According to the Centers for Disease Control, prescription drug addiction is reaching epidemic proportions. Due to its nature, people tend to hide their addictions to continue using without being caught. There are a lot of ways that people use to hide their opiate abuse.
Using Family as an Excuse
When a user is late for work, a meeting, or even school, they often use family as an excuse. The excuse is something like “my child was sick,” or “I am late because I had to drop my wife at work.” These excuses continue when a person is trying to hide the fact they’ve been using that morning or possibly the night before. Family is usually a viable excuse since it is difficult to verify and it is a relatively common problem.
Faking Sick
This works to help an opiate addict obtain drugs as well as works as an excuse to be using them. By faking an illness, they can hide their addiction from doctors, family members, and even employers. Since soft tissue injuries are extremely difficult to verify, this is the most common injury to use. An unverifiable injury makes an excellent cover to hide an addiction.
By Saying they are Working Late
Working late or bad traffic is an excellent way to hide the time that a person uses to pick up drugs. It is a great way for an addict to cover the time gap when coming home. Working late or being held for overtime is also an excuse people use to hide doing drugs as well.
Visiting Multiple Doctors
In order to obtain prescription opiates a person needs a prescription. By visiting more than one doctor, people can obtain multiple prescriptions. Since each doctor thinks that the patient is only getting one prescription, they have no reason to suspect addiction. Although there are safeguards in place, many doctors do not use them. They do not suspect addiction particularly if a patient has been going to them for a long time for the same condition.
Using Different Names to Obtain Prescriptions
Some people go a step further and use different names and identification to obtain prescriptions. These people sometimes go as far as registering and paying for different insurance plans in order to provide more cover for themselves. With a different name and different identities there is almost no way to trace prescription drug abuse.
Erasing Cell Phone Records
Erasing cell phone records is a popular way to keep people from finding out if you are buying drugs illegally. This also goes for suddenly disconnecting calls and whispering during their phone conversations. These are classic signs someone is hiding who they are calling or why someone is calling them.
How to Find Help for Someone Hiding an Addiction
If you find out someone you love is hiding an addiction, you can get help. Fortunately, this is not difficult to do. All you have to do is call us at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?). We can help you find the treatment that your loved one needs to break the addiction.