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Question: My husband has dealt with ADHD his whole life. He was on Ritalin and other drugs to control it as a child but got off them in his late teen years as he didn't want to "be controlled" by the drugs and wanted to try and be in control of himself. He went through a many year period of drug addiction - heroin, meth, cocaine, pot, crystal, etc. If it was a drug my husband at one point in time was a user. He and I met a lil over a year ago and got married right away. He had been clean of all drugs except pot for 10 years. His doctor had just prescribed him adderol shortly before I met him. To make a long story short, my husband changed into a horrible monster from the time I met him to late spring of this year. He claims the change is because he stopped using adderol - he says he became addicted to it. He had been a loving caring man and he turned into an abusing cheating monster. He cheated on me with prostitutes several dozen times. He claims that the adderol made him focus so hard on one particular thing (which was himself) that nothing mattered and he didn't care about anything else. He also said the reason for the prostitution was because it was an immediate satisfaction - he would leave work during the middle of the day if that's what he felt urged to do. Is all this normal behaivor for an adderol junky? Or is my husband trying to put the blame on something else to make this all easier for himself? He has been off adderol since April 2009 now, but how do I know this won't ever happen again?

Submitted on: June 30, 2009

Answered By: Addiction Specialist

Answer: There is a concept in the addiction field called "cross addiction". This is when someone who is addicted to one substance or behavior begins using another substance or behavior addictively, often while remaining abstinent from the first. Implicit in this concept is that there is an underlying addictive process that can be engaged by substances or behaviors other than those that originally created it. It sounds like your husband is engaged in a relapse to addictive behavior even if he has stopped using his drug of choice. Knowing whether this will happen again is impossible to predict, but the best chances of continued sobriety result from regular, continued participation in recovery activities such as 12 step meetings and therapy.

Answered on: August 10, 2009