A fan favorite TLC reality star recently opened up about her struggle with oxycodone addiction.
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Sister Wives star Christine Brown revealed in her new book that she developed dependency on painkillers in 2016 following a knee injury and subsequent surgery.
“I had never taken oxycodone before — if something hurt, I took ibuprofen or aspirin,” she recalled in Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Finding Freedom, via Us Weekly. “With the surgery, I had already fixed the problem, and it hurt, so I took my meds.”
The 53-year-old quickly realized the medication was very strong.
“On the third day, after the surgery, I felt like I had the flu. I was achy from head to toe,” the TLC star explained. “I took an oxycodone, and all the symptoms went away. Oh, I thought. I’m not taking this for my knee anymore. I’m taking it because I’m achy everywhere.”
She also shared that she had taken the drug prior to filming confessionals for Sister Wives.
“It gave me the best high I ever felt. I was on top of the world and I could accomplish everything!” she recalled in the book, which dropped on Tuesday. “I lived about two minutes away from the interview set, so I could take an oxycodone just before I left, drive to work before it hit, and then feel great on set. Oxy made the set fine. I could do anything on oxy,” she added.
It didn’t take long for her to realize just how terrible she felt without the pills.
“About 45 minutes later, I would feel the low coming, and I’d feel so sad. … All I could do was think about the next hit, and it was hours away.”
TLC Star Christine Brown Reveals How She Overcame Her Oxycodone Addiction
Two weeks after Christine started taking the pills, Janelle Brown’s daughter Maddie confronted her about her addiction.
“You’re a mess. I miss you — we all miss you,” Christine recalled Maddie saying. “We all need you back, so whatever you’re doing, figure it out.”
Maddie was about to marry Caleb Brush when Christine decided to stop using the drug before the wedding. She admitted her addiction to Kody, 56, and split the pills in half, giving some to her daughter Aspyn, now 30, saying, “I knew it would be mortifying to have to ask her for more.”
Christine reduced her dosage by half, stopped feeling euphoria, and eventually quit oxycodone completely.
“I never had the high again and I never had the low,” the TLC reality personality wrote. “After about a week of that, Kody took all of the young girls out of town, and I spent the weekend in bed sobbing, watching Pretty Woman over and over and sobbing. I couldn’t handle my life, I couldn’t handle anything. My mom stayed with me and took care of me. At the end, I gave the rest of the oxycodone to my mom.”
However, Christine admitted she felt unbalanced for six months after stopping the medication.
“I didn’t feel like me, and all I wanted was oxycodone. I couldn’t get it, and that made me angry,” she detailed in her book. “The memory of that high still tempts me. I knew I would never feel that high again. It was that fast to become addicted and that long to find myself again.”
Christine said Maddie’s confrontation helped her regain herself. “I don’t know if I would have been strong enough to get out of it if I hadn’t already discovered that I loved myself enough to want me back,” she wrote. “But my kids weren’t done with me.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse or addiction, please call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). SAMHSA’s National Helpline is free, confidential, and available 24/7.