Does My Boss Have a Drug Problem?

Question by collier315: Does my boss have a drug problem?
My boss and I are kind of friends. At 34 she admits to have experianced A LOT of drugs and various ways to get high. About a month ago she confided in me that for fun and to “answer lifes questions” she does Nitrous Oxide/ laughing gas. She has a tank or something?? I also know she takes Adderall because she suffers from Narcolepsy. She gave a co-worker Klonapin after the co-worker was having trouble sleeping. MY POINT: One day she is SUPER happy..laughing and joking and overall extremly positive. Then at the drop of a dime she becomes very defensive and serious. I love my job and she starts having low self esteem and says things like “I just wish you could be honest with me and tell me why you don’t like it here” I am seriously the most positive and honest person. If I hated work, I would say something. She is a Social Worker and we have clients and families complain about her abrupt behavior. Somedays she has flawless skin and then the next day her face is filled with large acne. Last week a coworker lost her cat very suddenly. My boss kept starting fights with this poor lady. It was weird and everyone wondered why my boss would fly off the handle like that. I guess I don’t know much about drugs- but I KNOW she is on something. She’s chatty, agitative, breaking out on her face and very defensive. Any ideas of her drug of choice???

Best answer:

Answer by Greg
I don’t think what drug it is matters here. We already know she has access to 3 things so far, I would not be surprised if she had more prescription ones or even did illegals, mixing them or getting different reactions. I find it disappointing that she’s a boss and a social worker and doing this. It could be hurting her business as well. I don’t know if there is anything you can do.

Answer by Jared
Well, it isn’t really your position as an employee to intervene (by yourself) with your boss.. so you have to keep your presumptions and relative corporate position in check. I know you know this, just reiterating it.

That disclaimer said — This is most typical of stimulant use and possible abuse. It could be illegal stimulant use such as “Crystal Meth” or “Cocaine” — although Crystal meth is much cheaper and is much more likely to show skin problems, teeth decay, and so forth. Or it could literally just be a combination of her prescribed medications. She might have the adderall for her sleeping disorder, but at the same time Klonopin for anxiety and even to help with sleep (along with an anti depressant or other medications she hasn’t told anyone about).

Combine these in a person with zero problems and they will eventually show signs of emotional instability — it just happens and is a side effect of psychoactive medications.

Given that she self admits to Nitrous oxide abuse (and no , no tank.. you can buy cartridges of NO2 at head shops, and you do it in bursts like any other drug.. ) she probably carries this attitude to her prescribed medication — which makes things even more complicated.

Crossing the line into whether she takes illegal drugs or not is really not incredibly important because just the prescription drugs can be very powerful in and of themselves and cause most all of the symptoms described.

Prescription drug abuse with co-morbid emotional problems are not only difficult to treat, but even harder to determine where the real problem is.

Is it an underlying mental problem? (less likely than most assume) — Is it more a result of the longer term use of the medications and possibly even some build up in the system over the years? (More likely) — With the latter some non permanent brain damage often occurs that creates what you experienced and more — often memory, cognitive, even perception difficulties manifest.

These problems can only heal when the person gets help from a doctor who is well versed in this and they slowly taper and THEN it can take months to up to a year for a person’s brain to completely “rewire” and become their former stable selves. As you can see it can be incredibly tricky with something like underlying narcolepsy and likely another disorder diagnosed at some point resulting in the medications.

But, again, stimulants are responsible for drastic mood shifts in otherwise unipolar people.

Lastly, she could have diagnosed or undiagnosed bipolar disorder which causes self medication and the sudden mood shifts, in which case the medicines aren’t helping much and likely making things worse but at the same time aren’t responsible for the behavior entirely.

Point being is your boss has to recognize her behavior, that it is innapropriate, and that then she needs to get help from a proper medical physician.. and then realize it will likely be a long uncomfortable road.

Now see how this is difficult? If it becomes bad enough I could see a group of employee’s confronting her for her own good.. and I would not expect her to be completely oblivious of her erratic behavior – though she is likely in denial.

The main thing that points to an illegal stimulant would be the acne — but this isn’t 100 percent confirmed by any means. I’ve known alot of people who act absolutely nuts and that is just their natural brain chemistry and others that take enough meds/drugs to kill an elephant and act very stable and normal.

For your own sake I hope things get better, and in the mean time you just have to deal with it for what it is, and not take anything personally. Only deal with it to the point of how much the job is worth to you and how much your boss is affecting your personal life.

Take care,