Whitney Houston’s Star Sparkles One Last Time

Whitney Houston’s final performance will bow Friday with the opening of her movie Sparkle. It has been 5 months since the 48 year old singer/actress died, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner, as a result of “drowning and effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use.” Whitney’s battles with cocaine abuse were revealed in her 2002 interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer.

The tragedy of Whitney Houston’s death still hurts, not just because I’m a fan but also because like her I am an addict. I accept the fact that I am an addict today. It was hard to accept at first. It was not what I, my parents, children, or friends thought I would become but the fact is it is what I am. Addiction is a disease. I know that now. I didn’t when I was in active addiction. I was in denial which is a symptom of this disease. For years I fought my addiction thinking I could stop, coming up with all manner of reasons why I shouldn’t. I, like Whitney, fought hard to hide what I was doing because also like her I lived in the public’s eye. I was a television news anchor working in some of the nations major cities.

Eventually I could not hide what I was doing or face what it was doing to me. I said addiction is a disease. This is not my contention. This is how it’s classified by the American Medical Association. It is now also part of a dual diagnosis with depression. I suffered from both and didn’t know it. Depression is the real silent killer. You know something isn’t right but you don’t know how to describe it to the doctor. You eventually learn using mind altering substances help you to feel better. However they also cause greater problems. It was described like this to me when I was in treatment. Depression in most cases causes addiction. People without addiction have 2 buttons in their brain, a green go button and a red stop button. People with addiction only have a green go button. Once they start they can’t stop. What’s even worse it’s a progressive disease. Without treatment the ends are always the same, jails, institutions or death.

My disease went unchecked for years. I had periods of clean time but the disease of addiction always came back when something brought my depression to the forefront, and it came back worse. It finally led me to attempt suicide and it was only then that I got the help I needed. I was hospitalized and diagnosed with major depression and addiction. I was still in denial but the doctors would not accept my attempts to manipulate them. They put me on an anti depressant and amazingly after about 4 days I had a “moment of clarity.” I was able to see for the first time in my life I was an addict. Addicts don’t fit the typical view most of us have, of the people living under bridges, in dirty clothes, using needles. Many addicts are just like me, functioning in society and hiding in plain sight.

The anti depressants helped me get out of denial of what was wrong with me and education about this disease of the mind helped me learn how to maintain recovery from it.

I don’t know the circumstances as they relate to Whitney’s private life except those I‘ve read about, but I can tell you being in the public’s eye, living in a glass house can be a challenge if you are suffering from this disease. You may appear to be happy and on top of the world but it’s mostly an act. Even those closest to you can’t help if they don’t know the underlying reasons behind the addiction.

Blacks are much less likely to be diagnosed with depression or other mental illnesses than whites. That means they are also much less likely to be treated. In most cases the higher up the ladder you are the better you are at hiding your problem. You do that out of fear of losing what you have because of the stigma associated with it. That too makes it less likely you will get help until it’s too late.

I was lucky to get help when I did. That’s why Whitney’s death had such an impact on me. Today I am clean and in recovery but what happened to Whitney could have happened to me, and it IS HAPPENING to so many others whose names don’t get world wide or even local news coverage.

I hope and pray as we go to see her final film, “Sparkle“, and remember the events of Saturday February 11th 2012 we will not only think about this woman whose voice touched the hearts of millions over the world, but also use her tragic death to learn more about the diseases of depression and addiction. Let’s take them out of the shadows and into the light. Let’s remove the social stigma associated to them. Let’s do something besides mourn those we’ve lost and use their sacrifice to help those still fighting for their lives even if they don’t know it.

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•    More than 24 million US residents aged 12 or older are currently suffering from drug addiction, yet only 10 percent of these individuals will receive help from a professional treatment facility.
•    Approximately 24 percent of all 10th graders have used marijuana at least once in the past year.
•    More than six percent of all Americans aged 16 to 25 have engaged in non-medical use of prescription drugs in the past month.
•    Each year, more than 20,000 individuals die as a result of illicit drug use.
•    In the past 20 years, the number of people with drug addictions in the United States has increased by more than 500 percent.

Source: rehabinfo.net