Paula Abdul reveals dark past

Last updated 05:00 07/05/2009

American Idol judge Paula Abdul has confirmed she was a drug addict, and only kicked her addiction to pain killers last November.

In the new edition of Ladies Home Journal, Abdul admitted she was addicted to powerful pain killers for 12 years and said she "could have killed myself".

The 46-year-old singer and reality television judge said withdrawls while she went through a detox programme at the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad late last year were "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."

Abdul said she suffered a series of a injuries that caused her lingering pain, including an accident when she was a 17-year-old cheerleader, before going on to pop star fame in the 1980s.

In the 1990s, Abdul suffered a broken leg from a stage routine gone wrong, a car collision and an airplane crash into an Iowa cornfield.

She told the magazine she began taking painkillers and Chinese medicine to keep up with her performance schedule.

"I didn't want anyone to count me out," she said. "I tried to keep everything hush-hush."

By 2005 was wearing a patch that delivered pain medication 80 times more potent than morphine.

She also took muscle relaxers, had trouble sleeping and would sometimes "get weird".

This could be a reference to several incidents, including a live television interview with a Seattle TV station which caught Abdul slurring her words.

But her admission differs from past interviews she has given. The pop star told Nightline last month that she had never abused prescription drugs.

In 2007 on Today, co-anchor Matt Lauer asked if she had been addicted to painkillers.

"I’ve never been addicted to painkillers," Abdul told Lauer. "Painkillers don’t work for me."

The magazine is out on newstands in America next Tuesday.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/2389533/Paula-Abdul-reveals-dark-past/
        

[Rockerforlife]

A lot celebs are drug addicts...they have done more than they have you believe...and still goin strong

[FlGuy]

No different that any other segment of society, including the deluding.  Addictions don't differentiate. She is many of us, just more obnoxious and full of herself and other stuff.

[Trinity4]

There were a few times when I was watching the show it was so obvious Paula was under the influence of something.  She wasn't talking properly, thick tongued and her thoughts would just trail off in the middle of talking.  I'm so glad she got off the painkillers.  Goes to show even someone with chronic pain can find a manageable solution that doesn't include narcotics after years of addiction to them.  It may include rehab but well worth it.  Prescription abuse is the number one addiction in the world now.  Very high among seniors too. Scary stuff.
  

[Rockerforlife]

When i was in Vancouver in my party days back in the late 70`s    they were finding police slumped over at the wheel in their crusiers dead from heroin...Vancouver in the heroin capital of canada....tons of chinese there...the asians and the mexicans are fighting over turf right now....and it very violent....from my experiece ...drugs to me are now EVIL...the devils candy

[Rockerforlife]

They shoot up in public...right on the streets...ive seen some use water from potholes onthe street


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEXtIIKzoGs

[winner727]

you said it all Figuy  . ohh that was funny .          nothing funny about the lies and suffering though

[Rockerforlife]

I hear Simon is banging Paula

[FlGuy]

Mike Simon????

[Marcia2202]

lol

[Isobella]

Oh, yay......another forum romance.  We haven't had one of those since Headshop drove all that way to meet his girl.  Lol!

[jdwithhcv]

Tut tut - this is how rumors get started!   ;)

[mikesimon]

Karen is way hotter. And she's smart and sane which also helps.
Mike

[Rockerforlife]

Paula's frustrating, she's annoying and I can't understand half of what she's talking about -- but there's incredible comfort between us," he tells TV Guide (on stands April 30). "I think we're possibly secretly in love with each other."


http://www.usmagazine.com/news/simon-cowell-secretly-in-love-with-paula-abdul-2009284

[susan400]

Are you saying that "NOW" you hate drugs, but that at a previous time in your life, you didn't hate them?    If that's what you're saying, I'm on the same wave length.  About 25 yrs ago, I didn't hate them and I (in hindsight), wish that I had hated them and then, I wouldn't be dealing with the Hep C.  Because, in my case, I'm 100% sure that I was infected by my drug usage in the 1982-1983 time frame.  Boy, oh Boy, I sure hate them now...      Anybody that ever experiments with drugs is capable of becoming a substance abuser, it's all a cr*p shoot, you know?  Nobody can sit there and say, "Oh I can just play around with coke or pot, and it will NEVER EVER happen to me..." because that's where most addicts are created by being in that mindset, that form of denial.  It creeps up on you like a thief in the night and then, the next thing you know, you've become that thing that you swore you would NEVER EVER become!  I am so very thankful to the Good Lord above that I've been set free from that.  Now I'm addicted to something way healthier...., spinning class!  :)

[Rockerforlife]

I have been to hell and came back to tell the story..i met the devil himself.

[ejoli]

He used to be a friend of mine also.....some friend that devil!

[annieCinMD]

I don't think I would have done drugs for so long if I hated them. I honestly liked them very much as a teenager and a twenty-something. I don't know how I survived the eighties.  Funny how twenty some years without them changes things :) , including your opinion. I can relate to the spinning class addiction...but not right now while I'm TXing. I can't even climb the stairs in my house to get to my room, let alone do any cardio!