I’m severely chronically sick and am persribed 2mg of IV dilaudid everyone 3hrs and since I’ve been on it for a long time my tolerance has gone up and it honestly doesn’t help that much but with the severity of the pain im in 24/7 I’ll taks any bit of relief I can get and IV dilaudid is the ONLY thing that works. So after surgeries they up the dose to 4mg while I’m in the hospital so since I’m able to take that much whenever I’m having an extra hard day with pain I take 4mg and most of the time I just skip a dose at night to make up for it but more recently things have been worse so much so my primary told me he could put me on hospice even though he isn’t expecting me to pass within 6 momths which is usually the way it works but you can actually still go on it even if they don’t know for sure how much longer they expect you to live since I do have a life threatening illness that will take my life unless something else does before it kills me but I’m not sure if all the requirements you need and how they do it I didn’t ask cuz I’m not ready to take that step. So here’s where there’s some concern I’ve gotten addicted, I’m 23 but I live with my parents because I’m pretty much bedbound and can’t take care of myself and they lock up the dilaudid and there’s been times that I’ve picked the lock to get more out of desperation because sometimes I just can’t cope with the severe pain I’m in. I’m not taking it to get high or for a rush so I don’t really think I’m addicted but since I’ve been caught my parents are starting to think I do. I know it’s not right and I know this would be considered an addictive behavior but given the circumstances do you think I have an addiction? Also I wouldn’t be afraid to admit I’m addicted if I am I took the medication as prescribed in the beginning so I didn’t choose to do drugs and I also know addiction is a disease I lost my brother in December due to a heroin dose after he relapsed which I think is also why my parents are so worried they don’t want to have another kid die from an addiction. And I know no one here can say 100% for sure if I have an addiction or not I just want some opinions from people who do have an addiction. Thanks in advance.