Abdul Kicks Painkiller Addiction

"American Idol" Judge Says "I Could Have Killed Myself"

(CBS/ AP)  The strange behavior of "American Idol" judge Paula Abdul may have been due to her addiction to painkillers, according to Dr. Jennifer Ashton, Early Show medical correspondent.

"There's multiple factors at play here," Ashton told Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez. "One is just living with that kind of pain every single second, day-to-day, hour-to-hour is very difficult, and can have psychological and physical consequences. Also, narcotic pain medication ... really can have some significant effects both when you're on it and when you're coming off of it."

The 46-year-old star says in the June issue of Ladies' Home Journal she could have killed herself after years of dependence on painkillers she took for a chronic, painful nerve condition, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome (RSD).

Abdul told the magazine she checked herself into the La Costa Resort and Spa, in Carlsbad, Calif., last Thanksgiving to help beat her use of medication.

She told the magazine withdrawal is "the worst thing."

"I was freezing cold, then sweating hot, then chattering and in so much pain, it was excruciating," she says in the article. "But at my very core, I did not like existing the way I had been."

Abdul also told the magazine she started taking painkillers as a dancer -- starting when she had a back injury at age 17 -- and continued to take them after a plane crash neck injury in 1993.

Abdul was diagnosed with RSD in 2005.

Abdul says in the the article that she's feeling 96 percent better after rehab treatment.

But becoming addicted to painkillers when you have a chronic condition isn't just for celebrities, Ashton said.

"This is a huge problem and we have these oftentimes misconceptions about who this affects," Ashton said. "It can affect everyone from the housewife to the celebrity."

According to estimates by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the number of people who have received in-patient treatment for substance abuse from chronic pain syndromes has skyrocketed 155 percent in the past 10 years.

Some of the warning signs for people whose treatment may be heading for addiction, Ashton said, are feeling ill when the drug wears off, needing more medication to treat the same pain and spending a lot of time thinking about the drug.

Ashton said that if you notice these signs, you should see a pain specialist.

According to the magazine, Abdul is trying to resume her singing career with a new single, "I'm Just (Here for the Music)."

[cuppydog]

I watched your report about chronic pain. I seems to me that it is always someone that has never experienced this type of pain that calls the person in pain an addict. An addict is someone that take medication or drug to achieve a high. The type of pain these patients are talking about is relieved with medication so they can function. That's the difference. The brain sends out pain reseptors into the blood usually from your synpathetic nerve system. Pain is just like your temperature, it a signal that something is wrong. People that don't feel pain injure themselves because they can't feel pain. I have a daughter that contracted RSD from an infection. Her leg was on fire, turned purple and it was so painful she vomited and screamed as if someone was cutting her leg off. Now if you can tell me that giving someone a pain reliever to stop those symptoms is wrong, put a rubberband around your leg, cut the blood supply off and tell me you could live with that pain day after day. Your ignorance is pittiful. Did you also know that some RSD patients have the affected limb amputated to stop the pain. For every one person with AIDs, there are 10 with RSD. If your going to throw these poor people under the bus at least get the other side of the story before you call them addicts. Oh by the way, my daughter was 12 when she was stricken with this disease. She's in remission currently, but she never know's when it will strike again. Do a story on that if you want to make it right to all the people you insulted.

[naknek49]

This article is very wrong and the sad thing is us with horrible pain that we deal with everyday are the ones that get puished for these type of un-educated and un-informed articles. I myself got RSD when I was 16 and by the time I was 20 it spread full body and internal to the point I was hospitalized and bed ridden for 5 months. If it isnt for the pain meds I take everyday I still would be bed ridden. I cant stand all the small mided people who just think we want the meds to get high and think we dont really need it when in all reality we very much do. I am now 21 and these meds are what gives me the life I do have and without them of course my pain would be un-livible but also my blood pressure and pulse go so high from the pain I become at risk of a heart attack and also because me RSD affects my internal organs it can cause some bad problems including shuttng down my bladder. Whenever someone is to do a story on such a subject as this they should have all facts straight as there are people out there that are taking the hit for this including me. Whoever wrote this story and whoever decided to publish it really needs to think twice and even apologize for spreading so much mis-information through to the public, you just make us have to work that much harder trying to get poeple to understand.

[ljpwrites]

Dr. Ashton failed to make any distinction between addiction, dependence and tolerance in her comments - which is a huge failing in any intelligent discussion of pain maintenance and drug misuse and abuse. She also referred to pain medication as "narcotics". Some pain medicine is narcotic, but not all, and to use the term is merely to add to public fear of addiction, which keeps some people who really do need medication from accepting help. The time for clear and focused and factual discussion of pain and pain medication is now - Americans are suffering needlessly. That Ms. Abdul felt that she was able, after surgical intervention and other therapies to live without pain medication is great; but why is everyone using language that seems to imply that she was a drug addict? Why are we not using her experience to talk about the millions of other Americans in constant pain, instead of focusing on the few who might misuse or abuse their medicine? And if that is the conversation you want to have, at least get your facts straight.

[yayaof7]

I am a 57 year old strongwilled woman diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 1998. As with any illness, the symptoms vary for all of us that need pain medication to get through a day. The stigma of being referred to as a pill-head as we wait hopefully for a cure, is crushing. I have never wished anyone a bad expereince untill now. For all of you ignorant judgementalist I wish you 1 month of walking in my shoes.

[boloty]

It's bad enough living with chronic pain then to be scrutinized by the public. I am on percocet and methadone daily and I take it as prescribed. Myself and others who need to to take it and take it the right way do not walk around like we are totally wasted. The ones that are totally wasted are the ones that are not taking it correctly. I do not tell people I am on it because there are so many misinformed people about these meds. I wouldn't go to a proctologist to get help for a heart problem. Why would you go to Dr. Ashton for information on pain meds? You need to go to a pain management Doctor for your information redo your story and apologize to all the people that were once again hurt for giving the public wrong information.

[frazdlow]

I am a pain management patient and was offended by this article and doctor. I also take opiod medicines and have for a long time. I also have a spinal cored stimulator implant.. I don't take the medicine to get high. Far from it. I take it to be able to function and try to have a normal life and spend time with my family. The pain is always there.. Anyone who suffers from chronic pain whatever the cause knows the devastation it inflicts on you, and your family both mentally and physically. It can also steal your life. The medications help you to regain that back. I can say if I did not have pain, I would not take the medicine. People need to know that they can find quality care, but there is alot of misinformation and ill-informed people out there including people in the medical field. So much about pain is still unknown but progress is being made and there are many websites, forums and newsletters out there. with good information. Maybe Dr. Ashton needs to go back to school. Either that or stick to reporting on stories she actually knows something about.

[duckie37]

After reading all the comments on here, I have to agree with everyone! This is a huge slap in the face to Chronic Pain patients everywhere! None of us asked to have Chronic Pain, not one of us "likes" to have to rely on pain meds to get through our day. There is a major difference between addiction and tolerance. Many of us are "dependent" on our meds simply because it is doing exactly what it should be...controlling pain, but to state that we use our meds because we are addicts is an outrage!! Taking a medication to ease pain is no different that using insulin to help with diabetes. Would you dare call a diabetic an addict???
I have had to take pain medication along with many other medications for most of my life. I have had over 30 surgeries to get rid of the pain, with no luck, so pain meds are all I have, to live as full of a life as I can! It is hard enough to have to live with the fact that my condition is incurable, and wake up every day in excruciating pain, but to have to sit back and hear someone say that I am an addict is appalling!!
I think that this so called "doctor" should have consulted a pain specialist before airing this story!! CBS News and LHG should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this!!! This is just one more unresearched article that harms those of us that are just trying to live a somewhat "normal" life!!! I think that an apology should be sent to each and every person that has to live each and every day....second to second with Chronic Pain!!

[katrina124]

As you can tell from the posts above you really have hit a nerve with your reporting! It isn't written with all the facts. The journalist should have discussed with a pain management doctor just what real RSD is and the types of medication that is used to help those of us who suffer from this debilitating disorder. I've had this since 2002. And it went undiagnosed for a while until I ended up with a team of doctors who knew exactly what I had. Patients with real RSD will become "dependent" on the pain medication NOT addicted. There is a huge difference between the two. We don't take our pain meds to get high like those people who "score" on the street in order to get a buzz on, etc. If a patient with RSD was stopped cold turkey from all pain medication of course they would go thru physical withdrawals......it could even be fatal depending on what and how much they are taking!! That's because our bodies are physically dependent (not addicted) to the pain meds. We don't take these meds to get "HIGH" all we want is to gain some sort of control over the pain that is ruling our lives!!! I'm very disappointed in this "report" because it once again gives the family and friends of those of us who have RSD something to "point to" and say "What do you mean this RSD isn't curable? Paula Abdul was cured" Either she didn't have RSD or the doctor who was treating her is hiding the cure!!! I would LOVE to be able to wrestle with my grandkids, go swimming with them again........go to their baseball games and sit thru 2 hours of watching them play. They are my entire life, and before getting RSD I was able to participate in their lives. I can't now. And NOW, due to your reporting, being as biased as it is, you should be ashamed of yourself for allowing this to be reported without all of the information being told. You can't take the word of one person because she is a celebritiy and consider it gospel and then throw the rest of us under the "'bus" so to speak. If you suffered from this painful disorder and did all you could to live life with burning stabbing horrible pain and then you listen to a report by a reputable news agency, about what you were suffering from, and you find out that once again, the truth isn't being told about your disorder and you are lumped once again with those drug seeking people who have made it so difficult for those of us who truly need the pain meds to just live life!!! Wouldn't that upset you? How about doing an article on what RSD can to do a person's life, and do to their family, and also find out how we have to defend ourselves because people chose to be ignorant about something they know nothing about. You don't report something that is so one sided and not expect to hear back from the other side. You did a terrible thing to those of us who suffer from RSD. I think you at the very least should put out an apology for not doing your job as journalists by failing to report both sides of a story. You would be very surprised to hear what patients with real RSD live with every day of their lives! Shame on you

[rrozsa]

I thought Paula has repeatedly denied any such addiction?

[StellaG63]

I am very disappointed in regards to all the misinformation and misleading information both in the reporting of this story and Ms. Abdul herself. If she is "cured" from her RSD, please let the world know who the doctor is that cured this incurable desease.
I myself have been a Chronic Pain Patient for 9 years. I have had numerous back surgeries, nerve blocks, and years of physical therapy. My pain is managable (daily pain level of 7 ) with the help of medication and a Spinal Cord Stimulator. When I say "managable", I mean that I am able to get out of bed in the morning function at a somewhat normal level with others that do not have Chronic Pain. It has taken many years to acheive this much of a so called "normal life". I am not "addicted" to my medication. I must have to be able to function.
I am irrate at the implication that patients that take narcotics for pain management at addicts. Ms. Abdul has put herself in a very poor light. There are far too many holes in her story and the holes were only made bigger by the writers of the article and the so called Doctor. I am a firm believer that if you do not know what you are talking about, you shouldn't be talking. There was no research done for this article. There is no showing of accurate knowledge of the life and treatment of a Chronic Pain Patient. This is yet another story that poorly depicts the life of a person in Chronic, Uncontrollable Pain. This article has done far more harm then good for the readers. Once again, someone with limited knowledge has written another article that casts a very large shadow upon the Chronic Pain Patient. There is not regard for what a sufferer goes through. There is not mention of the facts surrounding pain management. All parties involved; writer, editor, Ms. Abdul, Dr. Ashton and the owner of the magazine should stand and be chastized. What ever happened to good reporting with investigation and true fact finding? Perhaps LHJ, should go back to the drawing board and find the basic reporting skills again.