Recognizing the Signs of OxyContin Addiction

By Jill Gonzalez

OxyContin is a prescription painkiller that is commonly used to treat a wide variety of conditions including arthritis, lower back pain, injuries, dislocations, bursitis and pain associated with cancer. The primary ingredient in OxyContin is oxycodone, an opioid analgesic medication.

Oxycodone medications have been abused in the United States for more than 30 years. According to research studies, more than 3.5 million Americans over the age of 12 have reported using OxyContin on a regular basis. With adults and children using this drug in increasingly large numbers every year, the risk for dependency also increases.

Like other opiates, OxyContin carries with it a strong risk for addiction because of the effects the drug has on opioid receptors in the brain. The end result of prolonged use of OxyContin or any other opiate is that the body becomes dependent on the drugs, and a tolerance for the drugs makes users need more and more in order to satisfy their need for them.

Symptoms of OxyContin Addiction

If you are currently taking OxyContin, or if you know someone who is taking it, it is important to know the signs and symptoms that may signal a developing addiction. In reviewing these symptoms, you should also understand that anyone can become addicted to opiates. Even legal opiates like OxyContin that are supposed to be prescribed by physicians can cause a habit to form over time.

Some of the most common symptoms of OxyContin addiction include the following:

• Abdominal pain
• Nausea and vomiting
• Nervous anxiety
• Irritability
• Joint and muscle pain
• Sleep disturbances or insomnia

In general, the longer a person is dependent on this drug, the more these symptoms are likely to appear. For many people who start out taking this drug for a legitimate health reason, the addiction takes them completely by surprise. The majority of people who become addicted to OxyContin through the use of a prescription never would have believed that they would become addicted to any drug.

Levels of Addiction

OxyContin can be prescribed at a variety of dosage levels, and these levels greatly impact a person’s likelihood of developing an addiction. As a general rule, if patients stick to taking the drug exactly as it was prescribed to them by their doctor, there is very little risk of developing an addiction. The real problems begin for most people when they start to self-medicate.

If someone’s prescribed dosage starts to lose its effectiveness, that individual often winds up increasing their medication dosage on their own without telling their doctor what they are doing. This is one of the fastest roads to developing an addiction, and it has happened to millions of unsuspecting people.

Once this dependency has developed, new addicts find themselves lying about their condition in an effort to obtain new prescriptions from their doctor. Often times, these patients begin going to different doctors to try to obtain prescriptions. This is known as “doctor shopping,” and in many states it is illegal. Whether or not it is illegal where you live, doctor shopping is an extremely dangerous practice. If you find yourself doing this in an attempt to get your hands on more OxyContin, then you have an addiction to this drug.

Most doctors will keep a close eye on their patients who are currently using OxyContin, paying particular attention to their use of the drug and their overall behavior. It is sometimes very easy for a doctor to figure out that a patient has become addicted to OxyContin, but only if they are paying close attention.

Recognizing Addiction

Recognizing that an addiction to OxyContin exists is the first step toward reaching a full recovery and regaining your life. For people who have become addicted by using the drug for legitimate medical reasons, it is often much more difficult to admit to having an addiction. By the time they actually do, their addictions have usually grown to the point that they need not only to go through opiate detox, they also need therapy in order to be able to return to the life that they had before.

If you are addicted to OxyContin, it is particularly important that you realize the necessity of obtaining help not only for your physical addiction, but for your psychological addiction as well. A combination of detoxification and individual or group therapy, all of which can be found at a substance abuse residential treatment center or outpatient drug rehab, is essential for making a full and complete recovery from this type of drug dependency.