Bill Maher Comments on the Rush Limbaugh Drug Addiction Story

Bill Maher ^ | 10-13-03 | Bill Maher

[John H K]

There is no high from Oxycontin.

1000% wrong.

There are wide variations from person to person in the effects of a given drug on someone.

The more prone to addiction someone is genetically, the greater the "high" they'll get from the early use of a given drug.

[mountainfolk]

Rush will be harder on himself than any of his enemies or self-righteous bashers could possibly be. I am grateful he is where he does not have the mental stress of reading or hearing about all this discussion of himself. Even tho he is unaware of this raging controversy, I believe he will be helped by prayer and the good vibs generated by the positive thoughts sent his way. He has not only to overcome his addiction, find a way to handle the pain, but while doing so, refresh his mind. He has to have an absence of input from all of the negative sources he daily tuned in to. Bill Maher strikes me as being at least honest in his comments on Rush. He appears not to have a political agenda nor is he being hateful to pump himself up. Rush will have no trouble dealing with this kind of individual.

[Cold Heat]

He choose to become addicted to them

You do not choose to become addicted to Oxy-Codone pain drugs.

The addiction comes from using the product and is directly related to dose and how long you use it.

Rush was being treated for pain as a result of a back condition. With the time and dose involved with that, the addiction was as sure as the sun comes up in the morning.

It is a side effect of the drug and nothing more than that.

The real question is how one manages the addiction while using the drug?

This is what the Dr. helps you do. This is what Rush bypasssed and this was his error.

He self medicated and got himself in trouble. It happens all the time and he fessed up to that. Why he self medicated and how it was that his Dr. did not treat his pain to Rush's satisfation are questions that I hope he will answer when he returns.

Why he decided to detox and get off the meds entirely is beyond me. He should have just gradually cut back on the amount with the help of a Dr.

Now he will have to deal with the pain. I do not understand this.

[John H K]

People thought that him being addicted to painkillers at all didn't pass the smell test, either.

You're seriously delusional if you're trying to cling to the fantasy that all the pills Rush acquired the last three years he got through a legal prescription.

[Cold Heat]

I say again.........There is no high from Oxycontin.

A better high could be obtained from a bottle of Thunderbird.

[John H K]

Now he will have to deal with the pain. I do not understand this.

For an addict to these sorts of painkillers, the addiction to painkillers in large part CAUSES THE PAIN.

Dr. Drew Pinsky, who is a specialist in this area (was an excellent article on Rush and this addiction a few days ago by him posted here) has mentioned that once one is addicted to painkillers, the brain will actually keep producing the pain that the painkillers were prescribed for in order to cause the person to keep taking the drug.....the pain actually ends up lasting longer than it would have if no opiate painkillers were given in the first place.

When he's treated painkiller addicts and got them both detoxed and into long-term rehab he's had patients have their "severe back pain" mysteriously disappear over and over again.

Another thing he's noted is that for whatever reason a lot of "chronic back pain" patients have underlying psychological problems. This isn't saying that EVERYONE with back pain is a mental patient and the pain isn't real, it's just there's an interesting correlation.

But the mind is an incredibly powerful thing. Opiates are SO addicting that the mind will actually create pain to insure that the supply of opiates will continue into the body.

[Almondjoy]

I agree that he should slowly come off them.. It's like anything when you stop cold turkey.. it's an extremely dumb idea.

It's a play to the public.. he may not actually quit cold turkey.. his actual treatment will be a sealed record(I believe) so what actually happens could be different then what is said.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

When you're furtively meeting people in parking lots and exchanging ANYTHING in cigar boxes through car windows - OK, that's a drug addict.

I never agree with him, but this comment describes what Rush did to himself.

[Almondjoy]

Yap yap yap yap. Treatment doesn't count if it doesn't cure you. The fact that he went in but wasn't sucessful means that it's not apporiate for our dicusssion.

Since you brought it up in his defense then I was forced to shut you down with it's reality.

[John H K]

A better high could be obtained from a bottle of Thunderbird.

Maybe it doesn't give YOU a high.(I've never taken an opiate painkiller, myself).

I've heard Ben Stein (who had a long-term addiction problem of his own which he beat) say that they make you feel "wonderful."

The point is people are different. I don't get drunk and really don't drink much because the few times I did I felt depressed and withdrawn and lost no inhibitions. Other people become the life of the party and lose their inhibitions when they drink.

Do I sit here stupidly extrapolating my singular experiences with alcohol to the other 5 billion members of the human race?

[Dr. Scarpetta]

Dr. Drew Pinsky, who is a specialist in this area (was an excellent article on Rush and this addiction a few days ago by him posted here) has mentioned that once one is addicted to painkillers, the brain will actually keep producing the pain that the painkillers were prescribed for in order to cause the person to keep taking the drug.....the pain actually ends up lasting longer than it would have if no opiate painkillers were given in the first place.

Dr. Pinsky also said that when an addicted person goes off these drugs, it can cause that person feel extremely sad, even grief-stricken for a year.

[John H K]

Yap yap yap yap. Treatment doesn't count if it doesn't cure you. The fact that he went in but wasn't sucessful means that it's not apporiate for our dicusssion.

It's pretty clear he went in for a secret detox a couple of times but never rehabbed. (The two are completely different; without rehab, detox is meaningless, as you're 100% guaranteed to start using the drug again.

Only missing a month of the show seems like an absurdly short period of time, so it seems he's now going to detox and attempt a "quicky" rehab, which doesn't seem like such a great idea.

[VRWC_minion]

'I was wrong about our approach to drugs,'

Rush wouldn't be in rehab were it not for our "approach to drugs".

[Almondjoy]

I agree.. but appearences are everything. If he can do a quick rehab(and do a better job of keeping his relapse hush hush). He can continue to admit that it wasn't that big of a problem.

[scan58]

Yes, it is. But addiction is really funny. A person can be in denial and rationalize and justify using drugs by saying, "Oh, it's perscription, so it's OK." It's the same as an addict telling themselves, "I can quit anytime I want to...I just don't want to." Pretty soon, they've justified themselves into oblivion and they can't quit.
The funny thing is, an addict doesn't know they have a choice til they've hit bottom and they are faced with the choice of dying, losing all (whatever) or getting help.
I hate to sound corny, but the first step to recovery is admitting there is a problem. Kudo's to Rush for taking that step. (And in front of the whole country, at that!)

[Grim]

There is a difference between getting addicted to something you start for recreational purposes, ans getting adicted to something you start for medical purposes.

You're probably right about this but it reminds me of the distinction made between a murder committed during a burglary and a murder commited because of racism (i.e., a "hate" crime). Either way, the victim is just as dead.

Furthermore, Rush's doctor probably stopped prescribing oxycontin to keep him from getting dependant. If he still had pain issues, he really should have consulted his physician, not his housekeeper.

[uncbob]

Rush will be harder on himself than any of his enemies or self-righteous bashers could possibly be

Breing on the pills for what was it 5 years minimum ain't exactly being hard on oneself

He also had a big weight problem so his discipline and self control are not a given

Everybody here has him successfully beating this
That is NOT a given .
He has a very tough road ahead

If he would have turned himself in with out being outted I would have said his chances were very good but under these conditions who knows

[Pompah]

BILL MAHER COMMENTS That's where I stopped reading.