what type of help does a person addicted to pills need?

[Worried1971]

Hello,  I am worried about a family member who is addicted to codine.  This person evidently crushes and puts up his nose.  They have been addicted to pills since they were a child evidently.  This person is very loved by our family and married into our family.  They concealed this from their spouse for a long time but it has now taken over their lives.  There marriage which is only a year old is about at the end of its ropes.  Evidently they have tried to quit this many times with no sucess.  This person has finally admitted they need to get help and has agreed to go to rehab.  Only we want to make sure this person gets the help they need.  Any suggestions?  Any advise? This is new to us. But feel positive they have agreed to get help.  

[Worried1971]

Thank you for the comments I will share them with my sister.  This site has been such a help to her.  I print the comments I find with people dealing with simular addictions.  It was one of the things that made her realize she was not alone.  She said that reading some of these comments really hit home and she felt like she could have wrote some of them.  It was very good for her to be able to see that there are many people dealing with addiction like her husbands or other wifes in her positions.  Now that she has parted ways with him and is getting on with her life he claims he will get help he does not want to loose them.  But he has still not gotten it.  ( we are hoping and praying he will) but she will not go back with him and she has told him she will not wait for him to straighten up.  She is moving on with life for her and the baby - she will meet him and let him see the baby but she will not let him have unsupervised visits until he gets help.  She really wants him to get help but she cant make him.  If he could just get it together they are such a perfect family my sister wants that more than anything but she is not holding her breath because when it comes down to it he chooses the addiction over his family.  Thanks again for your comments.

[honeyswife]

As much as is hurts she did the right thing leaving. It may be the very thing that finally makes him want to seriously quit and go to rehab. You can't make someone quit until they want to themselves and make that choice. He won't get custody of the child, he can try but his addictions will not allow him to have any sort of custody and he will be lucky to even be able to have that child alone with him on any days at all. It might not be a quick thing that he decides to get clean either, but once he sees that his wife has left and is not coming back it may be the thing that makes him choose to get help for real. Just keep giving your sister the love and support she needs, she made a hard choice but a good choice for her and their childs future well being. Now only time will tell if he gets help or not.

[Worried1971]

Well, Just an update - this person was my sisters husband who she has now left.  He only told her he would get help in hopes she would move on and forget but after a year of marriage and beautiful son she had to reclaim her life.  She could no longer live with this addiction of his.  This is something he felt was normal - a life of living in darkness by day with the curtins closed tight not letting the sun in.  Staying up all night high - spending up the life and business my sister built to suport his habit.  The whole family loves him so much but he refuses to admit that he has a problem.  He was raised in this type of home for him it is normal to be addicted.  It is so sad.  My sister refused to spend another day in his addiction and a demon which it is refered to is a perfect match for something before she could not explain.  It is a demon she says that is the best discription for this addiction.  When he left he took everything she had - she was left with 3 dollars and a half a tank of gas.  She is having to rebuild her life from the ground up and he is still torchering her by telling people she is crazy because she claims to love him but is always angry at him for no reason.  He is saying he wants custody of their child and at 3:00 am in the morning he texts her to say he loves her and can't live with out her.  But he still refuses to go to rehab.  

It is just so sad that this addiction has not only affected his life but my sisters and their child and when you look at it mainly it is the fault of his parents who also live in addiction and lead him to believe this is a normal family life.  On Monday she will be filing for Divorce something she never wanted to do but she has to take her life back.  

My sister misses her husband but not the demon she has opened the curtins and let the sunlight flow through her home again - but the question still remains ( can a person this addicted still be helped - can they ever see their way out and become a normal person or will the demon always live within them?

[Worried1971]

Hello,  I found out a little more.  Evidently he is addicted to Oxycoten, uppers and downers, whatever those are- I don't know the names of the drugs.  He takes these to deal with life, sleep, work, everything.  This is all new to me but it is a very real situation for our family members who are dealing with this situation.  After posting last night I was able to have enough courage to call a Hotline where I spk with a very nice young lady who helped me locate some Rehab centers in our area of Florida.  I printed a list of these with numbers for my family member to give to them today.  I plan on being there to help in anyway for support and help though what is going to be a very rough time for them.  Thank you for your advise and I will continue to post and when he is ready maybe he would like to join in.   I am really glad I found this site and that there is support for those who need it.  

[Ronnie152]

The biggest step is to adimit it. Now that they have and said they would goto rehab then i would drive them asap. Good luck maybe he/she should come on here and read some of the post and my be post themselfs. It will help also. Good luck!

[Worried1971]

Thanks so much for this info - I will try to find out more about the exact things he is taking.  He has agreed to go to rehab and for this we are very happy.  I know that he has been doing these since he was very young ( childhood ) and he is very dependent and addicted to these pills.  But he knows if he can't stop and get help he will loose his family because it is effecting his family in very bad ways.  Thank you so much for your help.  I will keep in touch.

[SmithsGirl89]

Being addicted to pills or any drug for that matter is VERY DIFFICULT to get off of.  I might be able to help more if I knew the names of the meds.  I am addicted to Loricets myself, which also has codeine as the main ingredient.  How many does this person take a day?  Read up on the Thomas Recipe...it has helped a few of my friends with their oxycontin addiction.  Therapy and a very close support group is ALWAYS very helpful!  KEEP POSTING HERE!  GOOD LUCK AND CNTINUE BEING SUPPORTIVE!  Your doing the right thing!  Again, give some more information on the medication names, times a day it is taken, for how long, and maybe even why they started.  I will be more help if I know some more info.  Also, read about Suboxone...I have taken it and still have a half a bottle.  I did relapse a month after I started taking it, but that is because I started hanging out with those "old friends" again...I got sucked in.   It is wonderful, but some people think it's a "wonder drug"!  Be carreful jumping into things you don't know about.  I studied on it a LONG time before I was prescribed to it. There is a LOT of contraversy on that drug. I have recently started tapering down, only taking my meds when I really NEED it.  

[Defcon]

If they agreed to go to rehab, drive them over right now before they change their mind.