In the outpouring of cultural grief that followed the death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, a lot has been written about the tragic nature of his seemingly drug-associated death. Some beautiful writing has eulogised the guy and his achievements with a sensitive deal with to his struggle with his known disease – that of addiction.
Addiction is an sickness that both kills most of these who have it, and traumatises any who really like or reside with its sufferers. To say it’s a harsh expertise doesn’t even get started to cover it, for its signs are not constrained to its physical horrors – sweats, shits, insomnia, vomits, nausea, embolisms, oedemas, instability and consistent infections – but also its mutilations of character. The narcissism of people in thrall to the obsession of chemical need to have – so overpowering that it recruits absolutely everyone close to the addict into supplying the drug or facilitating its use – comes at a price of each class in the human experience social, emotional, sexual, economic.
I use the word “drug” as a catch-all for the several any different substances that feed addiction, of program there are addicts of all sorts, all close to us. The food addict, the gambling addict, the intercourse addict, the debt addict – all are caught in a equivalent chemical cycle of want, pursuit and withdrawal, as well as the psychological torture of shame and remorse that, in addiction’s sickest twist, create the psychological justification to excuse, just one much more time, the use of the drug for relief.
Merely put, addiction is unsightly. However what the evolution of the huge fellowships of the recovery community that began with Alcoholics Anonymous have taught us is that the cruel behaviour of the addict is the syndrome of the ailment, not the instinct of the human getting underneath it.
Even so, media discussion of addiction so often falls into the old tropes of addiction: that it is an individual’s personal weakness, or a failure of willpower or self-control. Combine this stigmatising judgment with observable anti-social behaviour and the character of any suffering addict emerges in the popular consciousness as a hate-worthy monster.
Now that Philip Seymour Hoffman is dead, the protocol of eulogy pities his illness. The residing are not so fortunate. Witness what happened this week to Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe.
Now, contrary to reviews, Ian Thorpe did not enter rehab this week for alcohol addiction but for depression. The swimmer – whose attempted sporting comeback was prevented by a shoulder damage – is recovering from surgical procedure, and taking a blend of painkillers and anti-depressants. The presumption that Thorpe was being taken care of for alcohol abuse is derived from his trustworthy admission in an autobiography last yr of “drinking too much” to fight depression, and also that he was found by police this week in a disoriented state, attempting to enter a vehicle that wasn’t his.
The incident has been splashed across the media for days, but none of it exposes Thorpe has an alcoholic. Most importantly, it truly is also none of anyone’s business what his certain overall health concerns are. The stage is, Thorpe is clearly unwell and in search of remedy to turn into effectively.
What’s truly been exposed is that every single individual who is struggling with an addiction and who’s watched the character assassination of Thorpe at his most vulnerable now has legitimate factors to worry getting publicly demonised. The old tropes of character weakness and personal failure might be stale, but they are palpable and they are all over the place. Thorpe might not really be an addict, but his treatment method by a media who believed that he was a single is shameful.
What’s extraordinary is that it has been acknowledged by the broader neighborhood for decades that any addict who will take steps in direction of recovery have to do so with minimal interference in purchase to obtain the very best likelihood of overcoming their illness. The dead giveaway is that the word “Anonymous” appears as half of the name of all the fellowships that exist to nurture and help addicts in the direction of wellness.
Addicts go into the recovery communities so they can progress in the direction of wellness free of charge of judgment and stigma, unburdened by the shame and remorse that habitually inspires them to keep utilizing. By hounding Thorpe so invasively and publicly this week, the message sent to each suffering addict is that not only is their problem monstrous, their attempts at rehabilitation will be met with public dissection, comprehensive exposure and ongoing humiliation.
I only hope the focus does not ruin Thorpe, for it is guaranteed to ensure the destruction of many a lot more Philip Seymour Hoffmans.
The hounding of Ian Thorpe sends a catastrophic message | Van Vadham
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