I need to get my son into rehab for Dilaudid addiction. Need some advice
He's 19 been addicted for 5-6 months - I just found out Monday. Lives at home with his Dad and me.
No, I didn't know he was using. Thought he was just a bum and pot head. silly me.
When caught he confessed everything and saying that he's glad I found out - that the guilt has been killing him.
He'd taken every narcotic in the house. My 5 year old bottle of Vicodin #90 tabs that I have been saving
for an emergency is gone along with his 2 guitars, an amp and a few hundred dollars I had in a drawer.
The last few days have been pretty rough on all of us.
Withdrawal (here at home) has been(surprisingly) pretty mild physically
- he had a couple of Xanax to help and I had a Valium
that he didn't find. He looks and sounds better today than he has in months.
So I got on the phone to get a rehab lined up and now they won't take him in a
residential program because he's clean.
Insurance will only pay for residential if he needs Detox.
They will pay for intensive outpatient therapy....
10 hrs a week and some of these places just take them to AA meetings as part of it.
What the Hell?
Any comments? suggestions?
= new reply since forum marked as read
as residential for getting and staying clean and sober for most folks. Tell your son to ask others at meetings for good young people meetings and phone numbers. Getting clean and staying clean is something he has to do himself with your understanding and support. I echo others saying that you should try to go to some alanon meetings to help you understand better.
By the way, it is an extremely bad idea to keep any medications in the house "as an emergency". You can help your son by getting rid of the alcohol and any prescription drugs that might be abused. It's hard in recovery to have easy access to addictive substances.
Now, I went thru it, withdrawal, without rehab..too stupid or stubborn or both..or just scared.. I was accepted at AA meetings and they may accept your daughter too. AA once didn't, but most of us are double addicted and it is ok. AA got me thru, and still sober and clean. Been thru hell the last 14 months, still haven't used that stuff, or had a drink. She will meet people she can make a connection with, and that is ok. If she feel more comfortable in NA, that is fine. MOre meetings and people the better. Oh, it wasn't easy and isn't easy. But if she chooses this path, in the long run, she will be ok. But she must honestly choose to get better. As I did. I wish you the best of luck and love..today, and everyday....
Response to flying_wahini (Original post)
And NA meetings. I worked in a Detox center, with a 30 day program. The patients did their first 3 steps in group and then were encouraged to continue in AA or NA by themselves. Of course there was aftercare. I also worked in an adolescent treatment center. The peer pressure can be good or bad with whomever you hook up. That's for all programs and groups. The tendency to slip is a present danger.
My oldest son just lost his brother in law to a heroin overdose about two months ago. I met Jorge at Thanksgiving last year. Very handsome and polite. The family was very quiet about his being admitted for Detox.But I knew he was going in. He'd been clean maybe 4 months when he re-used, passed out in his vomit, and suffocated. His mother is still crying everyday. The juxtaposition is that my other son's brother in law, was in up state New York, going to med school and died in an avalanche skiing almost the same week. Both are equally tragic in my eyes. One son was not better or more important than the other in their mother's hearts, just because one graduated form Harvard.