Limbaugh admits..........

[Bluemound Freak]

He is addicted! Being a recovering addict myself, I know how hard of a thing that is to admit and even harder to overcome! Hope he fares well!


Rush Limbaugh admits painkiller addiction

By JILL BARTON
The Associated Press
10/10/2003, 3:59 p.m. CT


WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh announced during his radio show Friday that he is addicted to painkillers and is checking into a rehab center to "break the hold this highly addictive medication has on me."



"You know I have always tried to be honest with you and open about my life," Limbaugh said during a stunning admission aired nationwide. "So I need to tell you today that part of what you have heard and read is correct. I am addicted to prescription pain medication."

"Immediately following this broadcast, I am checking myself into a treatment center for the next 30 days to once and for all break the hold this highly addictive medication has on me," he added.

Limbaugh gave up his job as an ESPN sports analyst Oct. 1, three days after saying on the sports network's "Sunday NFL Countdown" that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed.

The reports of possible drug abuse surfaced at about the same time, first in the National Enquirer. The tabloid had interviewed Wilma Cline, who said she became Limbaugh's drug connection after working as his maid. She said Limbaugh had abused OxyContin and other painkillers.

Law enforcement sources who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed to The Associated Press that Limbaugh was being investigated by the Palm Beach County, Fla., state attorney's office.

"At the present time, the authorities are conducting an investigation, and I have been asked to limit my public comments until this investigation is complete," Limbaugh said.

Mike Edmondson, a spokesman for the Palm Beach County state attorney's office, said Friday his office could neither confirm nor deny that an investigation was under way. Limbaugh's attorney, Roy Black, did not return a message seeking comment.

Limbaugh said he started taking painkillers "some years ago" after a doctor prescribed them following a spinal surgery. His back pain stemming from the surgery persisted, so Limbaugh said he started taking pills and became hooked.

"Over the past several years I have tried to break my dependence on pain pills and, in fact, twice checked myself into medical facilities in an attempt to do so. I have recently agreed with my physician about the next steps."

Steve Plamann, executive editor of The National Enquirer, said he was gratified that Limbaugh confirmed the Enquirer story and that he plans to seek help.

"We didn't do our stories gleefully. We just reported the facts," Plamann said.

Premiere Radio Networks, which syndicates the politically focused "Rush Limbaugh Show" to more than 650 markets, did not have an immediate comment, said spokesman Michael Sitrick. Several guest hosts were scheduled until Limbaugh comes back after rehab.

 

[StevieD]

Ya just knew that creep was on the needle!

 

[fletcher]

stevie you know it is people like you that make me want to puke, you have no clue to addication i am sure , i battled booze and coke for almost 15 years of playing and coaching baseball, it is not a simple as you think and it is a real diease. i had to check myself into a rehab center for 129 days to get my life in order and i have been o pain killers since my accident and the 4 serguries since march i am not abusing them but i will need to be detoxed when all operations are done, the reason i do not abuse them is because of my last 5 years of hell before i got help for me and only me the first 10 years i liked it i enjoyed it i did it, but the last 5 years were a sheare nightmare you don't just turn off the switch ,it is people like you that say hell just stop well it is not that easy. since my operations i have been switched off and on because when you take something for to long it takes more to do the job, but i have been onmorphine drip,percocet10/650, hydroconine 7.5/500,oxycontin 10 mg twice a day andneurontin 300 mg 2 at bad time. it is a circle when all this is done for me and i have not even taken them at times because i get scaired of past till i am almost dead with nerve pain in leg that now has 5 screwes and 10-15 pins soon but do you think i will be able to just quit taken these all at once no way and like i said i have not abused them 1 time since the car wreck. but being a addict and alcholic i know the troubles of how hard it is to qyit when the fun stops and unless you have been in someone shoes don't speak about what you have no clue about, and unless you have gone through it you won't and can't know, having a friend or a family member who might of gone through it does not count either because you cannot feel the pain and hell, i have been clean now since april 7th 1996 but trust me was not easy now it does not even cross my mind but being on the pain pills worries me even though i have not once abused them but being on them for over a year i willnot be able to just stop i am sure i will be sick ass hell for about a week six five could tell me more, but don't judge someone before you know what it is like there are many of us out there and people like you the better then all make it no easier on people, did anyone make me do what i did yes me and only me but something in my head is not like others i can't have a drink to enjoy i drank to passout. and trust me not fun so before you run your mouth have a clue to what a real problem is.

 

[worm44]

Congrats Fletch on being clean since 1996-that guy is a dick bag who does not know about the disease of addiction

 

[StevieD]

Fletcher congrats to you. But I don't have to like Rush just because he is an addict. That man has hurt countless people with his mouth through the years. I know there are many people on here who agree with what this guy says and that is all well and good. I am not putting down addicts.
This guy would go on and on about how poor kids who get hooked on the stuff do not deserve the type of treatment he wil be getting. He will get the best of care because he can afford it. Yet he would deny that same level of care be given to welfare mothers or some other poor kid who can't afford it.

 

[StevieD]

Rush Limbaugh May Teach Conservatives A Lesson
by Thom Hartmann


The reaction to the drug problem - and drug felonies - recently
alleged against Rush Limbaugh highlight sharply the differences
between conservative morality and liberal/progressive morality.

Conservatives often mistakenly proclaim themselves the sole
holders of morality.

Their error comes when they define this word first and foremost in
terms of personal behavior: What goes on in people's bedrooms,
what drugs others may be taking in their own living rooms, whether
a woman should be allowed to prevent or terminate a pregnancy. In
their fervor for these issues, many conservatives think they are the
only ones concerned about morality in an otherwise decadent
society.

Liberals, however, are equally passionate about morality.

While personal morality is key in the conservative world-view,
public morality is the overarching concern of liberals. Some are so
passionate about this morality that they're led to acts of civil
disobedience.

Perhaps best summarized in Jesus' description in Matthew 25 of
who will (and who won't) get into heaven, liberal morality asks:
"Are the hungry fed? Does everybody have the housing, clothing,
and health-care they need? Are those in prison treated humanely?
Are we caring for the "strangers" - the less fortunate or less
competent among us - in the same way we'd want to be cared for
if we fell on hard times?"

Many liberals would say that what people do in the private lives is
their own business, and that if we hold to the ancient standard that
only those among us without sin may cast stones at those with
personal failings, we'll have a more humane and decent society.

Just as liberals hold public morality as a high positive virtue, public
immorality equally disgusts them: Movie stars using their power
and position to force themselves sexually in a non-consensual way
on others. Politicians using their positions to award their buddies
taxpayer money in grants, contracts, and tax breaks. Bureaucrats,
expecting a job with industry when they leave regulatory agencies,
allowing those industries to make our air, water, or food more
toxic.

Most liberals don't care how stoned Rush wants to get in the
privacy of his own home (private morality), so long as he doesn't
try to drive while high (public morality). Similarly, they don't have a
problem with Bill Clinton's consensual extramarital sex (private
morality), but are horrified that he'd sign GATT and NAFTA without
human rights, environmental, or labor standards (public morality).
Bill Bennett is welcome to gamble as much as he wants (private
morality), but when he supports right wing causes that harm the
environment or oppress women in America or people in the Third
World (public morality) he has become toxic.

There's an interesting consistency to these differing definitions of
morality. Conservatives like Falwell probably are free of personal
sins like philandering or pot smoking, and so feel righteous in
condemning others who do. And because Falwell's definition of
morality is limited to private behavior, he's comfortable hobnobbing
with millionaires who made their money harming the lives of others
or making the world more toxic. (Just so long as they don't sleep
with somebody of the same sex!)

On the other hand, because liberals like Martin Sheen define
morality by how well we all are taking care of us, and he's most
likely never worked to increase the amount of toxic waste in the
air, he's willing to both overlook the personal foibles of others and
to put his life and freedom on the line for the public morality he so
passionately cares about.

Which brings us back to Rush. Some believe that these
private/public morality differences that form the demarcation line
between conservatives and liberals are instinctual, an early imprint,
or genetic, the same as a person being an introvert or extravert.
Others believe they're the result of experience, and people can
learn from their experience and grow up enough to become a
liberal. Psychologists tell us that nobody knows for sure what
causes a person to become a liberal or a conservative (although
there are some interesting, and frightening, studies about the latter
- but let's leave that for a future discussion.)

It's going to be interesting to watch. Will Rush's apparent drug
problem cause conservatives to grow in wisdom, reconsider the
destructive nature of their so-called "war on drugs," and begin to
treat drug addiction as a medical - instead of a legal - problem like
so many other liberal nations have done? Might they even discover
the importance of rebuilding the pillars of public morality on which
this nation was founded - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

Some say it's impossible. As a good liberal, however, I'm willing to
cut Rush some slack and hope for his and his followers'
enlightenment. Let's hope and pray that if he gets out of this okay,
he'll work to help release the millions of others today in prison for
personal poor choices about drugs.

Thom Hartmann (thom at thomhartmann.com) is the award-
winning, best-selling author of over a dozen books, and the host of
a syndicated daily talk show that runs opposite Rush Limbaugh in
cities from coast to coast. http://www.thomhartmann.com This
article is copyright by Thom Hartmann, but permission is granted
for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media so long as this credit
is attached and the title is unchanged

 

[SixFive]

fletcher, watch out for that Neurontin if you are still on it. If u notice your vision is blurry, that's the culprit.

feel free to get my email address if u want to chat about this stuff or if I can help answer any questions. A big part of my experience is with chronic pain, and I have it personally too.


As far as the topic of the thread and Rush, I'm really kind of suprised. However, he's past the first hurdle of admitting the problem, and I think he'll be as driven to get clean as he is to get his conservative agenda across. Ballsy of him to admit the problem on air, imo. Good for him, and hope he gets clean without too much problem.

 

[IntenseOperator]

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!

This is sooo F'n easy!!

MONEY INTO MONEY

The F'n dude was deaf NOT

Then he hates black people NOT He has black people producing his show

Now he's an addict NOT

PLEASE GET A PHUCKING CLUE AND STOP TALKING ABOUT HIM

Thankyou in advance

And I have listened to and have enjoyed his show in the past

LET IT GO:thefinger :thefinger :thefinger

 

[fletcher]

six-five they just started me on that last week with the breaks and other problems having abnormal blood flow below the knee and pain if a sheet touches it, they gave what i have some big name but has to do with the nerve endings from the truma from the accident then the break, the pain is unreal at times you can run a feather down my tiba and i go through the roof i, really don't like the way it makes me feel have a hard time in the am for about 20 mins, they want me to take the pxycontain 10 mg twice aday and then the percocet 10/650 every six hours as needed for acute pain i just take the percocet if it gets to bad i have taken the oxycontain twice i am scaired of it herd some bad stuffabout it but that is what they want me taking more then the percocet. i am sure it is stupid to be scaired of it but when you went thorough what i did you would and i know you do understand. and the neurontin i tke and i am out in 15 mins and wake up with the bluy eys.

stevie sorry i jumped on you but i get very upset when people say things about addicts and alcoholics i hate to juge anyones aganda when it comes to getting clean, did not mean to bite your head off, i don't like him at all but stand behind him if he really wants to get clean for himself and no other reason six five i will send you a email of what i have later tonight i have your email. thanks i knew you would know what i am on i thought you worked with pain management. thanks alot and stevie sorry once again i was not taking up for rush but really for people that have a problem

Eric

 

[StevieD]

No problem Eric. I feel the same way.

 

[djv]

Seems many new it but him. But Fletch has it right. Others know you just dont want to. His biggest problem will be to understand you dont get cured. You are in recovery the rest of your life. I hope he ends up with some compasion for the down and out. He has been one nasty SOB many times behind that mike. He's not out of the woods with the legal probe that is still on going. I would guess his attorney had as much to do with him checking in as the Doc did. When your in trouble. The law is checking on your dealing. Its one of the oldest moves to make. Check your self in. All in all last two weeks has just brought him more attention. In a way thats to bad. But when all is said and done. If he uses what he learns from this to help some kids or anyone who can use it. It at least can have agood ending. If not and he continues to think he knows more and is better then half the folks in America. That would be his loss.

 

[fletcher]

DJV you are right you can never be cured and i mean never, if i were to pick up a drink again it would kill ne maybe not that day but it would be the start of a slow long death because i cannot drink like most people it is something in my brain that just does not work right as for the coke i really don't know where that started or why i come from a great familt but this will be with me the rest of my life it does not choose you due to race color background it just is there and i will always be there will never be cured nor am i ashamed at that i am what I am a person in a life long recrovery, it took me many years to find this out and i somehow am one of the very few who got help because i wanted it and 100+ days in a place is a long time i was not court ordered or nor did i do it to save a job or a realionship i did it to save my life for me, yes i hurt many along the line and i regret that but most of all i hurt myself. it is very painful when you hit the bottom and you don't have to be poor or homeless to be in a life of hell. it does not bother me to have it around me or even in the house anymore, jeri like to have a glass of wine each night after work the only thing that does bother me and always will and jeri likes to drink it also is wiskey, i get sick when i smell it because that was my posion and tell this day i get sick when i smell it and that is always going to be ther, 1 thing i know for a fact is that everytime i came of a cycle of juice i would become depressed and the binge drinking would start, there were other factors in my life that had to do with it but the biggest factor and it happened 4 to 5 times were the roids and the stopping of a cycle. I know talk to hs kids around the county to tell my story and what is was lie for me in hopes of helping them think before they choose the road i did. when i went through my life in the 100+ days you really learn alot about yourself it is not just the drinking but other factors in a persons life and you must get to the root of the problem before you can start to get help and as painful as it can be you nust be honest with yourself before you can start a lifestyle change. the funny thing is i did not even like the taste of booze and hate beer but i drank it along with cough srype sad but true, i would much rather have a soda , or milk. but there is no cure and you must want it for you and it might take a few times before you get it right but it can be done. it is not a problem i would wish on anyone. just not away to live your life.

but like i said i will,never fell guilty again or be ashamed of what i am it does not make me a bad person i am just different then a lot of others, but i also know i am in controll of my life up untill and it could happen if i ever forget what i am, that first bit of booze touches my lips and then i am no longer in control. i have a roommate from college skeeter 1 knows who i am talking about he puts down quite a bit but i judge no one do i think he has a problem yes have i talked to him yes just about what is was like for me then and what life is like for me know,but last year at a weeding or 1.5 years agao our other roommate got married and this other room mate kept trying to get me to have a drink with him, he ask and he is not the first one well you can have a drink now can't you and i say yes i can have a drink anytime i want but i choose not to because the outcome would not be worth the drink to me.

good lucl to all and have a safe and happy week. one other thing i drank a lot to hide problems but you know what they did not go away i just did not deal with them and they just got worse, i still have problems every week but now i can deal with them and do the best i can to work them out, if they don't work out then they just were'nt met to be and i move on, also the anger you see at times is a direct result of being a type aaa person and a part of my problem, i am high strung and love to compete add being a person whit a addition tends to make me fly off the hook a little faster then most, when i dug down deep my drinking started in hs and you know what it as a problem then and that proves to me that somepeople just have messed up genes whicj drinking cannot be apart of their lifestyle. well i boared you all long enough have a great night and if someone reads this and thinks they have a problem they probably do but it is not the end of the world or anything to be ashamed of, the real sin is not trying to help yourself who cares what others think it is your life that you save for you and it might take a few tries but it is never to late to try the real sn is givining up and letting it win over you, for such a simple thing it has runied many lives and in many cases taken a persons life. if this long story helps one person then i have helped a fellow brother or sister .

godd night

Eric

 

[Chanman]

You are one in a million Fletch, to share your personal story on-line. Not to mention all the other things you do such as going out of your way for MadJack's Party, and all the help you give to others.
This just struck a nerve for both you & StevieD. Rush had very little compassion for Kurt Cobain's suicide or Jerry Garcia's death- called them both drug addicted dopers or something similar. I haven't heard Rush in a while, but it is hard, (and only human), to be p*ssed about statements he made after their death and then to find out he has been buying painkillers, (drugs), from his housekeeper. Guess he is rich enough to call a maid a housekeeper and not have to go to some backstreet alley downtown.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

Stevie I did a search on "the needle bit" you said and can find nothing. Where did you find reference--or is it just more left handed spin.
DJV What about his prior 2 check ins to kick the habit when he was not under investigation????

Truthfully, which gets your goats more,that he addmitted his faults or took full responsibilty for them?????

I doubt if he spends any jail time regardless of out come--A: he got too much moneyB: I doubt if they consider being hook on prior prescibed prescription drugs that offensive--would be interesting if he did considering someone didn't get even a slap on the wrist for perjury and aiding and abeiting convicted felons,ect.

The past few weeks had brought about some amuzing situations,my fav is Jessie and Slick campaigning in Cal with Davis and dissing Arnold on the women groping :142smilie

 

[AR182]

i have great sympathy to those who have overcome addictions. i have a very good friend who overcame his addiction to coke & had another friend died with a needle in his arm.

the problem i have with rush is the same problem i had with bill bennett.people who publically judge others should make sure that they have no skeletons in their closet.

fletcher,

congratulations!!! addiction is very hard to overcome.

 

[djv]

Fletch I understand maybe more here then many. I like my Diet Pepsi. DTB Had no idea he checked in before. Must not have been public info. Or it was under the shield of a back pain problem. It does not matter he has come out of the closet and is addressing his issue. All I hope is it makes him wiser. You do understand a person who hates the values of half his country men. And day in and day out is not afraid to say that. Well he may catch alittle chit. I just hope as said above it helps him understand when something has you by the balls its not as easy to handle as he tryed to make many believe. And nothing gets my goat. He is much to far of my radar screen. I stopped listing many moons ago
But I have my opinions from the past. And He was big SOB to many folks. His daily BS that the right has all the answers shows how small a mind he has. A moderate or centerest he is not. So good luck to him. In health. For his politics and chit he throws around everday. May half his listners get wise some day.

 

[StevieD]

DTB the "needle bit" is not spin from the left. The only people spinning this is those on the Right who were all over cable TV yesterday making excuses. If this was a hollywood type you can bet these same people would be calling them dope heads or whatever. Rush has said it is the person who makes a choice to take dope. He says it is not a sickness but a choice. Those of us on the left tend to think an addict is sick is needs treatment. Suddenly though, because it is Rush the new bleeding heart Conservatives are trying to educate us about this sickness they just discovered! Maybe some good will come out of this if those on the Right will finally see that addiction is a sickness no matter who is addicted, rich, poor, republican or democrat.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

I agree with you Stevie it is choice he made and people that live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones as AR correctly stated.
Still looking for link on needles part though as I have been able to find zilch except your post? Once again If not spin would still appreciate where you got that info?
----and something else that has me puzzled--why in prior election where Davis was voted in did the liberals have no probs with voting ballots and now all of a suddon Jessie and other libs are on a terror about minorities being too "mentally challenged"to use them correctly and it's the same equipment
Appears they have probs only if they lose or is that my imagination.

 

[StevieD]

DTB, to set the record straight here. First my insensitive remark about being on "the needle" is not spin from the left or the right or anywhere. I think it is an accepted fact that, even you could agree with, that the decision making abilities of addicts is hampered when they are on the juice. If we can agree to accept that fact them my remark about "being on the needle" is nothing more than an insensitive way of saying that you had to know that there was something wrong with Rush by the things he says. That is all it meant, no more and no less. I am truly sorry if it offended anybody but it was just meant as a way of expressing anger towards Rush. Anger not for being an addict but for the things he says.
An example would be that Rush is the one who said that addicts make the choice of what they put in their bodies. I did not say that nor do I agree with that. I maintain that addiction is a sickness and should be treated as such.
It was those on the Right who were all over the television telling us how bad addiction is. Like I said before maybe now that the Right finds it necessary to defend Rush they will find it in their new born bleeding hearts to help the rest of the addicts along with him. I hope they do.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

Gotcha Steve I seriously thought there may have been info bout him using a needle to inject the pain killers which would have shed much different light on situation in my view anyway.
Thanks for clarifcation--I understand now.