I am having a really hard time with my mother, she has had a presecription drug abuse problem for YEARS. It started with xanax, and now she is into painkillers and soma, and pretty much anything that she can get her hands on. Our entire family has put up with this for so long. She goes out of town to pick up her prescriptions, she hides stuff, she lies constantly, she "doctor shops" She will be on drugs and go into rants and raves when we confront her about it, saying that she isn't, that she hasn't taken anything. The middle of November she had a really bad time, and we all pretty much wrote her off, not knowing what else to do. She went through withdrawls for about a week, and was clean, or atleast that what we think, for about a month. She thought she could do it by herself, but low and behold, she is back on them again, even though she lies and says she isn't, we can tell. She does have some health problems, but I would think that if a doctor had seen her and had noticed that she was in as severe pain as she claims, they would have put her on some kind of program? It started out she would be ok for a few months, and then go on a binge for a couple weeks, but the last few years it has gotten more and more frequent, now she will go a couple weeks and be back on them heavy for a week or so, but I don't think that she stops taking them, she must always have them in her system, because her withdrawls were really bad. Its really strange, would that be considered abuse? I probably answered my own ?. I just don't know what to do, I have listened to the lies 4 2 long!!