What can he be on?

FlowerGarden

Active Member
came home to find son almost asleep in his car. He startled when he heard my car pull past him. Got out of car and he could barely stay awake walking. Kept saying he was tired. Got inside and he sat in a chair. He started talking like it was Monday. Said, no it's tuesday. Asked where he had been and he said work. I asked if he did a double shift and he said no. So I asked where did you go after work. He said no where, I just came home. He has no recollection of what he did today. With that he fell asleep. We woke him up to get him to go into his room. Fell up the stairs as he went. Then he did a complete turn around. He became more awake and making more sense but still has no clue where he was. Of course denies taking or drinking anything. It's been an hour and now he is finally listening to us and going to bed - has to get up in a few hours for work. What are your thoughts?
 

RN0441

100% better than I was but not at 100% yet
Hi FlowerGarden

Hard to say based on the information. Have you ever suspected drug use with him before?

Sounds like something is definitely going on. I'd even think it could be alcohol.
 

bluebell

Well-Known Member
Gosh take your pick. My son usually acts like this when he's mixed a downer pill (like xanax) with alcohol. But RN is right, could just be booze. You would probably smell it on him if he's that drunk though.
 

FlowerGarden

Active Member
RN yes he has used pot, oxy, and cocaine over the years. Never have seen this behavior in him though. He was doing so well staying clean and now looks like he's relapsing.
 

FlowerGarden

Active Member
He had a coffee in his hand and that's all I could smell. Plus he wound up spilling it on himself too when he was sleeping in his car.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Im guessing Xanax and probably more. But could be anything that slows you down really bad. Has he ever used benzos? Ambien?
 

RN0441

100% better than I was but not at 100% yet
Ugh my son just relapsed on benzos so I get it.

I hope you don't mind me asking but why isn't your son on medications for bipolar disorder? My son has anxiety and isn't on anything for that because he still used drugs with the medications so it was kind of a waste and he stopped taking them which was fine with us. I always thought that for bipolar disorder you really must be on something but I'm not sure.

Are you able to talk to him about this and would he even be honest with you?

Our solution was for our son to not be in our home because I couldn't control any of it and couldn't live with his choices.
 

FlowerGarden

Active Member
He won't take medication for Bipolar. He's tried many and they all make him feel weird. He will be out of our home soon because we will be moving. Maybe that is what set him off. He was supposed to share a place with a friend when the other room opened up but now the person staying in the room isn't moving out. Those plans fell through about 2 months ago. Our house will be on the market in about a month.
 

Crayola13

Well-Known Member
came home to find son almost asleep in his car. He startled when he heard my car pull past him. Got out of car and he could barely stay awake walking. Kept saying he was tired. Got inside and he sat in a chair. He started talking like it was Monday. Said, no it's tuesday. Asked where he had been and he said work. I asked if he did a double shift and he said no. So I asked where did you go after work. He said no where, I just came home. He has no recollection of what he did today. With that he fell asleep. We woke him up to get him to go into his room. Fell up the stairs as he went. Then he did a complete turn around. He became more awake and making more sense but still has no clue where he was. Of course denies taking or drinking anything. It's been an hour and now he is finally listening to us and going to bed - has to get up in a few hours for work. What are your thoughts?
Valium or Ambien
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Most likely Xanax, known on the street as Xannies or Bars. Potent, short acting, hard hitting, and notorious for causing blackouts, especially if mixed with alcohol or opioids.

Very addictive, and like all benzos (and alcohol) withdrawal needs to be medically supervised due the risk of lethal seizures and other dangerous effects. Best done inpatient.
 

FlowerGarden

Active Member
Thanks for the responses. He keeps denying he was on anything, of course. Keeps saying he was overtired from working all night and that he only got 3 hours of sleep before that. I've seen him overtired many times and that's not the reason he was that way. He was irritable for two 2 afterwards. Missed work that night and the next. Looks like we are going to have to start drug testing I guess. Ugh! He was doing so great. He was going to work 6 nights a week and was so happy that his boss, who normally doesn't socialize with the workers, had started talking with him. Boss is an older man who has always kept to himself unless he has to say something work related.
I just keep hoping that, his not being able to remember half a day, scared him enough to never take whatever he did again.
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Could be xanax/alcohol/heroin/oxy or any combination thereof . . . definitely something that is sedating. I would check his arms for needle marks. I hate to say it but it certainly sounds like a relapse.

~Kathy
 

RN0441

100% better than I was but not at 100% yet
You know what it was no matter what he says. I knew when my son was relapsing too and my husband did not.

It's mom's gut instinct. That's what it is. Their hearts beat under ours for nine months and they keep a part of our heart when they are born.

We just know.
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Not being able to remember half of a day is called a blackout. He definitely was either drinking or using. I have found that my gut instinct is always right and that they will always deny.
 

MissJuneBug

South of the Mason-Dixon Line
Our son had an episode last summer very much like you described. It's turns out he had taken a large amount of Xanax, drank a carton of wine, downed 2 bottles of Robitussin and a Red Bull for good measure.

When he came home that night, I could tell he had been drinking but he didn't appear drunk. The next morning he was up at 5am, wide awake but not making much sense. He didn't remember taking all those things but I found the bag with the empty bottles and receipt in his car.

It was creepy. It was very obvious that he was messed up from something but not like he was high. He kept saying he was having a hard time thinking and couldn't remember the night before.

By late afternoon, he was fine though I can't help but wonder if he had any lasting brain damage from that particular binge.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
The alcohol would be the most likely culprit in the brain damage department. It's really one of the most neurotoxic of all "substances", though chronic benzo abuse can cause cognitive decline.

If he was using xanax and alcohol, that's the most likely cause of the blackout right there, though xanax is notorious for causing blackouts on its own in high doses.

Can't speak for the cough/cold medications, which are taken for DXM,(dextromethorphan) which can cause a very heavy psychedelic trip if taken in high doses. DXM has its own "culture". I can't speak for the DXM experience, though have read up on it.

I've only taken medications containing DXM for the purpose it is meant to be used for: cough suppression, for which it does an okay job in normal doses.

It's the mixing benzos and alcohol that scares me the most: not just because of the blackouts, though people do really scary things during blackouts, and both xanax and alcohol can cause aggression in some people, but because the two drugs potentiate each other, leading to a very high risk of overdose.

"Educated" benzo abusers warn against combining benzos with alcohol for this reason.

Note: I am not talking about taking .25mg of xanax and having a glass of wine, here. That'll just put an inexperienced person to sleep.

However, if you are talking about the usual "box wine" boxes, those are 4ltrs, which is a huge amount of wine, let alone 2 of them, and box wines are usually high in alcohol. He then took a substantial amt of xanax, a substantial amt of DXM, and the Red Bull, probably because he was getting sleepy from the alcohol and xanax and wanted to stay awake to enjoy the "trip". With the amount of downers he had in the system, the red bull wouldn't make a difference. In the future, if he comes home in that kind of state, make sure he goes to sleep on his side, with his head turned to the side, and check on him to make sure he stays in that position. That will prevent him for choking on his own vomit if he pukes in his sleep.

Gak. The kid needs help. I assume he lives with you? Does he own his car? Whose insurance is he on? If yours, get him off of it. If the car is yours, stop letting him drive it.

I'm sorry you are dealing with this. This is sort of a nightmare situation and very scary. Not just because of the risks of xanax and alcohol abuse, but because if he is abusing DXM frequently, there is a risk of him becoming involved in that culture, which offers very little in the way of good things.

LSD, Peyote, Mescaline, Mushrooms, Ayahuasca, etc., used under supervision, do offer the possibility of self exploration. recent research is actually starting to show clinical signs of this, but DXM is bad news.
 

RN0441

100% better than I was but not at 100% yet
My son is the most logical person when sober. But somehow he loses that logical thinking and decides to use.

So hard to make sense of the need NOT to feel like yourself. Then to take more and more of whatever it is to me is mind boggling. Like can't you just have a few beers or something? No they have to pile one substance upon another and another until they are just brain dead.

My son doesn't "mean" to. Isn't there a saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions? Good intentions don't cut it.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Addicts, whose brains are not like other people, can not just chill with a beer or two. They cant stop. So they csnt have that beer. Once they have it, they cant stop. They can never have that one or two cans. A recovered addict I dated once knew this well. "I can never have one sip or its over." Until they accept that they cant be "like everyone else" (and they arent) they wont quit. This man I dated hung out mostly with recovered sober people who also looked out for one another and engaged in lots of fun but sober activities. He was very active in AA. He liked to help others who struggled.

I am very sorry to all. This is hard for people who are not addicts to understand. That once they take that first sip, it slips out of their control.
 
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