SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES
HOOKED
on 20 milligrams of OxyContin.
Soon, she was asking for more,
so he upped her doses.
“By June, I was an absolute
zombie. I couldn’t work anymore, I couldn’t drive my car
anymore. I left my car running
one day on the street,” the former real estate agent said. “I was
calling his office and screaming
that I needed this medicine.”
By the end of 11 months, Tully
was on 280 milligrams of OxyContin per day. The mother of
two, who had held down jobs
since she was 12 years old, refused to leave the house for fear
she’d miss a dose and go through
terrible symptoms of withdrawal
HUFFINGTON
03.09.14
like nausea and profuse sweating.
When she decided to get clean, it
took her six years to completely
get off the drug, and she says
she’s lucky she was able to finally
kick the habit. Indeed, according
to Kolodny, “middle-aged women
getting pain pills from doctors”
are dying from overdoses at some
of the highest rates in history.
In 2010, 40 percent of U.S. drug
overdose deaths were women,
many of whom died from abusing
prescription pills.
“I should be among those statistics,” Tully said. “There’s not
many people that can take that
much and be breathing
every day.”
Jillian Berman is an associate
business editor at The Huffington Post.
A heroin
addict
prepares to
shoot drugs
intravenously.