Céline Dion Nearly Took A Fatal Dose Of Valium During Health Struggles

Céline Dion has a “the show must go on” mentality… And while very admirable, it almost took her life at one point.

As we’ve been following, the My Heart Will Go On singer revealed to the world in late 2022 that she had been diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome. But for YEARS before her diagnosis, she suffered in silence with unbearable symptoms. And those symptoms led her down a dangerous road many years ago.

In an interview with People published on Monday, the 56-year-old looked back on her first ever symptom that she can remember: a muscle spasm while touring in Germany nearly two decades ago. She recalled:

“I had breakfast, and I suddenly started to feel a spasm. My vocal exercise made it worse.”

She previously opened up about said spasms feeling like someone was “strangling” her, or “pushing [her] larynx/pharynx.” And as a professional singer, she couldn’t let that slide. So she pretty much tried everything from steam showers to heavy-duty meds.

The I’m Alive singer told the outlet she was eventually advised to get on Valium — a controlled substance known to treat muscle spasms:

“We started with two milligrams to see if it would help, and then 2.5, and then 3, and 15 and 50.”

That’s a STEEP incline! But wild enough, that wasn’t even the peak! She revealed that as the medication began wearing off quicker and quicker, she upped her dose to a potentially-fatal 90 milligrams to get through performances! The superstar revealed:

“It could have been fatal. I did not question the level because I don’t know medicine. I thought it was going to be okay. It worked for a few days, for a few weeks, and then it doesn’t work anymore. I did not understand that I could have gone to bed and stopped breathing. And you learn — you learn through your mistakes.”

How terrifying! We’re SO glad she’s still with us. And for that, she’s “happy and fortunate” so that she can pass along her story:

“It’s very important to know… people who know me well enough, they know that I did not take medicine just to drug myself, just to be high or to be stoned. I have been as professional as can be through my whole life, a disciplined, hard-working person doing what I need to do for my voice to be in top shape.”

Wow. Céline has been through SO much. We truly hope she’s in a better place health-wise now than she’s been over the past years.

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