by Bill

We’ve all seen it.  A celebrity falls victim to the effects of addiction and gets trashed in the press.  Is there any empathy?  Noooo…  Are there any attempts to use this as an introduction into the dangers of alcohol and drugs?  Noooo…  Because such things don’t sell, and they don’t get clicks — and clicks, as we all know, are money in the bank.

Another thing that bothers me when people start trashing celebrity alcoholics and addicts is that it indicates, half a century after alcoholism and addiction were recognized officially as diseases, that as a society we still view them as an issue of morals.  And it seems that most of us enjoy seeing icons brought down, speaking more to our character than that of the icons.

In my opinion, this is because nearly all of us have had our lives touched by addiction, and have experienced the chaos that addicts carry and leave behind them the way a tornado carries dust and debris.   Continue reading →