Can somebody please explain the difference of physical vs emotional drug addiction? i am having huge problems with my 20 year old son abusing opiates and benzos .about once a week that we can tell. we did take him to a pysh.who told us he is emotionally addicted..he has been in our house with no pills for 5 days and has no withdrawels at all..except a little the 1st day..we have zero tolerance for this and decided that if it happens 1 more time we have no choice but to admit him to a rehab..or throw him out..the problem is his age..we cannot force the rehab thing on him..he needs to sign himself him.and he refuses,,,does anybody know anything about obtaining a court order to have him go to rehab? any suggestions or help???:confused:

Hey there. Sounds like you guys have a plan in place with the 0 tolerance. Is he living with you? Have you and your husband talked about what your bottom line is if he decides not to enter rehab. This is just my opinion here, but if someone is abusing opiates and has been doing this on multiple times, they will eventually do it again. Unless, they want to quit. That is a diff story. Not sure about the court order. States prob are diff with the laws concerning this. I would seek legal advice. Better yet, call the rehab and ask them your questions. That is prob the best way to go. Good luck. Keep us posted.

yes tim he does live with us..and is a college student doing real bad this semester.he says he will not take pills anymore..we will do drug testing 2 times this week and if negative , we will do them next week at random.and after that we will keep doing urine tests..we told him this is our house and if he wants to live here, he has to follow our rules..we have 2 younger children who are being tramatized by him when hes high.. we told him if we get 1 posative test hes out of here...its breaking us apart..my heart is broken to think we might have to do that..i do know he has some depression and turns to these drugs to make him feel better...but thats ridicoulous and not acceptable in our home.we are trying,but this is our 1st time dealing with anything like this.and we are devastated as you can imagine.

Hi Jules, Looks like you guys have a good plan in place. It is upsetting to have to go through this. The drug testing is a great idea. You guys obviously love him very much and just want to help him. There is only so much you can do for him if he is not wanting to stay clean. You guys are doing so much for him-room and board, college tuition, etc. There are support groups where it might help you and your husband. I would check out a local alanon meeting. Those meetings are there for people like you guys. I am a firm believer in tough love for people that are doing drugs and do not want to quit.

Yes I agree you have to set up boundries and stick to them. If he is using and wont go to rehab he will have to hit his own bottom as tough as that sounds. You shouldnt let his addiction ruin your life, dont blame yourself and dont listen to him when he gets mad as that might be his addiction talking. There are millions of people with depression who dont abuse drugs. So keep with you 0 tolerance and it is YOUR house. Some addicts have said the best thing their parents ever did was kick them out so they could realize how bad their problem was and at that point they hit their bottom and seeked help. Best wishes. Kim

thanks kim..just being able to talk on this board helps..i cant talk to anyone about this..we are so ashamed..we did do a home urine drug test tonite..which came back posative for benzos only...no opiates..i will take it to the lab tomorrow to double check..he claims he took his last klonopin on saturday..i cant believe a word he says..we will do another check in 3-4 days.