by: Ned Wicker

You may be in a position to effect some change, but understand that the process may not move quickly. You need to get several things in order. Obviously the first consideration is to get your best friend into treatment, as left unchecked, her use of prescription pain killers will likely morph to heroin.

Addiction is a family issue, so her husband has to be on the same page and there must be a plan for the entire family to know what their part is in her treatment and recovery.

You can start by talking with her husband and getting the plan started. Working within family financial means, you need to know where you’re going with this project. If they have insurance or financial ability, a residential treatment center might be the best option.

There are also out-patient programs that have been effective, and every community has a support network and meetings that your friend can attend. Do not count out the power of a strong 12 Step program.

You can speak to treatment center counselors, or go to Al-anon and get with their members, who can provide insight and sage advice. The key thing is her treatment, but obviously her husband is going to have to make some changes as well.

He might be enabling her behavior, so instead of helping her get better, he may be making it worse. I’m not saying this is going on, but it does happen. Al-anon, again, is a great organization to give support and guidance to husbands and family members.

Our colleague Joe Herzanek does solid work in dealing with addiction issues. You might want to visit http://changinglivesfoundation.org and maybe speak with him about your situation. His book, “Why Don’t They Just Quit?” offers valuable insight into the addiction experience and helps us to understand what is going on and how to respond.

Her family doctor might also be a good one to speak with, but he obviously will not share medical information, so see if she is willing to get a check-up and talk to him about her drug use.

I realize being a friend can sometimes mean that you feel helpless. But if you can take a step back and give yourself an opportunity to view this situation objectively, you might be a great blessing to her in orchestrating a game plan to save her.

by: Anonymous

My cousin use to go to a detox centre for methadone and takes about 25ml a day. Now somebody gave him morphine oral and wants to try it, and i am afraid that it is not the same.

I mean once he took suboxone while on methadone,and he passed through a rough withdrawal.

So my question is do methadone and morphine analgesic works the same or not. I am trying to convince him not to mix drugs, but he already sad that if he miss an appointment for some reason he will try to take the morphalgesic.

Thanks

by: Ned Wicker

Very bad idea! Methadone is a synthetic opiate, developed in Germany in the late 1930’s, and acts on the same brain receptors as morphine. The drug is used to mitigate the nasty opiate withdrawal symptoms.

A small dose of methadone can help the patient get through. So your cousin is going to buy morphine off the street and take that instead of his prescribed medication.

First, it’s illegal. Second, it’s medically a foolish, if not insane thing to do. If your cousin is seriously considering this, he has obviously given up on his treatment and probably isn’t interested in really working at his recovery. He should do a 12 Step program, which is designed to get the patient off methadone or any other maintenance drug.

I do not see an upside to this scenario. Maybe you can encourage your cousin to rethink this idea and get back on track with a proven treatment and recovery program.