Every day of the week across America, in communities large and small, hundreds of people are falling victim to OxyContin addiction, and the death toll continues to grow.

OxyContin addiction and it’s thousands of related deaths don’t just happen in big-city drug houses and back alleyways. A survey of local newspapers, local radio and TV news broadcasts, and home-town newspapers, reveal a terrible toll from this dangerous drug. OxyContin addiction and death is hitting cities, towns and even rural communities across the country. Not a day goes by without stories of addictions, deaths, injuries, arrests and ruined lives.

And a glance at the news also tells us that the countless tragedies connected to OxyContin addiction — many as a result of legal prescriptions, not just illicit abuse — are happening to people from all walks of life. Celebrities, professionals, students, seniors, rich and poor — addiction plays no social or age favorites.

OxyContin is almost identical to heroin, and creates identical effects on a user’s body. This is the reason thousands of OxyContin addicts also wind up abusing heroin. It is also why so many heroin addicts reach for OxyContin as a substitute when they can’t get heroin. Heroin and OxyContin are both terribly addictive, but an OxyContin addiction is even more difficult to kick than heroin!

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Mostly all heroin addicts fear withdrawal. I think in the subculture of heroin that the withdrawal thing is blow way out of propitiation for Hollywood movies.

I mean you see a heroin addicts in the movies they are generally a dirty grimy lot and when they show a withdrawal seen it is absolutely terrifying.

However if we want to stop using heroin we must face the facts that heroin detox may be a tad uncomfortable depending on the method you choose; for instance, if you choose to try a heroin detox cold turkey it will without a doubt be uncomfortable to say the least.

You will have to be prepared to face such things as:

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Heroin abuse and addiction is a very serious problem all over the United States. The medical profession now realizes addiction is a disease because of the way human beings are affected both mentally and physically from the drug. Detoxification and rehabilitation are necessary for a person who has a severe addiction to heroin, and if the problem is severe enough the person might actually require an inpatient long-term treatment program to effectively deal with the situation.

A long-term care program is designed to handle severe forms of heroin abuse and addiction; it can be highly beneficial to a person who is unable to stop using the drug alone. A rehab facility is well-equipped to deal with the withdrawal and detoxification period associated with severe heroin abuse. A professional rehab facility provides care for the person under the supervision of a trained medical staff, which ensures the detox period goes smoothly and without any harm coming to the patient.

While enrolled in a treatment facility, a heroin addict will receive an intense and aggressive care plan which will address all the components of the addiction as a whole and not just treat the substance abuse. Using group and individual therapies, behavior modification, life skills courses and counseling sessions, an addict will share stories and struggles with others in the same situation, which is an important part of learning effective communication and interpersonal skills.

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Most people associate methadone with opioid treatment, to help addicts get off heroin, for example, and ease them into recovery, free of any drugs or pharmacological intervention. By design it works, but as with anything, there are times when the use of the drug is abused.

For starters, methadone is a synthetic opioid, and beyond drug addiction treatment, methadone is used as an analgesic for treatment of various pain conditions. It is a powerful pain killer, used as a substitute for morphine, and it is less expensive. When methadone is prescribed, there is careful monitoring of the dosage and frequency of use, so patients are closely watched.

Why methadone for opioid addiction treatment? Patients are placed on a methadone program to help with the withdrawal symptoms from addiction to opiate drugs, such as heroin. Those suffering from the disease will explain that the withdrawal is worse than the actual addiction, so many avoid treatment for fear that the withdrawal will be too severe. Also, when off their opiate drug of choice, addicts have to deal with the intense cravings that go along with abstinence.

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The most commonly felt effects of physical withdrawal from tobacco smoking are feelings of anger, depression, anxiety and restlessness. A chain smoker’s body experiences sharply rising and falling levels of nicotine on a daily basis. In the withdrawal stage, these cycles are coming to an end. Over years, the nicotine literally takes control of about 200 neurochemicals in the brain. The brain is slowly regaining control of these. This causes the intense emotional effects mentioned above.

Within the first 72 hours of withdrawal, if a user abstains totally from nicotine, they will begin to feel the gradual effects of recovery. The brain is now getting used to being lavished with nicotine-free oxygen.

During the early stages of withdrawal, time seems to drag endlessly. The first few weeks are interminable. It is important not to let this overshadow the greater purpose and really keep going with a positive attitude. One may experience an unbearable craving to grab a cigarette. During such an episode, it helps to take a look at the clock and actually time the duration of the ‘attack’. It will likely last no longer that 3 minutes, although it may seem endless � this helps to gain perspective.

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Do you feel anxious about getting your prescription filled before it runs out? Do you need to take more pills than before to achieve the effect you desire? Do you get your prescriptions from many doctors? Perhaps you are, like many others, a sufferer of a drug addiction. One of the most common addictions in the American society today is a relatively unheard of drug called hydrocodone. So, why haven’t you heard of it before? Because, pure hydrocodone is seldom sold on its own.

Why is hydrocodone addiction so common?
Evidence shows that hydrocodone addiction is increasing amongst habitual users in the United States. Perhaps one of the most important factors causing this alarming rise is the fact that hydrocodone is consumed with drugs whose use and distribution is not as severely restricted. Pure hydrocodone is classified as a Schedule II substance, whereas when it is mixed with other non-narcotic ingredients to create other medicines, it is classified as a Schedule III drug. Schedule III drugs, such as Vicodin and Lortab, which contain hydrocodone, are not as strictly restricted as pure hydrocodone would be if it was sold as is. Thus its easy availability becomes one of the root causes for its devastating addiction. The lack of regulation makes these drugs susceptible to misuse and addiction.

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Oxycodone is a drug that is very addicting. A lot of people get an addiction with oxycodone because used oxycodone as a pain reliever for a long time. Then they begin to no longer take the drug for pain medication, but because they are now addicted. The longer people take the medication, the higher the chances are that they will become addicted. This will cause the person to use more in order to either get a feeling of being high, get rid of any pain, or to stop any withdrawal symptoms from beginning.

Oxycodone can cause many side effects: constipation, nausea, headache, dry mouth, excessive sweating and dry mouth. If a person were to have an oxycodone overdose, these severe symptoms happen seizures, coma, dizziness, and slowed breathing. Oxycodone Withdrawal symptoms like these can happen: anxiety, diarrhea, nausea, muscle cramping, and restlessness.

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Commonly prescribed for its effectiveness as an analgesic or pain reliever, addiction to hydrocodone is today being viewed as a mounting crisis. While addiction to illicit drugs, like cocaine, marijuana and heroin that claim national headlines ever so often, is widely talked about, we scarcely know about hydrocodone abuse and addiction. For instance, did you know that hydrocodone is perhaps the most widely abused prescription drug in the United States of America? Or, that nationwide its use has quadrupled over the last decade?

Sales and production of hydrocodone have been rising significantly in the past few years. Presently, in the United States alone about 20 tons of hydrocodone products are manufactured and sold.

What is Hydrocodone?
Simply put, hydrocodone is an effective anti-cough agent. It is also an opiate, due to which it is of often prescribed for mild to moderate pain control. Often weighed against morphine for its pain control abilities, many studies have shown that when hydrocodone is taken within the prescription parameters, it is considered safe and seldom causes any addiction. In fact, under these conditions it can be used to mange pain quite successfully. Hydrocodone is sold under several brand names such as Anexsia, Hycodan, Hycomine, Lorcet, Lortab, Tussionex, Tylox, Vicodin, and Vicoprofen. It is available as tablets, capsules, and/or syrups. By and large, it is abused orally rather than by intravenous administration.

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It is most important to stay motivated during the process of recovery. It helps to make a list of benefits, or advantages of quitting the addictive behavior. These should be benefits that are very valuable to you � valuable enough to turn your back on the addiction. Setbacks will occur and should be viewed as opportunities to learn.

Coping with the intense urges and cravings is perhaps the greatest challenge for most individuals. In the case of substance abuse in particular, the drug radically alters the brain by literally taking control of certain neuro chemicals. It is important to understand the temporary nature of the urges. During withdrawal, the time that the urge lasts seems endless and unbearable. It helps to actually clock the duration of an urge and see for oneself that it does end. Recovering addicts have reported that urges initially reach a climax in frequency, intensity and duration, but gradually lose their strength and fizzle out.

Some specific techniques for coping with urges are as follows:
� Attempt to stand apart from it for a moment and witness it as an outsider, with detachment.
� Recall your list of ‘benefits of quitting’
� Go back to the task you were performing
� Consider the negative fallouts of succumbing to the urge
� Completely focus your energies on any other thought or activity
� Deprive the urge of your attention. You will find that it tends to disappear gradually.

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One thing is for sure – heroin does not care about the color of your skin, how old you are, or where you come from. The bottom line is it does not matter whether you smoke, snort, or shoot heroin because if you use it long enough there will be consequences.

The consequences are usually heroin addiction but are not limited to this because there is also jail and death. One of the most feared things of all is heroin withdrawal or in other words detox from heroin. One can detox in a variety of ways; for instance a common detox from heroin is to go cold turkey.

This usually only happens when an addict is too broke or sick to hustle the money to get one more fix. In any case they are forced stop using heroin to for one reason or another.

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