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Let the mythmaking begin.
It's barely been a day since Whitney Houston's body was discovered in a hotel room in Los Angeles.
It's been barely a day since she's gone and people are attempting to turn her into a saint, which she wasn't. They are blaming her former husband Bobby Brown for her terrible descent into drug addiction. They are asking why, why, why didn't anyone help this obviously troubled woman?
There are no simple answers.
Whitney Houston had an incredible talent, a voice so pure and crystalline it gave people goosebumps when she hit her unbelievable high notes. She truly had a gift from God.
That gift is forever gone now. But truth be told, her stunning voice died years ago, stolen by drugs. Anyone who watched her "comeback" on Good Morning America in 2009 can see the ravages of cocaine abuse when she rasped out a song. At one point during the performance, the camera pans on Houston's mother, Cissy, a star in her own right.
Her mother is not smiling. You can see the sadness on her face as she listens to what is left of her daughter's once-beautiful voice.
No, wacky Bobby Brown, her former husband, did not kill Whitney Houston.
The pressures of stardom did not kill Whitney Houston.
Addiction killed Whitney Houston. Pure and simple. It sank its claws into her early in her young life and apparently never let go.
When the headline flashed across my computer screen late yesterday, I was stunned. I think what affected me the most was her age—48.
I lost two younger sisters to addiction. Susan died at 48. She died of liver cancer, which developed after years of cirrhosis. Her once lithe body was swollen with fluid. She had hallucinations due to the high level of ammonia in her system. She died a miserable death.
Mary died at 39. The baby who came into this world two months early grew into a woman with her own drug demons. At one point she was so sick from pancreatitis she could not eat and went down to 77 pounds. And still she kept drinking. She drank until she died of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage in 2001. She left behind a heartbroken 15-year-old daughter.
And all the pleading and begging them to get help and go to rehab did not work. Addiction is cunning, baffling and powerful. And unless a person surrenders to the illness and decides to get well in whatever way they choose, they will die.
I'm sure Cissy Houston spent many years with her heart in her throat, waiting for the terrible call, which eventually came. There was nothing she could have done to save her daughter.
Many people say it all comes down to choice - you can chose to be an addict and you can choose to get well. I think for a time there is a window when a person can choose. But there also comes a time when the person loses the ability to choose and the addiction takes over.
And even if the coroner's report states that no drugs were found in Whitney Houston's system, it doesn't matter. The drugs did their damage. Addiction killed her.
I prefer to remember the Whitney Houston of the mid-1980s, so beautiful, at the beginning of her stardom. I liked her best in her video "How Will I Know?"
Rest in peace, Whitney. Thank you for your music. You left this world way too soon.
carel katzke
12:51 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
True words!!! Addiction is a killer, I can only say that the only one who can really help is Jesus Christ and having a relationship with Him. I know I was there.
Mattie
1:17 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
My best friend of 40 years is also spiraling to her death due to addiction. Alcohol is ravaging her body. She is 53 yrs old and most likely will not last 2 more years.
Alcohol has robbed her of her health, as well as her career, her home, her husband and many friendships along the way.
Three long, dangerously close to death hospital stays in as many years has not been able to convince her to stop drinking. She comes out of the hospital after a few weeks, stone cold sober -- but then it all starts with "just a little glass of red wine with dinner...." Within a few weeks or so, she's drinking at 10:30 in the morning. It breaks my heart.
But here's the thing; why don't we consider alcoholics "criminals"? Why isn't alcoholism considered "evil" and "dangerous" and why aren't alcoholics viewed as "scumbags" or "losers"?
For the simple reason our society has chosen to allow alcohol to be LEGAL.
I don't know why it's OK to demonize OTHER drugs, and criminalize those people by making their choice to do drugs (just like the choice to drink) Illegal. With the exception of Marijuana, drugs are not better than alcohol, but certainly not worse. Alcoholics are offered treatment and support groups and no one gets "busted" for drinking in their own home- even if it's to excess. Addicts don't belong in jail, they belong in TREATMENT. Pot smokers don't belong in jail, only away from work, and away from driving, that's it. This ridiculous "war on drugs" must end.
Bricktown Lew
6:37 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
Mattie, it is so easy to downplay alcohol. I think it's simply because one can buy alcoholic beverages and we have so many liquor stores here and unfortunately, more on the way. However, Mattie, not everyone here thinks alcohol as harmless. Personally, to me alcohol is anything but harmless. Anytime someone has "a few drinks" and steps into their car impaired or drunk they are committing a crime and putting themselves and others at risk. It should rank high in the danger area like all other drugs are. Marijuana is something that really scares me very much because it is taken so lightly. Since the term "Medical Marijuana" has come into play, it has become much more popular...especially with kids. That is a fact. The reason why pot scares me is having to share the road with impaired drivers high on pot as well as drunk people because they downplay it like alcohol. That's a scary ride!
Mattie
7:16 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
@ Bricktown Lew;
I'm not sure, but I think you might have missed my point, Lew. I *Agree* that alcohol is VERY dangerous. Very dangerous, very addictive and very damaging. My friend is literally dying because of alcohol. But we don't treat alcoholics as "criminals". We don't throw them into jail, we don't bust them in their homes, we ALLOW them to make the choice to drink, even after they have become alcoholics / addicts. It is only when they break the laws that protect OTHERS from them (DWI laws, public drunkenness laws, under-age drinking laws, etc) that they are arrested, or ticketed or thrown in jail.
My point is that's how it should be for ALL drugs... don't criminalize people with problems or addictions. Throwing them in jail doesn't help them at all. If they choose to do drugs, (like they can choose to do alcohol) away from any potential harm to others, (no driving, no public intoxication, stealing to get drugs, etc) there is no moral or ethical reason to bust into their homes and throw them in jail. Society's time and money would be better spent making treatment centers cheap and available everywhere to HELP addicts. Treating them as criminals doesn't do anyone any good in the long run. We all know how addictive and damaging alcohol is, and yet it's legal.
I think we need to take the same tact with all drugs. We need to "manage the drug problem", not try to win it.
Sharon L
2:50 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
How well I know addiction. I lost my daughter at 14 years old and she is 25 now. I don't know who she is. There will never be shopping, cruises or anything else that mothers and daughters do. She has a child that I have custody of and she tries her best. It was herion and now its methadone and whatever else she can do. Methadone clinic is useless
Mattie
7:19 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
Sharon, do you believe sitting in jail for a few months would really help her? Do you think she'd come out all cured and never go back to any drugs again? It wouldn't. Methadone isn't useless... it keeps people alive. May not cure them, but they are alive and managing their addiction as best as they can, short of stopping.
NJ785
3:10 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
A very well written article, "Spot On" !!!
Brick resident82
7:43 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
Its very sad when any one die's of drugs and alcohol but sometimes people have to take responsibility for there actions..And if they take drugs or drink to there death, they made that decision and choose that path of life..I've known many who have gone down that road and not only killed themselves but destroyed there families and also had children follow in there foot steps..I'm I sad about the loss of Whitney Houston ..well she was a super star in the eighties and married a drug attic and her life went down hill quickly..So no I'm not she choose that life and live by our decisions ..She made a wrong one ..!!
ParentM
7:49 am on Monday, February 13, 2012
@NJ785 - agreed! Good article! Too many addicts today. So much money to be made for these rehabs. Ever think that maybe the addict is set up for failure? "Expect relapses"..?? Addiction, I believe, in most cases, starts at home. Parents to to teach coping skills to their kids. NOT taking care of everything FOR them. AND..a pill doesn't fix the problem. !ad economy but Pharm cos., liquor stores/bars, casinos and rehabs are raking in the bucks these days.If you have a kid with OCD, ADHD, or any other acronym, don't fool yourselves into thinking that a pill is the all cure. Try DIET! And teach them about addiction at a very young age. Teach them about the addiction "gene". Teach them that the one and only time, the first time, could be there demise.Teach them how to solve their own problems and accept the downs of life along with the ups. Look at this town alone. Drugs rampid! So many 20 somethings drug addicted with full blown enabling parents. No taking responsibility for these young adults. AND WAKE UP PEOPLE. 20 SOMETHING YEAR OLDS ARE NOT "KIDS". THEY ARE ADULTS!!!
RIP Whitney and may God bless your daughter. Pray that she can survive this tragedy and walk the opposite path of her mother.
sue
7:32 pm on Monday, February 13, 2012
I think that for every 5 people out there, at least 4 of us know someone with an "addiction". Bottom line, I feel that you can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped. It has to be up to them. All we can do is be there when they need us and pray. God knows that Whitney Houston tried many a time to beat this monkey on her back. I just pray her daughter grows stronger from this...as for her X husband, he was the one that got her addicted in the beginning and there is a place for him too!
barbara Torres
7:34 am on Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Perfectly written...