Need Help With Family Member Addiction

[[Be...]]

Hello, I'm new here. I'm trying to find help with my 20 year old son who is dealing with a benzo addiction.

It recently came to light after he was sent home from work for sleeping on his break. In talking to him after that he was clearly having issues with it as he was having trouble staying awake and focusing.

We found that he had several pills in his room and they were disposed of and he said he wanted to get clean. Then this week I had another family member who was with him call me and ask if he had been drinking lately because he was having trouble focusing and staying awake.

I fortunately have a pretty good relationship with my son and we've talked about it quite a bit, but there have been a lot of lies. At this point he finally admitted that he had went and purchased more.  He said he felt bad and threw them away and sent me a picture of the bottle in the dumpster but I cannot tell if there are any in there or if they stayed in there.

I do trust him and hope that he did, but there have been a lot of lies about it so I'm skeptical but still want to be there for him. He says he wants to quit still and that he can do it by himself. We did talk about rehab today and he wasn't very receptive but did text me tonight and said he'd consider it if he can't quit on his own.

I guess I'm just looking for some thoughts and advice on how to help him and for me to understand what he's going through better so that I can help him.

[[Pa...]]

Hello @[Be...], welcome to BenzoBuddies,

I'm sorry to hear your son abusing benzodiazepines, but its important we get as much information as we can about the length of his use, the brand and the amount.  Its imperative that he taper the medication, to stop it cold turkey is dangerous as there is risk of seizure and protracted and painful withdrawals.

Please find out what you can about his use so we can advise you and him on how to taper it.  We typically suggest reducing by about 5-10% every few weeks in order to stay functional but using your body to guide you is what we've found works the best.

Going to a facility to detox benzodiazepines isn't typically helpful, yes, they can taper you safely off the drug but they then send you home to suffer intense and painful symptoms. 

Getting the drug out of our system is only the first step, recovering can take weeks, months and years depending on the length and amount of use.

Please find out what you can so we can advise. 

@[Pa...]

[[Be...]]

Sorry for the delay; I've been busy. We did take a road trip at the end of last week together and talked about it some more.

He told me that he was taking 2mg of Klonopin per day for a few months.

As far as I'm aware he has been off them now for about 7 days; while he's had a bit of mood swings and a tiny bit of sickness he seems ok and seems to be doing better already.

We know that there is still a long road ahead and I am still open to suggestion on how to continue to be supportive for him.

[[Pa...]]

Hello @[Be...], I'm glad to hear you were able to talk with your son and I'm surprised but grateful to know he's not suffering severe withdrawal symptoms, 2 mgs is a large dose of Klonopin, roughly equal to 30-40 mgs Valium.

Two months is long enough for your son's body to become dependent, these medications are only suggested to be used for 2-4 weeks but I've seen dependence happen in as little as 10 days.

If he experiences more severe symptoms, my suggestion would be to try to power through them, taking the drug again would only delay his recovery.

Benzodiazepines are more difficult to taper from than even the most hard core drugs, the pain and suffering some of us go through is brutal, please let him know this.  And tell him that if he takes them again, he will introduce the possibility of kindling, making each cessation worse than the one before.