Alcohol and pill addiction in your early 20s?

Hey,

My boyfriend is 22, I'm 24, and we're both college students.
He’s been dealing with panic attacks since middle school and saw a therapist back then. Once he got to high school, he started taking prescription anti-anxiety meds—I don't know the names, just that they're Rx. He hasn't seen a therapist since high school, though; instead, he just relies on pills he gets from family members or sleep aids, which I think are Sanvala. He claims the panic attacks are gone, but he keeps taking the pills because he says he's "used to them" and is terrified they'll come back if he stops.
Besides the fact that his habit worries me—since he's popping pills almost every single day for no reason—he also drinks an insane amount of alcohol. It's mostly beer, but I'm not talking about one or two after lunch. He's drinking from the morning, skipping breakfast for a few, then having more in the afternoon, and then topping it all off with more at night along with those pills. He rarely even seems drunk; he's so used to it that he functions totally fine even after his tenth beer, but once he takes that pill, he just crashes—gets cold and totally checked out.
He’s never aggressive, always super chill, and there are stretches lasting up to two weeks where he doesn't touch the pills or the booze, but he always ends up sliding right back into old habits. Is it possible that at 22, he's already addicted to alcohol and pills?
Also, I desperately need advice on how to handle him when he's like this. I don't know if I should yell at him, shower him with love, or what. When he's with me, especially when he stays at my apartment for a few days, he doesn't drink or take anything. Most of the time, I only find out about these episodes when his family calls me begging me to talk to him and try to force him to stop.

Any advice means the world to me, thanks in advance! Sorry for the long post!

You might want to look at this through the lens of a standard medical textbook definition. Basically, an alcoholic is someone whose long-term, excessive drinking has led to a full-blown dependency—whether that's psychological, physical, or both. This inevitably triggers health issues and social fallout that can be clearly identified through standard American medical and social diagnostic protocols.

At the end of the day, you have to face the reality that your boyfriend has a problem. That realization has to come from you, and eventually, it has to come from him too.
The truth is, he probably knows there’s an addiction issue, but only one part of his psyche recognizes it. The other part? That part says, "I won't have more than one," or "It's just this once." It's all just excuses. In essence, this constant vacillation, the instability, and the refusal to take responsibility are the hallmarks of every addict... they deceive themselves and they blame everyone else...
Recovery can be an incredibly long road, largely because the problem wasn't caught early on. And let's be real, treatment is expensive. Just a basic detox program in the States can run anywhere from $800 to $1,000, and once you factor in the rest of the clinical costs, you're looking at a total closer to $5,000. It's a massive amount of money... but you can't just sit there with your hands tied waiting for this to fix itself. Because it won't.

I hope this helps a little bit...

What kind of nonsense is five grand? @author. Seriously. We’re talking about alcoholism here—sounds like a manic episode to me. Take him over to Mayo Clinic; they have a day program and they’re honestly the best.

I can't speak for the US, I was actually talking about Mexico... it seems like you guys might actually have better hospitals and a more efficient system than we do over here. My bad, I should have specified that I meant the pricing for Mexico. That was my mistake.

Bradley Nguyen13 said:Hey,

My boyfriend is 22, I'm 24, and we're both college students.
He’s been dealing with panic attacks since middle school and saw a therapist back then. Once he got to high school, he started taking prescription anti-anxiety meds—I don't know the names, just that they're Rx. He hasn't seen a therapist since high school, though; instead, he just relies on pills he gets from family members or sleep aids, which I think are Sanvala. He claims the panic attacks are gone, but he keeps taking the pills because he says he's "used to them" and is terrified they'll come back if he stops.
Besides the fact that his habit worries me—since he's popping pills almost every single day for no reason—he also drinks an insane amount of alcohol. It's mostly beer, but I'm not talking about one or two after lunch. He's drinking from the morning, skipping breakfast for a few, then having more in the afternoon, and then topping it all off with more at night along with those pills. He rarely even seems drunk; he's so used to it that he functions totally fine even after his tenth beer, but once he takes that pill, he just crashes—gets cold and totally checked out.
He’s never aggressive, always super chill, and there are stretches lasting up to two weeks where he doesn't touch the pills or the booze, but he always ends up sliding right back into old habits. Is it possible that at 22, he's already addicted to alcohol and pills?
Also, I desperately need advice on how to handle him when he's like this. I don't know if I should yell at him, shower him with love, or what. When he's with me, especially when he stays at my apartment for a few days, he doesn't drink or take anything. Most of the time, I only find out about these episodes when his family calls me begging me to talk to him and try to force him to stop.

Any advice means the world to me, thanks in advance! Sorry for the long post!

Look, age doesn't matter here—it's about how long they've been hitting the bottle and popping pills. Based on what you're saying, yeah, they're an addict. Period. No debate needed.