Prescription drug abuse

[CarGodsLady]

My husband and I have come to my partents home to help my father take care of my mom.  She has such eratic behavior.  When I realized she has been abusing drugs all my life, they were just prescription drugs.  She has several Dr.'s prescriber her Ambien then she took a couple swallows of NyQuil and then several Tylenol PM.  One day I tried to stop her from driving but was unsuccessful.  I wasn't sure how to deal with the situation being the child.  She wound up crashing her car before she even made it out to the main road.  Now her addiction is to whatever pain pills she can get ahold of.  I'm sure my father knows she has an addiction because he allots her the pills.  But she has switched to yet another pharmacy who doesn't know her and her Dr. doesn't seem to realize or care how much he prescribes her.  Her health has gone down hill greatly and I am the only one of her daughters who even remotely gives a $hit about her anymore.  Because of her actions I have always had to be the mom to my sisters and now I'm having to do it again for her.  I don't know what to do.  I am almost 31yrs and have six children of my own that I am in a custody battle over and now I have to figure out how to take care of my drug addict mother.  Does anyone have any advice for me?

[lilbitt]

I understand completely what you are going through.  My mother has been a prescription drug abuser for as long as I can remember.  She needs thrives for attention constantly.  My father completely enables her; because he's been henpecked their entire marriage; there has been times when he's faked an illness just so she can have it so that he doesn't have to deal with it.  I have 7 brothers and sisters and we all left by the age of 18 because of this.  She's loud, can't concentrate or pay attention; extremely critical of everybody and everything.  She would literally fake a fainting spell in the middle of our living room in front of our friends.  We would ignore her.  My dad would go running over.  She faked breathing problems and always ran for a paper bag to breath into to (this was always happening in front of our friends).  We've had great loss and tragedy in our family.  I've lost two neices and  my husband and my brother suffers from a very serious heart condition and I have lupus.  But we try to stay positive; but my mother gains attention through our problems. She has no faith in anything.  It's "poor me" she always manages to turn our problem into her suffering (for attention purposes).  We believe that we have been cursed with multiple illnesses because of my mother's faking to get medicine.  You know the saying "sins of the mother".  We've all suffered.  She calls constantly for anything.  She doesn't care that you're working and can't talk on the phone at the job; she doesn't care that my sister is preparing for a big trial and her job is to save from going to prison.  We are all professional women and despite the disfunction, we've done well.  She has never said I love you or complimented us on our achievements.  Frankly, she acts as if she's jealous of her own children.  The grandkids go see her out of obligation and only stand to stay for so long before making up an excuse to leave.  She doesn't respect boudaries or the fact that all of her children are over 40 with families.  Yesterday, she took a trip to the emerency room claiming a sore toe.  If she has a cold---she tells you it's Pneumonia; if she has a bruised foot; she tells you it's broken (but the doctor wouldn't put a cast on it because it is too swollen); if she has a sore throat; it's strep throat.  You get the picture?  I know that 40 years of this kind of abuse has fried her mind in ways I can't even imagine.  Vicodin, Codiene, Xanax, caffiene; Darvacet; Morphine; anything.  She has actually had unnecessary surgies, we believe, in order to get the medication and the attention.  I fault my father for not being man enough to have put his foot down a long time ago.  But he would never take our side against "mother" even though he knows it's the truth.  It's sad.  

[newmanagment]

You can also try going to a co-dependent meeting, usually can be found thru AA/NA or a local church. they helped my wife to understand my addiction and gave her ways to deal with my problems. sorry about the double post but after thought made me mention the co-dependent meetings.

[newmanagment]

Go to her doctor and tell them she is an addict. it may help , im not big into pills , others on here will help with that. i know addiction, and bringing her doctor up to speed will help him help her. i know that i dont get additive substances since my doc put "ADDICT" on my file!! best of luck with coping with your mom and those babies of yiours.