I Need Advice About Addiction, Rehabilitation and Life Events.?

Question by Mike: I need advice about addiction, rehabilitation and life events.?
I have a friend, someone that I care about more than anything. She has no family but one brother. We are very close and there is a romantic interest on both sides. She is 26 and has never been diagnosed with anything. She tore her ACL and is addicted to Percocet 10/650 and is currently in rehab.

Her life events include the death of her mother at age six, her father was never around, brother moved away but when he could afford it paid for her and her boyfriend to move to the same city as him. He also paid for her rent and expenses. She became pregnant and gave birth to a stillborn daughter and her boyfriend let her two days after the birth.

She came to me and said she wanted to stop using the pills. I think that she wanted my help but feared that she would be too much for me (probably afraid I would abandon her). She ended up going to the hospital and they recommended she go to an Addiction and Behavioral Health hospital. It has been three weeks there and everything has gotten worse.
They have not decreased her Percocet intake 10/650 3 pills-4 times daily. When she was using at home they were 10/350 I think, isn’t that much Acetaminophen?
They are also giving her Fluvoxamine at 100mg-2 times daily and Clonazepam at 2mg-2 times daily. This scares me as I have researched these drugs very well.

They have recommended that she gets no visitors and stays there 60 days, amazing how that is what her insurance policy pays. I feel like they have talked her into thinking that she is powerless to stop her addiction or to deal with her life events. I pay for her insurance and canceled the policy so they will kick her out in seven days. She was a great person, very sweet and happy prior to the pills. Yes she had hard days but we would communicate, talk and share feelings and everything was ok. They list her as suicidal but I have seen her out in there “hope garden” alone. She is 100% inpatient. I got a letter from her and it said she wanted to leave but was afraid she would mess up what we have.

I am not a doctor or therapist but did solely help another person in my life beat a Vicoden addiction and some life issues. She has been clean for two years now.

My questions are:

I will not pay for any more “insurance mill “rehab facilities. I am going to take this on myself when they discharge her in 7 days. I am willing to be home with her for a year, I work from home. I will pay for a physiatrist once a week all I can afford. What advice can you give me if any?

What are the dangerous of these drugs that they added? I have the means to acquire Percocet from the “pain management doctor” that prescribed them to her for 9 months so can take her down slowly. He is scared I will report him and will give her anything I ask for.

Do you think that this rehab center is doing harm?

What do I do???? Help

I need real answers as this has turned into something bigger than it was. Thank you

Best answer:

Answer by Finnegan
I can completely understand the situation you have found yourself in. I am a huge advocate for drug and alcohol treatment facilities and their ability to help people better their lives. It appears that the treatment she is in is making the problem worse and when they discharge her she should seek another program. Taking on her problems could be dangerous for your relationship as well as for her life. Drugs are a symptom of the underlying problem of self, unless she chooses to work on her other issues there will be a high risk for relapse. As for the drugs she is currently taking, high doses of Percocet can be extremely hard on one’s liver due to the Acetometaphine. As one develops a tolerance to the opioids they typically will start taking more, taking too many opioids at one time can result in the acetometaphine becoming toxic and can result in liver failure – which few ever recover from. Furthermore, mixing drugs like Clonazepam, which is in the benzodiazepine family, with opiates can result in overdoses as well. Benzodiazepines can also be extremely dangerous to withdraw from if the patient is on such drugs for an extended period of time.

I can appreciate how much you want to help your friend and with your supervision perhaps you can help her kick the drugs. I would advise you to consider looking into other programs of recovery before you go down that road. There are treatment programs that exist that care more about helping people than they care about the insurance money. If you do decide to take it upon yourself to help her clean up, I would recommend an addiction therapist over a psychiatrist, while she may need to have psychotropic drugs monitored by a psychiatrist they rarely address the underlying problems with talk therapy which is what addiction therapists specialize in and what your friend most certainly needs.

I wish you and her the best…

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