How can I help my sister who is addicted to prescription medication. She takes all kinds of pills from anti?
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she must go to rehab and get help soon! before it is too late! if you are her guardian you can get a power of attorney so that you can go to court and have the court get her admitted for help, don't wait, because it sounds like to me she is very depressed and not happy with her life, but most importantly, pray for her!
I feel your frustration. Our family went through the same thing with my sister-in-law. You are right--the doctors gave the meds like candy. All different things. Her daughters are grown. We lost her at the age of 48 in October of 2005. We all tried to do our best to keep her off the stuff. She would find a way. After awhile all the combinations of meds destroyed her. She was taken before her time, in my opinion. Don't let this happen to your sister. If there are any other siblings that could help with the children, I'd do my BEST to get her into some kind of rehab. Then I'd find out (even if it involved the law) how these Dr.'s are allowed to write prescriptions without the other knowing. Some combinations are deadly. She needs help. Thanks to you, maybe she can get it and have a long, happy life. We're praying for ALL your family. God bless you and let me know what's happening.
Your sister CANNOT just stop taking many medications immediately without being tapered off of them under the supervision of a Dr. This can be serious if not fatal. I understand you want to "help" her but she has to want to "help" herself. You say she is addicted and that could be the case but you say she is being prescribed these medications. Perhaps you could offer to go see a Dr. with her so you can see how you can help her. She may be truly depressed and suffering from pain but that will be the only real way you will find out. Of course, if she is addicted to medications then she will need rehab but there again she will have to make this choice and unfortunately until then and only until then will she be willing to get help. If you are saying she has a history of being an addict then all you can do is stand beside her and try to get her help to a degree. I hope your sister gets to feeling better and gets the help she needs if that is the case and you can feel better about things.
Please be warned that what I am about to say is not very pleasant...Please don't take her pills away from her, in particularly her antidepressants...There is an FDA warning NOT to cut off abruptly while taking SSRI's [a kind of antidepressant that may cause suicidal tendencies even if you miss a dose, decrease or increase your dosage. These pills include Effexor, which caused my 20 and a half year old son to commit suicide after his doctor cut his dosage in half...in his will/suicide note he writes that paxil and effexor are horrible drugs, but impossible to get off of...'' Paxil, effexor, welbrutin, zoloft, celexa and luvox are all under the category of SSRI antidepressants...I'm sorry to say, but your sister was right to get back on her meds as soon as she could. I have a website in honor of our son and I have about 70 - 80 files on these drugs including one written by a man who stated that ''withdrawal from effexor is harder than withdrawal from heroin'' Please do keep an eye on your sister, but please refrain from getting angry with her. If you want more proof, look on the internet about these drugs, especially withdrawal from them. rxlist.com is a good site.
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operacats
How is she able to get all those pills? I have fibromyalgia and am in horrible pain all the time. I have to BEG my doctor for meds! Not to make anyone mad, but do you think your sister might actually be in pain? A lot of people (me included) have bought pills from friends or other people because I hurt so bad. When I really hurt, I sleep non-stop. She COULD be in pain. Right? If not, the best thing you can do is call a rehab center and try to get her to go. The bad thing is that she may not go willingly. She may need to go to jail and have them tell her to either go to rehab or stay locked up. I know that it IS against the law to get narcotics from several different doctors at the same time. I almost got in trouble a few weeks ago because my rheumatologist recieved a letter stating that I had filled a prescription for vicodin at a different pharmacy one week before my appointment with him! The pills were just from the dentist because I have a tooth that needs a root canal. I didn't even have any other meds at the time! There is a record of all the narcotics that are sold. If her name comes up more than a few times and it looks suspiscious, she could get in trouble anyway without you even having to do anything about it. I'll be keeping you and your family in my prayers.
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