Drug Users in the hospital

Judee Smudee, ADN, RN · Aug 25, 2005

Everything you say is true but on the other hand I have complete sympathy for the ER nurses who are about at their wits end with this particular problem. The real problem is that their is very little in the way of support or treatment in the community for chemical abuse problems. These people usually end up in ER. They clog up the ED and make it impossible to do anything for anyone else.

Ready · Aug 25, 2005

Everything you say is true but on the other hand I have complete sympathy for the ER nurses who are about at their wits end with this particular problem. The real problem is that their is very little in the way of support or treatment in the community for chemical abuse problems. These people usually end up in ER. They clog up the ED and make it impossible to do anything for anyone else.

So, what do u do for these people in this situation? some of them come in for a reason right? what is there treatment?

Im not referring to the ones who are seeking drugs.

Judee Smudee, ADN, RN · Aug 25, 2005

MIs and CHFs are acute medical problems that require acute treatment. Some people with drug problems do have acute problems that do need emergency treatment. However, many people with drug problems come to ER because there is no where else to go and there are no other options. Some are seeking, some just need a place to come down off a high. Their are places that run round the clock detox units that deal with this but they are few and far between.

gr8rnpjt, RN · Aug 25, 2005

Ready,

You are (probably) young and very idealistic. It is a good way to be and in order to be a nurse, you have to have a lot of compassion for everyone.

That being said, some of us have spent a lot of time trying to get through to drug abusers and a lot of us have failed at changing their lives at all.

I am not an ER nurse, but I am sure they are the one group of nurses who spend a lot of time with drug abusers. they come in as drug seekers, or with open wounds or abscesses from using dirty needles.

I did not work in an ER, but I did marry an addict. I did not know it at the time, by the time I found out, he had sold many of my belongings, stolen from my checking account, and treated me and my children so horribly, I thought I was living in a nightmare. He bankrupted me with his tricks. He humiliated me in many ways. Being a nurse, I tried the compassionate route. I stood "by my man" and put him through rehab while I was pregnant with our child. For a time he worked the program, but things never got better, People who work the program are very self centered. Then they relapse and the nightmare starts all over again. He brings his so called "friends" to my nice clean house, they are addicts, drug dealers, dregs of society. These people wiill try anything and everything to separate you from your purse, your jewelry,any thing that can be sold for money.

I am in a pain clinic for chronic back problems. I have to hide my medications every day from my own husband. He sometimes tries to "bully" me into giving him some of my meds, which I refuse to do. One time he picked up my delivery for me and there were 5 pills missing. Some times if he finds my meds, and I come up short at the end of the month. He admits that he took some, but has no sympathy for me that I have to go through 2 or 3 days of pain because of his selfishness.

If I had known how selfish and self centered addicts are, I would never have tried to rehabilitate him. If I were working in an ER, I would have no sympathy for addicts, due to my personal experience with them.

I just wanted you to see another side of this. Most addicts are not going to be rehbilitated, because they don't want to be. They like their lilfe the way it is, and don't want to change. Nothing you say is going to turn on a switch in their head and make them want to be clean. They like this life they have, they like to get over on people. If I were working in an ER and had a choice, who do I care for first, I would not pick the addict and I would make sure my purse was in a safe place. :nurse:

Ready · Aug 25, 2005

Ready,
You are (probably) young and very idealistic. It is a good way to be and in order to be a nurse, you have to have a lot of compassion for everyone.
That being said, some of us have spent a lot of time trying to get through to drug abusers and a lot of us have failed at changing their lives at all.
I am not an ER nurse, but I am sure they are the one group of nurses who spend a lot of time with drug abusers. they come in as drug seekers, or with open wounds or abscesses from using dirty needles.
I did not work in an ER, but I did marry an addict. I did not know it at the time, by the time I found out, he had sold many of my belongings, stolen from my checking account, and treated me and my children so horribly, I thought I was living in a nightmare. He bankrupted me with his tricks. He humiliated me in many ways. Being a nurse, I tried the compassionate route. I stood "by my man" and put him through rehab while I was pregnant with our child. For a time he worked the program, but things never got better, People who work the program are very self centered. Then they relapse and the nightmare starts all over again. He brings his so called "friends" to my nice clean house, they are addicts, drug dealers, dregs of society. These people wiill try anything and everything to separate you from your purse, your jewelry,any thing that can be sold for money.
I am in a pain clinic for chronic back problems. I have to hide my medications every day from my own husband. He sometimes tries to "bully" me into giving him some of my meds, which I refuse to do. One time he picked up my delivery for me and there were 5 pills missing. Some times if he finds my meds, and I come up short at the end of the month. He admits that he took some, but has no sympathy for me that I have to go through 2 or 3 days of pain because of his selfishness.
If I had known how selfish and self centered addicts are, I would never have tried to rehabilitate him. If I were working in an ER, I would have no sympathy for addicts, due to my personal experience with them.
I just wanted you to see another side of this. Most addicts are not going to be rehbilitated, because they don't want to be. They like their lilfe the way it is, and don't want to change. Nothing you say is going to turn on a switch in their head and make them want to be clean. They like this life they have, they like to get over on people. If I were working in an ER and had a choice, who do I care for first, I would not pick the addict and I would make sure my purse was in a safe place.

Im sorry but i disagree with you and yes it is true that addicts still, cheat, lie etc... It is the drug that makes them this way. No its not because they like there life, its because the drug makes them like there life. deep down underneath it all, they hate there life. No one seems to understand what it does to you. Okay, here's the thing... i was once, back in my younger days addicted to meth. I was the perfect child and come from the perfect family. I loved my life but unfortunatly i ran around with the wrong crowd. this crowd introduced me to meth (devils drug). I was instantly addicted. Yes, my life on drugs was great (at that time) but after i became clean i knew that life was really hell when i used. I O.D on meth once and had to go to the ER. I was treated like crap. No one wanted to help because they assumed i didnt want to help myself. Deep down i wanted help but didnt know how to get it. I was embarrassed with myself. This person i became wasnt the loving person that i was. My family wasnt first on the list anymore but it wasnt me, it was the drug. My brain was begging for the drug as my heart was begging to be clean. Yes i treated my parents badly but i honestly didnt know i was hurting them. You cant imagine how i felt and what i went through. I have much sympathy for people who are addicted because i know how hard it is to quit weather they want to or not. Im sorry about your situation and i know you felt that there was just no hope but there is. I'm not trying to say that every situation is the same but i believe its close to that. Just remember that people who are addicted are just like you and me. sometimes people fall in the cracks and cant get back up. This doesnt mean they should be treated like animals.

Meth increases the dopamine in your brain causing you to feel extremely good but the come down is so dramatic that you cant go on with out more. The only way is with time and faith in god. I just feel that addicts cannot help themselves and most of the time it is a solution to problems in their past.

gr8rnpjt, RN · Aug 25, 2005

[. I have much sympathy for people who are addicted because i know how hard it is to quit weather they want to or not.

Yep, I think you and I will disagree. I empathize with what you went through, maybe deep down you were not meant to be "one of them". But there is a whole subculture of greedy, lying, dirty, pond scum, that will prey on nice people, and clog up ER's with their drug seeking behaviour and they will try to steal your belongings. Maybe I am too close to the situation to be unbiased, and that is why I choose not to work in an ER and never will. Because I would not want to be around those people on a regular basis. :madface:

gr8rnpjt, RN · Aug 25, 2005

And I don't buy that "the drug makes you do it" It is a lifestyle choice, and it is very easy for an addict to place blame somewhere else. There are a lot of people on medications that are not by choice. They live good clean lives and never steal or try to get more drugs, they obey the law, and never take from other people. Addicts like to say that they have no control, and the drug made them the way they were. Well, there are people in treatment every day that take one day at a time and try very hard and they can turn their lives around, then they go back to the same neighborhood, and their friends try to get them to go back to thelifestyle, they are jealous that the ex addict changed his life and is making something of themself. That is not the drug making them do this, it is jealousy, it is a lack of consciousness, a lack of spirit, just plain meanness.

SmilingBluEyes · Aug 25, 2005

I see both sides of this tragic, painful situation.

And I feel empathy for both----nurse and the addict.

snowfreeze, BSN, RN · Aug 25, 2005

If we had enough time to actually chat with our patients and their families we might figure out what is really going on with those addictive personalities and the attention seekers. Maybe managed care, medicare, medicaid, HMOs and other health care insurances could try to help us out here. These patients can suck the life out of you if you let them. They will demand all your attention so that none of your other patients get more than a pill tossed at them around the right time. A psych consult helps sometimes but many are not there (as a patient) long enough for the problems to be attended to. I feel sorry for them as they fall through the cracks, but then again I know a lot who "work the cracks" and get just what they want.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Aug 25, 2005

Everything you say is true but on the other hand I have complete sympathy for the ER nurses who are about at their wits end with this particular problem.

And a few take it out on some pts. by treating everyone in pain like they're a drug seeker (trust me, i learned this first hand a couple of months ago, and let me tell you it was horrible to be in such pain, and be treated like you're faking it).

Dalzac, LPN, LVN, RN · Aug 25, 2005

I am on the peer assistant Program for my state> I see dozens of nurses every month who are addicted to narcotics, alchohol, and other substances. I am also a recovering nurse. It is NOT a lifestyle choice it is addiction a disease not any different than being a diabetic. The treatment for addiction is abstinance. Ask any one who works in a drug and alchohol rehab unit and they will tell you the same thing. every time a drug addicted person does something just to feed their addiction they remember it and atone for it down the road if they chose to get clean. Drug addict have 3 choices in life they can stay addicted and continue the addiction, get clean, or die. They function on base survival skills. They will do whatever it takes to get their need. and that includes stealing from loved ones and others. And I swear to you that it is not what they want to to. It just is. It is not easy to get clean it is the hardest thing in the world to do.

I hated myself when I was addicted I loathed every thing I did but I just couldn't stop. It took many support systems to stop. I was sick as a dog when I stopped, physically and ethically and morally. My whole life had to be rebuilt from the bottom up. There are some that just can't do it and they die, young and lonely. who would choose that?