On Addiction.

I felt inspired to write a post about this after finding a new found respect for Russell Brand after he wrote this.

The reaction to Amy Winehouses’s death has shocked me.

Firstly, just because people are upset about her death, does not mean they are any less upset or compassionate about the people in Norway. Both of these things are tragedies, different kinds, yes, but you can be upset by more than one thing at a time. When people can put a name and a character to a death, they are more affected by it. That's all it is really. It’s dealing with human mortality. It's easier as humans to distance ourselves from nameless deaths. It's probably just a coping mechanism to deal with the amount of tragedy in the world. Can you imagine the world if we all got incredibly emotional about every tragedy? It would be a constant state of depression for everyone; I doubt anyone would leave the house.

Secondly, I am utterly shocked at those who say she had it coming, deserved it or make jokes about her. I don't think we should be sad that she died because she was famous (although she was an amazing musician, and her contribution to that shall be missed), we should be sad because a person of only 27 died because she couldn't over-come an addiction. I feel sad for anyone who dies because they couldn't overcome an addiction. I think it’s sad anyone dies before their time, whether due to not being able to control their personal life, or through no say of their own.

It shows the complete lack of empathy or understanding people have around depression or addiction and other than making me feel sick, it also just makes me feel sad. Nobody chooses to be an addict and the most kind, generous or sweet person can become selfish through addiction. Addiction is a complex, life changing thing. It doesn’t make them a bad person – it just means that that is their great struggle in life. Everyone struggles with different parts of life, as fellow humans we need to help those that we can, and when someone seems to reject help, rather than label them as selfish or deserving of whatever they get – we should be able to feel sadness that someone couldn’t over-come something that in the end, over-powered them.

We are all human, we all have our downfalls, the least we can do for others is feel compassion. It's too easy to judge. I’m pretty sure no one is perfect, so let’s all get off our moral high horse and create a better human race with more understanding – it never hurt anyone to try.