Percocet Addiction?

[joddwan]

I have been taking Percocet 10mg and 5mg everyday for 5 months. I know that might not seem long but it feels like it has to me. And take 5 to 10 of the pills per day. Some times even more.... I am try n to get off this pill but when I dont have them my body hurts and I feel sick. I believe this is a sign that i am withdrawaling.
My question is what can i do to get of this pill without having to get treatment? Also if i quit cold turkey how long would it take to get threw the withdrawals? Please help...

~Joddwan~

[depressedwoman]

Hey Joddwan...in answer to your question regarding the percs...can you taper? It seems FOR ME to be the best way. I was taking anywhere from 8-10 10/325mg of hydro a day and what I did was I dropped down to 7.5mgs 8x's a day (I was able to get them from a friend) and then I started to drop it from 8x's a day to 6x's and so forth. Eventually I stopped taking the 7.5's and instead I took 5mg's and I was able to get my dosage down fairly low. When I did run out of the hydros completely a friend gave me some suboxone and I took that for maybe a week and a half. I don't know if you know what suboxone is but for me it was a life saver, however, because it is a synthetic opiate it is addictive, therefore I do not recommend long term use.

If you are unable to get suboxone, I believe that with a taper you will greatly reduce the w/d's. Now, I do want to state that everybody is different and this is my opinion and this is what worked for me. There are many ways of doing this and I am sure others will be posting with their advice. You need to do what is best for you and no matter if you taper, c/t, use methodone or suboxone remember the end result is the same....to be free of these devils and to live a good life that God has intended.

Good luck and keep posting. E

[slowlybetter]

Hi joddwan,

I just tapered off of percocet after having pain for nearly 3 years.  Of couse I didn't start out on percocet but after a while my pain got worse and worse.  I had surgery, corrected my problem and have been tapering over a couple of months.  I am on day 3 and really it hasn't been that bad.  Yesterday I mainly lacked ambition, a little diarrhea, and some leg cramps but slept with heat wraps on my legs.

I am really wimpy and i don't want to have to suffer.  I have really suffered these past few years with all of the pain I went through and I have dreaded this day (the day of withdrawing).  I knew the day had to come.  But pain meds develop a vicious cycle.  You actually start producing more and more pain receptors when you take pain medications (that is why some doctors are hesitant to prescribe them depending on the situation) and so you are actually in MORE pain than you would be if you didn't take the pain medication.  There have been several people on here on huge amounts of pain meds and then once they were through with their withdrawals the were surprised to find they weren't in as much pain as they had been before.

Can you taper off the meds?  Are you taking them for pain or other reasons?  Tapering does take a lot of self control and I have heard other people talk about having other people "hold" their meds for them to help them with their taper.  Another member of the forum has mentioned how it can actually be harder on your body than c/t but some people say that c/t is the only way they could do it.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask.  Hope this helps.

SB