My son was a pain meds addict before he became a heroin addict. He tried to get off drugs himself, took suboxone both off the street and from doctors. I remember him telling me he was trying to break his habit. He would be clean a month or so but he would always go back to the drugs. Then it got easier for him to shoot heroin. Never in a million years did I think I would have a heroin addict for a son. The only thing that gave him a chance at living drug free was rehab. He didn't come to his own decision to go to rehab--he was court ordered to 28 days in rehab after getting two DUI's.
Eventually your boyfriend's addiction will catch up to him. He may think he can beat this demon on his own, but he can't. I'm not positive my son has beat his demons. He recently had kidney stones after having been opiate clean for seven months. I don't think he purposefully started using them again. He was in a lot of pain so he thought he'd take the pain meds the doctor prescribed, thinking he'd take them as prescribed. I had read in all my research on drug addiction that when a person starts back up using again, they fall right back into the level of use they left off on. My son immediately started using his pain meds just like he used them at the height of his addiction (20 a day, not the 3 prescribed per day for pain). His body had not built up to 20 a day. I don't know how dangerous that actually was for him going right back to 20 a day, but I imagine it was dangerous. Thank God nothing bad happened to him. I caught on to what he was doing and he stopped. Even so he had three days of withdrawal to face. It wasn't as bad as the three weeks it took in rehab to detox his body and he was so surprised how easy it was to get addicted again. Instantaneous.
Your boyfriend must go to rehab to begin healing from his addiction. Nothing less will do. Then he will have much work ahead of him to fully recover. Unless he's willing to do both--rehab and recovery--don't even entertain the thought of a life with him. You'll be no better than you are now with him--and most likely much worse off than you are now. My son is in a relationship with a young woman now who has a seven year old daughter and I hope he'll do right by her, but I am realistic about their situation. He's not done any real recovery work since leaving rehab and I don't have a good feeling about their chances to succeed. Maybe he'll surprise me. I pray to God he does.