Intervention to make things work

I suggest that the intervention should be from a counselling centre and earlier you resort to it the better it will be. Family intervention normally yields no results.

you are in my prayers and i know how bad this must be having gone through it myself but i dont think its good to try and go it alone with him or for him. hes been through a lot and he needs more help then cold turkey. he may need some rehab that will give him a small amount of meds to help him over come this addiction. in short he needs professionals in this area. i know i had to be very careful about pain meds having seen my mom go through the same thing. i only took small amounts when i was desperate. but like i said i was forwarned. try and get rehab help

I am passing along strength to you and your husband. You are a very brave woman to by putting this on the internet, but this is the place to get support. Good luck with everything.

Couldn´t you talk to his doctor, so that he helps, if he can? Pain can be excruciating and if there is a way to forget it for one moment, many people will take anything. The problem is developing a dependency, specially if there´s no money to pay for it. My heart goes to you, your family and your Tom. I hope all this comes out the best way.

An abrupt stoppage of such meds would cause more problems, and i think a slow wean should be done hopefully as advised by a pain specialist. The withdrawal process sometimes creates unexpected irritating behavior or illnesses, thus consultation with a physician is really needed. Hope he gets through this without much problem.

I understand what you are saying but I don't think this will work. Your husband is using the pills for some reason and as long as that reason exist he has to take them. If not you have to think out of a substitute first, otherwise it will only get worse.

I hope things work out for you. I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. I would say it will be very difficult for him to do without help from the outside.

I'm sorry you are going thru this. I just read your update and though I'd look here to see what was going on. Sadly many people become addicted to the pain pills especially the elderly. I am glad you are working with him to wean him off and are regulating finances more closely. I've had to take away the check card too, but not for a situation as serious as yours. My hubby wouldn't check with me what was in the acct to spend and just buy his cigs and whatever and not realize what I had left did not ask what I had left and I didn't need to bounce checks because of this practice either.

hi dorannmwin oh wow thats a tough one too. good for you as i think thats probably the only way he was going to stop. Its easy to get addicted to a lot of narcotic pain pills, and harder to break the addiction too. I am a nut when it comes to taking something for pain as when I worked as a nurses aide one of the most respected nurses I caught stealing pain pills one night. I almost could say I loved her for the kind intelligent person she was. but still I knew I had to tell the head nurse who had been stealing painpills.She was reprimanded but given a chance to go to rehab and break the hab it. she got hooked when she had had surgery and was given these narcotic pain pills for her pain. Later she came to me and actually thanked me for turning her ins. We did hot have to send her to rehab and then take her back to work as most simply fire the nurse but we all knew she re ally was a fine person.I will send my prayers for your husband to get off the pill addiction and get back to his normal self again. You did right as far as I can see and as you love him you will help him to recover his normal self. my prayers I send to both of you as I know the havoc narcotic pain pills can cause in ones life and hope God reaches your hubby and helps hinm to break free from the addiction. hugs from hatley.

Dora, it is a pity that you had gone through such a situation now. I will always keep praying for you and family. I think the best solution is try to schedule another doctor appointment, to solve out the pain medication. Because in the long run, it is really going to bring a big financial problem to your family. Hope you and your hubby able to solve this matter soon. Hope to hear more update news from you.

i am so sorry your going thru a hard time right now, i will pray for you and ypur family as well.. all i can say is we have a hard time with my daughter who is 21 and does not want to work, hanging around thugs for friends and her bf is a jail bird and he wont work either, and we finaly had to put out foot down this week, we she had no place to stay so we offered for her to stay with us if she would get a job and help out with cleaning and cooking and stuff.. well she stayed one night and lyed to me the next day to get hubby to give her 5.00 it was supsed to be gas money for her to go to a job interview i got her at my work.. instead she took the money and left and found a friend to sponge off of and move in with she came for her clothes and i ask her is she was still going to the job interview and she said yes, and of course did not show, that was yesterday.. so she calls me that evening and ask if she can come get a pop i said no , you had a job you could have got and did not show up and she hang up.. she has done it all including steal from my mom in excess of ,6,000 dollars yeah.. and now mom lives in china with my mom and she cant take anymore off her.. so she is on her own.. i refuse to help someone who you try and they dont want to help themselves .. its hard to let her go but she brought it on herself and it was affecting my relationship with hubby as well so we put a stop to it.. i told her if she gets her life straightened out and has a job we will talk again until then dont come back.. hard i know but ive had my limit.. with her .. hope things look up for you.. keeping you in my prayers :)

Oh, dorannmwin - I feel for you!!! I have never had stage this sort of intervention - I think you are so brave for doing this!! I hope other members of the family and closest friends are in on your intervention too . . . to help him stick with getting off cold turkey. That way he can't go asking them for any money or do him any favors to get the pills or whatever. If there is a tall support wall that he can't climb over - then maybe he'll see that he MUST kick this habit - once and for all. I truly hope it all works out . . . keeping you and your family in my thoughts!!! Stay strong, dorannmwin!!!!

I feel your pain! And I admire that you've found courage to stage an intervention. I know that your hubby probably deserve a little break from all of his troubles, but it's great that you've determined that line between the 'break' and abusing his medication. I hope you're successful. Prayers on your way!

This is very hard for families to go through but you can make it, I have seen other families pull through addiction. Depending on what he is taking going cold turkey could be deadly, most of the time the addict needs to be titrated down as their bodies have come to reply upon the chemicals they absorb daily. I would get him in to see a doctor if at all possible financially. If he is on opiates many states have free clinics that will help him slowly stop to keep him from getting too sick. I'm not sure where you are but here in California my cousin was able to call all the pharmacies within a fifty mile radius and flag her husband as a narcotics abuser making it so no pharmacy dared fill his prescriptions without her present. Even a year later any medication he is prescribed must be signed for by my cousin. Calling his doctors never worked, he always found a new one. Until he was ready and made up his mind to kick his habit, nothing worked, least of all interventions. He lost his job, his car, his license, and finally even his home, it was truly horrible for a few years for everyone that cares for him. If you can I would suggest getting both marriage and individual counceling as there is oftentimes underlying issues which need to be worked out and resentments that grow between couples during this time even when you don't realize it initially. Perhaps you know of a church that offers these services since you have requested prayer? If not many universities with psyche programs offer free sessions as a part of their training. Don't be worried a student doesn't have the expertise you and your family require in this time, they have worked hard for many years to get where they are and won't be in a hurry to mess up as they are almost ready to graduate. I wish you all the best.

I don't think he will be able to do this cold turkey. He needs medical help to do it. You will have to tell him that if he won't go for treatment, you will have to turn him in. Or call his doctors and ask them what to do. My mom was addicted after a bout with a very painful condition where she was on vicodin and a patch of something much stronger. She decided to stop using the patch, and got so sick I had to take her to the ER. She discovered she was going through withdrawal and they kept her there three days to help her through it medically. After that, she would not use pain killers again until she entered the hospice program several years later and knew she only had a few weeks to live.