Help! I think my husband has been abusing his perscription drugs

[angie3716]

My husband has a history of drug abuse. He was at one time abusing cocaine and more consistantly enjoys taking pain-killers. He sometimes steals them from his mother, buys them from friends or goes to the doctor with exaggerated complaints in order to get a perscription. Recently he was perscribed Xanax and was given 60 pills on 10/17/07. Now on 11/1/07 there are only 12 pills left. I have been out of town for the past couple weeks so I have not observed him abusing the xanax, but I am very concerned given his history and the amount of missing pills in such a short amount of time. My question is, how can I approach this without putting him on the defense? Should I contact his doctor to report this in order to stop a future perscription?  

[angie3716]

Thank you everyone for your feed back. It's scary when you see someone you love going down a dangerous path. I took your advice (“Talk to him CALMLY "..."a heart to heart talk with him"...  "Try unconditional love"). It went really well. At first he reacted a little defensively, but he quickly saw that I was addressing the issue because I love him and I am truly concerned for his safety, his health and our lives together. I think I really got through to him. At least now it's out in the open and instead of feeling attacked he seemed to feel supported and loved. As for me, I feel relieved that we took that first step (talking about it) and it didn't become the argument I was imagining. What could have been a meltdown turned into a constructive and positive discussion. One foot in front of the other as they say...

[exhostage]

You are asking how best to approach a drug addict about his abuse and not have him get defensive... try unconditional love. They say there is a fine line between enabling and caring, a professional once put it to me like this: If the person's behavior you are trying to help is better after being with you, then you are doing the right thing.

[oxypen]

No, do not contact his doctor. As beachtowel stated he should not talk to you anyway. Besides if you do that, he'll just find someplace else to get them, like on the street, if he wants them that badly, and then it'll cost you big money.
If he's had a history of drug abuse, he knows where this will lead him and I know he doesn't want to go there.  Talk to him CALMLY and ask him just that, "is it really worth it, you know where this will lead......"

[beachtowel]

Have you sat down with him and had a heart to heart talk with him about all his medication?

Don't you owe that to your husband before you contimplate turning him in?

[beachtowel]

If you contact his doctor and his doctor responds negative to him he can sue his doctor.......

His doctor should not even talk to you on the phone about anything to do with his medical records or history.....he is protected by the Hippa act.........by the Federal government......