 In 2001, while working as a columnist for Canada's "The National Post" newspaper, Pearson was diagnosed with anxiety disorder and prescribed the anxiolytic Effexor.Pearson claims that she became addicted to this substance until missing even one dose caused her to feel "like [she] was trapped in a disco club on acid with the strobe light at maximum pulse".In a "National Post" column written around that time, Pearson described running out of medication at night when the pharmacy was closed and lifting up the refrigerator to see if she had dropped a tablet under there.