Darvocet, a commonly prescribed pain medication for moderate to severe pain is very habit forming, and with prolonged use and even with relatively short abuse, you may find yourself addicted to it.
Darvocet Addiction Similar to Methadone
A combination of propoxyphene and acetaminophen, the drug works very similarly to methadone, and produces a similar type of dependence and difficult withdrawal. Of all the pain pills, a Darvocet withdrawal is among the most severe, longest lasting and most difficult to conquer.
The Risks of Acetaminophen
You will develop a tolerance to the effects of the medication with time, and you will need more to feel the same effects. Since the medication does contain acetaminophen, if you start to abuse the drug heavily you may be taking in far more than the recommended daily amount of the acetaminophen. Acute acetaminophen overdose is linked with liver failure, and taking heavy doses of acetaminophen is especially dangerous if the medication is ever combined with alcohol, something many recreational Darvocet addicts will do.
You may develop an addiction through a legitimate but long lasting need for the pills, or you may have been prescribed the medication for a legitimate medical concern, and found yourself taking just a bit more than recommended; or you may have just enjoyed the high, and abused Darvocet recreationally; once addicted, it makes very little difference, and you need to face up to the extent of the problem, and you very likely need to get professional help.
Darvocet Withdrawal
Do not attempt to detox off of Darvocet without some medical supervision. The detox is unlikely dangerous, but it can be very severe and long lasting, and there is little chance that you can endure a cold turkey detox on your own. Essentially, there is little benefit to putting yourself through the strain and discomfort of an unmedicated detox, a detox almost certain to fail.
Discuss with your doctor strategies to get off the drug. Your doctor may recommend a gradual tapering, he or she may recommend an opiate substitution program, and may recommend that you enter into a supervised medical detox, followed by a period of residential therapy. You do not need to go through the pains of Darvocet detox alone. There are people ready to help you and therapies and medications that can ease the pains.
Darvocet Addiction Treatment
If you have been abusing Darvocet to feel the pleasant opiate high, then you should strongly consider following a period of detox with a period of drug avoidance therapy, on an in or outpatient basis. For those people who have abused Darvocet, any detox without therapy is very unlikely to induce long term abstinence. Too many people endure repeated painful detox, never learning what they really need to know to stay sober for good.
Inpatient therapy can be preferable, allowing you a month or more to learn how to live and enjoy life without getting high, allowing you the time and focus for real private contemplation linked self awareness and the intensity of therapies and education that you are really going to need to stay off of Darvocet for good.
You can beat an addiction to Darvocet and you don’t have to do it alone.
Page last updated Nov 01, 2011
