Originally Posted by
howatch 
Hi all, Does anyone have a relative who uses illness or pain as their excuse for abusing RX drugs? And how do you handle this without coming across as uncaring?
My mom is an alcoholic, and I think she also abuses her Oxycontin prescription.
She claims that she is in constant pain, and needs to take high doses of Oxycontin as a result.
She DOES have a painful illness - however she doesn't show any signs of pain on her current dose - she can talk, laugh, etc - doesn't grimace or hold her breath, moan, clench fists, sweat or anything. She seems fine.... Yet she claims she is constantly in severe pain!
Anyway, she takes extra Oxycontin in combination with alcohol until she regularly passes out/ hallucinates/ talks rubbish.
Does anyone else have a relative or friend who uses illness or pain as an excuse for using?
And if so, I'd be grateful for any advice on handling this.
Thanks all.
Hi howatch,
Im sorry to hear about your Mother's illness. My husband is dealing with an addiction to Oxycontin. He began using it for chronic back/neck pain and a torn meniscus. He began with Vicodan, but his liver enzymes were elevated, so he was changed to the Oxy. In the beginning, he says / I believe that he was taking them as prescribed. However, the dose he was prescribed was very high in my opinion.
Eventually he began to take more than his months supply and started getting sick. The doctor increased his dose. This lead to breaking the time released seal by crushing the pill and letting it dissolve in his mouth so that it would hit him faster. This is a true sign that the Oxycontin use was not just for pain anymore. We hit bottom (I hope) when he began snorting the crushed pills quite often.
The entire time this was going on, I was in nursing school. I was learning about opiates and did not want him on the meds. I tried everything in my power to get him to stop the pills, but he would always say ,"How can you sit there and judge me for taking my medicine!?" He used the pain management doctor as a crutch to throw in my face. I was just a nursing student, who was I to disagree with the doctor?
This addiction has completely distroyed our lives. We worked so hard to get to where we were and he threw it all away. It has hurt our marriage and our children. He finally admits the problem and is trying to stay clean. From what I have read and been told on this website, we will have to deal with this disease for the rest of our lives.
It is really dangerous for her to drink alcohol while on those meds. (Im sure you already know this though or you wouldnt have mentioned it.) Please try to talk to your Mom about the dangers and about how she can get help when she is ready.
You have made a great decision coming here...It has already made a change in my life.
God bless!
Dawn