Paula Abdul Pain Killer Confession
Posted on 05. May, 2009 by CSS in Abuse, Entertainment, drugs
Paula Abdul unleashes one of Hollywood’s worst-kept bombshells on the pages of the June edition of Ladies Homes Journal. Despite insisting that she has never used drugs of any kind in an interview with ABC Nightline’s Cynthia McFadden two weeks ago, the American Idol judge is finally coming clean about her twelve year addiction to pain killers.
Paula has suffered debilitating pain for years, ever since a cheerleading mishap left the “Straight Up” singer with an injured disc in her neck at 17. Paula was later involved in a car accident in 1992 and even lived through a plane crash in 1993. She had to undergo 15 spinal surgeries, which left her dependent on pain medication. 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.
In the piece, Cynthia asked Paula, “So let me just ask you the question straight up. Absolutely crystal clear you have not abused prescription drugs?”
“Never. I’ve never been drunk in my life. I don’t like it. It’s not my thing,” Paula replied. “Spending money on clothes and shoes that’s another thing. No, no, no, no, no. Will not take those drugs. And you can check my medical records there is nothing like that. I was never on Oxycontin or Vicadin or anything like that. I was on nerve medicine and anti-inflammatories.”
Paula 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.
Last Thanksgiving, decided to quit popping the pills for good. She checked into the La Costa Resort and Spa, in Carlsbad, California, to ween herself off her medications.
“I could have killed myself…Withdrawal – it’s the worst thing. I was freezing cold, then sweating hot, then chattering and in so much pain, it was excruciating. But at my very core, I did not like existing the way I had been.”
Paula’s new album hits stores this fall.
