MT. JULIET, Tenn. (WTVF) — A Middle Tennessee doctor who became addicted to painkillers is featured in a book that turned into a show on Hulu called "Dopesick."
The show centers around Big Pharma and the opioid crisis.
A new show called Dopesick was partially inspired by a local doctor who became addicted to pain pills. He met with writers about it, and later found out he had a lot of similarities to Michael Keaton's character. I talk to the doctor coming up on @nc5 tonight. pic.twitter.com/NI5PZChiB3
— Alexandra Koehn (@NC5_AKoehn) November 15, 2021
Writers got their inspiration from people impacted by the opioid crisis including Tennessee Dr. Stephen Loyd. "It’s really weird to watch it and see him, but it’s very accurate. If you see the show and the pharmaceutical reps coming in," Loyd said. "All of that was really accurate in the 2000s of what I experienced."
After a trip to the dentist, Loyd became hooked. "I went from taking 2.5 milligrams of Hydrocodone to taking 500 milligrams of OxyContin a day," Loyd said.
Eventually, he got help. "I know what folks are going through. I’ve been dopesick. I got into recovery in Nashville, Tennessee at Vanderbilt," he said.
Instead of being quiet, Loyd went public with his story. "My personal experience was telling me that I was for sure addicted to it, my patients were addicted to it, the thing I didn’t do because of my personal experience, I didn’t push the dose," Loyd said.
Now at Cedar Recovery, he works with patients suffering from addiction. "It was a miserable way to live, and in all honesty, I thought I would die because I hadn’t gotten in trouble," Loyd said.
He's glad the show is raising awareness. "First of all, how did this happen? Now we’re about in the fourth wave of it with illicit Fentanyl which is killing Tennesseans today," Loyd said.
