Drug Addiction Within My Family, Advice?

Question by iliketoeat: Drug addiction within my family, advice?
My little sister is 18, and has had an opioid dependence for the past two and a half to three years. She started hanging around the “wrong crowd” and began dating a guy whose entire family had the same problem including him. She cant hold a simple part time job, and she was involved in a suspicious car accident where she fractured her leg. My parents have recently made her face a decision, get help or get out. She chose to get help and she is now taking suboxone. But even that has a high risk of dependency.

This is very upsetting and I am not even able to talk to my friends about it, my mother pretends its not happening and my other sister and I both agree that shes not even close to fully realizing what shes gotten herself into. And my father knows but has no comment. My parents are good people and they mean well, but they need to stop treating her like a baby because its doing more harm than good right now. Not to mention that shes an adult, and she shouldnt be guilt tripping my parents into letting her leave the house when they are not comfortable with it. They cant say no because shes 18, but they have every right to stay awake worried all night. And on top of all of this I think my parents are separating.

Any advice on how I can be supportive from a distance so I dont lose my shit? How do I go about handeling this, considering I live with them?

Best answer:

Answer by Stray Cat
You should get her into a rehab then a halfway house far from there, for *atleast* a year if your family can afford it. rehab is expensive, but you can find reasonably priced halfway houses (like 500 a month) ussually the rehab will recommend an expensive one though. try to have her establish a new life farther (I mean far and safe) from home where shell need to take care of herself and not depend on anybody else. and don’t let her move back to where shes familiar, sorry, thats all I can say from my own experience,

Answer by Subpar
http://afflictedandaffected.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=248:steven-scanlan&catid=40:shows2008

Take 20 minutes and watch this pod cast. Make sure your parents watch it and your sister.

Suboxone is NOT a step in the right direction, and if used for more than 3-4 weeks will make her addiction much worse. The only time I would ever recommend sub maintenance is….NEVER. I suppose it might be better than turning tricks or robbing banks, but as far as what it does to your brain, Suboxone is more dangerous than heroin or Oxycontin ever could be.

If the pod cast doesn’t do it, come to www.subsux.com and read what people go through getting off suboxone. Instead of a 1-2 weeks detox, you can count on a 1-2 year detox off Sub…and many will never be the same after sub maintenance.

Rehab is a much betetr idea, but to gve you an idea how bad sub really is, there are very few rehabs in the country taht will even accept a person who has been on sub for more than 30 days, because it is extremelt difficult to detox from. Get her off this drug asap or she will go through much more pain in the long run…and it is very difficult to relay this to a person on Sub, especially in the early ‘honeymoon stages’ of being on it.

Watch the pod cast…it explausn so much and is by a very ewll known and respected addiction doctor.