Celebrity Death is Still Death!
Stunned From Celebrity Death
Think about this…our ideas concerning celebrity death.
When someone famous dies of suicide or overdose (Kate Spade, Chester Bennigton, Robin Williams, Phillip Seymour Hoffman etc…): People are stunned and say things like:
“He had everything; he was on top of the world; I don’t understand”…
Dead Is Dead
When the middle-class/upper middle-class white kid from an “in-tact” family dies of an overdose people say:
“He was from a “good” family I don’t understand”…. “we would never have thought this was happening they were such a good family…” etc…
The death of the poor kid in the middle of nowhere Nebraska who hangs himself is no different than the death of the troubled “superstar” musician.
The overdose death of the “white trash” kid in the hills of West Virginia is no different than the celebrity death of Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s overdose death in Beverly Hills.
Whether in a mobile home or a luxury hotel… Dead is dead.
Click-Bait
No one ever says:
“It was so surprising he took his own life…. he was such a piece of shit and his family was so poor… It makes no sense he would kills himself.”
I guess the implication is… “oh that makes sense… he killed himself because he was worthless”.
The media uses all the celebrity death as click-bait.
The entertainment and mainstream media pretty much sucks across the board. TMZ type shit.
Lots Of Work
For the rest of us:
All of this indicates exactly how deep the stigma is and how much misunderstanding exists in relation to mental health and substance use disorder.
This is a given and we have lots of work to do in the area of stigma reduction.
However, in addition: These type of statements indicate that people fundamentally believe wealth, income, status, achievement, recognition, fame, power, etc… EQUALS HAPPINESS AND CONTENTMENT.
That’s why they are stunned when an actor kills himself but indifferent when your average citizen does so…
Society Is Ass-Backwards
We have been conditioned to acquire things.
Our economy is driven on the constant need for more and an underlying you suck if you don’t have enough message-“so come buy this shitty thing from me so you feel better”.
We have been conditioned to admire random people who, objectively speaking, add little value to society’s bottom line (actors, athletes, etc..).
They entertain us. They don’t cure cancer or serve meals at the soup kitchen.
Certainly they are not doing an on-call shift on our overdose response team.
They are court jesters… Society is ass-backwards.
A Dent In The Universe
There is no peace in attaining things.
Yes. Poor sucks worse than having money. And I have no intention of being poor and playing the non-profit martyr. (that guy makes me just a frustrated).
But I know money and shit won’t make me happy. I will just be miserable with more toys…
It’s the pursuit of a great goal that lights me up.
As they say: “putting a dent in the universe”.
A Values Crisis
Taking care of those I love makes the list.
Trying to add value and help as many people as possible makes the list.
Fully accepting and living out my role in this battle for improved mental health and better outcomes with substance misuse makes the list.
We have a “values” crisis… the overdoses and suicides are but symptoms.
Our society is rotting from the inside out.
