Vicodin Addiction

Vicodin is the most widely abused prescription drug. It's relatively easy to get, it's widely prescribed, and when taken for too long or when taken in higher than recommended doses, it is incredibly addictive.

How to Beat Vicodin Addiction

A mixture of a synthetic codeine and acetaminophen, Vicodin is used in the treatment of moderate to severe pain. Problematically, those people who use vicodin for a long period or those who abuse the drug, will quickly see their tolerance to the effects of vicodin rise, and will need to take larger amounts just to get the same effects.

Although it's the codeine in the Vicodin that addicts and causes this tolerance, it's the innocuous seeming acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol) that does the damage. Acetaminophen, when taken in large doses can cause immediate liver failure, and the damage done to the liver with pronged abuse can be severe.

Vicodin Detox

Once addicted to Vicodin, when you choose to stop you are forced to endure a significant period of withdrawal and detox pains. Similar to all narcotic pain relievers, the detox pains will begin only hours after your last dose has worn off, and will increase in intensity for a day or so, continue for 4 or 5 days, and subside thereafter. Vicodin withdrawal and detox pains can be severe, long lasting and very uncomfortable. Some of the symptoms of detox include:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Pain
• Leg restlessness
• Insomnia
• Headaches
• And many others

Few people can detox on their own. It's just too uncomfortable, takes too long, and the cravings to use are too strong. There is little point in subjecting yourself to the pains of an unsupervised detox, a detox more than likely to fail. You don’t have to go through detox alone. Get some professional help and detox under supervision, getting appropriate medical care and medications that make the process far more humane and far more likely to succeed.

Vicodin Addiction Treatment

After detox, if you have been abusing vicodin to get high, you will need therapies of drug avoidance. Detox alone is very rarely enough to keep you sober for long, and too many people are forced to endure painful detox on many occasions, never learning what they need to know get off for good.

Get the therapies you need. Therapies that unearth your personal motivations for getting high, which teach you how to avoid the triggers and cravings to use, and that teach you how to stay sober for life. Detox is tough, you don’t want to do it more than once, and giving yourself the time and therapy you need to heal is the best chance you have for a healthy and happy life of sobriety.

You Can Get Better

An addiction to vicodin is expensive, it alters your emotions, lowers your quality of life and it has to stop. You know you have to do it, but you don’t have to so it alone; and there is no good reason to wait even one more day before restarting the journey to health, to sobriety and to happiness.