Is Oxycodone Addictive?

Oxycodone is highly addictive!

Oxycodone is a prescription pain medication that is often prescribed for the treatment of moderate to severe pain such as that associated with surgical procedures, serious injury or chronic illness.  Unfortunately, Oxycodone is a highly addictive opioid analgesic that can lead to serious complications for the user.  Sustained use of this drug can lead to physical dependence and a wide range of problems associated with addiction.

What Makes Oxycodone Addictive?

A number of different elements can contribute to Oxycodone addiction.  First, the user is ingesting or otherwise subjecting his or her body to a wide range of toxins that are included in the drug.  There is the opiate based drug, Oxycodone, and there is also usually a mixture of other base chemicals such as acetaminophen too.  The Oxycodone is addictive because it actually bonds to the neurotransmitters in the brain that are responsible for triggering a sense of pain.  As the user takes the drug, there is an increased production of endorphins such as  nor-epinephrine which is responsible for telling the body that there is no pain.

When Oxycodone is no longer used, the body has already depleted the stores of endorphins that tell it not to feel pain.  The result is a painful withdrawal that makes it difficult for the user to refrain from resorting back to the previous instance of drug use.  In fact, the pain can be so difficult to cope with that the user may see no other way out than to use more Oxycodone – hence, Oxycodone addiction is born.

What is Addiction?

So what is addiction and how does it affect the user anyway?  Addiction is not just a user’s desire to use drugs for the purpose of getting high.  Oxycodone addiction takes over a user’s life and causes them to want nothing more than to be high, to stay high and to focus on their next fix.  The addiction isn’t only psychological though.  The user will actually feel sick, miserable, unhappy or chronically depressed if they don’t have the drug and this only adds fuel to the fire making the burning desire to use even worse than it was before.

Overcoming Oxycodone Addiction

Just because Oxycodone is addictive doesn’t mean that addiction is something that you have to live with the rest of your life!  There are a number of ways to effectively overcome oxycodone addiction and get your life back on track.  Treatment can help, support is vital and detox will be your first step.

Because the symptoms of Oxycodone withdrawal tend to be very challenging to cope with, you’ll likely have to seek medical care in detox.  The type of care that is provided to you will depend on a variety of factors including the severity of your addiction, your individual health and a number of other factors.  Most of the time, detox will only take a few weeks at most but in severe cases or in cases where Oxycodone is tapered off very slowly the detoxification process can take a bit longer.

It’s important to focus on getting sober, staying sober and taking each step of the recovery process one day at a time.  Oxycodone addiction is a terrible disease but with the right support, the right tools for recovery and the right attitude you can get sober and you can stay that way.