Many people who develop an OxyContin addiction started taking the drug because of an injury, accident or surgery that caused severe pain. However, as I wrote in an earlier blog, some “experts” say that about nine percent of those who take prescription opioid painkillers for chronic pain over an extended period become addicted. Of course they are using a narrow definition of addiction and they also seem to be saying that, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, these painkillers are really not that bad. Nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to OxyContin addiction.
Whatever the addiction statistics, a great many who take OxyContin or other opioid painkillers are, at the very least, going to become physically dependant—they experience severe withdrawal symptoms when they try to either reduce the dosage or stop taking the painkillers. And whether addicted or dependant, there’s a good chance they’re going to need OxyContin detox to come off the drug safely and without intense withdrawal symptoms.
Where do you go for OxyContin detox? Here’s what one client had to say after their stay at Novus Medical Detox.
“Novus is the greatest detox center and the most comfortable. I realized that my OxyContin addiction was my fault and nobody else’s. I also realized I want to stay clean and hope for the best for myself. I will be attending rehab after Novus, but Novus did an excellent job of preparing me for my rehabilitation. Novus has a very successful program in my eyes and I would suggest Novus to anyone that has a problem with drugs and alcohol. My stay has been wonderful and the nurses, counselors, cooks, housekeepers and owners are very sweet.”
Getting off OxyContin can be painful. If you or someone you care about needs help, or simple needs to know whether they need OxyContin detox, contact Novus to find out what it involves and whether you need it. If so, they can also tell you how to get started.
Many people have taken the controversial rapid detox route for addiction to alcohol, heroin, OxyContin and other opiates. Not only is a rapid detox not rapid at all, recovery from the procedure can take weeks or months, it is also dangerous – which is why the procedure is controversial. To make matters worse, Garden Grove Hospital has just been fined $25,000 for endangering patient safety by using an anti-nausea drug called Droperidol during a rapid detox procedure. According to California regulators, the hospital used the drug in a manner “likely to cause serious injury or death to patients” – one more reason to go through a medically supervised OxyContin detox, or one appropriate for whatever drug you’re using.
Droperidol can cause serious heart irregularities and even death, according to the FDA, and it is approved only as a last resort and only with cardiac monitoring before and after treatment. At Garden Grove, neither the pharmacy or nursing staff said they knew about the restrictions on using the drug, and they never monitored patients’ heart rhythms. One patient received three doses over two days with no cardiac monitoring whatever.
There are safe ways to detox from drugs. Rapid detox is not one of them. If you or someone you care about is suffering from OxyContin addiction, addiction to alcohol or any other drug, choose a safe OxyContin detox that doesn’t involve such risks. Addiction is bad enough, don’t risk the person’s life further by putting them through a detox program that uses drugs as dangerous, or more so, than the drug to which they’re addicted.
There are currently nearly one million heroin addicts in the U.S. and nearly another 100,000 were introduced to heroin in 2006. You may be one of them, or may know someone who is. If that’s the case, I hope you’re reading this to find a way to get that person, or yourself, into heroin detox so they can end their heroin addiction before it’s too late.
I used to be a heroin addict. Of all the drugs I’ve taken, it was the most debilitating. I was barely functional and didn’t work during the entire time I was using. Heroin detox or rehab never occurred to me. In fact, if others hadn’t prepared food I probably wouldn’t have eaten. I’ve gone to the hospital ER for things that were normal bodily functions, but I’d forgotten about them. I’ve overdosed with absolutely no awareness whatever of anything being wrong. Fortunately I was with several others who saved my life.
The same people were with me when the heroin I shot was cut with strychnine. Here are just a few of the symptoms of strychnine poisoning: painful muscle spasms that can cause a fever and kidney and liver injury, uncontrollable arching of the neck and back, rigid arms and legs, jaw tightness and difficulty breathing. Large doses bring about respiratory failure that can be fatal, and brain death.
I barely noticed those symptoms coming on. Fortunately someone else did, and I’m still alive. That gives you an idea of how dangerous heroin addiction can be.
If you, or someone you care about is using heroin, get them into heroin detox fast. Believe me, you never know what will happen next.
Hard to imagine your kid as a drug dealer? Here’s the story of one teen who developed an OxyContin addiction after a car accident caused injuries requiring three surgeries. The pills were prescribed for the pain but, according to his mother, he got to the point where he couldn’t get out of bed without them. His mom had no idea he had a problem. After he went into rehab, his mother saw the many messages – one every 20 minutes – on his phone. Instructions from people, many of them adults, who were going to deliver OxyContin and other drugs to him – he was to distribute them, and keep some for himself. That’s how he fed his own OxyContin addiction.
How this could be happening right under his mother’s nose without her even having a clue it was going on is hard to say, but had she figured it out earlier, had she been aware of how easily the need for OxyContin can turn into OxyContin addiction, there’s a possibility that she could have gotten him through an OxyContin detox early in the game, and drug rehab if needed, and he never would have resorted to criminality.
The young man was also being threatened by drug dealers – he was told that if he quit dealing, they’d hurt his mother. Apparently his mom wasn’t worried about herself, but she did move her son to another city to keep him safe. He went to drug rehab and managed to survive OxyContin, and is now in a safer environment, but the family is split up.
If you have a friend or family member who is prescribed OxyContin or other prescription painkillers for a legitimate reason, make sure you are aware of how much they’re taking, how long they’re taking them, and so on. They may need an OxyContin detox to stop taking the drug, and they might even need drug rehab, but they will have their life back.
Prescription painkillers are among the most highly addictive drugs around. Many people have tried to get off them by themselves, but it’s almost impossible. In fact, 95% of those who try can’t make it through withdrawal. OxyContin addiction, as well as addiction to other opiate painkillers, is one of the most difficult to conquer. Not all drug detox centers are really equipped to get someone through an OxyContin detox, or drug detox for many other prescription drugs. Here’s the story of one businesswoman who came to Novus.
“For many, the decision to come to a place like Novus can be a scary one and you may be apprehensive and wondering what is in store for you. Speaking from personal recent experience, please rest assured that you are in really good hands. Every single person who works at Novus genuinely cares about you and wants to see you succeed and they will work very hard with you to help you regain your health and your peace of mind. You have definitely made a good decision in coming here! I felt very much at home. I am looking forward to returning to my pre-painkiller days of optimum health. Thank you for helping me achieve this important goal in my life.”
If you’re having a problem with OxyContin addiction, or addiction to one of the many other dangerous prescription painkillers, give Novus a call. They can get you through an OxyContin detox, or a detox for any other drug, successfully.
Having spent many years myself as a working mother, it’s hard to imagine coping while also suffering the side effects of prescription drug addiction. But there are countless working mothers doing it, and you may be, or know, one of them. We know prescription drug addiction can creep up on you – you take a couple of pills from your doctor and, next thing you know, you have trouble living without them. And getting off them isn’t always easy. And without a good prescription drug detox, it’s almost impossible. But, it can be done – as one working mother can attest.
“It was the best. Safe, warm, loving, full of care and all needs imaginable met with a smile. I came on seven meds from opiates to amphetamines, all doctor prescribed. I was existing, not living my life. Thanks to your support, love and security, I am now going home Drug Free. I now have so many options because my head is clear and I can think for myself and feel real feelings rather than walking around in a drug induced coma. I would like to thank each and everyone from beginning to end. Thanks from my heart and soul.”
If you are, or know, a mom who has a problem with prescription drug addiction, do her, and the kids, a favor – help her get into a prescription drug detox program.
Although heroin detox is not easy, it can be relatively comfortable if it’s done right. All detox programs follow a protocol for withdrawal – a series of steps that have been proven to help people detox from heroin in the past and have become the standard way to do it. These steps may include giving the person drugs to help them with the physical and emotional pain. Although many people have done a detox program successfully, it’s not unusual for a person to go through several heroin detox programs that don’t really work for them to handle their heroin addiction.
The problem is that just doing what the book says is not always enough – each person responds differently to heroin addiction, withdrawal, and the steps and drugs taken in heroin detox. If the detox program is not sensitive to those differences and just does exactly the same thing with everyone, it can be unsuccessful.
The best detox method for handling a heroin addiction is a detox plan that is tailored just for you. If you’ve been through other heroin detox programs and want to get it done right this time, or if you want to do it right the first time, you need a heroin detox program that is the precise treatment you need to make your heroin detox as successful and as comfortable as possible. That’s exactly what we do at Novus. A good heroin detox program is the beginning of the end of heroin addiction.
I just read a remarkable news item about heroin addicts in England receiving rewards when they test clean for crack and cocaine. The addict, who now has a methadone addiction instead of a heroin addiction, turns up at the methadone clinic for a drug test and if he passes his urine test for cocaine and crack, can get one of several rewards – extra methadone, shopping coupons, anti-depressants and, if they’re lucky, access to a drug detox program.
I don’t know what outrages me about this more: the fact that they went to a methadone treatment clinic to get off heroin and were given another addictive drug, methadone, instead; the fact that getting extra methadone as a reward digs them further into the hole they’re already in; the fact that their given other dangerous drugs – antidepressants – as a reward for good behavior; or the fact that drug detox is withheld from them in the first place.
What kind of game is this? Here’s how I see it – heroin addict goes to clinic to get off heroin, instead of being given the chance to do that through drug detox and rehab his addiction is intentionally prolonged by being given a different additive drug, then he’s told that if he can stop himself from taking drugs other than the new addictive drug he’s been given, he may be allowed to get off drugs. Or, he may be put on another dangerous drug – an antidepressant.
Seems like the best these methadone clinics have to offer someone who comes to them to get off heroin is addiction to methadone and discount coupons for some new clothes. What a deal.
I’ve heard some pretty crazy ideas in my time, but I think this one takes the cake. What’s the icing? England spends $1 billion on methadone clinics when the money could be invested in drug detox and rehab centers that could actually get heroin addicts off drugs.
Former Palm Beach, Forida doctor, Denis Deonarine, now an inmate, who was convicted of repeatedly over-prescribing addictive drugs to addicted patients had his prison sentence reduced last week on a technicality – what he was doing was apparently not ‘trafficking. He was supposed to be in prison until 2029, and now it looks like he’ll be getting out early. After fuelling the prescription drug addiction of many patients when, as a doctor, he should have been getting them into drug detox and rehab, he’s getting a break.
The story I read about this doctor focused on the death of one of his patients, Michael Labzda – a 21-year-old boy still living at home, going to college, and now dead from a lethal combination of drinking and prescription drugs. His prescription drug addiction was fed by the former doctor now serving time.
The law is not as rigid as we are sometimes led to believe. A judge has the duty to serve justice. There’s an ethical principal involved – it’s not black and white. What’s this former doctor going to do when he gets out early?
If someone you care about has a prescription drug addiction, and especially if they’ve been a patient of Denis Deonarine, get them into A Florida drug detox program fast. Their next pill could be their last.
Doctors over-prescribing pain medications has become a major source of prescription drug addiction and dependency. Family doctors do it, pain management clinics do it, and doctors who just want to make a little extra money do it. And more and more people are showing up in drug detox programs trying to handle their addictions to prescription drugs, especially opiate painkillers.
A new study conducted by the Federation of State Medical Boards and the Wisconsin Pain and Policy Studies Group concluded that doctors’ “understanding of pain management issues, especially regarding addiction and the legality of prolonged opioid prescription, has improved over the years.” Now there’s a move to use the information in this study to ‘discuss’ the possibility of “unwarranted criminal prosecutions” for over-prescribing.
I’ve read many, many articles about doctors who have been prosecuted for over-prescribing prescription painkillers and I don’t think I’ve seen one story yet that sounds like the doctor is innocent of the charge. While a doctor may be accused of wrong doing by a patient, it takes a lot more than one patient complaint to lead to prosecution. Often there have been numerous complaints, and sometimes their patients have died. Why didn’t the docs get them into drug detox when things got out of hand?
Doctors may feel compelled to ease pain, but their first obligation is to do no harm. It’s understandable that there are times that prescription painkillers are medically necessary but, if that’s the route a doctor’s going to take, he should also be prepared to take full responsibility for getting the patient off the drugs through a drug detox program.