Trying to fully understand the pill addiction...

[preciousandfew]

Hello to all-

I found this site a few months back and have reading all the posts in this forum and the social addiction forum as well.  My younger brother is addicted to prescription pain pills.  Everything from vicodin 5/500, Norco 10/325 to Oxy all types.  I posted about him within some other posts before I realized you can begin your own thread (duh).  So not to be redundant see within the post -Effects of Percocet and Oxycontin- and it's the second from the bottom.  That somewhat outlines in a nutshell his addiction.  I'm not an addict, but I'm no prude either, which is why I know he tells me about his addiction.  I am trying to understand this to the best of my ability so I can emphasize with him if nothing else.  His DOC is Norco 10/325, but because he's addicted to opiate he'll take what ever he gets his hands on.  One thing I don't understand is what's the difference between one pill and another?  Aside from the strength or if it is combined with something else...etc.  Specifically, he prefers Norco and gets high from them he takes 2-4 every 3-4 hours if he can.  Sometimes he'll get prescribed percoset(varied mg's) and he says he doesn't get high from them, or that they don't feel the same or last as long.  He recently got prescribed Oxy 5/500-capsules for "breakthrough" pain (he has chronic staph infections, explained in the post listed above) The other day he took 1-said he didn't feel anything, took another waited 45 min. said still nothing, took another and within 30 min he was puking uncontrollably.  I know there are many types of pills and each one releases into the body differently, I know there is immediate release, time release, etc. what I'd like to know (for starters) is how do the pills he's taking compare to the other?  Like how many norco = a perc?  How many norco/perc=5mg oxy?  Are the highs the same?  Does the high last longer in one than in another, like I said, not time-released, but immediate release?  I wish there was a pill table out there that broke it down to a "t".  I know what a vicodin high feels like, as I've been prescribed them throughout my life after surgeries, baby's etc.  I am probably someone who could become addicted easily too if I took them all the time, so like I said it's not like I'm completely ignorant when it comes to the feeling.  My brother says you are either one of those people who take them and get sick or one of the people who take them and feel euphoric.  I have used different types of drugs throughout my life, but I never did anyone dirty to get them.  He's hit all time lows lately.  I mean he will do ANYTHING to get these drugs and they're hard to get sometimes.  He has done everything from fake an injury, ER-jump, used a fake name, picked up other peoples script without them knowing, forged a prescription (cuz he knows how to write them out like a dr), lied to his primary when his script is out early (called the police and said he had a party and after everyone left he noticed his script was gone, he has no friends as he has stolen from them, used them, or lied to them...let alone have a party) and turned the police report in to his dr. to get his script early, stolen pills from our grandma who has cancer,  looked in the paper for houses for sale that are having an open house and gone there and looked through people's medicine cabinets, that's all I can think of for now, I'm SURE there is more.  

He lied about his addiction for so long and functioned normally while on them so no one around him knew.  Then after 2 yrs of use he detoxed ct and said it was the worst experience of his life.  He didn't really do them for a year, only recreational on binges, never day to day, but drank heavily that year.  Then last year he had a series of bad staph infections and he found a doc that would see him regularly and she prescribed him norco 10/325 for the pain(pain he only gets if he has an outbreak, which he hasn't had for a long time).  He gets it refilled on a "zero" refill every 15 days and also gets them everywhere else he can...it's out of control.  How he does it baffles me, he has no job, no one in our family will give him money (they all know now after he stole from g-ma and our dad found the empty bottle in his backpack).  

I am really trying to look at it from a non-bias standpoint, although he has wronged me many times too, so I'm not gonna lie and say I can ACTUALLY do that for him.  I mean, it blows my mind the person he has become, but worse than that he knows he has a big problem, but his solution is an endless flowing river of pills.  He says "I don't want to stop, I never would if I didn't have too".  This forum is really great for addicts and family members/partners of addicts alike...those of you who have been in the hideous grips of this addiction and conquered it, wow, my hat is off to you.  What do I want out of it?  I guess I want to understand every aspect of it to the best of my ability and be as educated as I possibly can to at least see my brother on another level...not looking down, but looking in and maybe trying to understand how he will ever get out.

[VicAddict26]

I feel for you, it's hard to see someone you love do something as low as an addict will go to get their drug, the only way I can explain that is that he is a slave to the drug,, I lived that way for 3 years and didn't really ever think I would give them up,, It was a long process to realize I had a problem, and an even longer process to even want to try and give them up, Once I had decided to give them up it took me a year to get the courage to do it,,, I didn't care if they killed me, all I cared about was chasing that high, I didn't feel I could live without them, It was hard to even remember life without them,, they turn into your life,, It's really sad how much the opiate can control a person,, I agree with Ella that it is going to have to be his decision, the only thing you could do is try and educate him what that drug is doing to his body and brain,, He will have to come to terms with wanting to give them up on his own or it will never work,, An addict has to really want it to break free from this drug,, It's a hard process and it takes a lot of time to heal from this addiction,  As for his preference of drug,, we all have that, that's why it is our doc, I have taken many other opiates but they are not the same as my doc,, I would just take them to stay out of w\d.. My doc is what gives me the feeling I'm looking for,,, Don't give up hope on him, he still might come to terms with wanting to give them up,, At one time most of us addicts were completely lost in our addictions and made the choice that we can no longer let this drug rule our lives,, Once that decision is made it's a road of hell to get to the other side of recovery, but it can be done,, There are many addicts out there that have been as bad or even worse of than your brother and have changed their ways,, I wish you the best of luck on trying to help your brother, it takes a strong love to deal with an addict in full addiction,, Hang in there..

[Ella789]

Hi,  I just wanted to say that I think your brother will have to hit a wall with the addiction before he realizes that he can no longer use people, money or love to get them.  He will have to do this for HISSELF and nobody else. or it won't work.  That is a sad thing to say and I do not want to  hurt you by saying it.  We all have come to this decision on our own, that's how it has to be.  We have to want it more than anything else and be willing to suffer the detox of it.  Then, we get to learn to live without it, and I mean learn, it's a new thing.  Putting our old ways behind us and going a new and sometimes strange direction.  Then, there is a satisfaction in knowing that for each minuet of every hour we are free, day by day we are free, month by month we are free. We never take it for granted, ever.


Ella..........  still opiate free.since Feb. 16th