Tapering - Time Frame For Dependance?

[I_8_my yellow crayon]

Well....only swiy knows if he needs to do a taper or not. wiy should jut not take it and see how he feels. Swim found that often with the more powerfull painkillers, not o much morphine, but definatly hydromorphone, oxycodone, and oxymorphone, the opiate hangover can be confused for dependance. Nobody can convince wim that they feel "great" after coming off 4-5 days of heavy opiate use. Usually lethargy is the worst for swim. But, when one is in true pain that requires these drugs, then it puts a different spin on things. Also if that person has been addicted or abused opiates before, then it shakes things up even more. It brings back all those old feelings and thoughts.

Swim was a pain patient, and started to abuse his meds, then of course had to go get straightened up. Once he did, a couple months went by, his doctor was very understanding, and his pain meds were given back to him. But, he is closley monitered. By the way, he takes dilaudid. Now swim always has that thought in the back of his mind if he is addicted again. Swim will admit it feels damn good mentally and physically every morning when he takes his meds, but he doesn't take more than he is prescribed.
Sometimes its very uncomfortable for swim to know that he is trapped, having to take addictive drugs that he hates to take. He is constantly worrying about addiction.

The stage of addiction goes tolerance, dependance, addiction. When swiy has to take a little more than he did a week or two prior, then that is the sign of tolerance. When swiy stops taking the drug, and experiances withdrawal, that is dependance. There is no addiction stage for someone who has adequate pain, only dependence. But there is a very fine line between dependence and addiction. Its a very eay one to cross and not even realize it. Also abusers with pain tend to use their pain as an excuse to take more meds than prescribed, but they are only fooling themselves.
Swiys body will not be dependent after onloy a week. Swiy will feel tired and just, groggy, but no withdrawal. If swiy has pain, and it i chronic, then it probobly wont subside. Just tell swiy to make sure that it isn't his mind wanting the drug. Alo, not taking opiates for a while, then being up to 100mg of oxycodone in a matter of 4-5 days, is not a good sign, unless swiy has severe pain.

Also note that if swiy had chronic pain that was bad enough to require oxycodone, then he wouldn't have been able to taper off, because he would experience the pain immediately. Now if swiy had acute pain, thats different, because acute pain can most definately be bad enough to require high dose oxycodone, then when whatever is causing it heals, or gets resolved, the pain will subside, therefore no longer requiring oxycodone.

Why does swiy have pain?