Drug Rehab Options Blog

Well, I finally got my 17 yr old to go to rehab. They wouldn't take him inpatient, I tried almost 2 mths ago. He isn't "physically addicted" to any one drug, like heroin or meth. He does just about anything & everything else to get a high. This includes alcohol, pot, cocaine (history of, don't know if still does it), salvia, lsd, shrooms, skittles, & kids' prescriptions at school of things like Xanax & Percoset! He scared himself (& me) the other night when he came home high on Xanax & it took 2 days to get over it. He's not sure how much he took but he actually snorted at least one capsule!! It was the 1st time I saw him high. He had always waited til he knew for sure I was in bed to come home. Oftentimes hiding in the basement or at "friends" places, & at least once he was passed out on the lawn but was woken before I woke up. The kid takes advantage of my deep sleep. :-{ Anyhow, he lost his job a few weeks ago & then he confessed the prescription drug abuse to me so I said "this is the time to start rehab then! No excuses!" & he agreed. So I'll be taking him to outpatient rehab 3x/wk for 6 wks, it's a 2 hour rehab group & I have to miss one hour of work each time b/c it's 45 minutes away! Thank God my boss & co-workers are so supportive! And thank God gas is down $, let's hope it stays that way! I sooooo hope my son makes this work. He wants to quit, he just is sooo addicted to the high! I really think there's mental illness involved as well, b/c I've been trying to get him help since he was 10 but the mental health field is so difficult to find help when they can't even see through a kid's charm & deceptions! It's so frustrating. On his dad's dad's side of the family every single person has a mental illness! My son does have anxiety & ocd issues, he does take a medication for it that helps a bit. So my son may be self-medicating w/ the substance abuse. After this is all resolved then we can figure out the mental issues. I know I'm rambling but it's late & I wanted to post. Thanks everyone soooo much!

I have lived (or suffered with) depression for years, diagnosed and started treatment in 2001 but had it for years before that. I've been on a number of anti-depressants but after 6 months they always seemed to fail me. A few years ago I started seeing a new doc who told me I was bipolar II--I said yea, right--I wish I was then I'd have the manic episodes and actually get some stuff done during the day! She started me on a different antidepressant and lamictal. Over the last two years she has changed the anti-depressant several times and kept wanting to add different meds, but I think I was in denial. I have a lot of education in the mental health field, and I really didn't believe I was bipolar.

Anyway, currently I'm on effexor 150mg daily, lamictal 200mg daily, abilify 2mg daily. I'm also dual-diagnosis--bipolar and substance abuse. I recently (this month) went through detox for opiate abuse. For the last year at least I know that my symptoms and frequent depressive episodes were caused by my pill use, so I know that I wasn't appropriately being treated--it was my fault. This week I started seeing a different psychiatrist, and he said I should in no way be on an anti-depressant and he couldn't believe I had been on one in so long. Also, because of the wt gain with abilify, he wants to take me off that as well and start me on Geodon. Is anyone here on Geodon? Has anyone been on abilify and prefer one over the other? The research I've done shows that lamictal is a good drug, so I'm going to stay on that. Unfortunately we can't change my meds around right now because we have to get me stable from the pill use/withdrawal. Any advice or suggestions greatly appreciated. Thanks!