By now, everyone who knows of Amy Winehouse is aware of her tragic death. I’ve always liked her music. So much music these days has been digitally processed and reprocessed, and assaults the senses– I’m thinking of Lady Gaga, for example, whose ‘Edge of Glory’ would be pretty boring in concert if you took away the flashing lights. But Amy Winehouse’s music had an earthy, sultry style that communicated her emotions in a way that words can’t… which is why we even listen to music, at least in my case.
Every now and then I’ll meet a person coming in for help who has an addiction that seems to be almost part of a death wish, as if the person is taking agent after agent with one goal: to eliminate any sense of consciousness or emotion. It is as if life is too painful for the person to tolerate, and the person won’t stop until the brain is finally quiet. I sometimes think that those people would club themselves in the head until they are unconsciousness, if psychotropic drugs were not available! I had that same thought when I read that Amy Winehouse had purchased a grab-bag of drugs including heroin, cocaine, and ketamine in the days before her death.
When I set out to right tonight’s blog I planned on including her picture. But when I went on Google images and searched under her name, I found a number of ‘before and after’ images that demonstrated the horrible toll that drug and alcohol dependence took on her health and physical appearance. The images were so bad that I felt very sad for her and for her family, and I couldn’t bring myself to post them here– as doing so would be ‘piling on’ a horrible tragedy.
I searched around for a suitable tribute, and I think I found one. Her personal, internal battle is apparent in the video, and I’m sorry that she wasn’t able to find a way to tolerate life.
Enjoy the music that she left behind:
Addiction
More Methadone, If WE Can Profit From It.
A short holiday post today. Reading my newsfeed I came across an article by Jason Kletter, President of BayMark Health Services, complaining about Section 4 of the proposed Opioid Treatment Act that would allow pharmacies Read more…
4 Comments
Matt2 · July 31, 2011 at 2:41 pm
R.I.P. Amy Winehouse. I hope your suffering is finally over.
gabagool · April 12, 2012 at 3:10 pm
This….I don’t understand….WHY must a person ALWAYS be “suffering” when they abuse, become addicted and DIE from drug abuse….REALLY, WHY can’t it simply be…..Hey, i was happy BEFORE I took drugs, when I took them, I was happIER, which is better than happy.
Then, once we know how much better happIER is than just plain happy, some of us what that feeling all the time, and boom, hello addiction.
I think…..EVERYONE is suffering when the ARE addicted, but NOT everyone is suffereing BEFORE….does that make sense??
SuboxDoc · August 20, 2012 at 6:56 pm
I suppose that some people enjoyed the ride longer than others. For me, the enjoyable feelings from the chemical were offset, fairly early in my addiction, by the feeling of being trapped by something I couldn’t stop. The relief from withdrawal was certainly about the best experience in the world…. but if I hadn’t picked up, I wouldn’t have been sick in the first place. But I hear you; the subjective effects of opioids are powerfully pleasant. I can’t say, though, that the trade-off was worth it.
seekingserenity · August 31, 2012 at 3:43 pm
I only really enjoyed the beginning of my addiction. The fun party phase. Before I really had to lie cheat and steal. Before I had pushed away all the good people in my life. Even when I did get relief from withdrawal I wasn’t really happy, just comftorable and content for that fleeting moment.
We lost an amazing soul when Amy Winehouse died. I really hate that there are so many bad articles out there about her.