Treatment facility for oxycontin addiction
Posted on Nov, 2011
Oxycontin, a narcotic pain reliever, is powerfully addictive. The drug creates dependence physiologically and psychologically. If you can’t stop using oxycontin, you likely need some professional help. The kind of help you need depends on your situation.
Anyone who abuses the medication regularly, taking the drug for non-medical reasons, taking more of the drug than recommended dose or taking it more often than recommended will develop an addiction in addition to a physical dependency.
People addicted to oxycontin require addiction treatment. If you are addicted to oxycontin, you have a number of addiction treatment options. Quitting on your own (cold turkey) is often chosen as a first attempt, but is rarely successful. Even people who manage to endure the initial days of detox face a lengthy battle with drug cravings and pulls toward relapse.
Medical detox and continuing treatment is the conventional “drug rehab” route. The process begins with a medically assisted detoxification. This initial withdrawal phase lasts for about a week. Upon completion, patients feel much better and are ready to progress to continuing addiction treatment. Post-detox treatment options vary greatly. Many people continue on in a residential setting, some people prefer treatment on an outpatient basis.
Ultra rapid detox program advertise a shortened withdrawal period and a much less uncomfortable detox. These programs, which place an OxyContin addict under anesthesia while accelerating the withdrawal period, sound very attractive but there are some drawbacks to a procedure that remains very controversial. These programs are expensive.
Methadone is a long-lasting opiate that replaces the short-acting opiate oxycontin in the brain. When you take methadone at therapeutic doses (one dose per day) you will not get high, feel withdrawal symptoms or experience drug cravings. A more recent alternative to methadone, Suboxone also works as an opiate substitution medication. When you take Suboxone, you feel no drug cravings, experience no withdrawal and you don’t get high.
Treatment programs provide social and emotional support and teach people how to overcome surprisingly powerful and lasting cravings.
