How do people get addicted to oxycodone?

You have to understand that these are not pain killers in the traditional sense. They don't block pain. They alter your state of consciousness. They don't work on the pain receptors. This is why you often have no memory of the time on them. And, being mind altering they can easily change neural pathways in ways that our brains like. Which can lead to addiction. This is why it's so very important nto keep teens and young adults away from so much of this stuff. Their brains are sponges looking for direction. Hooked at an early age getting off is that much harder.

I was in a nasty car crash years ago. They had me on good pain meds for months while I recovered. Eventually I only needed Motrin every once in a while, then no pain meds at all.

Fast forward a few months and I wrench the crap out of my back working on my cars. Full-on crippling back pain. I remember I have some of my good car wreck pain meds in the cabinet. Took one, felt better, went to bed. What I didn't expect was how I felt the next day. Not happy, not sad, neutral. Just mellow AF. When I was torn up the meds didn't affect me the same way as when I was just kind of hurt. It didn't just take the pain away, it took EVERYTHING away, and that freaked me out.

I threw the rest of the bottle in the trash and realized what happens to people who get hooked on this stuff.

Obviously these meds react differently with people.  I'm not sure if hydrocodone is the same as oxy or not, but the cough medicine with it works wonders for me.  I can actually sleep.  I  couldn't  take it during the day when I was working as it made me a zombie. I took it after gall bladder surgery for a couple of night and again could sleep fine.  I once got a shot of morphine when the hospital thought I had had a heart attack and it did nothing. Anytime a doctor prescribes it, the wife's hounds the hell out of me for taking ANY of it.  No way I can become addicted to it because it locks my bowels up seriously. I love my poops too much.   

spitfirebill said:

 No way I can become addicted to it because it locks my bowels up seriously. I love my poops too much.   

I got a laugh out of that. I remember sitting in the hospital bed waiting to be released and having the nurse tell me I will want to buy stool softeners on the way home and take them religiously. I was a healthy guy, never had a problem with having a peaceful morning constitutional so I blew it off. A few days later my thoughts where "WHY HAVE THEY STOLEN MY MORNING TIME OF QUIET REFLECTION!?!?!"

The term "break one off" has a whole new meaning to me now.

TopNoodles said:

Addiction could roughly be summed up as improper use of painkillers until your body adjusts in a way that not using them becomes more painful than the original problem (withdrawal).

Anything that distracts or numbs can be addictive, from alcohol to prescription drugs to Facebook.

Usually serious addiction starts in childhood when a child is sincerely unaware that other ways to resolve pain (or abuse) exist.

So if you're an adult not predisposed to addictive tendencies, you would be more likely to see painkillers for what they are. A temporary solution that's only useful until the injury is healed correctly.

I think most people find their first experience unpleasant in some way. But if it makes you forget the hurt, it seems like the better option at the time.

I was 7 years old when the big bully in school jumped on me because he couldn't get me out in dodgeball  In doing so he gave me a compound fracture of my femur ( the big Thigh bone)  

Left on the playgound because the teachers thought I was faking it.  About  2 hours later they had one of the janitors carry me up to the nurses office. He didn't notice that my right leg had 2 knees he was just mad at me because I kept screaming.  After about 15 minutes the nurse came out of her office and noticed my right leg was badly swollen. After about a half hour of conference with the principle and it seemed everybody else they decided to have the janitor carry me down the 6 flights of stairs and put me in the back of the nurses Plymouth coupe. It was the businessmen's model with no back seat  so I was on the floor. My broken leg on the driveshaft hump. 
 They get me to the hospital and see the damage and start feeding me drugs.   Maybe just to shut me up. Luckily my dad got there by then and kept them from amputating my leg. Talked one doctor into doing an experimental treatment.   Basically pull my leg far enough apart to remove all the shattered bone parts  and let me regrow about 3/4 inch of bone. 
7 year old kids are never still for more than a few seconds.  For this to work I had to be rock steady still. Out comes the needle every 4 hours.   5 months in traction, drugged asleep. Drugs every 4 hours. 
it worked. 
I spent almost a month detoxing.  And they put me in a cast for another 3 months.  
One of the by products of drugs is your bones don't grow.  My father had a 34 inch inseam. I'm less than 28.  

In reply to frenchyd :

So what happened to the bully?

My Oxy experience after oral surgery yielded constipation worse than any pain I ever felt. Narcotic painkillers are a no for me dog. 

It doesn't make the pain go away.

It just makes you not give a berk.

Opiates are far more addictive chemicals than many others.  You can become addicted to anything for several reasons.  Things like THC, GRM, caffeine, or facebook aren't physically addictive.  Your mind has to make them addictive.  You aren't physically getting chemicals from those things that re-program your mind into needing more, your mind constructs a need for those things.  You can't become physically addicted to those things because they don't alter your brain chemistry permanently.

The difference between (for instance) THC and opioids is that the THC makes you high and then the brain returns to "normal" afterward, or at least if it alters your brain chemistry, it's not in a way that makes you need more.  It might make you stupid, but it doesn't reprogram your brain to crave it.  Opioids give you the high, but leave your brain with a different chemical structure after it's gone.  The simple act of correctly taking a prescription opioid can cause your brain chemistry to be so "needing" of more that it causes an addiction.

Of course, it is different for everyone.  My ex wife's new wife is emotionally addicted to weed.  If she were to stop, she wouldn't have shakes, fevers, or withdrawal.  She's not addicted to THC, she's addicted to the escape from her PTSD that the high offers.  I also know people addicted to facebook.  I also know people who are habitual users of potentially addictive drugs who are not addicted.

I personally stick with the non-addictive stuff.  I have taken prescription opioids for pain before and LOVED them.  They didn't do anything about the pain, but they sure as heck made me not give a E36 M3 that I was in pain.

Opiods work as directed for me.  They also make me feel slightly itchy and a bit gross.  So while I've taken them for a variety of nasty injuries over the years, I've never felt the desire to take them recreationally.

When I was 15 I broke my left forearm.  Clean break, fully displaced with the bone ends well past one another.   At the hospital they gave me a shot of Demerol.  THAT stuff was amazing!  Absolutely no pain and very little memory of the next 6 hours where they attempted to set the bones.  (Unsuccessfully, they had to do an ORIF surgery in the morning)   

I don't like taking any kind of medicine unless I have to.  I'd rather take a small dose of OTC meds and/or deal with the pain.  I was given a prescription of hydrocodone after surgery to remove a tumor from my ear.  I took it for the first time 3 days after the surgery and felt nothing out of the ordinary.  I took it once more before bed 2 days after.  I got maybe an hour of sleep that night.  I could feel my heartbeat slowing down and my breathing was shallow.  I never took it again and just took OTC meds after.

A few months prior to this while they were trying to figure out wtf was in my ear a dr gave me something that made me not give any berkeleys about anything.

In reply to spitfirebill :

I don't know. This was in the pre lawsuit days I guess my dad traded my pain and suffering for me not flunking. ( they just flunked me 3 years later) 

No one ever said they were sorry  or took responsibility 

In reply to frenchyd :

Sounds like you more or less moved on from it, which seems to be the healthiest way to get on with things.  

I took it once when I ripped my shoulder up. Absolutely hated it. Gave them to my dad to help with his artificial hips