In the wake of reading an article this morning saying that Whitney Houston's family has been told she died of a prescription drug overdose, isn't it amazing that out of the last few celebrity drug deaths, they seem to have been under the care of a physician and died due to prescription drug overdoses, is this ringing any bells out there?
Whitney Houston
Heath Ledger
Michael Jackson
Anna Nicole Smith
Brittany Murphy
So, prescription drugs being doled out by idiot doctors or being used as a cover up for other addictions?
It's not that easy. Drug addicts are crafty and manipulative. There are very few prescription addicts that have just one doctor (like Elvis and Michael Jackson) prescribing everything. They hop from doctor to doctor, form hospital to hospital, from pharmacy to pharmacy. They buy other peoples prescriptions. They buy prescription drugs off the street. A few states have started a computer data base where you can track the prescriptions filled by someone and can see exactly what they have filled. As it is "Druggie" can go to hospital A and fill his prescription at pharmacy B, go to doctor C and fill his prescription at pharmacy D, go to urgi care clinic E and fill his prescription at pharmacy F, as so on, and so on, and no-one is the wiser.
When someone is addicted, they will stop at nothing to get their drug of choice. In addition, apparently, Houston mixed her prescription drugs with alcohol, so even if the prescription was on the up and up, depending on what she was taking that could have been a deadly combination.
What is sounds like, from all reports, is that she had several days of heavy drinking. She mixed that with prescription medication. She went in to take a bath, and fell asleep, or passed out, and slid under the water and drown.
Addicts are people who are ill. They can;t help themselves, they have an illness.
I don';t think people that are addicted to drugs, are the ones who usually seek out help for themselves. It usually family members that do that.
You obviously don't have much experience or knowledge with or about addicts.
The 1st statement is the exact attitude that keeps them addicted and using. "Oh, you poor thing, it's not your fault." It most certainly is their fault. Addicts make a choice to do what they do and stay in the environment in which their addiction will be excused or accepted. It is called enabling. Getting clean and recovery are about accepting personal responsibility for your choices and the consequences of those choices.
...and you have been watching too much "intervention." It may certainly be families or loved ones that push some addicts into getting help, but, time and time again, experience has shown that the only addicts that achieve long term recovery are the ones who decide to quit for their own reasons (whatever they may be) Yes, they need love and support, but they must accept personal responsibility for their own recovery.
I will simplify. My husband smokes. He wants to quit smoking. (and is down to about 5 cigarettes a day...GROUCHY!) ...anyway... no matter how much I nag him and complain (and cigarettes are $8 a pack here, but I don't nag or complain) he is not going to quit until he is good and ready to quit. If he wants to smoke he will, he will hide it from me, he will do it at work. It needs to be his decision. I will help him, I will be supportive, but I can't do it for him.
This is normally done in memory of the deaths of war heroes, humanitarians and major elected officials, not a faded, tainted pop idol who died in a stupor in a hotel bathtub.
