Driving on Codeine

I don't feel like telling this story again because I spent yesterday talking about it with my sponsor and other Al-Anon friends, but maybe posting it here will help someone else.

Last week my boyfriend had outpatient surgery and I was a little disturbed that they gave him a prescription for codeine when they released him. I don't know what he said about his alcoholism, but I was there when he lied about his history of drug abuse. I have since found out from my Al Anon friends that if they had known about his history of addiction they would have not given him codeine.

(Photo by Dima V of stock.xchng.)

At first he told me that he was not going to take the codeine because he was afraid it would trigger his alcoholism. Then, over the weekend he claimed that he was tired because he had started taking it and he seemed drugged. He still kept insisting on going about his normal activities, though.

On Monday I was at the doctor's and he called and said he wanted to pick me up and claimed that he was fine. He also said his AA sponsor had told him to stop the codeine. So, I trusted him but when he showed up he was really out of it. I offered to drive but he didn't want me to.

While we were driving we were going to pass a crosswalk in front of a senior home. When he saw two older people waiting there he stopped abruptly. The car behind us only avoided hitting us when the driver had enough quick thinking and skill to swerve out of the way. The older people looked terrified. My boyfriend, who is normally a very emotional driver, had absolutely no reaction and still appeared drugged.

I was upset, of course. I told him that I didn't want him to use me as an excuse to drive and so I was taking myself out of the picture and I didn't want to go out with him for a couple of days. He had no emotion but did get in a dig at me for being angry at him for "being a responsible driver", which, in his mind, was stopping for the older couple. He told me that he would call me and then dropped me off, but I really didn't want to see him for a couple of days.

I have since had my Al Anon friends back me up when I say that I don't want to drive with him if I am not comfortable doing so. My sponsor also recommended that I don't call him, just let him call first. Well, I was going to do that but I'm sure his sponsor told him the same thing because it was reaching the point of a Mexican standoff. I called him about an hour ago and he seemed more alert and said he hadn't had any codeine since Sunday. It was a brief call but at least we made contact and I guess I'll figure it out from here.