Were you able to hide your addiction

[gizzy32]

During my use i was so ashamed, but that wasn't enough to stop me. Although my close friends and family knew that i had started doing coke, they had no clue how bad i was at the time. I told them that i had stopped using, but after about my 50th relapse i gave up and let on i was clean for quite some time. My family and my friends still questioned me cause i looked like ****, and i was not the same person, but i stuck to my story that i was clean. I was curious how well you hid your addiction and how? Did family and friends know what you were doing? Could people tell if you were high on pills

[HelpinUtah]

Also, I had a friend who was always asking me for some of my Lortab and I was giving her many regularly.  My mother mentioned to me just after I suspected I was addicted that she thought my friend was addicted as well - because she would also get Lortab from my mother as well as from me even on same visits (which I did not know about at the time)!  My mother hardly touches it - maybe once or twice a month if that!  So, she was a great source for me and my friend.  I don't know if my friend is addicted, but she and I have gone our separate ways.  Once she realized I was detoxing and no longer had Lortab - she said, "I know you are in a lot of pain right now and I know you don't want to hear this, but perhaps you should get more Lortab to get out of pain."  I wondered if she was trying to get her "supplier" back.  Does that make sense?

[HelpinUtah]

My family did not know I was addicted to my pain meds - but I wasn't really aware of my addiction (at least on a conscious level) until around May 2008, when I started to wonder about it.  It was then that I told my hubby I was concerned.  He told me he was starting to wonder as well right around the same time I did.  My mother lives with us (she's disabled) and she started wondering because I was getting Lortab from her when I was running out of my script early.  They were the first two people I really told that I thought I had an addiction and they were very supportive.  I think I had myself fooled.  When I first came here in September, I was convinced I had only been taking the Lortab regularly for a few months, but when I look back now I can see that I was taking them regularly for much longer - probably over a year or so!  We can really fool ourselves, can't we?  

[LateAugust]

An observation from the mom of an addict.      My daughter was a "high functioning" addict,  or so she thought, for a while.  Soon she was unable to work due to her anxiety of not being able to use every few hours and quit a great job with fabulous benefits, she dropped out of college, as she was too busy trying to figure out how to get more oxy, and her concentration and motivation for anything other than oxy did not exist.   She has lost all of her long time friends due to her erratic moods and disregard for what true friendship means any more, all she needed was oxy.  She is estranged from most of her family due to irrational behaviour and constant lies about using, her choice as she is too ashamed to be honest with anyone....    She is underweight,   her appearance no longer matters, her eyes are blank and her soul is empty.        And all kinds of things end up missing: money, checkbooks, debit cards, laptops, jewelry....

Do we know........gosh,  even her 85 yr old grandma knows! (altho we all wished she didn't)   because oxy took this extremely intelligent, compassionate, loving and beautiful girl and she has become someone that is not even remotely close to the child her friends and family love and cherish.    

You are so right, all addictions are different  and impact all to different degrees.  Thank God you got help before you lost everything.  Most importantly it is never too late to take your life back, with honesty and commitment, and for some, your family will be there with unconditional love, and to support you on your journey to sobriety.

[kim715]

I thought I hid it well.When I finally came clean with those around me turns out I wasn't hiding it well at all.Most everyone I told said they already knew or at least suspected I was abusing the pain meds.Not many people ever called me out on it though.My husband did a couple of times,but I just denied it.When I was using I would have denied it to anyone who questioned me though.Until I said the words 'I'm an addict' out loud I was denying it to myself everyday.

My bottles always had partially torn off labels.I would tear off the parts that had the fill date and the amount.

[avisg]

Yup I hid it completely

[dominosarah]

I hid it pretty good for quite some time.  

Catmagnet......every bottle had a removed label!!!!