What are the tale tell signs of prescription pill addiction?
Question by Cardinal: What are the tale tell signs of prescription pill addiction?
Okay, I’m actually fairly certain my mother has been addicted to Vicodin for about 3 years.
My brothers, grandparents, and I have tried talking to her but my dad is an enabler and doesn’t see anything wrong with her and they will both just yell at us if we try to help.
My mom has a horrible diet of mostly junkfood and has gained well over 100 LBs in about 2-3 years.
She hardly ever sees the light of day and is never active. She just sleeps in her dark room all day and misses work (and has lost jobs) because of this.
She used to seem so intellectual and now her mind is like an 80 year old. She never remembers anything and honestly just acts really stupid the majority of the time.
She has a horrible temper and has tried hitting, screaming and crying at practically every member of the family. She throws HUGE temper tantrums and acts like an immature teenager when she is mad.
Then the next day she is annoyingly happy. You never know what mood you are going to get.
Does this sound like my mom is addicted to pain pills?
How do I get her help? Please help, i’m 7.5 months pregnant and I can’t have my baby around an addict!
Best answer:
Answer by justinfranksnj
There’s not enough information here to make an accurate decision on whether your mother is addicted to hydrocodone. Is the Vicodin prescribed by her doctor? What is is prescribed for? Was it initially prescribed for acute pain (for a sprained ankle, a broken bone, pain after a surgery, etc.) and she continues to take it despite recovering from the injury? Or is it prescribed to treat chronic pain?
Is she taking them as directed by her doctor, or is she taking more than prescribed? Does she regularly run out of it early?
Before you label her as an “addict”, you need to understand that not everyone who takes opioids daily is addicted. Chronic pain can cause many of the things you described — horrible diet, weight gain, sleeping most of the day. Clinical depression is a common result of chronic pain, especially untreated/undertreated pain.
In most cases, an addict needs to constantly increase their dosage very frequently. Even someone who is taking them for legitimate chronic pain needs to periodically have their dosage increased, but generally this process is much slower for pain patients. If after 3 years of taking opioids regularly, she is only prescribed Vicodin, that would lead me to believe that she is taking them as prescribed for actual pain. Most addicts, after just a couple of months, need to move up to something much stronger like OxyContin, Opana ER, or heroin.
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