Question About The Klonopin Years

[strandinthewind]

^^^^

La Nicks consistently denies any relationship other than friendship with TP.

Also, there is a video interview where she talks about the four things she lost or gave up for her career - it is pretty clear that she is talking about loves of her life and not children.

Note - this discussion has turned into a flame fest in the past. I am not flaming anyone, just saying what I remember. A little research on this topic on this board and on Nancy's board (www.buckinghamnicks.net) should yield some of those past threads, which I think were interesting despite the flaming

I do not have it - but maybe someone can post the video interview I am talking about.

[Sorcerer386]

Honestly, one of the only things that really bothers me about this time was the weirdness in Stevie's voice when she went for the high notes. In just about every video I've seen from 89-91, when she sings a high note, it almost sounds like she is underwater. Listen to when she sings "hard game to play" in the Arsenio Hall performance above. I don't understand why her voice sounds that way. It really sounds like her lungs are filled with water.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Sorcerer386

Honestly, one of the only things that really bothers me about this time was the weirdness in Stevie's voice when she went for the high notes. In just about every video I've seen from 89-91, when she sings a high note, it almost sounds like she is underwater. Listen to when she sings "hard game to play" in the Arsenio Hall performance above. I don't understand why her voice sounds that way. It really sounds like her lungs are filled with water.

I agree - though I think it started on the RAL tour. She did have some killer sets in this time period though. I like the Paris OSOTM tour. Even Alice was good in that one

[skcin]

EW: How sharp are your memories from all these years the boxed set represents? I remember hearing you talk about the '89 tour, when you were on-I believe you've said-a lot of painkillers, and you don't have such a clear memory of that particular tour. Are any of the recordings a blur, too?

Nicks: I'm always amazed to hear what people think I was taking, because it wasn't painkillers. I was taking a thing called Klonopin-like a Valium thing. This was prescribed for me by a serious doctor. I started taking it in 1986. By 1989, it wasn't that I didn't write well, I just stopped writing. Just too blase to care. Any kind of a Valium thing, any kind of a Prozac thing, very bad for people who write-if you're not seriously depressed. If you need it, then that's one thing. But if you're just a person that wants to feel better and feel happier, those drugs don't do a lot for creative people.

As opposed to a silly doctor?

This? Is serious.


God, I love you Stevie.



BTW - Strand, great take on the Mirages vs. TITN eras as far as her relationship w/LB goes. I had never really thought about it before, but it really must have been shocking for him, after not seeing much of her for a few years, to see her like that. He probably thought "OMG, what the f*ck happened to you?!"

[Rickypt]

There is nothing unusual about being prescribed Klonopin/ativan during and after rehabing from hard drugs. Stevie probably did need it for some time, the doctor picked up on that, and prescribed it. She obviously didn't take it as prescribed or indicated.

No doctor would keep her going on it for several years, so I'm wondering if she went around and got prescription from different doctors. If it was the same doctor from start to finish, then I think she is justified in slamming him/her because no decent doc would just write scripts for Klonopin for years without seeing that she was clearly addicted.

[shackin'up]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

:

Having said that, certainly by the TOSOTM tour, she was a zombie and it was tres scary.

That was the only solotour I ever saw her do: That experience (with a soulwrecking Richard Marx-gig as a support ) has ruined more of my Steviefandom than LB could have EVER caused.....

[sparky]

Originally Posted by skcin

He probably thought "OMG, what the f*ck happened to you?!"

I am sure he thought that. I did.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by skcin

. . . BTW - Strand, great take on the Mirages vs. TITN eras as far as her relationship w/LB goes. I had never really thought about it before, but it really must have been shocking for him, after not seeing much of her for a few years, to see her like that. He probably thought "OMG, what the f*ck happened to you?!"

Thank you!!

And then, once she got out of rehab, I bet she thought, I am supposed to work with these people/users SOBER I mean most times most rehabbers stay well away from the very source of the high, not to mention LB who was likely not very nice to her at times to say the least. She did not have that luxury. Well, actually, she did, but she chose not to let everyone down and quit, esp. when at that point in time, she did not need FM at all in terms of being a success, though in hindsight, her star never show brightly again until 1997, when she did need FM - how ironic. Anyway, I have always thought the pre and post TITN sessions were night and day regarding the dynamic of LB and La Nicks.

Ohhhh to have been a fly on the wall.

[Musicman408]

Sorry it has taken me soooo long to thank those of you who have contributed and have given me the answers that I was looking for. I am glad that now I have a better idea of the whole timeframe thing. Thanks

[paperflowers]

Originally Posted by eric51078

Just on a side note..I have been on it for nearly 2 years...at first it wasn't helping and they kept upping my dosage...it is really a horrible horrible drug...I almost rather have a panic attack than take the pill...No lie...it is horribly addictive. They say take it 4 times a day and it is so easy to do...I take it when I need to but even when I do...I don't even want to do anything...it's tough...but not easy to come off it....and Stevie is right the doctor's don't want to take you off of it..they don't even want to lower the dosage...just take 1/2 a pill they say...BS in my opinion.

My mother was also prescibed klonopin, she took it for only three years but it was a nightmare. The doctors upped her dosage she became more and more dependent on it until she was just this blob sitting in front of the tv, isolated, disconnected and just hollow. My mom was once a very pretty lady,very put together, and sophisticated (she reminded me of Mary Tyler Moore). She was optimistic and generally happy after three years on klonipin, she was more like Rosanne Barr heavy, cynical, pissed off and sometimes just plain mean. It took along time for her to see the change in herself and also it is very hard to for her to believe she had a problem when her doc kept giving her the scripts.It validated to her that she needed it. I can see how Stevie felt because my mother felt the same way.She lost herself for awhile, it was hell.

[jannieC]

Originally Posted by paperflowers

My mother was also prescibed klonopin, she took it for only three years but it was a nightmare. The doctors upped her dosage she became more and more dependent on it until she was just this blob sitting in front of the tv, isolated, disconnected and just hollow. My mom was once a very pretty lady,very put together, and sophisticated (she reminded me of Mary Tyler Moore). She was optimistic and generally happy after three years on klonipin, she was more like Rosanne Barr heavy, cynical, pissed off and sometimes just plain mean. It took along time for her to see the change in herself and also it is very hard to for her to believe she had a problem when her doc kept giving her the scripts.It validated to her that she needed it. I can see how Stevie felt because my mother felt the same way.She lost herself for awhile, it was hell.

I'm so sorry you had to go through that with your mom- I hope she is okay now?

Sadly, there *are* doctors that will over prescribe (just look at Anna Nicole Smith) and who are generally unethical. Doctors like that make a lot of money off people. Klonopin itself is not evil, it's just like any other drug in its class and like all benzos, can be highly addictive.

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by jannieC

Sadly, there *are* doctors that will over prescribe (just look at Anna Nicole Smith) and who are generally unethical. Doctors like that make a lot of money off people. Klonopin itself is not evil, it's just like any other drug in its class and like all benzos, can be highly addictive.

I believe Elizabeth Taylor was also over-prescribed at one point. I'm sure there are other stars I'm forgetting about.
I have a feeling that, in many of these cases, since the client is famous and "busy," some of these doctors simply keep refilling the prescriptions over the phone, without even seeing the patient.

Speaking from personal experience, my mother had a very rough time with Ativan in '98 (the first time we had trouble with these kinds of meds). She didn't take it any more than what the doctor prescribed, but it turned her into a lifeless zombie. She didn't feel like doing anything and was the complete opposite of what my mom has always been like.
She knew she didn't feel right -- so she'd keep going back to the doctor, telling him how she felt, and he'd order this test and that test. All the while keeping her on the same dosage of the Ativan. Even increasing it at one point!
Eventually she got down to 96 lbs. and ended up in the hospital.

These meds are helpful for a lot of people, but I think that far too many doctors write out a prescription and send you home, without ever truly paying attention to how it's effecting you.

[paperflowers]

Originally Posted by jannieC

I'm so sorry you had to go through that with your mom- I hope she is okay now?

Sadly, there *are* doctors that will over prescribe (just look at Anna Nicole Smith) and who are generally unethical. Doctors like that make a lot of money off people. Klonopin itself is not evil, it's just like any other drug in its class and like all benzos, can be highly addictive.

You know, I blame the docs, and the medical system. I do not work in the mental health field but I do come into contact with people with varying degrees of mental illness through my job. In fact, there are days I deal almost exclusively with people who suffer from “something” and the hospitals, rehabs, nursing homes, homeless shelter and mental care faculties. I deal with people at the very bottom of the socioeconomic scale and people at the very top. I am not saying that there are no good docs. But in Stevies’ case I feel that even with all her riches and pampered lifestyle she became as much part of the system as my middleclass house wife mother. The cycle of addiction fits in quite nicely with the ‘treat ‘em and street ‘em” approach to mental health. They feed off of one another and keep each other going.
I did not connect my mother’s deterioration with any of the pills she took, not at first and not even when it got really bad. I chalked up the weight gain to her growing older and her moods to menopause. Honestly, sometimes I just thought she was a bitch. Like Stevie, she lied to herself, ignored her inner voice. I mean she couldn’t even get motivated to shower some days, how in the hell could she deal with her addiction- much easier to discount it and keep on taking the pills. I think about Stevie shuffling around her home in a dirty house robe, bleary eyed, ratty hair, watching Jerry Springer and not even caring that the whole world was just passing her by. Klonipin isn't evil, but its like heroin to someone like my mother and I suspect Stevie. They are addictive people; all in or all out types. When my mother and, imo Stevie screw up; they do it all the way. On the flip side when they are well, they were never not just the joiners they are the the organizer, the leader ---The Queen Bee.
I guess some folks don't feel Stevie has taken enough responsibility for their taste, and I don’t totally disagree, but I understand Stevies bitterness at the doc. They can be so cold and analytical and you believe them, believe in them. How could they allow it? With my family, how could they be so callous to watch this go down, watch as this whole family implodes as they wrote out more scripts?

The docs come in spends 5 mins. with my mother, she puts on her everything is just fine face and he would write another script. He didn’t ask anything that would cause him to have to do anything, and she didn’t tell. That’s how it was for three years. I’m sure if my mother case were reviewed no one would find the doc culpable, he treated the symptoms. I don't blame my mother either, well at least not now. When this all went down I was an adult and had my own family. Though she has suffered from anxiety most of my life it seems to me that things really spiraled out of control once she was diagnosed, and in the system. One pill begets another pill; they treat the symptom and not the person. When my mom first walked into that office she was a nice looking intelligent lady all be it, emotionally frail, did they not notice the change as the years progressed? How come it was my own addicted “potted plant” of a mother who finally figured it out and not the medical professionals? Before the meds my mother had her own weird coping mechanism. Waking me up to make sure I was breathing when I was a child was one. She never answered the phone or looked at the mail frightened she would some devastating news. She alternated from the uber-cleaner then the ultimate slob depending on her mood. She never beat us, drank, or neglected us. Her rituals were annoying, embarrassing at times but not detrimental. She functioned; she was just kind of quirky, and wound tight.
Klonipin isn't evil on its own but its like heroin to someone like my mother and I suspect Stevie. They are addictive people; all in or all out types. When my mother and, imo Stevie screw up; they do it all the way. On the flip side when she was doing well, (my mom) was never a joiner she was the organizer, the leader ---The Queen Bee.
How could they allow it? How could they be so callous and watch this go down, watch as this whole family implodes as they wrote out more scripts? I have BITTERNESS if not down right hatred toward the health care system, they ruined my mother, almost killed her, they took something that was manageable and made it worse.

[Sahara]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

In SB - first of all at about 3:00 - I thought she sang "one man did not fukc off"

Bwahhaha! I always thought that too!

[Ghost_Tracker]

Originally Posted by carrie721

^^ but who thinks stevie's a doctor? who would take medical advice from her? stevie's not changing any minds with her statements. any rational person is going to take her words with a grain of salt.

She's an authority figure. 12-year old kids would probably jump off a freaking bridge if she said too.