I continue to be amazed that each time a celebrity makes the intentional choice to put multiple forms of pharmaceuticals and illegal drugs into their bodies in order to ease their anxiety, pain, sleep disorders, eating disorders etc.; that we call them “accidents” when they overdose. I feel that framing these cases in this way in our mainstream media and dialogues are VERY dangerous. The public is being lied too and misled by constantly hearing of these “accidents”. We need to break open the door on this house of denial and start talking real about addiction and its inevitable conclusion-jails, institutions and death. These are drug addicts who are intentionally taking everything they can get their hands on and wind up dying as a direct result of their actions. If we as a society continue to sugarcoat these deaths all we are doing is keeping everyone blind and in denial; the result will be more deaths.
Post By Author Jennifer Storm
Whitney Houston was brilliant, had an amazing gift of vocal ability and she was a drug addict. She squandered her wealth, fame, voice and eventually her life with her addiction. Everyone around her enabled her behavior by not stepping in and helping her. Classic case in point of not enabling and intervention working–Britney Spears. We all watched her spiral out of control and everyone thought she would wind up dead as a result of her use. Instead, her family stepped in, went to court on her behalf and saved her career but more importantly saved her life. Being honest about addiction and doing everything we can to call it what it is and try to help, is the best way to avoid headlines like the ones that are everywhere today about Whitney.
Her death is horribly sad, I will not contest that, but it is an outright lie to call it an accident. The sooner we begin to speak frankly about addiction and the dangers of mixing legal and illegal drugs, the sooner we will be able to save lives.
This blog post was written by Jennifer Storm, author of the book, Picking Up the Pieces Without Picking Up – A Guide Book through Victimization for People in Recovery.
