Regular readers will know that I'm a teensy bit obsessed with celebrity drinkers.
(See my post on Celebrity Drinkers)
Celebrity drinkers do a great job of publicising the dangers of alcohol addiction. Plus, they have a habit of being just like us but more so, which, I find, makes me feel an awful lot better about my past misdemeanours.
One thing that winds me up, however, is the tendency of the media to portray celeb alkies as 'tortured artists', and their alcohol addiction as a totally understandable side effect of their talents.
We mere mortals, however, hide behind our pseudonyms and our excuses ("I'm on antibiotics") as we know that we'll be seen as weak willed, sad case losers.
Anyhow, the latest celeb lush in the news is Charlie Sheen, who's just come out as HIV positive (which he describes, with lyrical understatement, as "three hard letters to absorb").
It now transpires that Charlie Sheen's public meltdown, and drink and drugs rampage back in 2011, was a reaction to his diagnosis.
Two weeks ago I posted about dealing with crises, and how easy it is to spiral from High Functioning Alcohol Addict to Low Bottom Drunk (see When Life Throws You Lemons). What better illustration of this than Charlie Sheen!
And Charlie really has done everything that we have times one hundred.
Has alcohol affected your relationships? Well, Charlie has been married and divorced three times, and many of his relationships have combusted amid allegations of, and arrests for, substance abuse and assault. He was, for example, engaged to Kelly Preston until he accidentally shot her in the arm (as one does).
Have you spent a fortune on your addiction? Well, in addition to the millions Charlie must have spent on drink and drugs, he also confessed in 1995 to spending $50,000 on prostitutes, and in 2010 was arrested for causing $7,000 of damage to his Plaza Hotel suite.
Were you an expert at denial, at convincing yourself that you didn't really have a problem? Well check out these quotes from our friend Charlie:
I'm different. I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man. Dying's for fools, dying's for amateurs.
The only thing I'm addicted to is winning. This bootleg cult, arrogantly referred to as Alcoholics Anonymous, reports a 5 percent success rate. My success rate is 100 percent.
Mmmm.
So, has Charlie finally sobered up? Hell no.
He has, he claims, quit taking drugs, but he's "still drinking, a little bit." What's the betting that Charlie's "little bit" is our "all night bender"?
Charlie's doctor - Dr Robert Huizenga - is, apparently, more concerned about his drinking than his HIV status. He says "My biggest concern, with Charlie as a patient, is substance abuse and depression from the disease, more than the HIV virus in terms of shortening his life, because it's not going to."
When asked if he planned to quit drinking, Charlie replied "perhaps the freedom of today might lead to (not drinking) as well," which sounds like wishful thinking rather than total commitment!
Charlie, Charlie, come and join us at Mummy Was a Secret Drinker. You know it makes sense....
Love SM x
Thankyou for making me laugh!! And again, you write so well, you draw us in and make us want to go on reading. We should be glad I suppose that our efforts to cut down/cut out are not played out in the public domain.
ReplyDeleteI agree, us but 100 times more so. And I think I know why... Money. They have way more than us, and they think that money will eventually fix everything - rehabs, face lifts, lipo, personal trainers. Celebreties are a very different breed.
ReplyDeletesad. Hopefully he doesn't take anyone down with him.
ReplyDeleteOh, when I watched his interview, it was obvious that he was not telling the whole truth.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad.
xo
Wendy