OxyContin took its toll on Bonna Gibson, but it never broke her spirit, or her faith in a higher power. Those two unbeatable entities gave her the will to crush an addiction all by herself.

Problems began when she sought doctor's help for back pain

The 58-year-old Fort Worth Texas twin became an Oxy addict in 2002 after a specialist said the pills would end the back pain that had plagued her for years. Back troubles were common in the Gibson clan. The family ailment flared into high gear for Bonna in 1999, when stabbing pain caused her to cry out in the middle of the night.

"I woke up at 3:15 in the morning and I was screaming," she recalled. "It felt like I was stung like a scorpion. It was horrible pain; like being burnt internally."

Sciatic nerve trouble was the villain, according to Gibson. A new pain specialist in Fort Worth recommended she try OxyContin. "He said it would relieve the pain," she recalled of the 2002 encounter with a drug that altered her from meek to menacing in less than a year.

She started out by taking three, 20mg tabs a day. After only eight months of Oxy use, Bonna sensed something was wrong. She said the pills gave her a false sense of comfort. She did not like that feeling and feared that she might be hooked.

"The pills gave me a false sense of well being," she said. "There were times when I could not wait to take them; it was as if I looked forward to taking them for psychological reasons more than for pain relief."

Though she grew up during a time when other Baby Boomers experimented with drugs, Bonna took pride in never experimenting with marijuana or any other illegal substance. "I was proud that I was one of those who could say I did not go through that," she said. "In my school we barely even heard of marijuana."

But the Oxy experience was different. "It had a hold of me," she said. She started questioning her Oxy use and sought advice from a nurse.

"I told my home health nurse that I did not like the way it made me feel," she said. "I told her I did not want to get to the point where I felt that I had to take them. It seemed as if I needed to take them."

Her doctor insisted her growing fears of addiction were unfounded

Her pain specialist did not appreciate her independent way of thought. "He was angry," she said of her physician. "He took me into a conference room and said this is not the nurse's business, but it is between us."

The doctor said he knew best and quickly upped her dosage to 40 mgs. "I said, 'OK, you're the doctor,' '' she said. A few months later, Bonna tested her will and gave up on the pills for little more than a day.

"One night I did not take one on purpose," she said. The reaction was fast and furious. "By noon, I was aching like I had the flu," she said. "I felt like bugs were crawling on my arms. I jerked around and could not sit still in a chair. I started thinking, 'oh my goodness, I am a drug addict. I am no different than a street drug addict.'"

She felt defeated, afraid and humiliated. But she remained determined to beat Oxy. Meanwhile, friends and family members saw the normally placid Bonna transform into a high-strung wild woman, who tossed dishes in the house, withdrew from others and threw a chair at her twin sister.

Under OxyContin, bizarre personality changes

"I have always been passive," she said. "But then I started to get angry with myself. I felt rage. I had become a different person, like Dr. Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I withdrew from people and I could not function around people without OxyContin. I was miserable."

Her twin sister, Donna, witnessed Oxy's wrath. "Once she got so mad, she threw two chairs at me," Donna said. "I had to dodge them or they would have hit me in the face."

In another bizarre incident, Donna said her twin nearly jumped from a moving car at an on-coming 18-wheeler. "She went through a living hell," Donna said, who recalled that her sister once tossed a pot of gravy across the kitchen in a fit of Oxy-fueled rage.

Episodes like that led Bonna to confess her addiction. "One day I sat down and cried, she said of her awakening in July of 2003. "For the first time, I told my sister and my daughter that I knew beyond a shadow of doubt that I was hooked."

She swore 'in the name of Jesus," to get off the substance. She credits prayer and church fellowship with finding a way out of the Oxy maze.

Determined to break her addiction

Slowly, without the help of physicians, she weaned herself off the drug. She started cutting back on her own, taking one less pill a day at first. "My sister started praying and I told the Lord, 'this is beyond what I can do. I need your help,'" she said.

By January of 2004, she was off the pills for good. Still, she tested her new strength by filling a new prescription, then tossing the drugs away. Her pain specialist, Dr. Ved Arragawall of Fort Worth, was shocked at her strength.

"I told him I was hooked and he sat there and put his head between his hands, thinking," she said. "I asked him if he ever thought I was hooked, and he said that 'it had been a passing thought.'"

Today, Bonna has little doubt about OxyContin. "It should be taken off the market," she said. "The public ought to be warned about it. And the patient should have the option of being told how powerful it is, so they can decide if they want to take a chance on wrecking their life. It is not fair giving this to any one. I don't care who they are. It is not fair to be put on something that can wreck your life."

Without prayer and God's grace, Bonna would not be alive. "If it was not for the Lord and prayer on this I might have committed suicide," she said. "Things would have been different had I not had the Lord in my life."