or 2, every 4 to 6 hours as needed.  So it is a five day script, according to the bottle and directions, but it can only be filled every 2 weeks. 

I just want to bring my tolerance back down to 15-20 mgs a day.  I know to some of you taking OxyContin, I must be a joke.   I don't take Oxycontin, I take Oxycodone (no APAP) 5mgs.

How hard is it to get back on a 4/x (5mgs) daily?  I wish i had a safe that only dispensed it to me, 1 at a time, every 6 hours.  TY

oxyisinmylife,

been there done that. And yes, granted, Oxy is a nasty one to get off of. Now that your body is tolerant to 80mg, 20mg is not going to do it for you painwise. What you have to do now- believe me I wish there was another solution- is to wean yourself off of it. Then, after a while (2 weeks appx) you can go back on it. One piece of advice though, don't stop abruptly. Do it gradually, as days go by, you take less and less until you get to the lowest dose possible and then you will go through withdrawal. I am not saying it is not going to be hard but most certainly not as bad as stopping short. Did it once myself- from 80mg to 0 overnight and no pain I had ever felt to that day, compared to what I went through the following week. So just be coutious.

And pal, don't beat yourself up, what you went through was utterly human. Pain generates anxianty and depression and oxy does give you a boost and when you are into a similar situation, you'd do anything to make it disapear even knowing the final consequences. Just be careful next time now that you know...

Hope this help. Keep me posted.

Frenchdude

Hello Oxy,

Oh boy could we talk for hours on this one. I have been on and off and on oxycodone in all of its forms for many years. It is the ONLY pain med that works to relieve my back pain. I've been fighting the pain monster since 1985 so I speak from some experience.

For purposes of this response I will refer to oxy meaning oxycodone in any form be it oxycodone IR, oxcodone ER, Oxycontin, Percocet, Percodan etc. Any of them. Same basic med and problem.

It is easy to slide into oxy because it is so effective but also because it builds tolerance in your system so easily and quickly. Also because the withdrawal symptoms are so nasty and will start so quickly after the last dose of oxy wears off. As Frenchdude said, it is entirely normal to take something that stops the pain and therefore makes you feel better. There is, however, a subtle difference between that feeling and the feeling that comes from taking just a LITTLE bit more than you need to stop the pain and that is the feeling of euphoria. There in lies the problem. You MUST stick to a tightly controlled regimen when taking oxy. Take just enough to make the pain bearable but not so much you get the euphoria. Learn to tell the difference.

Even with this, you will eventually reach the point where your tolerance will require a higher and higher dosage to find that careful point. Just go at it very, very, slowly. It is better to feel some pain, sit down, rest, whatever you have to do to avoid taking another dose right then. That will extend the time between the ramp ups. With the onset of pain the oxy should NOT be the first thing you grab. Find other pain meds (Celebrex, aspirin, Aleve, Advil, etc.) whatever will provide any amount of relief first. Save the big gun for big pain. If you don't, the big gun won't work for you when you need it most.

Having said all of that, you will eventually ramp up to a point where it may be best to back off, let the oxy clear out of your system and start all over again. I call it the oxy roller coaster! But as others have said, come down GRADUALLY. Don't try to be a hero and stop abruptly. It is not only ugly but it is dangerous to your system. Set up a taper off schedule that is flexible so you can control how fast you come down. Fast enough to be meaningful but not so fast that you have bad withdrawal symptoms. It takes a great deal of self control not to grab the oxy to stop the withdrawal which it will do very nicely. Learn to tolerate some of it. You will be stronger for it ultimately. If you can get to zero, GREAT!! The longer you can avoid taking any oxy the better you will be. But understand that you will probably never reset your tolerance to zero. There is a great deal of discussion in the medical community about this issue. The bottom line seems to be that once you have taken oxy on a long term basis, there is some floor level of tolerance that gets established even if you can quit altogether. That means if you resume the oxy at some point you will be taking a higher level initially because of this residual tolerance left behind. The severity of this problem varies widely with the individual and is not well understood.

If you feel like you do not have the self control to do what I just described, set up controls to your access to oxy. It could be your spouse, a close friend, agreement with a pharmacist to issue smaller quantities. In some way you need to stick to a plan. If you don't you will end up ramping yourself right up the slide. This is the very reason this med and others like it are so closely controlled. Some people just don't have the self control necessary to effectively deal with the medication. But if you can control it, oxy is a wonderfully effective pain reliever for many, like me, who have no other option for serious pain relief.

This got kind of long but it is important to understand the fire you are dealing with. This is not medical advice, just me revealing what has worked for me and how I have learned to manage the dangers of the drug.

Feel free to ask any questions. I'll do my best.

Modelmaker

Oxy,
I have to agree with mrsm and Charleston's posts. To be honest, I am not going to put the energy into giving you guidance on this other than to say you need to be supervised by a medical professional - either a pm specialist or, likely, an Addictionologist - and stick to the schedule he/she prescribes. You need to be honest with them about abusing. Some people have a genetic predisposition and that's a factor you can't control for. Even if you want to taper off the medication, it should still be under medical supervision.

We aren't doctors and like mrsm said, this is some of the behavior that makes it difficult for many of us who take our meds as prescribed to find help. When doctors see one patient trying to do things on his/her own, that makes them more suspicious of the majority of us who suffer rather than take an extra pill.

Please, get some professiona help.

PaLady

You are not a loser. You need to find the right doctor who will help you. hang in there. cshelp

Hey Guy,
You did the wrong thing, thats a given, but it's not the end of the world like you are making it out to be. Yes, we tend to get offended by people who break the rules w/ their meds but you seem like you are being sincere or I wouldn't waist my time writing to you either. Someone here said to taper down as quickly as posible w/o getting withdrawls, I kind of disagree w/ that idea with someone like you. I always taper slowly, I've learned that from taking methadone which is 20 times harder to get off of than oxi's. Granted I am not a doctor but have had lots of experiance w/ narcotics for many years. Also, it did not matter that you were switching between Oxi & Hydro because they are very closely related and hit the same receptors in your brain. If you were only taking one or the other it wouldn't be all that different than changing from one to the other from day to day. There is one thing that is bothering me though, if you are abusing your meds up to and over your daily limmit, how is it that you haven't completely run out? Something seems a little bit wrong with this picture????? Are you getting them illegaly like you did the oxicontin?? It just seems to me that instead of being on a forum like ours asking questions about tapering down your meds, you would have already hit bottom and been in an emergency room somewhere or hold up in your house unable to even think about getting online for help! I'm just doing the math here, not judging you. I really do wish you well but the first thing you MUST do is be honest. If you are lying to us, people who you don't even know or have any means of finding out your identity, whats the point? I may be totally off base but I've been around the block too many times to not smell something fishy!!
my prayer are with you friend,
Pete

It takes a great amount of courage to admit that you have a problem and I am sorry that rather than offer support, some people have judged and tried to shame you. It is easy to abuse pain medicine, and if we were all "Perfect", the world would be a much better place. That being said, please ask for some help from someone that you trust, and don't put too much thought into people that don't even know you trying to judge and condemn you. There are lots of drug abusers out there that make it difficult for us to get our pain medications without being judged, but those people typically don't see it as a problem and don't want help. You are moving in the right direction, and if you truly want to make it better, you can.

GOOD LUCK

Oxy,
I'm sorry if I judged, shamed and condemed you as PGD said. It wasn't my intention at all. If it were I would't have said that you sounded sincere, that I wish you well and I will be praying for you! I only wrote to you because I wanted to try to understand better what was going on with you so we might better be able to point you in the right direction. I wasn't trying to judge you as I stated in my post. Believe me, I am no one to judge anyone as I'm not at all proud of alot of things I did when I was young. But I did learn alot from the dumb things I did and hopefully became a better persom for it. Again, I'm sorry if I offended you in any way! I didn't mean to.
You will be in my prayers my friend!
Pete

Well, I have often wondered, in the past, if I was addicted or not... Before I started coming here to HW I thought I was a drug addict just because I couldn't function well without my meds.... But everyone here was great, they made me see the difference,  Just because you have CP issues and have to take pain medications doesn't mean you are an addict...With that being said...If you abuse your meds that's different.  There is a fine line and you crossed it at one time.  But that doesn't mean you deserve to be in pain... Everyone that has medical issues with pain should be able to be pain free.  Well, maybe not totally free, but at least better. 

Talk to your Dr. and see what they say... Maybe going on a Holiday of sorts will help you bring your tolerance down slowly... I wouldn't look forward to stopping or tapering down on my meds, but it would only be temporary..

I keep messing up while typing, I just started Provigil this morning and my hands are shaking...So, please forgive any mistakes....

Good luck with your meds.

Me/

I take 15 mg. Oxycodone/ 4 times a day for BT pain and 120 mg. Methadone a day for long term pain...sometimes it feels like that isn't enough...so you arent alone.

Oxy, I want to say I  appreciate the fact that you confided in people that you did not know and confessed the fact that you misused your medications. You certainly are not the first and I am certain you won't be the last.  My advise to you is a bit extreme by some people's standards. If you are getting these prescriptions from one doctor, I would encourage you to go back to that doctor. You have more than one issue going on and I believe that the doctor or another doctor is the best one to help you. If you are honest with your doctor, he/she should be willing to help you. The fact that you misused the medications for reasons other that pain speaks clearly to me that you need help. Just because you want to make a change does not mean you can because the reasons, or feelings, will not stop just because you want them to. You stated that anxiety was a major problem that you were addressing when you misused the medications. I am not a doctor but oxy is probably the wrong medication to use for anxiety. I don't see you as a looser but as someone who needs help. Pain is a reason to take medication. Anxiety is a reason to take medication. But in both cases the medications need to be used exactly as prescribed. Just tapering down, will not remove the reasons you were misusing. I don't see the goal as taking a certain number of pills but the number of pills need to be taking care of the problem. I believe that you are still trying to manipulate the medications and that is why you need to get the professional help. It may sound drastic but if your goal is addressing the pain and anxiety, you need a medical professions. if they believe you need further help, they can make the necessary referral. One more thing is bothering me right now.  You first posted on the 21st and then again on the 22nd, but have not posted since. I care more than you know and would do more than you know to help you. Please post an update as these people on this forum are not judging you but are reaching out to you. I will be checking back to hear more from you.