Help with oldest child

[carlimac]

Here is somemore food for thought. Read this blog and have your son read it, too.

The parenting secret I am no longer willing to keep

[ZappBrannigan]

I am very sorry for the loss of your mother in law. Both of us have lost people we cared very deeply about as a result of alcohol and drug abuse. I do not believe that sharing "war stories" about the things we each have seen is the most productive use of our time but I do believe that we have more in common than I initially realized.

I understand that working nights in an inner city ER must have left you a little battle scarred. We both know exactly how painful and sad addiction and withdraw can be. It's not easy to watch anybody collapse on a table and start shaking and bleeding and foaming at the mouth. It's terrifying when you see someone talking to people who are not there while they have no control over their bodily functions knowing that person could die and/or harm others in the process.

Since you have extensive experience with people who are detoxing, I would love to hear your opinion on the merits of the taper off method as opposed to switching to a similar but less addictive drug like Valium or Methadone. Unfortunately some people still do not have the luxury of a choice when it comes to making this decision, but it would be nice to hear about the comparative efficacy of the two treatment options.

I realize that I have absolutely no right to judge you or anybody else for the coping mechanisms developed under significant stress. You have very good reasons for wanting to protect your step son from the horrors that usually come with drug use.

I believe in the power of the scriptures and I think it is good to meditate on the words of Christ. Matthew 25:31-41 is an excellent passage for those who work in difficult fields such as medicine and law enforcement.

I wish you and your family the best,

Liz C.

I think methadone is amongst the worst substances you can take. I have known several people that take it for various reasons (addiction recovery to chronic pain management), and it seems like more often then not they become severely addicted to it, and as soon as their tolerance raises from their theraputic level, then they start having uncontrolable phantom pain, hallucinations and in some cases suicidal ideations.

As for the taper method, I do not know how effective it is, as the longest we could ever keep someone in the ER is 24 hours, and then ship them off to a treatment facility. I would assume that it has simular pitfalls to the methadone, although the plus would seem like they are only chemically addicted to one substance as opposed to two.

With Alcohol, I am a huge fan of IV fluids, potassium, anti convulsants and time. The real issue that I experienced with Alcoholics who were in DTs was that they didn't want to get better, they didn't want to quit. Their families did, their friends did, but the people didn't want it for themselves. So we quite routinely saw the same people brought in time and time again by their friends and family, only to see them with alcohol poisoning later that month.