RIP Amy Winehouse

Hurt is at the center of any addiction.

I say that as a person who has lost a family member to drugs and who probably drinks too much.

 

Not sure why this has to be an "either-or" type of situation, viewed strictly in black and white terms.

The late Ms. Whitehouse was responsible for her own behavior. Like my father, older brother and millions of others who have knowingly ingested substances that would cause them harm, she is obviously not an innocent victim. Especially when compared to a good friend of mine who never smoked or drank, but got cancer and died at 21.

At the same time, this was a talented human being -- how talented is up for debate, based on this thread -- who from the public's perspective should've had every reason to live and yet was unable to avoid taking actions that most likely led directly to her own demise.

To me, it's sad when someone dies young. Cause, circumstances, blame ... all just shades of gray, IMHO.

I don't see what any of us gain by being so hard-ass about situations like this and not allowing for even a couple moments of quiet empathy from one flawed human to another.

 

The idea that addiction is a black and white issue between personal choice and environment/genetics/biology/personality are taking a simplistic view of the entire subject. Do we have any clinical psychologists here at sj?

This study from the American Psychiatric Association is a pretty good summary of the complexity of the problem.

http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/53/6/707

Factors that affect personal responsibility in addictive diseases include awareness of the problem, knowledge of a genetic predisposition, understanding of addictive processes, comorbid psychiatric or medical conditions, adequacy of the support network, nature of the early environment, degree of tolerance of substance abuse in the sociocultural context, and the availability of competent psychiatric, medical, and chemical dependency treatment


Worth reading.

 

I hate to be cruel here. I really do. But she was warned as far back as 2008 and as recently as May of this year that she was going to die if she didn't quit drugs and, surprise, she didn't quit.

So, no, I have no sympathy for her. She knew the consequences and chose to go forward anyway.

And, apparently, her family was more than ready for yesterday's news.

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/stopthepresses/392230/amy-winehouses-slow-fade-five-years-of-fallowness/

 

The only thing I can add to this excellent point is that it's always amusing to read posts from people who go to such great lengths to note how little they really care about the topic at hand. :

RIP Amy.

 

Some thoughts from Dave Bidini, a damn good writer and musician:

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/07/24/dave-bidini-too-many-people-told-amy-winehouse-what-she-was-doing-was-okay/

 

Two thoughts here, both valid for some: First, let's hope she is now at peace. But on the other hand, her death gives us One less Freak Show contestant to have to be publicly exposed to.

 

Russell Brand was able to overcome his personal demons, but Amy wasn't. That simple.
Our local radio talkmeister went on a long anti-Winehouse rant this morning. I agree with the poster above that the weekend's events in Norway were a larger tragedy, but this host's political sympathies are pretty much in line with the mass murderer, so he had to set that aside.

 

That's like one less bucket of water in the ocean man.

 

Russell Brand was 27 when he went to rehab. Not that simple.

I have no idea WTF the thought process was that went into the rest of that post.

 

Yeah, that was just a bunch of rambling. Also, here's Brand on Winehouse: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jul/24/russell-brand-amy-winehouse-woman.

I'm not his biggest fan, and that piece could certainly use some editing help, but I thought this was generally well-said by him.

 

Yeah, I read that Brand piece yesterday, and I agree it was generally well-said. Terrier's post immediately made me think that Brand would disagree with the "that simple" assertion.