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Percocet vs Vicodin

The short story is I have fallen into abuse of perscription pills. Mostly Vicodin. Sometimes Percocet. I usually get clean for a few months and fall into a a few weeks of abuse and get clean again.

My habit has gotten worse in the last month. It has been going on for the 5th week now. It has been up to 14 to 15 pills daily of extra strength norco vicodin. I am trying to wean myself down right now.  My script ran out and I had to go the ER and they gave me Percocet there for a pain I was lying about.

  My question is how strong is the 500/325 percocet in relation to the 750 norco vicodin? I am trying to take only 10 percocet a day and survive. WHat does 10 percocet equate to in terms of ES vicodin?

I am having some pretty nasty nausea at night and heart palpitations and nausea dizzyness. I have cut down overnight from 14 to 15 pills daily to 10 pills daily and it is causing me some of the nastiest withdrawal I have ever had yet from it. I think I tried to taper off to quick, but in the past I have never had to taper like this. Usually I could save o4 or 5 pills and just take them when I got antsy from withdrawl over the next one to two days. I can't do that this time.  You cannot die from opiate withdrawal can you?
33 Responses
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Avatar universal
plz do not give such BAD info cuz u can seriously hurt someone u just stated that there is no tylenol in norcos and that mtt friend is WRONG oh so very WRONG it has 325 mgs of it yes it has alot less than persay lortabs or vicodin but it still has at least 325 so before u go telling people that info that someone mite read and thnk there safe no what the heck ur talking about u never no whjo reads these posts and take the info and do god knows what wwith so plz know ur facts before posting. hojest mistake im sure but cmon that could be dangerous.
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Avatar universal
Anyone No If Taking 3 vics a day 5/500 for a month will Cause serious wiThdrawls?
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Avatar universal
I Have Been Taking vicodin for The last month about Three a day of the 5/500!  You Think I will HaVe any wiThdrawls?
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429432 tn?1343594190
Percocet and oxycontin have absolutely NO effect on me whatsoever! Then I started on the vics..well you know the same old story we all have! Strange how that works, though...
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Avatar universal
dude you are sooo young and have a whole big life to live,but you will not be able to if you continue. Just know the longer you do it the more you will do and it will eventually take over your life. The life you were meant to enjoy. 2 hours of pleasure or mabey a little longer is not worth your life. You live and die by you and your soul only. If you continue you will just have a soul full of your addiction. Trust me I am 38 years old and am still fighting it. it has taken over my life i lie to my wife and have a brand new baby and the person i am fighting is me. it is a very lonely dark world. I am now getting help. But there is an underlined reason you are using. What is it you dont want to deal with. I promise get off these NOW and you live your life the right way and happy. good luck Dont be me
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Avatar universal
Look your not to far in 1 month, you'll do Ok with Cold Turkey, you have to want it. Take a long weekend tell everybody you've got the flu, you can do it if you really want too. Keep posting here this place will save you.
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Avatar universal
does anyone else ge bad pain in their legs when trying to quit....i have been taking about ten 500mg vicodin for the last month and b4 that i was taking histusin that has vicodin in it. and now i am trying to get off by takinf furinal (i misspell alot) which i get for migraines.....anyway i have been an addict off an on since the 7th grade and i am now a senior who is going to brown, and i dont know what i will do at college but right now i live in a town in which people are rich and admitting to this outloud would get the town talking about me, i dont know if anyone has any help on to get off it with out others knowing. any help is would be nice
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Avatar universal
Very informative post. thank you :)
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Avatar universal
Let me set this straight.

Oxycodone and Hydrocodone are NOT even close to being equal in potency.

Your withdrawal symptoms are for opiates in general, and are not limited only to the individual substances.  Cross tolerance and cross addiction are both existant as they both work on opoid receptors.  

If you were given percocet, be careful.  Percocet contains oxycodone with acetaminophin(tylenol) which is liver toxic.  Do your body a favor and atleast run a cold water extraction to remove this. There are many explainations on how to do this basic chemistry online. When your tolerance is high and you need to pop lots of pills, you end up ingesting extremely high amounts of acetaminophin.  Norcos do not contain any of this.

A friend of mine once claimed iboga treatment worked, I personally would not know, i am just a chemist.

suboxone might help you get off of it, but don't try to attempt to self medicate with that.  

Doctor supervision when dealing with opoid withdrawals is important, as most of the chemicals used to get off of them are opiates themselves, with steep dose response curves and overdose potential.



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Avatar universal
Chiros can, well at least they used to. Back way before my back surgery my chiro prescribed me vics as well.

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Avatar universal
Hi;
Welcome to the forum sorry for the delay in post. Have you considered that maybe the percs are what is causing the symptoms you are having?
Just curious as I know that some people if they switch a narcotic and then go back to something they are used to taking, sometimes can have a different affect.
Just was wondering if this was considered or if you have taken percs before like this, meaning amounts or if it was mostly vics you did.
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177036 tn?1192286635
Hi this is pre-written for new people… hope this helps:

It’s good to come clean with your doc concerning your desire to get off.  Ask him to prescribe clonidine, (not klonopin), and ativan.  These will help with sleep, RLS and anxiety.  These are best to try before formal detox and drugs like Suboxone.  I had to do formal detox because I tried everything else, including alcohol to get off and nothing worked for me.  Keep in mind that when you try… make it a good one!  Have some time off of work if you can… maybe a four day weekend or more.  Make the last day of work without any drugs, because the first day is usually the easiest.  Try your best to get clean and stay clean because the other methods require more potent drugs and you have to come off of those.  I am still on Suboxone and am a little worried about that… It does work well but the jury is out on, “At what Cost.”  I also learned while in detox, that the mind can psychosomatically create pain to “get’ the drug.  Another was that healing while using opiates greatly diminishes.  I would have sores on my hands that would take way too long to heal.
Best
Fish
I have to say this from the bottom of my heart,  Please do not keep playing around with these drugs they are very powerful ….. kinda like heroin in a pill and just as hard to get off once you attain the, "addicted" status.

Also you can go here to learn about suboxone

http://www.naabt.org/
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Avatar universal
Hate to tell ya this but I dont think chiropractors can prescribe narcotics
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Avatar universal
How about an orthopedic back specialist..........
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Avatar universal
This might be off topic - but I'm frustrated at the difficulty in gettng PKs from doctors these days. My fiance is suffereing form a severe back injury, as in chonic pain. She goes to a chiroprator, but still has uncontrolled pain to a point were she does not sleep for days at a time, or eat for that matter. Her doctor is refusing to do anything other that prescribe ibuprofren or alleeve. We buy percocets on the black market because they are the only thing we've found that works for her pain. HOW CAN WE FIND A DOCTOR TO RECOGNIZE A GENUINE NEED?!?!?
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Avatar universal
I agree with tim....it really does depend on that particular person and their tolerance. For me, norcos are pretty strong but percocet seems stronger and lasts longer. But there are some people I know that take up to 3 percs 10mgs at a time and feel nada, yet they can take 2 norcs and be wasted.
I would suggest you taper off of whatever is stronger to you. I think someone here named fladdict has a good taper schedule, I've seen it before. Don't forget to copy the Thomas Recipe, too. Its very helpful.

Good luck, Brother!
Mike
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Avatar universal
yes
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Avatar universal
If you have read my post over the past six months you will see that I get responses most of the time in a very positive fashion.....
Most of the time I hear you very honest and consistant and you don't mess around......you get right to the point.......
Recently I have heard it is nice to see your soft side............

When did I ever say I go into a N/A meeting and not show compassion.........
For one thing I would never post anything that went on at my homegroup or any other meeting that I go to ............

I have no compassion for the addict...........but I do for the person.........
I will admit that I probably cause some bad feelings to some but addicts lie, cheat, steal, and always try to Manipulate there way.........and I will call the addict out..........because I am all about recovery it is so nice to read posts about people quitting, struggling but fighting their addictions.......
Then some want to know what should I take Percs or Vics and how strong are they............
Do you see the difference............
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Avatar universal
I read that to mean that he/she is compassionate towards people trying to get well but has a harder tm expression he compassion to an addict who maybe isn't really read to get hlp just yet.  I find the best way for me to behave when I cant say some thing supportive or compassionate is that I just say nothing, which while it can be awkward, makes me feel like I'm keeping my sie of the street clean.
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Avatar universal
My side of the street is just fine ty
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Avatar universal
So when you walk in a na meeting you have no compassion,,I"m confused
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Avatar universal
I've been "lurking" for several months - had 12 year sober in AA prior to landing full on into a Norco addiction - I'm tapering right now and then will be doing a whole lot hanging on during with drawal.  Thinking about trying Suboxone although I have some Xanax so i can use that to take the edge off during w/d.  I just said what I said because I have seen a lot of people in AA/NA meeting who are new trying to express something and not getting in quite right or not being quite ready to be hit in the face with reality like a mac truck and they leave.  I hadn't seen posts from Joel yet so I figured he was just starting to test the waters.  Hopefully folks here can do what is best - as they say in AA, take what you need, leave the rest.  Thanks beachtowel - I'll read more of your posts.
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Avatar universal
A big part of any 12 step program in honesty and while I appreciate that you say what needs to be said it's possible you could find a little class and compassion  -- I'vre read man of your posts and find you to be high and mighty and offensive.  If you talk how you write you likley shame folks who are still trying to get their recovery legs underneath them away. Have a little compassion and tact.
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Avatar universal
Lurker welcome to the forum,,,,
I do have a soft side and have expressed it many times.........
Honesty is the key but addicts are great liars........
I am about recovery wondering if someone should take Vicodin or Percocet has nothing to do with recovery and the wrong mindset.......
How long have you been here and how many posts have you read of mine....
I have been posting for over 6 months.........
I have compassion for the person but none for the addict........
There is a difference and reasons why I am more firm with some than others.....

But I do hear what your saying..........
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