True or false: hitting rock bottom’s pretty much a prerequisite for entering recovery?
If you ask 100 people this question, you’re going to get 100 different answers…except when it comes to celebrities.
Oprah, Anthony Kiedis, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Downey Jr, Courtney Love (though there’s debate if she’s still sober), Bradley Cooper, and the list goes on and on.
It seems like being in the public eye 24/7, having millions of dollars in disposable income, feeling above the law, and in some cases actually being above the law – it seems like these factors all conspire to form the perfect storm of substance abuse.
And so it becomes the only way for many celerities to get sober is through hitting a very ugly, and very public, rock bottom.
Enter Lindsay Lohan
The latest name to grace the list of celebrities who need to get sober is none other than Lindsay Lohan. Once a beloved Disney star, Lindsay’s been through her fair share of public embarrassments.
Consider the following headlines surrounding Lindsay’s substance abuse:
- Lindsay Lohan Caught on Camera ‘Injecting Heroin’
- Lindsay Lohan: Cocaine And Pills Almost Killed Me
- Lindsay Lohan’s Probation Revoked After Failed Drug Test
Not to mention she’s been to rehab 5 times and spent a total of 250 days in some sort of treatment program. She’s been in court 20 times, before four separate judges, been to jail 6 times, and been arrested for just about everything under the sun (DUI’s to possession of drugs to shoplifting). She’s also been on house arrest and done community service.
It looks like Lindsay’s due, overdue in fact, for her personal rock bottom.
We’re Sitting Here Watching
Does anyone else find it disturbing that we – you, me, our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and friends – have been watching Lindsay Lohan self-destruct?
We’ve treated her downward spiral like entertainment. We’ve cracked jokes at her expense. We’ve brushed off very real concerns about her health by laughing and thinking “oh, that’s just what celebrities do.”
All of which is to say we’ve been complicit in her course towards rock bottom. If Lindsay’s bottom ends in her death, as so many addicts’ bottoms do, then we’ve been complicit in her death.
Seem extreme? Maybe it is. I mean, no one reading this put a bottle to her lips or a straw up her nose. No one told her to get behind the wheel of a car drunk. No one told her to violate probation.
But we’ve been watching, like we do with almost all celebrity addictions, and getting some sort of sick joy from her struggles.
Why is that? After all, if Lindsay was a family member or close friend, if she was someone we knew personally, we’d probably stop at nothing to make sure she got help.
Why Do We Love to Watch Lindsay Self Destruct?
That’s the million-dollar question and, unfortunately, I don’t have an answer. I can’t seem to come up with any reason why we love watching celebrities like Lindsay Lohan fade into addiction.
I can offer a few thoughts – maybe we’re jealous of celebrities, of their wealth, power, and lives of luxury. Maybe we’re so jealous that we want to see them burn. I hope this isn’t the case…but it very well might be.
Maybe we like to see celebrities humanized. They’re so often larger than life figures, unreal, God-like almost. Maybe we like to see that they’re human after all and struggle with the same issues we do.
Maybe we’re deep in the era of clickbait and gossip sites understand us better than we understand ourselves. We click and read because some editor has spent hours crafting the perfect headline that won’t let us look away.
Maybe our culture’s deeply misogynistic and we love to see women in power fail. I hope this isn’t the case. It also doesn’t account for why we’re fascinated when male celebrities struggle with substance abuse.
Maybe, maybe, maybe. Maybe the cause doesn’t ultimately matter and it’s more important to focus on what we should be doing instead. Maybe it’s time to look at what positive actions we should be taking to help famous addicts and drunks.
How to Help Lindsay & Other Famous Addicts
There are only two things that normal people can do to help famous addicts and alcoholics. We can continue to talk about addiction and recovery openly – helping to break the stigma surrounding substance abuse – and we can treat them like any other person.
Those sound almost too simple, right? You mean we can help Lindsay Lohan just by treating her like our one nephew who couldn’t stop drinking?
Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.
You don’t glorify it when a loved one gets arrested. You don’t watch your friend’s overdose on TV. You don’t read about your significant other’s probation online.
Now, this might seem counterintuitive to the first point – talking openly about addiction and recovery. It isn’t, trust me.
In year’s past, the addicts and alcoholics of a family were swept under the rug. Oh, Jimmy? He’s away getting some help. Let’s change the subject. How are you? That was the extent of any conversation about drugs and alcohol.
Thankfully, that’s no longer the case today. Twelve-step fellowships like AA and advocacy organizations like Faces & Voices of Recovery have worked tirelessly to help substance abuse and recovery be seen in a new light.
Let’s continue what they’ve started.
When you pair that with everything else mentioned above, well, there’s real hope of ending our collective addiction to watching celebrities suffer. Let’s just hope it’s not too late.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons
