She Didn't Want to go to Rehab

[pmcd9]

Amy Winehouse is dead. 

Story

Clearly her management didn't have her best interest at heart.  After the debacle in Belgrade last month it was super evident that she needed some serious help.  I can't believe they put her up on stage in that condition.

What is it about the age 27 that makes pop stars wanna check out?

[Asherdan]

What is it about the age 27 that makes pop stars wanna check out?

I've wondered about that and kinda settled on it being a standard trajectory for what it takes to climb to fame and then fall off the brink.

That Belgrade thing was quite disturbing. Poor girl.

[KeithHernandez]

She made the only music that has been on the top 40 stations that I have liked since I have been a person who likes music.

[wombat]

Any young person dying is sad, but for me, a friend of mine put it perfectly in 140 characters or less:

The thing about Amy Winehouse dying is that the only thing I ever knew about her was that she was on the verge of killing herself.

I mean, hardly a surprise, was it?

[side_show]

There's some shitty posts on Facebook and around the web, saying "forget her she was just a weak junky" that really irks me.  Addiction is all about science.

The thing with addicts on the path of destruction is the hope in all of us that a change could occur that would turn the person around.  Yet, the change that could save a person in such a condition is an internal one that the onlooker has so little power to instigate, leaving those on the sidelines feeling helpless and frustrated at not just the person but the weakness of the human condition.  I've known enough young people, full of potential, who are destroying themselves, who are told so, and who keep on destroying themselves.  Or worse, who stop and see that they need to change, seem to do so, and then relapse hard.  Just because it's predictable doesn't make it less tragic.  Maybe it's even more so because no one could stop the inevitable from occurring.

I'm reading "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts" by Gabor Maté, and I'd say it's one of the most important books on addiction out there right now.  Backed up by hard science as well as Maté's own experiences working directly with addicts in a near-palliative end-of-life state makes the read compelling and useful.  I've been working with a mother who at first seemed to be in a healthy stage of recovery from crack addiction.  She's a strong, intelligent lady.  After a year of inpatient treatment, she returned to her supportive partner and young child full of courage and hope about the challenges of managing life without drugs.  She connected with her partner in an honest way.  She reached out to her supports and therapist in a way that seemed to indicate she'd found a new way to cope.  She found a job that was supportive and not too stressful.  She seemed, as her file was closing, to be one of my programs success stories.  Within two days of closing her file, we got a call that she was having a drug party at her home with the baby present.  She was back on crack, had surrounded herself with the unhealthy people she had previously distanced herself from, had destroyed her relationship with her partner and had her child apprehended from her due to the unsafe conditions she subjected the child to.  Total, utter self sabotage.  Maté's book helped me understand this mom's situation and not take it personally that she had relapsed in spite of all the support I connected her with.  Addiction is this complex situation starting with early brain development and lack of healthy attachment.  The research Maté presents makes clear why some people can use drugs without addiction, while others are instantly hooked.  That hard wiring related to impulse control and healthy neurochemical functioning happens so early in life that one is already addiction-prone (or not) by early childhood, and the rest is about whether you're fortunate or unfortunate in the things you're exposed to in later life.  Now that I understand the science, I can grasp why very strong people still fail at recovery, and why relapse rates are so damn high.

If we studied Winehouse's brain what would we find?  The impulse control centre under-functioning, the brain chemicals for feelings of comfort and well-being under producing.  If we looked at Winehouse's early childhood (when much of one's brain functioning is developing), what would be find?  A lack of healthy attachment and abnormally high levels of stress for a young child to endure. This is the profile of a person most likely to become an addict.  While we can provide treatment which more often that not fails at the late stages of addiction, really the best prevention is in-utero and in early childhood rather than in adulthood.  Claiming that someone addicted to drugs is weak or lazy is scientifically moronic.  It's like asking someone with blindness related to brain function to toughen up and see.  The problem, it seems to me, is that the general population, including many of the families of addicts, lack and understanding of the science of addiction and instead consider it a character flaw.  The stigma of labeling someone a fuck-up, rather than understanding that their brain is improperly functioning has only lead to failed treatment and destroyed families.  I can't help but wonder what leaps and bounds could be made toward better treatment of addiction if we as a society got over this blaming and false understanding and embraced the science?  It's an intriguing prospect.

TL:DR - What we need more of is Science!

[Asherdan]

TL:DR - What we need more of is Science!

I read the rest of it but the short version is the best.

[wombat]

TL:DR - What we need more of is Science!

And if someone that famous can't get it, that's really depressing.

[side_show]

And if someone that famous can't get it, that's really depressing.

I agree.  The fact is, when it comes to treatment of addictions the standard course of treatment right now is not to treat it as a brain-based disorder but to depend on the 12 Step method, which really hasn't worked for decades.  I'm willing to bet, when it came to her treatment, Winehouse predominantly got the same failed treatment as the general population gets because, for whatever reasons, these failed treatments are still the primary course of treatment for almost all addicts.  The other options, as I understand, are fairly vague and unformed at this point, which is sad considering how long the current methods of treatment have been failing.

[littlefallsmets]

Well, lets also be honest:

There were probably a lot of hangers-on and business people enabling her addictions to maintain influence and keep making money.

You would want to say "Oh, why wouldn't they look out for her, if she dies, there's no money for anyone."

Except that if they play hardball, she cuts them outta their life and there's no money for them.

Not to mention that ANYWHERE she went, I'm certain there were people who either would offer her drugs and alcohol to try and become friendly with her or... simply, people who wanted to party with the famous person who was known to be a partier, not taking her illness seriously because they're just so wowed that there's a famous person about.

I'd argue that any advantages a famous person has in getting clean are cancelled out by the disadvantages to getting clean that fame also puts forth.

It's insanely difficult to get clean either way, of course, and it is ridiculous the way people have been downplaying it as a simple character weakness, absolutely. I'm just saying, I'm pretty sure it's at least as difficult to get clean if you're famous and maybe even harder in some situations.

[AugustWest]

and it is ridiculous the way people have been downplaying it as a simple character weakness, absolutely.

Everybody's cross looks lighter than our own.

[Asherdan]

Everybody's cross looks lighter than our own.

Just because it's true doesn't mean I don't generally hate running into that. As long as I see some dealing with the squealing I can toss a rope.

[AugustWest]

Just because it's true doesn't mean I don't generally hate running into that. As long as I see some dealing with the squealing I can toss a rope.

Yep.

[miles]

What is it about the age 27 that makes pop stars wanna check out?

The 27 Club: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27_Club

Also see: http://www.the27s.com/

Mia Zapata had come to mind, but I don't think I ever made the Chris Bell or D. Boon connection.

Anyway, I'm not all that familiar with Amy Winehouse, though she seemed to be very talented. Very sad.

[littlefallsmets]

I've always chalked it up to the fact that if you're insanely famous by the time you're 27, it means you probably started climbing the ladder in your early twenties when it is nearly impossible to be grounded enough to not end up having your psyche and/or lifestyle warped by fame and success.

Maybe you're lucky enough to have a support group from before you got there so strong that you see it through but... if you're pretty much alone up there and you started on your path before you learned the real lessons of actual life, your odds of living through to your middle age starts understandably dropping.

Maybe 27 is a sweet spot for people who gain their fame in their early-to-mid twenties, having started early enough to have no grounding in reality but having succeeded enough to be completely isolated from anyone who has a genuine interest in your well-being.