My Friend Is Abusing Her Prescription Drugs, Can I Tell Her Doctor?
Question by dreamalittledream: My friend is abusing her prescription drugs, can I tell her doctor?
[rewrite]I have/had a good friend who I am currently losing to pills. She has suffered from anxiety in the past which has seemingly ceased. She is prescribed Xanax and Klonopin. She has admitted to lying about her anxiety to her doctor. She said she exaggerates mostly everything. Over the past year I have seen her weight drop by nearly 20lbs and her mood is mostly crabby when she is not on “enough” pills. She also buys Oxycontin nearly 2-3x a week mixed with xanax and klonopin. She frequently also drinks on these pills and acknowledges her like for the pills. When we go out she is in the corner passed out cold. Sometimes it can happen in an instant and she is in a deep sleep, sometimes she struggles to keep her eyes open. Is there anyway I can make this known to her doctor? I know there is a patient confidentiality deal here but what would you do? She has gotten worse and it isn’t helping that her mom also gives her her Vicodin. On a normal day she is on 5-7 xanax, a few klonopins and a few vicodins. On the 4th of July she took 5 ecstasy pills and all the above mentioned drugs. She has gotten a DUI but that has not affected her one bit since everyone around her is an enabler. What can I do? All of her friends miss the old her. Thanks…
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Answer by Cuddlebear 🙂
Yeah,you should!
If you really care about her,you’d tell her doctor!
And I’m sure you do! :).
Or,talk with her and tell her not to abuse them,and that she’s using them for a different reason other than the one they’re meant for.
Answer by Dani L
You can tell her doctor but be prepared to loose your friend for a while until she is clean just be there for her, you can tell the doctor and the pharmacy’s and they will not supply her.
My mother was addicted to over the counter drugs as well, but hers was codeine and sleeping pills which also help you loose weight due to the loss of appetite.
It’s possible to over come but it is far from easy, because the person with the problem will never admit it, maybe buy her the book that NA provides with the 12 steps to recovery.
But as I said she will fight you on this, but stick by her she will come round.
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I’m so sorry for your friend and you must really be sick with worry. The real problem here is all the mixing of different medications. It’s a death sentence. Even over use of any one drug can be fatal or possibly cause permanent brain damage, paralysis and just the worst possible health conditions a person can imagine. There is no law that you can’t inform her Doctor. However, usually people with this level of drug abuse will find another way to get all of this stuff. In addition, i’m not knocking NA but I know a lot of people who go to those meetings and if they are not TRULY ready to stop what they are doing on a personal level, they end up just making some really great connections. She needs to be ready to start outpatient treatment for it to work. In fact, she will need to be ready despite what anybody tells her.
This really breaks my heart, for both of you and her family.
I guess i would sit her down and have that one last VERY LONG, VERY SERIOUS discussion with her about your concerns. Go online and find some photographs of people who have overdosed on the same stuff she is taking and show them to her. It sounds harsh but find some of the most horrible stuff possible and be prepared for both of you to just get sick over what you see. Find people who are dead from overdose and print out the pictures. Find photos of people who are hooked up to life support because of taking too many drugs and read her the stories while she looks over the pictures.
If shocking her into a reality check doesn’t work, call everybody you can. In the long run, she will have to make a choice-you or her drug use. This is going to be one of the hardest things you ever do. Maybe you could recruit some of her friends that you mentioned who miss the old her?
Also, it’s obvious she does have something wrong. It’s possible the reason she feels a need to make herself so oblivious to the world is some other kind of mood disorder. Maybe she is clinically depressed and she needs to start taking something like Prozac to make this all a little better? If you decide to call her Doctor, or Doctors, I would make sure to ask what can be done to get her well in addition to your concerns about her health and possible overdose. She seems very sad all around don’t you think? I would try to find some ways she would see that there is so much hope for her that she doesn’t have to suffer in order to save her own life. If she volunteered herself into an inpatient facility, it wouldn’t be a picnic but they could make sure she is gradually weaned off all of this stuff so she doesn’t go through too much withdrawal, which in itself can be deadly. It’s very dangerous to just stop taking xanax and klonopin suddenly. A person can die from a seizure. So if you talk to her Doctor I would make sure to mention that as well. Make sure the Doctor can help devise a plan to get her weaned off the drugs safely.
In any case, knowing that she has a friend who loves her enough to confront her and/or call her Doctor and getting her other friends together to help you will make her feel some sense of self-worth.
I will be thinking of her and the job you have ahead of you. I mean the good thing is-there is HOPE:) That is where the NA meetings come in. I’ve also heard that sometimes people with drug problems will benefit just as much from the AA meetings. Go online and find your local chapters of AA and NA and print out the schedule for her.
You are the kind of friend everyone should have.
Best Wishes,
SarahJane