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.

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A National Plague!

All the Frankendrugs and death they bring, it’s just not normal and it’s not acceptable and it’s extremely sad… and to repeatedly write about overdoses and suicides at such young ages, well it is a major black-spot of all our lives today, not only my own.

The first 12 years of my career (2000-2012) deaths were infrequent and deeply troubling.

Considered a sentinel event for institutions and stunning news for everyone in the community.

I rarely, very rarely, had a client who passed away.

1 Overdose & 1 Suicide

Despite the fact I worked within intense community based programs in the streets of Pittsburgh. For example, I ran an assertive community treatment team during the full out execution of de-institutionalization movement in mental health.

“Dual diagnosis” as it was called back then.

Deep end schizophrenia and crack cocaine.

Bipolar type 1 and decades of alcohol.

Serious and persistent mental illness.

Literally the emptying of the state hospitals; we managed the reintegration.

And in 6 years 2 deaths that I can remember. 1 overdose and 1 suicide.

Tragic Resignation

There may have been others I can’t remember. But not likely.

People are getting numb to these deaths of despair. And the norms around these deaths are changing.

Although universally acknowledged as tragic, there is a resignation among people. As if “shit happens”…..

It makes me very sad.

I guess we all deal with it in our own way.

The Brink Of Madness

I will say this. I get called nearly every week (or a face to face visit) by a family who has lost someone.

The stories are usually similar. “Tried treatment etc….but didn’t stick and stay in recovery etc….”

One really troubling thing. These kids have NO WIGGLE ROOM. No room for a bad day and a slip.

And that is the problem a with all the Frankendrugs and death, it is a –

Problem Without A Solution

No current treatment or medication can account for the desire when it comes full force.

You can be doing great and still take the wrong turn on one random day.
What do you do in the age of Frankendrugs and death….?

All this leaves me at the brink of madness…at times…

“Just myself talking to myself about myself”….

The post Frankendrugs and Deaths of Despair appeared first on The Recovery Cartel.

The Tragedy Continues

At least 1x per week I get a text, or a private message, or a phone call about someone who has died of an overdose or a suicide related to addiction. It seems they just keep dying needlessly!

Sometimes the details are unclear. However, many times I know the person and I know the story behind the tragedy; in terms of treatment attempts, recovery attempts, mental health, other issues.

Sometimes the person was completely disengaged from recovery.

A person who had never really tried as the disease got them too early. Usually this is a young person.

But lately it’s been people who are deeply involved in recovery and/or treatment.

Actually, a few cases this past 3 or 4 weeks involved people who just completed treatment.

In 2 cases people who were actively in recovery housing/treatment setting when they died.

How Is This Still Happening?

I’ve been doing addiction treatment and recovery work professionally for nearly 20 years.

This is no longer your garden variety addiction. The disease has mutated.

Addiction is such a different issue than it was even 10 years ago; presenting dramatically different challenges.

Expecting More Deaths

If we do not radically change our professional treatment response to this issue you can expect ongoing escalation of overdoses.

I think all options should be on the table for all patients at all times.

All options including mass access to affordable medication assisted treatment with no strings attached.

Perhaps every licensed or accredited treatment organization should also be required to provide harm reduction services?

For God’s sake this is a healthcare issue. Stop allowing people to run treatment programs based on personal ideology.

Dying On The Way To The Bottom

We should not be sitting back waiting until the pain gets great enough and they want to go back to rehab and try to get it right the next time….especially people who have taken that route countless times before.

Rinse and repeat treatment is not going to work in the era of fentanyl and carfentanil.

Unfortunately, I don’t see a paradigm shift coming any time soon…in the meantime let’s hope we can at least get more distribution of narcan. Learn from other states and try to get on top of these deaths.

Do you see what’s happening?

They are dying on the way to “bottom”…

Desperate Times

And don’t say this is how it’s always been… no it is not how “it’s always been”.

These are empirical facts. People have never died at anything close to this rate.

We’ve never seen anything like this ever before in the history of the world.

It actually goes way beyond fentanyl or carfentanil. It’s alcohol and all other drugs as well.

There is a time and place for something new.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

The post Do You See What’s Happening? They Keep Dying! appeared first on The Recovery Cartel.

✌️✌️✌️The Demi Lovato overdose has really brought out a bunch of “experts” to tell us the ins and outs of addiction. Who are the gatekeepers that arrange this stuff? How do they pick the “expert”… have any of them actually worked with a person with SUD or with families?

It may not matter because the media is looking for a cliche and a sound bite. And those are easy to come up with. The “expert” can deliver that.

But is all this attention and noise thrown Demi Lovato’s way good for her? Or good for society? I guess it’s good for the “experts”.

The Circus Has Come To Town

It a freaking circus. My home page is Yahoo News and here are a couple of stories that popped up over the last few days (I’m paraphrasing)
1) Demi Lovato overdosed because she bought into the “moderation” lie. With some idiot proclaiming with authority the abstinence only dogma. Like they know everything about Demi Lovato and why she overdosed.
2) Demi Lovato overdosed because she “gave up”… well damn…. they seem to have figured that out from some song she recorded about 6 months ago….geniuses.
3) Demi Lovato overdosed because of a “negative body image”…..HOLY MOLY! There must be Jedi therapists out there who can evaluate people from afar and make precision diagnosis.

Y’all depress me. You aren’t experts. You don’t know anything about Demi Lovato. Y’all should turn down the interview. It’s not a sideshow. It’s someone’s life. And it’s damaging to all people seeking recovery.

When a celebrity has a recurrence of cancer is it publicly announced and scrutinized? Do they evaluate “where it went wrong” what the celebrity patient did wrong leading to the recurrence?

This is par for the course for the media. But the “recovery experts” should not contribute. It’s not good. It’s not “awareness”. This is not “advocacy”. It’s a circus.

The post The Circus Has Come to Recovery Town appeared first on The Recovery Cartel.

Rapper Lil Peep and The “SHOUT OUT BRO” Culture: New Age Recovery For A NEW GENERATION…

I did not follow Lil Peep (surprised?). But I know he publicly self-destructed. Popping pills left and right. High as hell in all his videos. 1.6 million kids watch it. Then he dies of an overdose. And the followers move on to the newest superstar.

Hell…even the process of mourning his death becomes a pop-culture phenomenon. Dead is dead. But in today’s world it is dumbed down. Dying at age 21… in front of the world. Lil Peep deserved to live longer.

Norms in society develop over time and “seep” into our culture. Norms aren’t “rules”. They aren’t proclaimed or declared. “Normal” is subjectively defined by our collective response to situations.

In certain parts of the country overdose deaths have become “normal”. Don’t get me wrong…family and friends are upset about a death. But I believe we are getting numb to overdose deaths. They aren’t as noteworthy. There was a time when an overdose was big news in any given community.

Now…unfortunately…it’s business as usual in many areas. Are we getting to a point where overdoses are considered “just part of life”…. that’s difficult to conceive…

Lil Peep was clearly in the throes of addiction; in every sense of the word.

If you have been thru addiction yourself you know about the stage when nothing is okay. You know about the progression from a party to just trying to survive. You know what it is like to take the substance and still get no relief…or at best temporary relief.

Clearly Mr. Peep was in that state of mind. It was painfully obvious. The quote below is from one of his last Instagram posts prior to his overdose death:

“I just wana be everybody’s everything.

I want too much from people but then I don’t want anything from them at the same time, u feel me.

I don’t let people help me but I need help but not when I have my pills but that’s temporary.

One day maybe I won’t die young and I’ll be happy?

What is happy? I always have happiness for like 10 seconds and then it’s gone.

I’m getting so tired of this” – Lil’ “Peep” 2017

“I have happiness for like 10 seconds”… he was going down and going down fast.

In the meantime, his social media fans seemed to celebrate his partying and his drug use. There are countless comments egging him on. I’m sure that in the far corners of America the kids that were praising his hardcore lifestyle were engaging in their own version of self-destruction.

Probably taking the same pills. Xanax…or fake Xanax. Opioids….or fake Opioids. Whatever they could get their hands on.

There were no surprises here. Everyone saw this coming.

Those who were closest to him saw this as inevitable:

“Chase Ortega, who has been described by several media outlets as Lil Peep’s manager, broke the news of his death in a tweet:

“I’ve been expecting this call for a year. Mother fuck.” (Peters, The Ringer, 11/16/17).

Why didn’t anyone step in to stop him or intervene?
Was the image too important?

In one of his Instagram posts, he claimed to have taken six Xanax, with another showing him trying to drop an unidentified pill into his mouth several times before successfully swallowing one and shaking a prescription bottle that appears full of pills. Another insane post stated the chilling caption –

“When I die, you’ll love me.”

It must be very difficult to intervene on the very creation that is bringing all the success. It must be very hard to confront the caricature that is “working so well” with the fan base. How do you step in and stop Lil Peep from eating Xanax on Instagram posts?

In a situation like this, someone should have stepped in. It was too wide open. Too blatant.

Unless this was the intent all along.

The way people have reacted with an almost celebratory tone. The countless “shout outs bro” and the cavalier way death is handle by today’s kids via social media is chilling. Everything has become less real. Dead is dead. It’s real. It’s not a “shout out bro” type of event.

Overdose and suicide go hand and hand. Lil’ “Peep” was open about his suicidal thinking. Today suicide is the second leading cause of “injury death” just behind “overdose”. How many of these “overdoses” were actually suicides? Maybe not in the classic sense but in a “I don’t care if I live or die” sense?

Either way, we have a major cultural problem on our hands. We have a clear sea change around issues of overdose and suicide. The shock value has worn off. These events have become “normalized” within today’s social landscaped. In some ways these events are even celebrated by the “shout out Bro” culture.

We are going to have to dig deep and face this issue head on. We are going to need to meet these kids and young adults on their terms and on their playing fields. We are going to have to sell them on recovery and on life. Whether we like it or not.

Or we can go on with the same old approach and just watch the destruction of an entire generation.

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