Celine Dion took life-threatening doses of Valium

Celine Dion has said she became dependent on life-threatening pain relievers to help ease muscle spasms in the years leading up to her diagnosis of Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS). The music superstar, whose best-known hits include My Heart Will Go On, Think Twice and It’s All Coming Back To Me Now, revealed his diagnosis in December 2022 when he canceled his Courage World Tour.

Stiff person syndrome is a rare neurological disorder that causes progressive muscle stiffness that can cause spasms that can be “abdominal, can be in the spine, can be in the ribs,” Dion said. Dion told NBC’s Today host Hoda Kotb that before her diagnosis, she was taking diazepam, a drug known as Valium, to relax her “whole body” to perform on stage — but that she was unaware of the consequences. .

“I honestly didn’t know it could kill me,” she said in her first broadcast interview since her diagnosis. “I’d take, for example, before a performance, 20 milligrams of Valium, and then just walking from the dressing room backstage, it’s already gone.”

Dion said that as her body got used to the drug, she would feel her symptoms again after 20 minutes, so she started increasing her dose. “You get used to it, it doesn’t work,” she told NBC.

The singer revealed she takes up to 90 milligrams a day, an amount that can “kill you,” she said. With the help of doctors, Dion weaned herself off drugs, “mostly the bad ones,” during the pandemic.

“We stopped everything because it stopped working,” she said. On reflection, Dion said she should have taken time to “figure it out” instead of dealing with the shows, however it coincided with the time when her late husband Rene Angelil was “fighting for his own life”.

He died in January 2016 of throat cancer. “I had to hide. I had to try to be a hero,” Dion said.

“He lied to me, the burden was too much … I couldn’t do it anymore,” she said, explaining her decision to go public with her health battle. Despite her diagnosis, Dion said she plans to perform again.

“I will get back on stage, even if I have to crawl. Even if I have to talk with my hands. I will. I will,” she said. “I am Celine Dion, because today my voice will be heard for the first time, not just because I have to or because I need it. It’s because I want to. And I miss it.”

Dion documented her health battle in a new Prime Video film called I Am: Celine Dion, which will air on June 25. Directed by Oscar-nominated director Irene Taylor, it will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the Canadian. The singer’s life since she was diagnosed and the efforts she has made to continue singing.

The main symptoms of SPS are muscle stiffness and spasms, and there is currently no cure for the disease, but there are ways it can be treated, including the use of sedatives and muscle relaxants. Physical and occupational therapy is also a treatment pathway for people with SPS.

Dion sold more than 250 million albums during her 40-year career, winning five Grammy Awards, two Oscars and the Billboard Music Lifetime Achievement Award.