Detoxing Vicodin must be under medical care. Opting for detox at home on your own can put your health at great risk. Before anything else, it’s safe for you to consult a doctor for the best treatment options.
First, detoxing is unpleasant, and it can be too painful to bear without proper treatment. Second, it can be fatal. Withdrawal symptoms can cost you your life. Third, it can make you give up. And if you do, you’ll deal with the discomfort of drug dependence your whole life.
However, with the aid of a medical expert, all these scenarios can be limited. It may not guarantee a comfortable detox, but at least, you don’t have to deal with extreme pain or experience relapse. Eventually, you will recover and enjoy an improved quality of your life.
When Is The Best Time To Detox Safely
If you have been using the drug as a pain medication, you have to inform your doctor if you sense that it is working less in relieving your pain. This is a sign of tolerance for the drug. When this happens, your body will begin to seek higher doses. When you give in to these cravings, drug dependence will intensify and worse, lead to addiction.
Taking Vicodin as a prescription may also pose specific side effects. While these conditions may pass through some people in a matter of days’ use, some may also remain persistent. If you have been taking the substance for weeks and still the symptoms last, you should tell your doctor about it.
Finally, if you notice any of your behavior that starts to affect you negatively, you should get your doctor’s help. They are the best persons who can guide you in detoxing safely. For instance, you may find yourself constantly consumed by thoughts of the drug and this affects you at work or in your relationships. You should seek medical guidance.
These conditions are strong indicators that the prescription drug is not doing well for you and if that is the case, you cannot just quit using it. You have to detox slowly at a pace that will not cause you much harm. Detoxing may cause distress but it can be limited and your doctor would be of great help.
How Does A Safe Vicodin Detox Work
There are three ways for a safe detox to work. First is by tapering off your doses. The second is by taking medical prescriptions, and the third is by engaging in therapy sessions. The following can explain these ways in detail.
Taper off doses
A tapering schedule allows your body to slowly cope with the reduction of the drug in your system. When you have established physical dependence already, the absence of the drug can cause chaos in your brain function. This will trigger a surge of withdrawal symptoms.
To prevent this from happening, you will slowly wean from the drug. Most likely, your doctor will reduce your dose slowly. Then, they will reduce it again after a week until your body can fully get over it. This is a crucial process that needs medical expertise.
During this treatment, you need to check your vital signs regularly and see how you respond to every reduction of doses. Sometimes, there is a need to readjust it to a higher level depending on the symptoms that you will experience. Tapering can be coupled with medications and therapies to fully work.
Take prescribed medicines
These prescribed medicines include either methadone or buprenorphine. They have already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating opioid withdrawal.
Of the two, buprenorphine is the one that is more accessible. Methadone is specifically available in certified clinics only – something for which not all treatment providers are qualified. Despite this, both are equally effective in aiding withdrawal pain.
These two are long-acting opioids. When you take any of them as a medication, it will trick your body into believing that Vicodin is still in your system. Therefore, there will be no disruption of brain function, and most likely, fewer withdrawal symptoms.
It is important to note that these are prescribed medicines. They are highly essential in managing withdrawal symptoms and limiting the intensity of cravings. These are even used as maintenance drugs in some cases. If you detox with medical care, these prescriptions can be accessible to you and you can enjoy their benefits.
Engage in therapy sessions
Therapy sessions are also great means of preventing relapse. These sessions can help you identify your triggers for substance use and train you to build ways to overcome these triggers.
A one-to-one session with a therapist can guide you well in these aspects. If you are looking for added support, group therapies can provide a fellowship where you learn from each other’s experiences and be empowered.
While you taper your doses and take medications, you should also consider engaging in therapies. Those with mental health problems on top of substance use disorder can also benefit greatly from this.
What Else Can Be Done To Find Relief
There are also other ways you can find relief during detox, apart from the list indicated above.
Eating healthy and staying hydrated
This is important since any nourishment you provide your body can boost your coping condition towards detox.
Staying hydrated can prevent you from experiencing dehydration especially when you experience vomiting and diarrhea as withdrawal symptoms.
If you feel nauseous, it would be best to take small meals regularly in a day. This will help prevent throwing up your food intake.
Mind and body exercise
It is healthy to engage in brisk walking or jogging. It will naturally boost your dopamine levels, making you feel psychologically better. Mind exercises such as yoga and meditation can also give the same positive results.
However, when you engage in physical exercises, make sure to not push yourself too hard. Your body is still in a coping condition so light exercises would be enough. If you feel dizzy in the process, give yourself enough time to rest.