5 Ways to Spot an Addict
If you suspect a friend, colleague or loved-one is addicted, you might be afraid of approaching the person, how can you tell if someone might be addicted?
Confronting someone based purely on a gut instinct could lead to a big mistake and a real mess if you are wrong, but if you care about this person you desperately want to help.
What can you do?
Top 5 Warning Signs
Here are 5 warning signs that point to addiction:
1. Social withdrawal
Addicts will often withdraw from their normal social circles, becoming distant from friends, family and work colleagues.
As the addiction is prioritized relationships, studies and careers suffer.
Of course people can become distant for many reasons, work stress, worries, illness, but a sign might be evasiveness when approached about it.
2. Personality changes
As someone becomes addicted their personality can change.
Once happy and bubbly personalities can lose energy, have less get up and go, and become less outgoing.
Look for signs of lethargy, and moodiness.
Many addicts become depressed, especially when addicted to opiates which affect your serotonin receptors.
3. Physical Withdrawal symptoms
At the outset you might spot that they are tired all the time, jumpy or just not looking healthy.
Depending on the dependency, the person could suffer from sleeplessness, anxiety, or even apparent illnesses like nausea and diarrhea.
Of course they could just be feeling sick, so look for other signs rather than jump to conclusions.
4. Financial impact
The combination of falling behind at work and funding the addiction can cause a great deal of financial weight on top of the physical symptoms.
Money that should be paying bills, food, and so on is instead going to their new priority.
Are they borrowing more? Do their spending habits seem to have changed? Have they stopped doing activities they used to pay to take part in or attend?
5. Trouble with the law
While not every addict will have a scrape with the law, trying to ease the financial burden through petty crime, and the illegal nature of the addiction or drug source could lead to an increased risk of being arrested.
Also the psychological changes could mean the person gets into fights, accidents or associating with the less upstanding members of society.
Summary
Each symptom in isolation could be just a coincidence but the more factors that seem to fit the more you should be thinking about seeking advice. Just make sure you tread cautiously. The earlier you can detect the signs the faster you can find help, and the less damage there will be for everyone concerned.
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April 24th, 2008 at 10:53 am
I have noticed with several opiate atticts is that they constantly speak about the drugs, constantly. They also seem to have more knowledge about meds and their names and generic names. They also go through your medicine cabinet, I caught one I had a script for percocet which I put genric excedine which looked almost like them. So he constaantly would use my bathroom, saying he had too many pepsis. I did not like him, and he would show up unannounced all the time. I noticed he constantly would go in the bathrrom, both of them. I noticed they looked like they were rifled through, as well. I kept my meds in my litchen, and even though me and my mom would be in my den, he would constantly stand up and walk in my kitchen. Well after an injury where I had to have surgery for a shattered tib fib. He came over immediatly, and this is when I got my mom to swap the pills, and put the in the caabinet. Well, he went in there first thing, and swiped them. Right after he got out, I sked my mom for a pill and glass of water, and he immediatly got jumpy and said he was gonna bail. I told him sit down, He just drove 40 minutes to use my bathroom to leave? He watched my mom go in the kitchen and get me my real pill, and he looked happy that she didn’t go in the bathroom.
I also know people who work on homes will ask to use your bathroom, and they will steal your pills. Most addicts will buy a PDR book so they know the goods.
Of course, they also go to the hospital w/ fake problems. This guy who stole my excedrin had a red flag in all the hospitals within 2 hours of the area. Then he would go in to get admitted to the pysch ward. He knows the magic words.
Addicts are easy to spot, they seem bi-polar at times, energy bursts. I know because of that person who came to my house all the time…he also calls me incessently and talks about drugs.He has a crush on me, and he is the creepiest person I have ever met. I am afraid of him, so I know fom the past restraining orders do nothing and just antagonize the person.
Thats how I know an addict. I see alot of people use medicines recreationally, and befoe they know it, they are addicted.
April 24th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
How about “owns a website that ends in addict”
April 28th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Can anyone help me understand the withdraws from opiods? Is there anything I can do at home? Like taking Vitamin B or C? I’ve been on the medicine for 15 months, and my doctor is taking me off them. I’m going through withdraws.
April 29th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Being a nurse of 18yrs and having problems with opiates on and off the past 2, I can tell you that the herbs (5-HT) 5 Hydroxy-Tryptophan 200-500mg a day (enhances natural serotonin levels, our natural mood stabilizer that is altered with opiate addictions) daily can help.
Also L-glutamine 1000-3000mg a day helps with immediate cravings. It is always good to take extra Vit C/Vit E/ Omega 3-6-9 as “detoxifiers”. I have researched this a LOT!!
Ask your dr also to put you on an antidepressant that affects serotonin (Zoloft, Prozac) but careful with those that affect other chemicals norepinephrine and dopamine,which can increase cravings (Lexapro, Cymbalta, Wellbutrin, Celexa, etc)
For immediate withdrawals Suboxone (long-acting opiate,low dose) is used for a few weeks, then Naltrexone daily can help to make the effects of opiates NOT WORK AT ALL in your system, taking away any effect from them, thus your use. I know its hard…keep trying!! and ASK UR DR< THEY WILL HELP
April 29th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Thanks for the tips, Rhonda!