Paula Abdul confesses to long-term drug addiction

In news that may well explain some of her less logical voting, “American Idol” judge Paula Abdul has confirmed all the rumors and admitted in print she’s been addicted to meds.

For twelve years, the dancer’s whole life was riddled with pain caused by years as a dancer, and her only relief was through powerful meds. In a display of poor judgment, which she clearly regrets, Paula’s days were soon ruled by the next set of pills. “I could have killed myself,” she told Ladies Home Journal, with admirable candor.

The problems all started when Paula, 46, hit stardom in the mid-1990′s. Already suffering back and neck injuries from previous turns as a dancer and cheerleader, plus untold distress from a car accident, the intense dance routines just made these things worse and she began using meds just to manage the pain.

Soon, pills were too weak and injections were needed. And in 2005, Paula was diagnosed with ‘Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy’ syndrome, an incurable condition whose victims endure burning pain, and structural changes in their skin and large bones. Her doctors fought back, and Paula was prescribed a skin-patch that delivered medication 80-times more potent than Morphine so she’d still have a life.

But with all her discomfort, she kept it inside, “I didn’t want anyone to count me out,” she told the Journal reporters. “I tried to keep it hush-hush.”.

A tortuous rehab in Carlsbad last fall finally freed her from the meds’ iron grip, and now she feels ready to confess to the world. But the path to redemption was clearly no fun, “I was freezing cold, then sweating hot, then chattering and in so much pain,” she says of her fight with withdrawal. “It was excruciating. But I did not like existing the way I had been.”

In a sad twist of fate, Paula defeated her demons in November last year – the same month in which a troubled female fan used similar pills to take her own life outside Paula’s old home.

And what are Paula’s new plans now she’s free to move on?”I want to start fresh,” she explained to the Journal.

With her tenure on Idol, that’s easy to do. The real question is, will the press let her?

Source: NY Daily News