Christine Brown is opening up about an “absolutely devastating” battle she’s been waging behind closed doors — a battle with drug addiction.
The Sister Wives star has officially released her new book, Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Finding Freedom — and with it, a dark and deeply personal secret: just before her step-daughter Maddie got married, she became addicted to Oxycodone after undergoing knee surgery:
“Just before Maddie and Caleb [Brush] got married [in 2016], I blew out my knee. I tore my ACL and my meniscus, and I had to have surgery.”
She explained how then-husband Kody Brown brought her home from the hospital and was no help at all:
“‘What do I need to do?’ I asked, wondering about meds and aftercare. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘They didn’t give you any instructions?’ ‘No,’ he said. But he had gotten my prescription for pain pills filled, and he handed me the bag.”
He just gave her the bag? That’s so dangerous! She could have overdosed that very night! What was he thinking?!?
Related: Cousin Greg From Succession Busted For DUI!
It seems pretty clear to us she’s blaming him for what followed… don’t you think? She continued:
“My mom and daughters stayed to help. I had never taken oxycodone before — if something hurt, I took ibuprofen or aspirin. Real pain indicates that something’s wrong, and if I take something that masks the problem, I’m not going to fix the problem, so I generally avoid it. With the surgery, I had already fixed the problem, and it hurt, so I took my meds.”
However things quickly went downhill:
“On the third day, after the surgery, I felt like I had the flu. I was achy from head to toe. 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.”
But that unintentionally led her down a troubled path where popping the potent pills became a necessity — even while shooting 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! 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.”
But soon, the withdrawals kicked in:
“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.”
That’s so scary…
By just two weeks into taking the medication, it was apparent to others that Christine was different. So her step-daughter Maddie confronted her about it. She recalled her saying:
“You’re a mess. I miss you — we all miss you. We all need you back, so whatever you’re doing, figure it out.”
Christine finally found the strength to wean herself off of the addictive substance so she could be sober for Maddie’s wedding. She confessed to Kody and lowered her dose by breaking all the pills in half. She then gave the excess to her older daughter Aspyn because she “knew it would be mortifying to have to ask her for more.”
Clearly she didn’t trust Kody to protect her from herself. Huh.
After switching to just half the prescribed dose, Christine stopped feeling high and was able to kick the habit completely:
“I never had the high again and I never had the low. 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.”
Thank goodness.
For the next six months after that, the reality star said she felt “unbalanced”:
“I didn’t feel like me and all I wanted was oxycodone, I couldn’t get it and that made me angry.”
She admitted “the memory of that high” still haunts her to this day:
“I knew I would never feel that high again. It was that fast to become addicted and then that long to find myself again.”
She added:
“I just dealt with it privately because at the time, it was absolutely devastating.”
But now clean and sober, the 53-year-old tips her hat to Maddie for having the difficult conversation:
“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. But my kids weren’t done with me.”
We’re so happy she’s healthy.
Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Finding Freedom is now available. Will YOU be reading?
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If you or someone you know is experiencing substance abuse, help is available. Consider checking out the resources SAMHSA provides at https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline or check out StartYourRecovery.org
[Images via TLC/YouTube]
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