How Do I Help My Boyfriend Get Over His Addiction, When He Denies That He Even Has One?

I have read numerous of these stories, and none of them come even close to my situation, many of them are far more severe than mine. My boyfriend has been doing drugs for the most of his life. He realized that it was manly rebelling against controling parents, but as he got older he quit all together.

When he was 19 he got in a motorcycle accident and broke his back. After a little while, he started taking Roxicet. He used to take them orally, then eventually started snorting them. We've been dating for almost a year now and he has been shooting them. He's been shooting them for about 8 months now, he tells me that it works better.

We've been living together for 7 months, and he would go out in the middle of the night just to get one, claiming that his back hurt and he couldn't sleep. I do understand the pain from a wreck but there is no pain that needs Roxicet to take care of it.

We recently moved. He told me once we finally moved that he would no longer be taking them, that he couldn't afford them and he doesn't want to include me in his bad habit, by asking me for money. He didn't take them for almost a week, his withdrawals were pretty harsh. He was moody, and would snap at me if I said something that he didn't agree with, not that he as abusive just depressed.

I did notice that he sweated alot and made abrupt jerks in his sleep, like restless leg syndrome, but he's always done that. Except when he doesn't take them, it seems like he's been taking them longer than he's let me know. I actually recently watched him as he shooted one. And frankly I cant be with someone who does such a horrible thing to themselves just to get a relievement of pain.

What should I do? He is the only person that I really truly love, I want to spend the rest of my life with him, but I want the real him, not the drugged up version. How do I address how I feel to him, without pushing him away? I want to help him.

Alcoholism-and-Drug-Addiction-Help.com Answer

Prescription drug abuse is a huge problem because most who become addicted, do so unwittingly ... they come to depend on a drug due to a legitimate medical condition (often pain-related) ... but then can't learn to live without it.

So the fact that his drugs are prescribed or over the counter, doesn't diminish the problem, and like all addictions, it can have devastating consequences over time.

The only way to deal with this is total honesty. Sit your boyfriend down and have a serious conversation with him, explaining how much you love him and that you desperately want your relationship to work, but that you don't see a long-term future with someone addicted to drugs.

Tell him he needs to get professional help and you'll support him however you can if he does that, but that something needs to be done immediately, because things can't continue as they are.

By doing this you create consequences for your boyfriend continuing to use these drugs, and that he could lose you if things don't change. Hopefully that will provide him with the motivation to take action. There are no guarantees, but he seems sincere in wanting to do something about his problem - so hopefully a bit of a push and some direction will get the ball rolling.

But ultimately he has to want to do it and if nothing has changed in time, you'll have to reconsider whether you have a viable future together. We can't force someone to change, no matter how much we love them, but hopefully things don't get to that.

Best of Luck

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