After years of denying her SUPER OBVIOUS pill addiction, Paula Abdul is opening up about it … and it JUST SO HAPPENS to coincide with the release of her new single. Funny, that.
Paula says she’s kicked the pill habit, which I’m almost willing to believe, as she’s been more sober during this season of Idol than any season prior. She talks openly in a new interview about the detox process:
“I could have killed myself,” Abdul, 46, tells Ladies’ Home Journal in its June issue. “Withdrawal – it’s the worst thing.”
Abdul says she checked herself into the La Costa Resort and Spa, in Carlsbad, Calif., last Thanksgiving to help beat her use of medication. “I was freezing cold, then sweating hot, then chattering and in so much pain, it was excruciating,” she says. “But at my very core, I did not like existing the way I had been.”
After taking medication to combat pain from injuries that happened during her grueling years as a dancer – beginning with a back injury when she was 17 and including a neck injury sustained in a plane crash in 1993 – the American Idol judge says, “I’d been working nonstop,” and her desire to carry on with her work led her to take more pain pills.
“I’m an old school professional,” Abdul says of her “Never let them see you sweat” credo.
By 2005, Abdul was diagnosed with reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome, a chronic condition that resulted in debilitating pain. As a result, she wore a pain patch and took nerve medication and, occasionally, a muscle relaxant. The combo made her “get weird,” she says.
Ehhh, I’m not gonna give her too hard a time here. I’m glad she finally got honest about it, because it’s been so ridiculously obvious for years now, and her lies about it were such a punchline. Hopefully she’s really clean and planning to stay that way.
La Costa? My sister used to work there. I like how they make it sound kind of like a rehab or something, not some fancy smancy country club spa place.
It’s ABOUT TIME. I just wish she hadn’t been soooo adamant about NOT ever taking anything. Didn’t we just have an article with her denying it like a week ago? Weirdo. I wonder why, since she actually has a legitimate reason to use such medicine.
Yeah I never knew she was actually in pain all the time, poor woman. I forgive her for a little bit of the craziness. A little bit.
That’s what I was gunna say too. I thought it was just VERY recently that she was still denying the pills. So I think it’s lame that she’s now admitting it, to coincide with the release of her new single.
Oh wow! My avatar ( Is that what it’s called?) changed.
Oh wow! My avatar ( is that what it’s called?) changed!
I didn’t see that coming. *snort*
I have the same illness and I can’t say I blame her. Its a nightmare and the pain killers you can be put are are so strong your away with the fairies no idea what your doing and seem totally off your face on something.
At least she came out of it in the end and admitted that it became more of a problem then a help.
she must have been on some heavy duty painkillers when she put on that outfit.
In other news the sun will rise in the east tomorrow.
LOL!
and not to mention the loads she must have had to give the people who actually saw the aforementioned outfit…their poor eyes.
Her outfit reminds me of that project runway episode where they had to make clothes out of garbage.
Nice excuses. I feel bad for those addicted who need help and I hope they get it. But, there are plenty of dancers and athletes that have many, many injuries and don’t abuse pain medication. I suggest that Ms. Paula Abdul should reanalyze what she was really trying to numb. It’s not the physical injuries, but the mental and emotional injuries that hurt the worst.
The crazy is always in there… the pills let it out, not cause it! ;)
obvious. she has always been very careful about saying she has not done ILLEGAL drugs.