Signs of Addiction

Although we didn't recognize it at the time, when we look back, there were many signs of Son2's addiction

  1. Change in mood.  Although moodiness is common and maybe expected in teenagers, when we look back, our son was not himself when he was using.  He was ornery and generally not a nice person.  Also, he was acting the "victim".  He was not willing to take responsibility for anything that was happening.
  2. Son2 did not seem to care about things he once loved, hobbies, sports and friends for example.
  3. Changes in sleep habits
  4. Stomach aches, vomiting, diarrhea that are attributed to the "flu"
  5. Lots of money issues, needing extra cash, borrowing money from friends and family, selling items....
  6. Cash and items disappearing.  Although we didn't realize it, and thought things were just misplaced, our son was stealing cash and pills from our house.
  7. Looking and acting high. Again, I didn't know what this looked like right away, thought he was just tired.
  8. Keeping certain friends away from us.  There were some friends that would come by and never come in the house, never were introduced to us.
  9. Long sleeves... to hide the track marks
  10. Performing poorly in school
  11. Loss of weight
  12. Lots of lying.  Lying about where he was, who he was with, and covering up for lots of things.  He got pretty good at it.