Episode 7 - The Elderly, the Forgotten Victims of Addiction

Audio Journal

The Elderly, the Forgotten Victims of Addiction 

For 20 years, my mother in law had a great relationship with the man she fell in love with when she met him on a cruise at age 74.  But things changed dramatically a few years ago.  As he aged, he experienced a number of health issues that plague so many of the elderly.  His joints started to fail, his health declined, and he began to experience persistent pain.  Enter a less than competent doctor who managed his health issues with only one strategy, prescribe opioids.

It didn’t take long for the 90-year old to become addicted, needing more and more of the medications to manage his pain so he could get through the day, despite the fact that those medications became less effective over time.  He was now addicted, and along with many other addicts, his loving and caring personality changed.  He became angry, irritable, blaming and abusive.  He engaged in the same drug-seeking behavior we would normally associate with a teenager. Ultimately the relationship ended when my mother in law had enough and now, she’s spending her final years alone.

Is this story unique among the elderly?  Unfortunately, it is not. It is estimated that 17% of individuals over age 65 struggle with the disease of addiction.  Perhaps they’ve been struggling with addiction for years, but more often they have developed the disease after being over prescribed pain medication without a long-term plan to transition from pills to deal with the underlying causes of the pain.

The fact is that addiction among the elderly goes unrecognized and undiagnosed robbing them of getting the help that they need.  This trend is made worse because family and medical professionals are not informed about the risks of addiction in the elderly, office visits to the doctor are often hurried and healthcare providers often overlook substance abuse among the elderly. Not recognizing addiction in the elderly is made worse because they often have medical or behavioral disorders that mimic symptoms of substance abuse, such as depression, diabetes, or dementia.

There are certain times in an elderly person’s life that make them more vulnerable for developing addiction.  Here are a few.

People retire.  You get up and go to work daily, have a purpose, and have structure in your life.  Then you retire, have lots of time on your hands, miss your work friends, and have a hard time adjusting.  Stress around making that change often motivates individuals to turn to alcohol to cope.   Not to mention that many of the elderly haven’t planned well enough so the loss of income and financial stress also becomes triggering events.

The person has experienced the death of a family member, their pet or close friends.  As we age, the people that have been important in our lives start to die off.  One loses their spouse, their best friend, or their brothers or sisters.  Grief and depression set in and substances became a coping mechanism.

As we get older, our sleep patterns change.  I remember that my dad when he aged, he began to wake up in the middle of the night, move to the couch and find it hard to go back to bed.  With changing sleep patterns, the elderly may seek relief in prescription pills.

Being relocated or placed in a nursing home is often a catalyst for being overprescribed.  Audit the medications a nursing home patient takes, and you might be astounded at how many mood stabilizers, pain pills, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety drugs are prescribed so these individuals become more manageable.  The downside consequence is that they become addicted and face the consequences that come along with the disease.

The people most at risk are those facing mental or physical declines.  My mother in law’s husband h