Shaquille O'Neal is getting candid about his use of painkillers.
Showing on the Monday, August 11 episode of the “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard” podcast, the previous skilled basketballer questioned whether or not he was hooked on painkillers regardless of his physician's issues.
“So, I've a query,” O'Neal, 53, responded after he was requested if he was ever involved about having an habit. “Is ‘habit' the chemical impact or are you simply taking it? I used to be having a heated dialogue with my medical doctors, like, ‘You had been addicted,' however I didn't really feel excessive.”
Shepard, 50, famous that whereas O'Neal won't have felt “excessive,” he might have “simply felt the absence of ache.”
“Sure. I didn't know that was habit,” O'Neal replied.
The ex-NBA star defined that he felt he “wanted to play nice” fairly than merely “good” which was one of many causes behind him selecting to take painkillers so typically.
“I don't assume I used to be struggling mentally,” he mentioned. “I feel if I had a knack, I'd take it as a result of I don't wish to really feel that knack as a result of we'd like this sport.”
O'Neal added, “You hear tales… ‘Oh, he was addicted.' I wasn't that, however I needed to have them — so is that habit?”
Shaquille O'Neal. (Photograph by Kennedy Pollard/Getty Pictures for RBC)
The retired athlete has beforehand opened up about his painkillers use in addition to different well being woes throughout an interview with GQ journal in 2022.
“Once you play, you go to the physician to get checked and a bodily, proper? However I ain't performed in 11, years so if I'm not enjoying, what would I am going to the physician for, proper?” he informed the outlet.
“So once I went again to the physician there was some stuff I by no means even knew. They provide you these sure phrases: ‘Hey man, you bought sleep apnea. Sleep apnea may cause hypertension or strokes, you possibly can die.' I mentioned, ‘What?' ‘You could possibly die.' So now I've received to sleep with a sleep machine.”
He added that the painkillers and their detrimental results on his physique additionally got here up throughout the physician's appointment as a priority.
“Then, ‘All these painkillers you had been taking, bro? Your kidneys are sort of weak. No extra painkillers.'” O'Neal mentioned. “I used to be dependent upon painkillers — not addicted. Sure days once I couldn't transfer, I simply popped one or two, simply to get me going. However I'm off that now.”
In case you or somebody you recognize is scuffling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
