One of the new trends in drug addiction is children stealing their parents and siblings medications. Sometimes these medications wind up in a bowl for all party goers to use, other things your child is taking the medication to get high. Regardless of what they are doing with it, it is important to recognize the signs that your child is stealing your prescription medication.

Your Medication is Missing

One of the key signs is that your medication goes missing. The bottle is just gone. Many children who are new to stealing medication will take the whole bottle. You might even find the bottle in the trash or in your child’s room.

When asked the child might present a perfectly reasonable explanation as to how it got there. They might say something like, “I must have grabbed it instead of the aspirin,” or “It was in the bottom of a bag you gave me.” Usually if the medication is out of the bottle this is not the case.

You Notice the Signs of Opiate Use in Your Children

Antisocial behavior is a sign of opiate use.

There are physical, psychological, and behavioral signs of opiate use that are not normally present in children. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, these signs are:

Physical signs:

• pinpoint pupils
• nausea
• constipation
• vomiting, and
• withdrawal symptoms.

Psychological signs:

• insomnia or hypersomulance,
• euphoria, and
• unexplained elevated mood.

Behavioral signs:

• secretive behavior,
• antisocial behavior,
• lack of interest in normal activities, and
• lack of pleasure in things that use to be pleasurable.

These are just the signs of opiate use and do not necessarily mean they are stealing medication. If they are exhibiting the signs of use and there is medication missing you might

You Fill Your Prescription only to Find the Prescription Gone in a Few Days

This is obvious; you get your prescription filled only to find out that there seem to be less in the bottle every day. Many children and teens know enough to only take a few from a bottle and then replace the bottle exactly where it was. Many of them are quite good at it.

Things that You Can Do if Your Child is Stealing Your Prescription Opiates

Although you might be very angry at first, understand that your child might be addicted already and getting off opiates is one of the hardest things that anyone can do. It is best to be calm and rational about the child’s behavior.

Ask them why they are taking the medications and ask them to stop. If you know they’ve been taking them then put your medications in a lock box. After doing this make sure that any narcotics are put away securely as soon as you get them.

Talk to them about it. If they are showing signs of addiction then an inpatient or outpatient rehab is the best way to help them. For more information on finding a rehab that can help your child get off opiates, call us 888-959-0638.