Dr. Bernstein cited a common scenario: You have back pain. You go to your doctor, who prescribes Vicodin. The Vicodin makes the pain stop and also makes you feel calmer. You're able to work, take care of your family, do what you need to do. So you talk yourself into continuing.
"It's a very gray line," Dr. Bernstein explains. "What becomes abuse of a drug, and what is just improving your quality of life?"
After six months of the painkillers, Gaga noticed that her memory was gone. Frightened, she went to a psychiatrist. He told her to get rid of the pills. "He didn't tell me how to do it; he just told me to go home and dump them." Gaga cold-turkeyed it. Withdrawal began.
My father, then 13, recalls how terrible the withdrawal was. "Papa and I had to take 12-hour shifts, holding Gaga as she had terrifying hallucinations." She thrashed about on her bed for 72 straight hours. The full withdrawal lasted weeks. It almost killed her.
When I related Gaga's story to Dr. Bernstein, he recognized that she "has a lot more perseverance than most people." For many addicts, it is easier to pick up the pills and stop the pain. So that's what they do.
Even those who check into detox aren't guaranteed success. "Most detoxes are not effective. It's not a medical treatment. Someone like Rush Limbaugh is not going to go into a 30-day inpatient program and hang out with a bunch of junkies talking about his issues, right? So what they end up doing is putting these people in the hospital, detoxing them for a few days and then letting them go. They're still withdrawing, they're still craving, and that's why they fail."
It is despicable how the media have equated prescription painkiller addiction with recreational drug addiction. There is a moral difference between the two types of addicts. All drug addicts deserve sympathy, but prescription painkiller addicts clearly deserve more sympathy than recreational users. Gaga says that she'd like to tell prescription painkiller addicts: "I'm with you." The rest of us should do the same.