What are the effects of mixing Percocet drugs and alcohol?
Percocet is a combination of oxycodone and acetaminophen; when mixed with alcohol, the health and addiction risks are intensified. The acetaminophen works to boost the pain relieving powers of the oxycodone in Percocet. This particular drug is a central nervous system depressant, meaning that it slows down bodily functions and has a calming, tranquilizing effect on users. It is prescribed to relieve pain in patients who have recently had surgery or a traumatic injury. Unfortunately, people get addicted to the pain relief and begin to use it recreationally. Mixing it with alcohol is dangerous because alcohol is also a depressant; the combination of the two substances in the bloodstream can be lethal.
What Does Mixing Do?
Mixing Percocet with alcohol will intensify the feelings of calm achieved by either substance alone. Alcohol slows down the respiratory system, as well as the cardiovascular system. When drinking, people tend to feel tired and drowsy. Percocet has the same effect, so when the two are taken together, the effects are more extreme. Users like the relaxation, the dream-like feelings and false sense of well-being from taking Percocet with alcohol, but the danger is in the dosage. When mixing substances, it’s hard to know when enough is enough to achieve the desired results.
What Are The Dangers of Mixing?
Seeking are the dangerous side effects of combining two depressants. When both substances are in a person’s system, they can work together to slow breathing even to the point of stopping; they can cause drowsiness, dizziness and loss of motor control that make driving very dangerous; they may lead to memory problems and odd behaviour. A user might feel light-headed and have trouble concentrating, and may even black out or lose consciousness. The repercussions of driving in this condition, or being left alone at a party or in one’s house, can be life-altering. Mixing Percocet with alcohol, in any amounts, is not recommended.
Further to these health concerns, people who take oxycodone drugs and alcohol together put themselves at risk for hepatoxicity, which is a poisoning of the liver by chemicals. Acute liver damage known as alcohol-acetaminophen syndrome can occur from combining Percocet, which is oxycodone mixed with acetaminophen, with alcohol. When alcohol-acetaminophen syndrome isn’t treated immediately, it can lead to liver failure and death.
Recreational and Non-recreational Percocet Use
Whether a person is taking Percocet for legitimate reasons, with a prescription, or not, it is strongly recommended that they abstain from alcohol because the risks are too extreme. It may seem innocuous to drink while taking Percocet under the supervision of a doctor, monitoring dosages correctly. Yet the combination of alcohol and acetaminophen is a severe and serious danger. The risk is escalated, however, in patients who take oxycodone drugs for recreational reasons. Self-medicating by taking Percocet, and then choosing to drink alcohol, is highly detrimental to health, especially because of the chances of taking elevated dosages while under the influence.
Risk of Addiction
Because both substances are addictive, the risk of becoming addicted to the combination is high. People who feel a lot of stress may be looking for a way to achieve calm, and to escape, and combining alcohol with Percocet may feel like the perfect blend, but in actuality, it is not only dangerous, but an addictive sensation. The two substances intensify each other as they have depressive effects of the central nervous system.
Mixing drugs and alcohol may seem like a good idea at the time, but the fact is that there are no benefits to doing so. It is dangerous and can harm the user and the people around the user both in the short-term and in the long-term.
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