Kpsims42

So I have never talked to anyone that has ever been through the things I am experiencing and have been experiencing since I was 6, I'm now 22. My mother has had a problem with prescription pills for as long as I can remember. When I was a child she became addicted to Oxycontin and when I was twelve she had a mental break and went into a psychiatric facility. She was there I think four months then came home. It was a long process getting her diagnosis correct but she was finally diagnosed with BiPolar 1 and schizoaffective. She stills abuses almost any kind of medication she can get her hands on. I don't have a father and I'm getting to a very low place. I feel like I'm completely alone and have no where to look. She has been on a two day binge with Xanax and it's starting to bother me. I don't know how to cope with this any more. Im losing it.

Maudcat

Hello, Kpsim42, and welcome. Are there Nar-Anon meetings in your area that you can attend? That could be helpful. Are you in school? The school's counseling office could point you to help as well. Sending you good thoughts. Keep coming back to this site. Lots of wisdom here.

Kpsims42

I've never been to the counseling center at my university but I'm thinking I might go there and see. Because I'm getting the point to where I'm overwhelmed at all times.

DesertEyes

Hello Kpsims42, and welcome to this little corner of recovery

This is a very small and quiet forum, people check in about once a week. So if you don't get a lot of replies right away please don't feel ignored.

That's very common with us "Adult Children". If you look thru the "sticky" posts at the top of this forum you will find a lot of good information that might be useful to you.

You've come to the right place. We have another forum that you might want to look into. It's more active and focused on dealing with family members who are still a direct impact on our lives

Family Members of Addicts and Alcoholics (Parents, Sons and Daughters, Siblings) - SoberRecovery : Alcoholism Drug Addiction Help and Information

An organization you may want to check out, in addition to Nar-Anon mentioned in another post, is Al-Anon. You can find them here:

http://www.al-anon.org/

I found their meetings to be extremely helpful. Look thru their meeting directory for your part of the world and see if they have a meeting that focuses on parents or immedidate family. Sometimes these "focused" meetings will not actually say that in the directory and you may have to shop around a bit.

I know that feeling well. Dealing with addict parents _is_ overwhelming, that is why we have all these organizations to help us deal with the problem. Oh yes, I second the suggestion that you check out your counselors at your University.

You are not alone anymore. There are a lot of people that can give you information, ideas and share their own experience. You may have to visit several meetings before you find one that "fits". Once you find it you will see that there are many different ways of overcoming the insanity of addiction that is affecting your Mother and causing chaos in your own life.

Mike

makomago

Welcome to the forum Kpsims...

My mother abused prescription meds and alcohol. My mother also had times in psych. hospitals. Often it was because she was suicidal. I can't remember a time when she was not taking some form of 'pill'. When she had no pills, I remember she'd take 'just' paracetamol... although I now wonder if this was not from her secret drinking and hangover!

She (my mother) is now in a permanent care home because she suffers from Korsakoff syndrome (result of her alcoholism) and now dementia.

Despite my best attempts to block out the past by burying memories or stuffing feelings or denying the problem (in many different ways) eventually the memories I buried came back - I buried them alive and that's not healthy.

In order to recover from the effects both historic and current I attended meetings of Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families (and I still do).

It's been a good while since I've experienced that "I'm losing it" moment.

I've seen it written that such reactions are 'the normal result of an abnormal upbringing'. Of course it's also said that those brought up in dysfunctional/addicted/codependent homes merely 'guess what normal is'.

Stick around, have a look at some of the older posts, or stickies and share as you feel suitable, you never know what you share may well help someone.

M