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Paula Abdul is the cover girl for June’s Ladies’ Home Journal (story via US Weekly), and she’s talking about her addiction to painkillers. If your first thought was “so that’s what’s wrong with Paula”, tsk, tsk. Paula is only confirming her past drug addiction, not current. Currently, Paula is facing down a neurological condition called reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome. Paula’s treatment for this condition used to be “a patch that delivered a pain medication about 80 times more potent than morphine and took a nerve medication to relieve her symptoms.” In addition to a muscle relaxer. But she’s off that treatment now because the side-effects (sleeplessness, acting crazy) were too much. However, Paula stops short of talking about what her current medication is, only saying that coming off the old stuff was a real harsh withdrawal.
In a shocking new interview, Paula Abdul reveals that her reliance on painkillers got so bad she could have died.
As a dancer, Abdul, 46, says she turned to a combination of painkillers — including regular shots of lidocaine — and Chinese medicine to get her through her grueling routines.
“I couldn’t cancel my tour. I didn’t want anyone to count me out,” she says in June’s Ladies’ Home Journal. “I tried to keep everything hush-hush.”
Adds Abdul, “I’m an old school professional. Never let them see you sweat.”
But that became increasingly difficult for Abdul, who had suffered debilitating pain caused by an unusual series of accidents (including a cheerleading mishap at 17 that injured a disc in her neck).
By 2005, she was diagnosed with “reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome,” a chronic neurological disorder that causes severe pain. It resulted in teeth-chattering and shingles-like lesions.
Abdul says she wore a patch that delivered a pain medication about 80 times more potent than morphine and took a nerve medication to relieve her symptoms. Sometimes, she adds, she also took a muscle relaxer. But the pain got so bad it that it often left her sleepless and caused her to “get weird,” she says.
A combination of these factors prompted many fans to believe that the American Idol judge was high on the air.
Determined to overcome her habit, she checked into the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif., last Thanksgiving.
“I could have killed myself,” Abdul tells the magazine. “Withdrawal – it’s the worst thing. I was freezing cold, then sweating hot, then chattering and in so much pain. It was excruciating.”
“At my very core,” she concludes, “I did not like existing the way I had been.”
These days, Abdul — who just dropped a new single, ” I’m Just Here for the Music” — is searching for love.
“I’m working on finding that guy,” she says. “I’m just like every other girl who wants to find a soul mate and live happily ever after.”
[From US Weekly]
Yes, it’s none of our business. But wouldn’t you like to know what goes on inside Paula’s head, just for a few minutes? I don’t even think she’s a bad person, and I believe her physical pain is very real. But there’s a little bit of humor in this too, because Paula, on or off the drugs, is a little crazy. It would be interesting to know what’s chemical and what’s just Paula.
Here’s Paula leaving the restaurant Koi with a friend after dinner on March 25th. While waiting for the valet to get their car, Paula was all smiles, signing autographs for fans and posing for photos. One fan gave her two roses, which she put between her teeth. Images thanks to Mavrix.
Written by Kaiser
Posted in Paula Abdul
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8 Responses to “Paula Abdul talks painkiller addiction & withdrawal”
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Awwwww, I’m glad she’s off the pills. She seems like a sweetheart. A crazy, crazy sweetheart.
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Didn’t she just say she was never addicted to pill killers a few days ago?
I just looked it up:
Despite undergoing 15 surgeries since a neck injury in 1992, Abdul said she has never taken addictive painkillers.
“I will not take those drugs,” Abdul said. “And you can check my medical records. There is nothing like that. I was never on Oxycontin or Vicodin or anything like that. I was on nerve medicine and anti-inflammatories.” (From Celebitchy)
Full article: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=7392462&page=1 (Dateline, ABC News) Date April 22, 2009
Based on the way magazines like that operate, she must have given the interview to Ladies’ Home Journal around the same time as this interview, if not before. Why would you lie if you know a contradictory interview using your own quotes is about to come out? It’s not like anyone would judge her for taking medication after having surgery. Relieving moderate to severe pain is what the medicine was designed to do and pretty much everyone would take a pain killer after surgery (unless they have a history of addiction).
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I have the utmost respect for Paula as a fellow chronic pain survivor. I was hit by a drunk driver and it ruined my life for about 4 years. I, too, had the teeth chattering. Still do sometimes. That’s how I know she is absolutely for real. Chronic pain completely whacks your nervous system and causes extreme insensitivity to cold. Anyway, now I own a chronic pain treatment clinic as a result of my experience, and I have to tell you that RSD, from which Paula suffers, is one of the worst types of pain anyone can suffer. Some people say the air hurts their skin…or the bed sheets are exruciating if they touch someone’s body. It’s hell. If you haven’t been there, I’m so glad. But if you haven’t been there, you just don’t know. When Kaiser asked what’s going through Paula’s mind…probably a lot of the time it just something simple like, “How am I going to walk from my car to the office today? How am I going to sit in my chair?” So, please try to have a little respect for this woman who is quite impressive if you know anything about chronic pain.
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RSD definitely causes bad pain, but to my knowledge does NOT cause “shingles-like lesions”. SHINGLES causes shingles-like lesions and can cause post-herpetic neuralgia, which is a painful post-shingles condition where the nerves stay inflamed. Can do very well with some anti-seizure meds and can be avoidable if the shingles are treated with antivirals EARLY. Maybe Paula got hit with a double whammy.
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As a sufferer of a similar condition to Paula, she has my sympathies.
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For years Paula has said she hasn’t taken medications. Now she does a 180. I wonder why the change of heart.
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How can you not love Paula..on or off pain killers. She obviously is in a lot of pain.
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Painkiller addiction is a huge issue and it is not only seen in Hollywood. All around the world many people are facing similar painkiller addiction. It is important that these people acquire painkiller addiction treatment in order to overcome the addiction. It can be a deadly addiction and I think that it is wonderful that Paula was able to overcome it.
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