Loving someone in addiction is hard. You deserve support too.
If you found this site because your partner, child, parent, sibling, or close friend is using “gas station pills,” “7-OH tablets,” or anything in that family, take a breath. You don’t need to fix everything tonight. The information here is meant to help you understand what you’re dealing with, because the marketing on these products has misled almost everyone, including most clinicians.
You may be feeling exhausted, scared, furious, hypervigilant, guilty, or some rotating combination of all of those. None of that is weakness or overreaction. Those are normal responses to watching someone you love disappear inside a chemical dependency, and to the day-to-day work of trying to keep things from getting worse. The fact that you’re here, reading, is itself a form of taking care.
The 3 Cs (and the C that matters more)
The most useful frame for family members in this situation, repeated for decades because it keeps being true:
- You didn’t cause it.
- You can’t control it.
- You can’t cure it.
The fourth, from the CRAFT approach: but you can influence the environment, and you can take care of your own life. That’s the practical work this section is about.
What’s in this section
The pages in this section walk through, in roughly the order most families need them:
- What to Expect: the shape of dependence, withdrawal, and recovery (including the long tail almost nobody warns families about).
- How to Talk to Your Loved One: what tends to land, what tends to backfire, and the evidence-based CRAFT framework.
- Boundaries Without Punishment: limits that protect your life without trying to control theirs.
- Safety: You and Your Kids Come First: when to leave, who to call, and how to use naloxone (Narcan).
- Asking Them to Leave the House: when staying isn’t safe, the legal landscape, and where to get help.
- When They’re Recovering at Home: what the at-home path looks like from outside it, what helps, what backfires, and the tools they may be using. The path this site is built around.
- Rehabilitation Centers: detox, residential, PHP, IOP, insurance, free options, and warning signs of predatory programs. For when a formal program is the right fit.
- FMLA & Workplace Protections: federal leave to care for an immediate family member in treatment.
- Taking Care of Yourself: the unglamorous basics that keep you standing through a long process.
- Support Groups for Family & Friends: peer support specifically for the people walking alongside.
What these products actually are (the short version)
Your loved one isn’t taking a supplement. 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) is a potent mu-opioid receptor agonist, the same receptor family as prescription opioids. The newer synthetics (MGM-15, pseudoindoxyl) are even more potent, and most don’t show up on standard drug tests. Withdrawal looks like opioid withdrawal because biochemically, that’s what it is.
The person you love is not gone. They’re trapped in a pattern that’s hard to break, and harder when no one in their life understands what they’re fighting. The brain chemistry does recover. People in this community have come back from this.
About this section. Nothing here is medical, legal, or psychiatric advice. It’s reference material written by people who have been in your shoes, drawing on evidence-based frameworks (CRAFT, harm reduction, parity law) and the practical experience of families in this community. For decisions specific to your situation, work with qualified professionals who know the people involved.
If you or your loved one is in crisis right now
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988 (24/7)
- SAMHSA National Helpline: 1-800-662-4357 (free, confidential, 24/7 treatment referrals)
- National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 or text “START” to 88788 (24/7)
- Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-422-4453 (24/7)
- 911: for immediate danger or suspected overdose
If they’re unresponsive, breathing slowly, or you can’t wake them: give naloxone (Narcan) if you have it and call 911. Detailed instructions are on the Safety page.