bipolar and addiction

[rye0683]

My husband is addicted to vicodin. He has been taking them for 5 years. he was addicted to Ecstacy, and someone offered him a vicodin to help with the withdrawal from that. he quit ecstacy over 5 years ago, so i feel like he went from one addiction to another. There are a few different things going on. He is bipolar and is not currently on medication. he has expressed a desire to get off of pills, but he has tried before and failed. He can get very mean, and angry while he is withdrawaling. I love him very much, and i am ready to stand by him through this. We have 2 daughters, 3 and 1. Also i am 6 months pregnant with our son. So i am very concerned about timing. But he feels he is ready. Also, i cannot be there to hold his hand every step of the way because i work full time. he is disabled because of the severity of his bipolar, so he cares for our children with help from his mother. I am concerned about how this is going to affect our kids, and what can i do to make this whole process easier for him? he wants desperately to quit cold turkey, and today (12/6) is going to be day one.

[avisg]

Rye, Welcome,
First things first he has to get back on his bi polor meds and get stable .Withdrawal tends to bring on depression in people that are not  bi polor . Plz he needs to do that first . You said he is on disability
its so bad .Why is he not taking them? I would encourage him to get stable first then deal with the withdrawal .... good luck
avis

[jill6]

Hi.  I'm tapering off of oxy from a car accident.  I'm bipolar and still on my meds - the third taper was pretty bad for me - my depression escalated to the point it scared me.  I don't think it matters what his drug of choice is - he really needs to be back on his bp meds before he starts to get off the vicodin.  I rarely call my psychiatrist but during the beginning/middle of the last taper, I had to go back in because of the depression.  It's hard for many bp's to stay on meds - it's hard for me - it's even harder when he's in the middle of a drug addiction (been there many times).  By the way, I got really mean too - but my kids are a little older than yours so I talked to them and explained it had nothing to do with them at all - not sure this helped because the words were already out but it was all I had to offer them.

You have a lot on your plate - two young kids, one on the way and a full time job.  It sounds like he can at least talk to you - so maybe he'll listen when you ask him to go back and get on his bp meds before he goes any further with wanting to stop the vicodin - it will at the minimum, ease his depression and hopefully help with the anger.  This is just my experience.  Good luck - you sound like you are an incredibly strong person.