It knows no color, gender, age or influence. It doesn't care about your faith, your devotion to a religion, what you you're wearing or what you eat. It doesn't discern talent from the lack of it. It doesn't care about fame and wealth and attention. IT want the attention and it will go to any length to get it. It kills indiscriminately and with a vengeance. It kills directly or indirectly. It doesn't care. It just wants you dead.
Addiction is an epidemic. Much will be written of how sad it is. It is, of course, sad; but it is written into the addict's manifesto, they will die.
I'm sure all those who party-cipated with an addict before their death will feel badly. I'm sure there are family members who tried everything they knew to divert then from this inevitable path. I'm sure there are those who warned and scolded and begged and pleaded. I am sure there are those who washed their hands of the addict. I am sure there are those who prayed for their salvation.
There are those who find that salvation in the myriad recovery rooms and programs. It is possible and there are many who do recover. There are those too, like myself, who wanted and recognized that without a drastic change, they too would die. There are millions of people in the world addicted to something. Food, shopping, porn, alcohol, prescription drugs and illegal drugs and there are as many forms of treatment, an industry out there to help you. Betty Ford, the former First Lady of this great country faced her's in the public eye and created real and substantive change with the center named in her honor.
Peel back a single layer of the self defense that we all walk in and you will find a common link to either an addict and their path or someone in a relationship with an addict.
Don't let another famous person die, participate in the media spectacle, the tearful, heartfelt farewells and the blame it on the fame game and not take it into your home and circle of life that surrounds you in your own life. It is not fame's fault. It is no one's fault. Do you blame cancer on fame? Do you blame diabetes on fame? It is a disease and like cancer, diabetes and depression, it is everywhere. Alcoholism and addiction is ever present and it wants you dead.
My brother was 21.
My friends' son was 20.
A singer was 48.
And the beat goes on and on and on.
I hope to hear the drumbeat get louder and louder, a call to arms to face addiction and alcoholism head on, to make the administration take on this epidemic and to utilize the media spotlight on this one addict's death to create real change.
There are the 3 c's:
1. I did not Cause it: first come to terms with the fact that you did not make anyone start using.
2. I cannot Control it: you cannot change someone or make him or her stop using.
3. I cannot Cure it: Addiction is a disease, you cannot cure it
Today, a 1.5 years after dealing with the craziness of an addicts behavior & lifestyle/rescuing them, we came to a tough choice, called tough love.
The government gets involved in many public health issues, as it should. Addiction is costing us all a lot, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, and financially. Simply due to the financial cost of addition and that impact on the public, government involvement is justfied. Those of you who are so "anti-government" (about everything these days..) seem to think that the "public good" (-or- the "good public" is what you really mean) will find it's own level, ie: the "good elements" of society will find it's own way to the top. Sort of like the physics principle: water seeks it's own level. What you are really advocating is "survival of the fittest". Governmentally, that is anarchy. Ironically so many "anti-big-government advocates" are also conservative Christians (and BTW-- theologically I am one); is it really the christian thing to do, to step back and watch and see who can make it on their own? What about "do this unto the least of these"? I understand gov't run programs aren't the answer, but gov't support to exsisting, working programs could go along way...
Thank you so much for your comments. My name is Mary Harpel and what most people don't know is that mental illness often goes hand-in-hand with substance abuse, and that mental illness is a medical disorder of the brain. Taxpayers in California voted for the Mental Health Services Act in 2004, and since then hundreds of thousands of people with mental illness/substance abuse problems have been actively participating in their own recovery. The Mental Health Services Act Peer Counseling Course provides people in recovery with the tools to work with other peers who suffer from these illnesses; simply because patients know that they be will heard and respected by a peer rather than stigmatized is crucial. I know this because I work with my peers as well. We saves the CA government billions of dollars in mental health care even as the CA government takes many billions out of the MHSA. Importantly, so many people who respond to your comments have so much anger and so little awareness about this. And as far as Big Brother goes? We do much more harm to ourselves by not seeking out the truth. Remember the comic character POGO? Perhaps he understood it best: "We have met the enemy and it is us." And my favorite 60's political button: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. I would put it this way: "If you think education is expensive, try intolerance."
"So, in calling on the government to take action on this, how many new federal departmentÂs will be created? How many more bureaucratÂs will be necessary to fight the war on personal addictionsÂ? Each TAXPAYER in this country owes $135,853 (and rising) to pay off the national debt -- so why should we continue to spiral downward over an impossible battle?"
Really, Jamie, are you kidding now or was it a bad joke then? You should not even be allowed to comment in public after that horrendous condemnation of one of the strongest addictions known to man. I will never forget the feeling when I read those words.
"Tough Love" is not the solution either. Love, hope and medically-based treatment can help.
Looking forward to your appearance on NCIS. Don't hurt'em too hard.
A real fan.
But he or she, if depressed, has got to be made to understand that we mortal human beings really NEED them - I really, really miss John Denver - Incredibly, he, at one time, thought that we did not want to hear his songs anymore - how can this be - his songs made our spirits soar! I wish that, before a talented person makes up his or her mind that we "don't want him or her anymore" and so suffers a deep depression that they take a survey of "us" their adoring fans! Now I don't know if Whitney felt this way - but John did and he became very depressed - so it is possible. But it is also possible that the need for drugs - which knows no boundaries - was so overpowering - but people, please - if anyone you know is similarly stricken - first ask them if they feel "not wanted" even if if that question seems silly at best. Their answer may surprise you. We don't want to lose anymore wonderful people - all I know is that Whitney, for some reason or another, is gone and so you (and I) are the poorer for it.