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Welcome to my blog. I hope we can help each other endure the pain of the addiction of a daughter or son.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Suboxone Dr. Says that Bipolar was not Adequately Treated

Beth's suboxone Dr. who is a neurodevelopmental specialist surprised me. She said that if Beth started using again then she the Dr.  must have done something wrong in treating the underlying bipolar disorder and or ptsd. Wow, that was a shock. The Dr. really does not see this using as free choice. She sees it as triggered by some part of her mental illness that is not adequately treated.

I shared with her that Beth rarely sleeps and is plauged by anxiety. She wrote a perscription for clonoprin which I am holding for Beth. I am to give her one pill a day to help her sleep at night. I asked Beth what she was willing to do for herself so that she could sleep better. She said that she would drink less caffeine. (Not quite the response I hoped for but I let it go. How about exercise, sleeping in bed instead of the couch and doing something productive during the day?).

Rose is a heroine addict who got absolutely clean using suboxone and xanax for anxiety held my her mom. Kelsey is a  cocaine addict/ schizoaffective disorder patient who is close to clean. This one goes on a cocaine bender 2 to 3 times per year. The rest of the time she is up and down in her mental illness but does not use drugs that are not perscribed. These are people that I know and I know that the stories are true.

7 comments:

  1. Kudos to your doctor for holding herself accountable. Isn't that refreshing! I wish more treatment providers would do that.

    Nobody has absolute control over addiction. Not doctors, not other treatment providers, not parents and not those who are addicted. But all have significant capacity to influence the path of addiction and recovery.

    I commend this doctor for shouldering part of the responsibility for treatment success.

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  2. Sounds like you have a great Doctor for Beth. I am surprised she said that to you.

    Is this Beth in the picture with you? How old is Beth?

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  3. Having a good doctor is invaluable, sounds like you found one! I sincerely believe that if Keven was allowed to use Xanax he would be much more stable and less likely to use heroin and would not get to the point that he had to check himself into the hospital 2 -3 times a year. BUT...the court won't allow it. He has considered dropping out of the court and going to jail to serve his time just in order to be able to take something for anxiety. I don't want him to, but I understand.

    So yes, I agree, meds can make a huge difference if they are the right ones and are not abused. I hope Beth gets some good solid sleep soon (it makes such a difference!)

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  4. Thanks to all of you. Tori, my daughter is 25. The people in the picture are not us. They are on TV and look just a little bit like us on our best days!

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  5. Hey, I have a question. My husband in a drug addict. (heroin, crack, cocaine, oxy's.....) Now he is in rehab, trying to get better. He has also bipolar disorder. When they used the suboxon to withdraw him from other drugs he felt great, when he stopped using suboxon according to their withdraw program he started acting pretty weird, crazy (that's probably because of bipolar). So, they put him back on suboxon for longer time now,.... I'm afraid what going to happen now, when he'll stop using suboxon at some point at home. Will he act the same crazy way? Maybe the connection between bipolar and suboxon makes it difficult to withdraw but all the other people who I know from rehab didn't have that problem. I'm afraid if he'll be able to ever stop it or how he's gonna act when he will stop using suboxon at some point in future...?

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  6. Anonymous,

    I don't know the answer to your question but suboxone can be taken forever if necessary. It does have a sedating effect so that might be why he calmed down. Lamictal is the drug that has most helped with her bipolar. I wanted her to try lithium but none of her doctors wanted to perscribe it.

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  7. oh, ok, thank you...

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