Hello

I had an addiction to Percocet last spring that I was able to deal with on my own without too much discomfort from withdrawal. Once a week I would take anywhere from 5 to 10 tabs. I continued this every week for several months. When I stopped, I had a little bit of anxiety for about 2 days.

At the moment I have a pretty serious back problem and will more than likely need surgery (I find out tomorrow) My GP put me on Percocet because the pain is extremely bad. He was very hesitant about doing this because of my previous addiction, but he agreed as long as it was short term. I have been taking the meds for 3 weeks now. I usually take 1 to 1 & 1/2 every 4 hours. Sometimes I make it through to 6 hours.

My question is: Will the withdrawal be really bad this time around because I am taking them every day? I am so worried about this. I don't want to be in pain and have major withdrawal at the same time.

Today I tried to take Tylenol #3 instead and it really did a number on me. I felt like I was on another planet and had a major panic attack. It didn't do very much for the pain either. I went back on the Percocet because of the way the Tylenol made me feel. At least with the Percocet, I get some pain relief and I feel a bit relaxed so I can get a bit of rest. Is this a sign of dependance?

I don't know why I am so concerned about withdrawal this time around because I have been able to stop cold turkey before. I had a problem with Stadol NS and gave that up without hesitation.

Any advice or knowledge would be greatly appreciated

Justine

Hello Justine, Welcome......I'm no expert by all means, but if you said you have been on the percocet for 3 weeks now, there is a possibility that you are psysically dependent on the medication. You may want to talk to your Dr. about this, so that he/she can effectively plan a taper schedule for you. You don't take too much pain medication to begin with, so you shouldn't go thru major withdrawls. You may not feel to good for about 4-5 days, relax...its just your body returing to "normal". I am very proud of you that you told your Dr. the truth about your addiction, that is very important to be honest with him/her. Just some food for thought....You may also want to talk to your Dr. about your tylenol intake....from what I read you should not exceed 4000 mg a day or it could do much harm to your liver. I could be wrong about this number so don't hold me to it. Best of luck to you, I hope I helped somewhat. Please keep us updated.
Hugs,
Luvs2Tan
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stage 3 ovarian cancer

It sounds like you were able to manage the withdrawl pretty good. 2 days of anxiety is not too bad. Anytime you take an opiate medication for more than a couple of weeks, you will generally need more of that opiate to get the same analgesic effect. This is called tolerance not addiction. Addiction is when you continue to use the opiate when it is no longer needed, or use more than prescribed for the euphoria. In other words, when the pain is gone and you are still using. You asked a question about the Percocet relaxing you and if that is dependence. That is part of the effects of an opiate medication. When you are in pain you are usually tense, don't sleep well, etc. Opiate used as directed for pain, will bring on the relaxtion or sleepiness feeling. That is ok as long as it is taken as directed and for pain. The problem happens when you continue to use after the pain is gone for the relaxtion feeling. If you were addicted before then you should be very careful and work closely with your Dr. Have your Dr monitor and start your taper schedule as soon as the medication is no longer needed. Usually people start decreasing the meds as the pain decreases. If you find yourself staying at the same level, that is a big warning sign.

Good Luck

And yes, Luv2Tan is correct, 4000 mg of Tylenol daily max

Hey Justine, You may be confusing simple physical dependence with addiction. The mere fact you experienced minor withdrawal doen't mean you became addicted. Physical dependnece is inevatable with prolonged use. But if your simply using it for pain and there is no psychological reason behind your med use, your confusing the two terms. If you used percocet to escape a bad time in your life and for reassons other than pain, that's addiction. If you used percocet to treat pain and became physical dependent that doesn't equate to addiction.

Physical dependnece is simply a physicological response to the use of oiates. If you discontinue antidepresants abruptly you will get sick too, but it doesn't mean your addicted to antidepressants. Are you sure your using the right terms. Meds used properly, as prescribed for the reason prescribed doesn't equate to addiction.

Addiction is destructive behavior that continus despite all negative consquences, what negative consequances did you experience and the reasons why you used percocet would define whether you simply experienced some physical dependence or were actually heading down the very destructive road of addiction.

Who diagnosed you as addicted? It's hard to give advice without more info. If your simply using the meds to treat pain and slowly discontinue as the pain improves, you will minimize the withdrawal and be able to stop without causing any serious withdrawal. Physical dependence doesn't equate to addiction, it's merely a consequence just like tolerance.The actual statistics of chronc pain patients who use pain medication on a regualr basis,becomeing addicted is around 3%, It all comes down to why were you taking the meds, For physcical pain or to mask psychological pain.

If simple dependence was the only thing required to DX addiction, evryone on this board that uses opiates would be considered an addict and the DEA wouldn't be to happy with docs prescribing opiates to known addicts. Did you abuse the meds, take more tha prescribed, buy them from the street, take them inspite of great potential loss, like your job, family, health? I'm not sure your using the correct words or understand what addiction actually is.

Addiction never improves someones quality of life, If using opiates improves your quality of life, manages the pain from surgery, allows you to work through physical therapy without great suffering and you take meds as prescribed, where is the negative aspect of using these meds to treat pain? No negatives = no addiction. Just physical dependence. Diabetics are dependent on insulin, not addicted to it.
Good luck with surgery, Dave

Hi Shoreline

Yes I was most certainly addicted to Percocet. I originally started taking them for migraine headaches and they did a great job. But, besides stopping the pain they gave me a euphoric high. Things started to get out of hand when I would fake a migraine and get an Rx from my GP. It then progressed to visiting Urgent Care clinics to get more Rx's for fake migraines. I was simply taking them for the euphoria. As far as who made the addiction Dx, I was smart enough to know that I was on a path to destruction. The need for the high was controlling my life. I was strong enough to lay out everything on the table with my GP. I told him about the fake migraines and the visits to the other clinics and suggested that I needed to get into some sort of treatment center. I ended up going to one session but realized that I would be more succesful if I handled it on my own; and I was.

I fully understand the difference between physical and psychological addiction, but there is a fine line between the two when someone has a Hx of addiction. I'm sure that when my pain level is down (hopefully after surgery) I will be able to conquer the dependance that I might have just as I did last year.

I do find that now I am in so much intense pain, the meds don't give me that euphoric feeling. The effect is simply pain relief so I am hoping that this will make it easier for me to stop the meds when the time allows.