Miscellaneous Celebrity News

[Stargazer]

Originally Posted by Critical

I'm sure people will now come out and make statements about how Heath did it to himself. He was obviously in a lot of turmoil and certainly didn't intend to die and leave his family and his daughter. It's a tragedy for all involved.

Sorry, Critical, but I think its clear that he was a drug addict. My ex was hooked on four of the six drugs that was in Heath's system. They are drugs that crooked doctors all over the country give their patients like candy, but they are only supposed to be for serious pain management. Unless Heath had terminal cancer or some horribly painful disease that we're unaware of, there's no way he should have been taking Oxycontin. I'm not taking away from the fact that its a tragedy for everyone. He was a gifted actor and had a beautiful family and child. I'm sure that he didn't mean to die and thought he knew what he was doing. However, the tragedy was that he was a drug addict that killed himself through drug abuse. The medical examiner even said that he died because of the "abuse" of prescription medications. To me, that's no accident. That's a result of drug abuse, plain and simple.

[Google]

 

[Critical]

Star, what I meant is that, when someone dies from drug abuse, people tend to be unsympathetic and say the person deserved it.

[Stargazer]

Ah, I see. Sorry to misunderstand, Crit. I actually feel great sympathy for people that get mixed up with drugs. They seem so pitifully drawn to the thing that is killing them. Its something I guess I'll never understand, but prescription drugs have certainly ended many promising lives, even when they don't kill. My heart especially goes out to Michelle and her daughter, who probably witnessed the beginnings of his spiral into drug abuse.

[buglover]

It's just sad all the way around. Being a recovering addict of prescription meds, I have first hand knowledge that even an innocent start from a fall or headaches can spiral into addiction that never seems to end. I am one of the lucky people who managed to do it on my own, however so many others have trouble especially when doctors hand them out for the slightest thing. RIP Heath.

[Krom]

Originally Posted by Nemeses

There certainly has been an influx of celebs checking themselves into psych wards and psychiactric hospitals the past month or so. The latest is Delta Burke, who checked herself in due to depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and 'hoarding'. I love Delta Burke, so I wish her the best. And she's got one of the best husbands in the world on her side.

The key phrase here is "checked herself in". That makes a big difference.

Originally Posted by jacobson00

ok, i might sound ignorant or stupid but he had everything going for him, what is there to be depressed about. If you are working too much, turn down a role and go on vacation.

I am tired of rich people saying they are depressed.

anyway, GOd bless his soul, i really loved him

I'm torn on this. On one hand, I don't think depression is a choice for most people, and certainly its not dependent on their personal income.

On the other hand, if you look at the chemical soup they've listed running in Ledger's veins... that part of it seems to have some element of choice. Depressed people aren't children--there's impaired judgment but there's still judgment.

The combination seems to be between mood calmers, sleep aids, and pain killers. Any of which individually might not seem all that abusive. But all of them on top of each other? I know they were all prescribed, but if someone's getting THAT much medicine, it makes me wonder why they aren't being taken care of more directly in some kind of treatment program. And NOT being is such seems like its probably a judgment made by them too, I mean unless they got a real bum deal of a doctor.

I almost wish this list of what was in his veins hadn't come out. But I guess we've got to face the fact that we live in a world where that stuff always does, and obviously it could have been worse if he'd had cocaine or heroin or something else chasing all of that.

[prhoshay]

Who's to say that all of the drugs were prescribed by the same doctor? Unless a patient is forthcoming, a doctor will not know what another doctor has prescribed. Wonder if the prescriptions were all filled by the same pharmacy?

This is sad, but not surprising.

[Stargazer]

Krom, what I discovered (to my horror at the time) was that there are any number of doctors that will write a prescription just because a patient asks for it. I know that not all doctors are like this, but there are plenty out there that don't give a damn what is wrong with the patient or what they've already been prescribed. I don't know if its laziness or the kickbacks they might get from pharmaceutical companies, but I do know that there are no shortage of doctors that will write a prescription without cause and without research into the patient's medical history.

[Leo]

Originally Posted by Stargazer

Krom, what I discovered (to my horror at the time) was that there are any number of doctors that will write a prescription just because a patient asks for it. I know that not all doctors are like this, but there are plenty out there that don't give a damn what is wrong with the patient or what they've already been prescribed. I don't know if its laziness or the kickbacks they might get from pharmaceutical companies, but I do know that there are no shortage of doctors that will write a prescription without cause and without research into the patient's medical history.

Hang on. Isn't this the sort of behavior that gets licenses revoked?

[AJane]

Originally Posted by Stargazer

Krom, what I discovered (to my horror at the time) was that there are any number of doctors that will write a prescription just because a patient asks for it. I know that not all doctors are like this, but there are plenty out there that don't give a damn what is wrong with the patient or what they've already been prescribed. I don't know if its laziness or the kickbacks they might get from pharmaceutical companies, but I do know that there are no shortage of doctors that will write a prescription without cause and without research into the patient's medical history.

I knew someone who was addicted to painkillers (initially prescribed after a car accident) and his doctor continued to prescribe them for years afterwards, even though he was physically healed. The doctor only gets in trouble if a patient complains to their professional association. But drug addicts are unlikely to report their dealer, right?

Another way it can happen is that a patient will see a doctor for something like insomnia, and get a prescription. Maybe they take a few pills, and they don't work, so he returns and gets a new prescription, and then another one. Also, insomnia can make you crazy, for lack of a better term. If you haven't slept for days and days on end, it's not hard to imagine being in such a desperate state that you end up taking a fistful of meds just to get some relief.

[burntbrat]

I have been prescribed painkillers that I didn't need, more than once, by more than one doctor. I seem to be a magnet for Vicodin (?) prescriptions that I never fill. I may have a high threshold for pain, but there's no excuse for the lazy way that doctor's have prescribed pain meds for something that could easily be managed by a tylenol. I'm not sure who's to blame here. I don't think the docs get kickbacks, especially when they allow generic substitutions. I know that some people really need these pain meds, but maybe doctors are so jaded by complaining patients that they give in without much of a fuss. That's why I love it when I find a doctor or dentist who is reluctant to write prescriptions.