Vicodin Withdrawal - Did It Take You By Surprise?

I would say about 75% of my visitors here are taking Vicodin or some other derivative of Hydrocodone. It’s a popular drug to say the least and doctors give it out like candy for all sorts of aches and pains. As funny as it sounds, I think it’s a good drug and it controls pain quite well especially for back injuries and other back issues. What’s amazing to me is how little the clinical community talks about Vicodin or frankly any other opiate withdrawal relative to the frequency with which it is prescribed. Most prescriptions written for Vicodin are for: 5/500 1-2 every 4-6 hours with a max of 6 pills during the day as needed for pain. If you take that amount as directed for 2 weeks you can easily get withdrawals. Now they will be mild for sure, and you may not even come to the realization that it’s withdrawal; you may just feel a bit down or just a bit tired but rest assured, it’s withdrawal.

It amazes me that withdrawal is not a part of the conversation as a “side effect” just like constipation and nausea.  How hard would it be for your physicial to say, “Now Mr Wilson, you may get a little constipated and also experience some nausea when on this medication. Please don’t drive or operate any heavy machinery while taking this medication. Also, when you stop taking the Vicodin, you may feel some withdrawal symptoms such as lethargy or depression but it’s all normal”

Is this because doctors are too timid to use the word withdrawal? Do they think that the mere presence of withdrawal may signify that that they have given their patients too many pain killers? They shouldn’t. And this is a major reason why there’s such a huge misunderstanding about pain killer dependency in this country and elsewhere I suppose. We are not making the distinction between physical dependency and addiction clear enough for people. And when people begin to crave these pain killers which is totally normal, they tell themselves, “Oh, oh my God, I’m addicted…nobody can know this! What if somebody finds out? I’m a pain killer addict! How disgusting!”

Well as I’ve talked about in another blog post called “Am I an Addict or Just Addicted” many of you aren’t addicts by any stretch of the imagination. And the fact that your doctors aren’t explaining the fact that your body will become accustomed to this medication makes everything ten times worse because it takes their patients by surprise and then they panic and crawl into their shell. This behavior is a precurser to actual addiction because you feel that you now have something to hide and you act accordingly.  Hiding your fear about your pain killer use leads to shame and guilt which can lead to using more pain killers. If you know what to expect when beginnning a course of pain killers and your doctor is open about the prospects of withdrawal then I’m confident that a lot less of you would spiral down the rabbit hole of addiction.

Now certainly everybody is different but if you could read all of the emails I get from people who are shocked at the withdrawals and who are full of guilt or feelings that they have done something wrong you would agree that a little education on opiate withdrawal is warranted when these drugs are prescribed.

-G

“Getting Un-Stuck”

“Life Without Pain Killers - A View From The Other Side”

“Ready For Takeoff!”

“The Brain’s Reward Center”

“When You’re Ready To Quit”