My mother is a drug addict.

So my mother is 83 years old. About 20 years ago she slipped and broke her knee. The doctors gave her pain killer, no problem. After her knee healed from surgery she continued to take pain pills, citing other pains, arthritis etc. I was living in Houston, had been for 25 years. She and my sisters live in TN. She fell numerous times, breaking her shoulder,elbow. Then had a growth on her lung removed. All the while taking more and more powerful pain killers. Finally i moved up here and moved in to take care of her. I am the only single member of the family so there was not much choice. She flips out even thinking of a nursing home. When a doctor takes her off pain medication she just finds one who will give her what she wants. She talks to her friends on the phone about which pill is the best and then gets the doctor to prescribe her that. I will be watching television in the living room and she will stumble through and fall flat on her face. Obviously drugged up. There is a major drug problem with our elderly. I took her to the doctor for a checkup after her lung surgery. I went into the room with her and the doctor sat down with us to discuss the x-rays. He said it all looked great but did she need anything for pain? Her eyes got as big as saucers and she said: Well the ones you gave me don't help much. The doctor says: Well no problem, i will put you on oxycottin. Just don't take more than 6 a day. They just laughed and laughed. Well we got the prescription filled and my mother immediately started taking 6 pills a day! Needless to say she overdosed. Spent a week in the hospital to clean her out. She hides her medication now so i have no idea what she is taking and it does no good to talk to her doctors about her abuse. She just finds another doctor. After talking to other people about it i hear stories much the same as mine. A lot of our elderly are actually drug dealers. They will go to 6 different doctors and get 6 different prescriptions and sell what they don't need. They apparently make a few thousand dollars a month doing that. I don't think my mother does that but apparently a lot do.
So i hurt my back and last week it got really bad. I laid down about 5pm to rest my back and dosed off. The next thing i know i am awoken by a pill being pushed into my mouth by my mother ( locking the door from now on) I freaked out but swallowed the pill. I thought i was going to die. I am not a big fan of pills other than vitamins or antibiotics. It was much too powerful for me. She came in later and gave me 2 bottles of pills. She said she had more than she needed. She is deaf so there was no point telling her i did not like to take pills. Later i looked at the pill bottles. One said Methadone! No way i am taking that. That is probably what she shoved into my mouth. It was a terrible feeling. Anyway. Sorry about the long rant but i see an epidemic/crisis involving our elderly. Anyone else seeing grandma abusing drugs? What in the world do you do about it?

My mother did the same thing when she was prescribed Oxycontin for Fibromyalgia pain. She took them for about 10 years until it became harder and harder for her to get the doctor to give her any. She was only about 50 when she decided she needed to quit. She went through withdrawal hell for months. Now she is off the narcotics but is living in pain hell and can barely move. I'm very saddened by this all.

I remember bringing mom her little green pill once a day, then it started to increase. I loved her so much and it was called medicine. I was just a kid so I didn't know any better. I thought I was helping her feel better. I guess in a way I was, but I wish I could have been older and talked to her more and understood what these drugs were. Now her teeth are rotting out and her face is puffy and she is so sad, all she does is sleep all day. I wish sometimes she would have OD'd not because I want her gone, but just because I hate to see her suffering with no way out.

Your Grandma should probably just stay on the pills if she can until she dies. The withdrawal symptoms are literally hell on earth and would probably kill her in agony at her age.

I'm so sorry for this.

reply to post by jimmiec


First, it is good that you take care of your Mother, even though she refuses to take care of herself. You sound like you've been doing all the right things in attempting to curtail her prescription abuse. She sounds like she, due to her abuse of meds, is very accident prone. If your situation is actually taking over your life, and not improving hers, a nursing home may be her only option.

I know it's not wht she wants, but, she doesn't sound like she is interested in her quality of life, only her quantity of meds. This will only lead to more injuries for her, and heartache for you. You could also, in a worse case scenario, be accused of elderly abuse if her injuring herself continues.

I'm so sorry both of you are stuck in the societal rut of Doctors passing out pills like M&Ms to the elderly. Bless you for caring so deeply for your Mother. Don't loose sight of caring for yourself.

Des

at 80 years old i'm wondering why anyone would deny someone pain medicine? do you think she should be out looking for a job, or going out for the local soccer club next? let her be pain free and live her life, i'm unsure why anyone in a self righteous position want's to take elderly peoples pain meds away. she needs help whether she is on pain meds or not, so why insist she suffers through just to make you feel better?

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double post.