Mom addicted to taking pills. Any recommendations?

You may want to call and talk to a substance abuse counselor at a reputable rehab clinic to get some advice and maybe set up an intervention.

Mom should not have refills on the pain pills. Make sure you contact her doctor and tell them you have concerns Mom is addicted to them. With the current all out assault on over prescribing opioids and other controlled substances, you should have no problem getting the doctor’s cooperation. Also, if Mom is elderly, I am surprised her doctor prescribed sleeping pills for her. Doctors are very hesitant to prescribe sleeping aids for Senior Citizens nowadays. How recent was her surgery? I’ve had surgeries and gotten pain pills and the prescription was for one week, at the most ten days. If your mother still needs pain pills after three months, she needs to go back to her surgeon. Take the pain pills to a drop off box in your city and dispose of them. She should also not have access to the sleeping pills. She should only need one a day, if that. Ask her doctor to stop that prescription too, or dole out one a night and lock them up. Now that you know Mom snoops for the key, she should be supervised more carefully and the key more well hidden, or purchase a lock box for her medications with a combination lock on it.