I am concerned about my husband. He was a very big drinker up untill 10 yrs ago when he got alcohol poisioning, and almost died, I gave him a choice of his alcohol or his family, and he stopped. He was injured several yrs ago and has been on pain medication (8 yrs now)- I knew he had a addiction, but it's getting worse. He takes about 14 pills a day that I know of. He also recently started having a "few" drink's which I did not mind, but its getting out of control. He sneaks in the cabinets at night and drinks it from the bottle,I caught him last night.. I don't want to watch him die. I also can't help but to wonder why? WHY? Is he doing thiss, because he is not happy with me? We have been married for 33 yrs. I tried talking to him, and he down plays it. He does a lot for me around the house, and it's to just try and get me off his back about things he is doing.My daughter just gave us a beautiful grandchild (he is 10 months old) She is so scared that her father is not going to live to see his grandchild grow up. I don't know what to do.. Any help or information any can give me will b appreciated.
KATH

Your husband is caught in the throes of addiction.He probably can't get much of a buzz off the vicoden(after awhile you get very tolerant to them) so he takes a couple of drinks and bam,he's high.Only problem is he has to drink more to catch the buzz he's after.He's capable of quitting as he was sober for many years but it's time to confront him on this.He's going to blow his liver out by mixing the tylenol with the alchohol.See if you can go to the doctor with him and change his meds to sustained release.Vicoden is useless for trying to control chronic pain,what he needs is a sustained release opiate like ms contin (morphine) or even the patch (fentanyl).I'm not big on oxycontin because of the abuse that can come with it and he already has that problem.Your going to have to make him understand that what he's doing is really hard on his liver and his family.Use compasion and don't verbally attack him or he will go on the defensive and you won't get anywhere.Good luck to you and your husband.....Dave