pill addiction

[luvpeace1]

I have recently discovered that a student of mine's mother is addicted to pain pills, I stumbled across some things that brought this information to light and now looking back and putting everything together and speaking with some friends of hers and mine we have all realized what is going on-she is making poor choices for herself and her child and we all feel that maybe reporting her is the best thing to do but we are not sure how to go about doing that - who should we tell -the father is not in the picture, we have already tried talking with her but she is not recognizing there is a problem-should we even report her, will it do any good?  I have a close relationship with her and her child and am not sure if I am going about this the right way as I have never delt with an addiction before

[fishmeal]

Hi this is pre-written for new people… hope this helps:

It’s good to come clean with your doc concerning your desire to get off.  Ask him to prescribe clonidine, (not klonopin), and ativan.  These will help with sleep, RLS and anxiety.  These are best to try before formal detox and drugs like Suboxone.  I had to do formal detox because I tried everything else, including alcohol to get off and nothing worked for me.  Keep in mind that when you try… make it a good one!  Have some time off of work if you can… maybe a four day weekend or more.  Make the last day of work without any drugs, because the first day is usually the easiest.  Try your best to get clean and stay clean because the other methods require more potent drugs and you have to come off of those.  I am still on Suboxone and am a little worried about that… It does work well but the jury is out on, “At what Cost.”  I also learned while in detox, that the mind can psychosomatically create pain to “get’ the drug.  Another was that healing while using opiates greatly diminishes.  I would have sores on my hands that would take way too long to heal.
Best
Fish
I have to say this from the bottom of my heart,  Please do not keep playing around with these drugs they are very powerful ….. kinda like heroin in a pill and just as hard to get off once you attain the, "addicted" status.

[luvpeace1]

Thank you so much for the advice- and I'm glad the two of you can see my problem-I have taught this child since she was 7 and she is now 14 and I'm very good friends with her mother but now I'm concerned since we confronted her that she is going to try and hide it even more-but thank you for you input as I will pray and think very hard what I should do before I do whatever I'm going to do-her father is there but the mother and father have a terrible relationship-which I think is the actual cause of her depression and the pain killers are not helping the home life, the child is very depressed and has began acting out and is getting into some trouble as a result-Thanks so much for you advice

[BluerOcean]

It sounds like this situation is weighing heavy on you and I understand why you don't want to cause a riff between you and the child, but in the end it's a call that you or one of your colleagues need to make.  It's anonymous and it may be the best thing that ever happened for this family.
Teachers in Canada are mandated reporters when they suspect abuse and/or neglect.
Good luck!

[FLaddict]

hmm.. this situation could get hairy... I don't know if I know the right answer to give you.. Of course if the child is really suffering due to this then by all means do what you feel is best.. You are closer to the situation and know the facts of what is going on..  I am hesitant to say yes absolutely report her.. because most of the time people who abuse pain pills are not bad people.. they just make bad choices.. I would continue to talk to her and figure out what is best..