My Families Experience with an Addiction to Prescription Drugs

Prescription drug addiction is rapidly becoming a worldwide problem. People who have back pain, anxiety attacks, and teenagers who just want to get a quick and cheap high are falling victim. The problem is that prescription drugs are way too easy to get anymore. Most people get them by prescription but they don't even have to do that anymore. There was a news report on Fox 5 New York that many people are getting prescription drugs on-line and they do not have to have a prescription, all they have to have is a little money they are willing to spend.

My family has been going through a terrible time lately with our loved ones quickly getting addicted to prescription drugs. My husband is a perfect example of this terrible problem. He started seeing a certain so-called doctor that was giving him anything he wanted and my husband got addicted pretty fast. He was prescribed a whole bunch of pills for his chronic back pain and anxiety attacks. The list includes Xanax, Vicodin, Neurontin, Ultram, and Percocets. Yes he was on all of them but he didn't get them all at the same time.

My husband does have a bad back but he only needed one pain killer for it and that was Percocets. Once we realized Percocets were the only pain killers that actually helped we tried to tell this new doctor of his but he wouldn't listen. Instead he took him off of the Percocets and had him on Ultram, Xanax, and Vicodin. The Vicodin and Ultram didn't help him so he started taking more than he was prescribed. I found out and started hiding them in places I didn't think he would look. But he did look, and he found them. He would take them all within two or three days of getting them. He did the same thing with the Xanax.

Recently he started doing the same thing with his Bi Polar medications and he ended up overdosing. I put him in the hospital and he is now in a substance abusive treatment program. I had to have him put in against his will or he would have died. He got so bad last week, he was hallucinating, acting like a child, mumbling so bad that no one could understand him. The E.M.T.'s saw how bad he was and they knew he needed help but they couldn't force him to go so they called the sheriff. Once the sheriff got there, he finally decided to go.

My husband doesn't remember anything about this. When he got to the hospital and figured out where he was, he went ballistic. It took 8 men to hold him down and get him calmed down. When I got to the hospital that night I had them shut the door to his room because I didn't want him to see me. I figured that he would try to talk me into taking him home and we would fight. I didn't want to get him anymore upset than he already was.

They transferred him to another hospital where they help people with addictions. The doctor who is taking care of him called me today and I told him everything that happened. I told him how my husband would take the whole prescription within a couple of days just to get high. They are going to keep him up to 30 days. I hope this helps and I told him if it doesn't, I will do it all over again.

He was angry with me at first but then after I told him what he did and how he acted and that he almost died, he is willing to let them help him. I can't visit him because the hospital he is in is almost two hours away and I don't have reliable transportation right now. This is actually a good thing though, because my husband has a way of manipulating me into letting him have his way. I'm afraid that if I did visit him he would talk me into taking him home. I can't let that happen because he needs help.

I also have a 19 year old nephew who has this problem. He is also addicted to Xanax and any kind of pain killer he can get his hands on. My sister has had him in treatment twice and he still has a problem. I hope it only takes one time to get it through my husband's head that he needs to stop this.

Two days before this happened with my husband, my nephew's friend died of a prescription drug overdose. He did not kill himself, but rather he thought he was invincible and kept taking them to get as high as he could until it killed him. He was only 19 years old. We are hoping that this has scared my nephew straight and my husband too.

It was also reported on our local news that a 15 year old boy decided to have a party at his house while his parents were gone for the weekend. He mixed alcohol and OxyCottin together and it killed him that night. Also not too long ago there was a young boy from another town close to where I live who almost died of a prescription drug overdose.

This problem is getting way out of hand. Have you ever seen that commercial where the drug dealer is standing on the street and complaining that he is losing his customers because of them taking prescription drugs instead of street drugs? That commercial is a perfect example as to how much worse it is getting every day with young people on prescription drugs.

If you or someone you know has this problem, please get help before it is too late. It is not just young kids who are doing this but anyone who is on prescription drugs and gets addicted to them.