I really hope I put this thread in the right place. But even if I didn't, I'm sure someone would move it to the right one. Anyways...

About a year ago I use to take my moms prescription hydrocodone/acetaminophen medicine for pain relief like stomach cramps. She knew I was taking it and she was really careful about giving it to me. But when she accused me of being "addicted" to it, she stopped letting me take her medicine and even hid it from me. At first, I personally didn't think I was really addicted to the medicine but when it came time to when I started having stomach cramps, I refused to take any other medicine but hers. Of course, my mother didn't care that I wanted her medicine and told me to take an Advil instead. I hate taking pills so that wasn't something I wanted to do. I would much rather take her liquid narcotic. So from there, it became a hunt to look for her medicine that she hid from me and I found it rather quickly. Then I started taking it without her knowing. I know that that's bad but I felt like I had to do what I had to do.

When I drink the hydrocodone/acetaminophen medicine it's like a warm feeling going down my throat and it feels like it's coating my stomach. And the best part is that it knocks the pain out so fast! That's why I only want to take that kind of medicine rather than taking an Advil. From that point, I could see me getting a little addicted but I only take it when I have stomach cramps. I never take it just because.

I'll admit that sometimes when I would take the medicine, I wouldn't measure it. I would just guesstimate and drink it from the bottle. Which is really dangerous, I know, but usually I take 15mL of it and I know how big of a gulp that is for me. So when I'm guesstimating it while drinking it from the bottle, I always take way less than a gulp.

After many months of me sneaking medicine, it all came to a stop. We ended up moving and I was without the medicine for maybe 6 months. I was sad about it but I didn't flip out or anything. I just made myself take Advil when I need pain relief and tried some home remedies. But last summer, I got my tonsils removed and the pain medicine that the doctor sent me home with was the same hydrocodone/acetaminophen medicine that my mom had. I'll be honest, I was happy about it. But it didn't help me all that much during my recovery from my surgery. So now that I'll all recovered now, I just use my remaining refills of the medicine for stomach cramps like I did before.

One night, I was measuring out 15mL of my medicine (semi-supervised) and there was a little bit left in the bottle. I have NO CLUE what I was thinking at the time but I decided to just pour the rest of what was left in the bottle and drink it. It measured out to be around 30mL. Still to this day I don't know why I did that and I really wished I didn't. I was super dizzy, super scared, trembling, and I thought I was going to die that night. Luckily I didn't, Thank God!! But I was so scared to go to sleep that night. It really taught me a lesson.

I took a break from the medicine for a while but eventually I went back to it. I don't take more than I'm suppose to and I will never do that again. But I still drink it without measuring sometimes, taking less than I'm suppose to.

I just want to know if all this makes me a substance abuser? What do you guys think?

Thank you for listening!