Jamie Lee Curtis Hid Her Opioid Addiction—Just Like So Many Other Women
Jamie Lee Curtis wants to open up the conversation about opioid addiction, using her own struggles as a catalyst. The Halloween star battled a secret 10-year-long addiction to pills in the late 1980s, recently revealing how she hid it from everyone. “I was ahead of the curve of the opiate epidemic,” she confessed to People. “I had a 10-year run, stealing, conniving. No one knew. No one.”
Curtis, who has a family history of addiction, was prescribed opiates for the first time in 1989 after a plastic surgery procedure for her “hereditary puffy eyes.” For the next decade she struggled to get painkillers, stealing them from friends and family. Her sister, Kelly, was the first person to confront her about her addiction in 1998, but it wasn’t until February 1999 that she attended her first recovery meeting. She has been sober ever since.
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“I’m breaking the cycle that has basically destroyed the lives of generations in my family,” Curtis says. “Getting sober remains my single greatest accomplishment… bigger than my husband, bigger than both of my children and bigger than any work, success, failure. Anything.”
What are the risk factors of opioid addiction?
According to the Mayo Clinic, there are several risk factors for opioid addiction. Obviously many of them have to do with the type of drugs someone is taking, how they are taking them (pill form versus snorting or injecting), and the length of time they are used. There are also many other factors - such as genetic, psychological and environmental - which come into play.
Psychotherapist and addiction specialist Paul Hokemeyer, PhD, who treats many celebrity patients in his practices in Manhattan, Telluride and London, explains it is quite common for an individual, such as Curtis, to develop an addiction to opiates after being prescribed a pain medication by a physician. “People go in for a surgical procedure are over prescribed pain medications and then develop a dependency on them,” he explains. “For celebrities, there are legions of professionals all too willing to continue prescribing even though they suspect there may be an issue.” Even scarier? If the drugs aren’t easily accessible, many patients will turn to heroin or other street drugs to support their habit.
Another particularly interesting fact is that women are more likely to become addicted to opiates than men. This has to do with them having more chronic pain than men, having more opioid medications prescribed to them, to be given higher doses and using them for longer periods of time.
“In my private practice I have found that women do tend to suffer from prescription drug addiction at higher rates than men,” Dr. Hokemeyer explains. In addition to the reasons listed above, he also believes it is women are hyperconscious about appearing out of control or sloppy. “Prescription drugs enable them to self- medicate while maintaining a veneer of socially excepted appearances as well as staying highly functional and productive in their personal and professional lives,” he says.
Is it common for opioid addicts to hide their addiction?
Yes. In fact, Hokemeyer isn’t surprised that Curtis was able to hide her addiction for so long as is quite common for celebrities - as well as addicts in general - to successfully keep their habit on the down low. It's also common for their loved ones to ignore the warning signs.
He explains that one of the reasons is because addictions, particularly prescription drug addictions, are mired in denial, rationalization and a host of other defenses that tell the people who suffer - as well as the people who love them - that everything is fine and that there really isn’t a problem.
It is also easier for many people to hide an opioid addiction than others - including alcohol and cocaine - as most of the medications come in pill form, can easily be hidden in random pill bottles and aren't detectable on the breath.
What are the warning signs of opioid addiction?
According to Dr. Hokemeyer, some of the warning signs of a prescription drug problem can be easy to spot. Here are a few of them:
An individual obsessively thinks about drugs, constantly worrying that they don’t have enough, or are going to run out
The sense of fear and extraordinary anxiety when they think they may lose access to the drugs
A feeling of incredibly restlessness and anxiety when they are not taking the drugs
Physical sickness when they stop taking drugs
Frequent mood swings or personality changes
Lying and manipulating people to get drugs or money to get the drugs
Needing more and more of the drugs to maintain a baseline level of satisfaction with them
What should you do if you think someone is addicted to opiates?
If you think you or someone you love has a problem with prescription drugs, the chances are great that they do, explains Dr. Hokemeyer, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
But before confronting them, the best thing to do is to first take the time to except the fact that the problem does exist, then to reach out to your personal support system and professional resources to help you.
It's also important to remember that recovery is a journey and isn't going to happen overnight. "There are no bright light moments or silver bullets," he explains. "The force of opioid addiction is extraordinary." While recovery is possible - as demonstrated by Curtis's two decades of sobriety - the journey often requires two steps forward and one step back, and relapse is likely.
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