How would you try to help a family member who was addicted to perscription pain killers?

take em out for a day, and stimulate their senses so that they don’t feel the need for painkillers. I think the difficult part is the actual withdrawal period.

I am sorry that you are dealing with that. The real truth is to become aware that you can’t help someone who does not really want help.

You could start with asking the family member to talk to their doctor about being unable to stop the medication. You could offer to go with them.

Good luck.

People don’t change unless they want to. Especially when it comes to drug addiction.

Family member is in a situation where they have limited mobility due to an accident and Dr.s cant figure out why she is in pain so all they do is prescribe meds instead of fixing the problem.

I would help them by expressing my concerns and desire to help once and only once. After that, the ball is in their court, and it is not our responsibility to make them change, even if we could somehow.

There is a difference between being in constant pain and requiring painkillers to alleviate the pain and being addicted to painkillers.

Your recent comment changes things a bit. How do you know she is abusing the medicine? If she’s in constant pain now, how would not being on the painkillers give her a better quality of life?

@The_Compassionate_Heretic This is considerably different situation than the original question. In this case, I would get my family member to go and have an evaluation done at a center specializing in chronic pain. Here is an example.

The use additional techniques such as biofeedback and others. Se if you can find one near you and have your relative evaluated.

In our family, we had a male child (my step-son) who was addicted to cocaine. It took the entire family to gang up on him to open his eyes. Private gentle nudges got us nowhere. Even so, he had to go to rehab twice.

If your family member is in the throes of a full-blown addiction, it is highly unlikely that anything you say or do will be well-received. If you have a seriously ill person who has to take pain meds to manage pain, that is different all together. Is the person under a doctor’s care? Are the pain meds truly being abused or are they being used as prescribed? It is a subjective issue for anyone not in pain to decide how much pain med is too much. For example, I grew up in the 60s and have done a ton of drugs. Not something of which I am proud, but a fact. It takes a great deal more med for me to find relief than it may take for a 200-pound man who has no experience with pharmaceuticals. My point simply being that before you accuse someone of an addiction, it might be good to walk a few steps in her shoes. If you are truly concerned, talk with her doctor, but you will need to get HER permission to do so. HIPPA and all that.

Stage an intervention with the help of a professional…

When it comes to addictions people need to become self-aware of their addictions typically to be healed. They also need to have some desire to overcome them. There are methods to work with people who don’t want to acknowledge their addictions but these require expertise. Perhaps you could use a different reason to convince your family member to join a support group or see a counselor. If you are part of an ethnic culture you may find some helpful resources in traditional activities and ceremonies.

Alternatively you can have fun with them and explore alternative pain relief and stress relief techniques. Just tell them you think they deserve some fun or you just heard of this new thing you think they might like. Like massage, herbs, accupuncture, etc…

You may try going into a local crisis clinic or talking with your own doctor about ways to help your family member. Addiction treatment is one of the most difficult fields of therapy.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic

In the circumstance you described about not knowing where the pain is coming from. I would definitely suggest working with alternative health doctors. Herbalists, Homeopaths, Accupuncturists, Massage Therapists etc… I have had and heard of huge success when working with these types of doctors. Many of them will need not know where the pain is coming from to be able to help because their approach to medicine is quite different than the standard.

You might also consider the possibility that the pain is psychosomatic (although I am not suggesting it is) and that the person likes the pain meds to help deal with the trauma of having limited mobility. Self medication for mental anguish instead of physical pain.

I would also suggest you get a different doctor and see a specialist. My mother has MS and has had to switch around quite a bit until she found someone willing to actually help her.

If the family member is in pain, they should be on pain medication.
Depending on your relationship with this family member, you may want to discuss how to get to the root of the problem and treat the illness rather than the symptom. This dscussion should also include the doctor.
As an aside… My husband is disabled and has been on pain medication for many years. (oxycotine and norco). He says that he never gets “high” from the meds. The effect of killing the pain makes him feel “normal”. However, he does have a physical reaction if he does not take them.

@basp I think you are right. If someone is in physical pain they may need the meds to live a normal life. And that is very important to consider.

She needs the pain killers but she is addicted as well

Classic symptoms are present

It’s a complicated situation

Thanks for you well wishes

Some would say I am addicted to pain killers because of my problems with degenerative disc problems in my back and the arthrtis that follows. This is an old injury that becomes worse with each passing year. So your family member may need pain killers to not be in horrible pain, and after a certain time, the person does become addicted. It is much different than someone who takes them to get “high”.

My ex husband is addicted to morphine because he was disabled by a work related injury 22 years ago. They implanted an infusion pump which delivers it to his spine 24/7. if he doesn’t get his pump refilled in time, he goes through withdrawal.

So if your family member’s doctors have done all they can do medically, the only thing left is to treat the pain. You can’t ask her to stop the medication without some other way to dull the pain. Addiction isn’t always a ‘bad’ thing. It’s good that you are concerned tho. What type of injury does she have?

@scamp

Yeah mom has serious back problems in addition to decreased lung capacity

It’s a bad situation and I fear she may be surrenduring to the problem

Scamp
You stated it much better than I, if one is in pain, it isn’t about getting high and that sort of dependence isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I would compare it to a diabetic being dependent on insulin.

Have you suggested acupuncture for her? It’s worked for a few people I know well who’ve been addicted to stronger and stronger painkillers. The treatments alleviate some pain, it’s not cure for the addiction to chemical part though.

ibogaine… illegal in the u.s. and expensive, but available in canada and mexico. Google it.

Have an intervention with sober persons/friends/family, encourage them to get into a competent 12 step based rehabilitation center and do not let them off the hook. I’ve known too many people who died from drug overdoses, and prescription drugs are no exception. Dead is dead even if it comes in a child proof botttle.