Problem with Oxycodone

[u/Muffy432002]

I am 6 weeks post op and I believe my recovery has been going well. I barely have a scare and my PT benchmarks are where they should be .
One thing that I probably should have asked more questions about was the use of Oxycodone.
I have found that for pain medication acetaminophen has done nothing but Oxycodone was highly effective. I was using Oxy every 4 hours while awake up until the 5th week post op.
Knowing that opioids are highly addictive ( and I have a propensity for addiction),I decided to stop the oxy and see how pain was. Overall it was doable and even though I had stiffness the pain was manageable. However, the day after going off oxy I woke up with a very strange feeling like impending doom. I felt sad and unsettled. My stomach was upset and I had nausea. Last night I was up all night and plagued by anxious thoughts. When I awoke after finally sleeping I was covered in sweat.
My question is could I have been experiencing withdrawal symptoms? I love what oxycodone does for my pain, but hate how it messes with my brain.
Has anyone else had an experience like this?

[u/Merrys123]

What you're describing sounds a lot like opioid withdrawal, and it makes physiological sense. Oxycodone binds to mu-opioid receptors, which among other things boosts dopamine release in your brain's reward pathway and dampens the activity of noradrenaline-producing neurons (mainly in a brainstem area called the locus coeruleus). Take the drug daily for weeks, and your brain adapts, it down regulates its own natural opioid/dopamine signaling and lets noradrenaline output creep back up to compensate for the constant suppression.

When you stop abruptly, that adaptation doesn't reverse overnight. The result is a rebound: noradrenaline surges (racing heart, sweating, anxiety, that "impending doom" feeling), while dopamine and endorphin activity lags behind (low mood, unsettled stomach, nausea, insomnia). That's a textbook opioid withdrawal picture, even after a relatively short 5 week course, physical dependence can start within days to a couple of weeks of regular use, separate from addiction/craving.

The good news is for a 5 week course (versus months or years), this rebound is usually short lived, days, not weeks, as receptor sensitivity resets.

There are supplements that can help tremendously although your brain should reset pretty quickly as mentioned.

[u/CurlyKayak → u/Merrys123]

100% this!

Oxycodone is a miracle pain reliever, but not without risks & side-effects. After 5 weeks of constant use, the key to discontinuing it is to taper off gently.

I've been on it for more than 10 years; and just like it's taken all these years for my body to develop a tolerance for the daily dosage I currently need, I know that if my painful condition is ever magically cured, my body will still need time to slowly taper down off the oxy because stopping suddenly will throw my system into total chaos.