Teen Percocet Rehab

Table of Contents
Chemistry of Addiction
Confront Your Teen
Detoxification
Therapy Process
Maintenance Meds
Get Help

There’s no question that the adolescent years are difficult. Teens are flooded with hormones and their bodies are changing in rapid and baffling ways. Many teens find their social circles become more difficult to navigate, and their studies at school may become more and more complicated. Teens may feel rising stress and panic levels, and they may turn to Percocet for relief.

Teens abuse drugs like Percocet at an alarming rate. In fact, according to an article published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, it’s commonly reported than 12 percent of teens use prescription drugs for recreation, but the real number in rural communities may be closer to 34 percent.

Percocet is a dangerous drug, and it’s incredibly easy for teens to become addicted. The nature of the drug, and the typical course of addiction, makes it quite difficult for the teen to quit without assistance. Thankfully, there are many programs that can provide relief and allow the teen to move past the addiction.

The Chemistry of Percocet Addiction

Percocet contains an opiate medication known as oxycodone. When a user ingests a Percocet tablet, the oxycodone is released in the juices of the stomach and the drug moves through the body and attaches to receptors in the brain, intestines and other organs. Once there, the drug begins to enhance the effectiveness of certain natural chemicals known as endorphins. These chemicals can make the user feel happy and silly, and while the effect may not last for long, many users find the sense of euphoria caused by the drugs to be incredibly intoxicating.

If a teen takes Percocet on a regular basis, the body begins to adjust its own chemistry. The body may know, on a molecular level, that the high level of drugs isn’t appropriate, and it may work to keep the body’s chemistry within a normal range. This means that the addict must take higher doses of the drug in order to experience euphoria, and the addict may find that he or she can no longer function normally without the drug. Between doses, the addict may feel nervous or sweaty, and he or she may have gastrointestinal distress between doses.

At this point, percocet addiction moves from a habit the teen can control to an addiction that is controlling the teen. These chemical changes are incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to get through without help (Read more about Percocet Addiction Signs and Symptoms).

confront a teen about addictionConfrontation

Some parents believe they can stop their teens from taking Percocet by providing the teen with a clear set of rules, and imposing strict penalties if they refuse to comply. While this may sound good in theory, it’s often not an effective way to deal with Percocet addiction in a teen. It’s important to remember that the addiction is a chemical problem, not a weakness of strength or moral character, and the teen will need advanced treatments for help, not yelling and punishment. It’s also important to remember that many addicts feel severely depressed and upset about their addiction. According to a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, of those people entering a treatment program for opiate addiction, 17 percent were experiencing a major depressive episode and 60 percent had mild depression symptoms. Addicts will need support and love to move past the depression as well as the addiction.

For many families, holding an intervention is the best way to begin the recovery process. In an intervention, the family:

  • Explains the addiction to the teen
  • Points out specific episodes in which the teen was impaired and put himself or herself at risk
  • Expresses love and support
  • Demands that the addict gets treatment

At the end of a successful intervention, the teen leaves the conversation and enters a treatment program immediately. The teen knows more about the addiction, and is motivated to make changes. When this happens, true healing can begin.

Detoxification

Teens who take Percocet regularly need to enter a formal, supervised detoxification program before they can begin addiction recovery work. As mentioned, the oxycodone in Percocet can change the way the teen’s body functions, and those changes can cause severe symptoms during withdrawal stages, including:

  • Drug DetoxDiarrhea
  • Vomiting
  • Sweating
  • Uncontrollable muscle movements
  • Chills
  • Hallucinations

Some teens need medications to help calm these symptoms, and others need additional medications so they can sleep and feel relaxed. Teens with a severe addiction to Percocet may find that these medications aren’t strong enough to completely ease their symptoms. These teens may benefit from buprenorphine. This medication is also in the opiate family, but it isn’t known for producing a significant feeling of euphoria. In fact, it’s often considered a very weak form of opiate. According to an article published by the American Psychological Association, even when given at high doses, buprenorphine has only about 40 percent the efficacy of heroin. Instead of providing a buzz, buprenorphine attaches to the same receptors used by Percocet and simply slows down the process of detoxification. Many teens start on high doses of buprenorphine during detoxification and they slowly taper down to smaller and smaller doses until they’re taking no medication at all.

Percocet also contains acetaminophen, and this drug can do damage to the liver and other organs when it’s taken at high doses for a long period of time. Some teens need medical attention for their livers as a result of their addiction, and they begin to obtain this help during detoxification.

Therapy Process

At the end of detoxification, the teen has a system clean of Percocet, but he or she is still considered an addict. After all, the psychological components that drove the teen to addiction haven’t changed. The teen may still have the same:

  • Drug-using friends
  • Difficulty with family members
  • Resentment towards authority
  • A need to rebel
  • A lack of stress control

All of these factors can drive a teen right back into the arms of Percocet. That’s why the counseling component of Percocet rehabilitation is so very important. Here, the teen learns why he or she is drawn to using drugs, and the teen has a chance to learn more about how to repel drug-using urges. Family therapy allows the teen to work through conflicts and old wounds, and the group learns to communicate without hurt.

Some teens benefit from participating in group counseling sessions. Teens are remarkably open to hearing difficult messages from their peers, even if they resist these same messages from their parents and people in authority. In group sessions, they may hear how other teens relate to their addiction, and they may develop their own coping skills by modeling good behavior. Some teens benefit from so-called mentoring programs, where they are paired with another person who is in recovery. A study published in the Cochrane Library found that mentoring provided by groups such as the Big Brothers program were effective in keeping kids from using drugs and alcohol. In addition, some 12-step programs, including Narcotics Anonymous, provide mentoring to all members. If teens receive mentoring advice from another addict, rather than an authority figure, those lessons may be slightly more likely to stick.

Drug Rehab MedicationsMaintenance Medications

Some teens need to stay on maintenance medications such as buprenorphine for months or even years after they complete their treatment programs. Their bodies simply cannot function without the drug, and they need synthetics in order to avoid the temptation to slip back into Percocet use. This long-term buprenorphine therapy can be surprisingly effective in teens. In fact, according to a study presented during the American Academy of Addiction Psychology 18th Annual Meeting and Symposium, teens who had 12 weeks of therapy with the drug did better than teens who only had two weeks of therapy, but both groups tended to relapse when the drug was discontinued.

Buprenorphine is often suggested for teens because it cannot be abused. The tablets contain another medication that kicks in when they are crushed or snorted. If the teen attempts to abuse the medication, the pills become inactive. The teen may feel withdrawal symptoms instead of the high he or she was looking for.

In the past, doctors used methadone to help treat opioid addicts. Many recent news reports suggest, however, that teens tend to abuse methadone. In fact, many teens give their methadone to their friends, and these friends may overdose as a result. Due to this risk, some doctors prefer to lean on buprenorphine rather than methadone to help treat teen addicts.

We Can Help

At Newport Academy, we offer programs that can take teens through the detoxification process and on to therapy. We offer individual therapy as well as group and family programs. We also provide aftercare programs that can help teens stay clean long after the inpatient program is complete.

This healing can’t begin, however, until the teen enters a treatment program. Detoxification and rehabilitation are difficult processes that take time and energy to complete. If you know your teen is abusing Percocet, we urge you to call us today to learn more about how we can help.

Further Reading About Teen Percocet Rehab