Drug Addiction Stories

The headaches and the nausea didn’t bother me at first. They weren’t bad and they were worth the incredible sensations I got from the Oxycontin. My family started to panic though because now that I was taking the Oxycontin with alcohol, apparently my breathing slowed down quite a bit and they kept waking me up to see if I was alive. I kept telling them “Yes, I’m alive, but you won’t be if you keep waking me up!” I just couldn’t understand what the fuss was about.

My family started to panic though because now that I was taking the Oxycontin with alcohol, apparently my breathing slowed down quite a bit and they kept waking me up to see if I was alive.

I did feel kind of numb, but it really didn’t bother me. I remember when my brother fell down the steps and I saw him land there at the bottom. He had broken his nose and was bleeding all over the place. I just stared at him. My mother came running down the steps all panicked. She screamed at me “Why didn’t you help your brother”? What was I going to help him with? Sheesh, it was all being taken care of. I guess I should have cared more, but I didn’t. I took another dose of Oxy and a couple of shots of booze instead. In fact, I went back and took another pill just a couple minutes later. Who were these people to be disturbing MY good high?

When my mother came home from the hospital with my brother she lit into me. She said I was either going to have to stop the drugs or get out. She reminded me that I wasn’t working despite the fact that my back was fine now and all I did was lie around and take the drugs and alcohol. How the heck did she know about the alcohol? I was furious! Later that night the whole dang family came down and they had someone, some type of counselor with them. They all told me how they felt about my “problem” and how they wanted me to get clean or get out. Then my mother actually got up, got my Oxycontin and flushed it! Oh My God! How dare she? I flew into a rage. The counselor they had there took me by the shoulders and turned me toward a mirror on the wall.

“THIS is who you have become. THIS is what the Oxycontin has done to you”. I stared into that mirror not even recognizing the person I saw.

I went into drug rehab, which lasted a week and I checked out. I relapsed and went back into rehab. Detox was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. There were things that made it easier, but it was still a very difficult thing to go through. This time, I stuck with rehab and learned ways to deal with my depression and pain. I learned techniques to stay away from the pain pills and I was, in the end, determined to beat the Oxycontin addiction. I still crave the drug from time to time, but there are people and techniques to help me.

I never want to have to go through the pain that Oxycontin caused in my life again.

I remember my sister’s spiral into oxycontin drug addiction like it was yesterday, although it has been more than two years since the day our worlds turned upside down.  Following a car accident in May 2007, she was prescribed oxycontin as a way to reduce her chronic back pain.  Having never really indulged in anything other than smoking cigarettes, we did not really think anything of it except relief that she had a pain reliever to help her get through the after effects of the car accident.

Then one Sunday afternoon, my brother-in-law called and asked if I could come over immediately.  My sister was not acting like herself and he was concerned because their two sons were witnessing behavior from their mother they had never seen before.

I drove over and found my sister to be slamming doors and screaming things at her children I had never heard her utter before.  Concerned, I took her into the bedroom and tried to talk to her.  She kept going on about being unappreciated. This was not the sister I had known all of our 30 plus years together.  As she walked around, I noticed her pill bottle turned over with the cap off.  It was empty which was a surprise because she should have just barely been halfway through it.

That was the day our family discovered my sister was addicted to oxycontin. After she settled down for a nap, I went home and did some research.  The following morning I called a successful drug addiction rehab and they advised me on how to do a family intervention.  I got together with my sister’s husband, my two brothers and their wives and my sister’s sons and together we did just that.

It has been two years since my sister went into drug rehab treatment program and today I have my sister back and more importantly, her sons have their mother back.  The drug rehab center helped us help her when we were in uncharted territory having never had a family member with a drug problem.

It was a scary time for our family and I do not think we could have gotten through without the help of a caring and professional drug rehab center and their wonderful counselors.  They educated us and helped my sister face her addiction.  They introduced her to others who had walked the same path she had and showed her that there was no shame in what had occurred.  They gave us back the lovely woman we love so much.