Letters to the Editor
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Ahhh Lynn, I was hoping for your trademark humor.
Bad girl does it again! In a car chase!
But you're right. It's not a laughing matter. As for the fishbowl aspect, you correctly observe the downside, but what about the upside? I mean, if she could indulge her habit without fear of reprisal, as was the case before media saturation, she might go by way of River Phoenix. What would River Phoenix's fate be if he lived in the day and age of the celebrity weeklies? I'm just sayin.
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Lindsay May Still Not Yet Be Ready for Recovery
Sadly, Ms. Lohan will not be ready for recovery until she hits bottom. That "bottom" is different for all addicts -- some have to lose it all before they are ready. Until she does hit bottom and wants recovery badly enough to go to any length to get it, all attempts will fail.
Having the benefit of anonymity during recovery is a benefit Lindsay will not have unless she withdraws from the public eye. Removing herself from the people, places, and things that could trigger her, all rampant in the Hollywood scene, will be critical to her recovery. Moreover, removing herself from that environment would reduce the presence of paparazzi stalking her to discovery her latest slip-up. No recovering addict needs that kind of pressure.
Having experienced alcohol addiction and nearly a year of recovery, my heart goes out to Lindsay, but she will not be able to recover until she hits bottom and is ready. I hope she hits that point soon for her sake. She has a lot to lose and I would not want to see her lose so much.
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What Lohan owes us
If Lindsay Lohan wants to be a raging alcoholic, that’s her right* (now that’s she’s 21). Lindsay Lohan doesn’t owe any of us jack sh-t.
Don’t approve of her behavior and want to punish her? Don’t buy the tabloids, don’t see her movies and don’t buy her albums. Concerned about Lohan’s effect on impressionable teens and tweens? Be a parent and actually talk to your kids. If Lohan is a bigger influence on your kid than you are, that’s not Lohan’s fault.
The only thing Lohan owes society is to follow our laws and not get behind the wheel while under the influence. Any of her violations of the law demand the same punishment given to any other perpetrator.
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*Her right, which I hope she chooses not to exercise in the future. She’s a talented kid who’s absolutely destroying herself.
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Addiction and choice
AS LONG AS THE MEDIA COLLUDES WITH THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENTISTS AND THE MEDICALIZATION OF BAD BEHAVIOR, WE WILL PLACE A PUBLICITY PREMIUM ON BAD CELEBRITY BEHAVIOR. NEURO-SCIENTISTS MAY CITE BRAIN FUNSCTION DISPOSITION FOR ADDITIVE BEHAVIOR BUT AS LONG AS CHOICE BECOMES A SMALLER AND SMALLER COMPONENT IN ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOR, WE TOLERATE THE INTOLERABLE.
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Occupational hazard?
Having taken a few acting classes, performed in amateur productions, and watching The Actor’s Studio, I have a theory. I really don't think it is the wealth or culture that necessarily "causes" celebrity addiction.
Actors take classes and do exercises specifically to accentuate their feelings, to keep them at the surface, to enable them to be expressed at the fictional input of another actor while a large group of people watch. Essentially, they turn themselves into raw nerve endings.
In the experience of dealing with my teen son's difficulties (fortunately he wasn't addicted, merely experimenting) I ran across a concept I found consonant with my observations. People who are doing drugs are self-medicating. If we ignore the hysterical moralization of the anti-drug lobby, it seems quite evident that a person who takes drugs 1) is feeling bad and 2) needs relief. The fact that the affliction is mental/emotional is a distinction with no difference.
It seems that so many of the more successful actors also have had difficult and painful, if not outright miserable, childhoods.
The only question in my mind is: how is it so many of them escape from the trap of drug addiction? They are emotionally charged so much, and some of the feelings are bad feelings they are required to display. It seems understandable to me why they self-medicate to anesthetize themselves from the constant emotional turmoil.
Emotions are an excellent way of determining how the whole person is doing. I'm not advocating being like Spock, suppressing emotion ruthlessly to the extent of diminishing its importance. I am advocating that there needs to be a balance (cf. Hemispheres, by Neil Peart).
Toward that end, maybe all actors, as part of their pay, need to have access to professional mental health care, with incentives to use it. The best actors (and the ones who seem to be able to overcome addiction and emotional difficulties) appear to use acting as a form of therapy. For those not capable of getting to that level, I think we should help them. We might learn a lot that can be used to help other addicts.
Of course, my theory is blown away if actors (controlling for "celebrities") have no greater rate of addiction than the general populace.
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Dad has offered to help
All she needs is for her parents, the responisble adults, to sit her down and give her a good talking to. Ahh, Never mind.
Her dad has come out and pleaded with her to allow him and her mother to help. But, apparently, Lindsay is not interested in parental assistance. Too bad, really. She is 21, which is not very old. I have a 20 year old, and my daughter is really immature and unable at this age to really make sensible long-term decisions. I think many 20 21 year olds are like that. They make bad decisions, because they are really not that old.
Our culture does not emphasize autonomy, and teenhood is getting longer and longer.
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Just a girl with shitty parents
I don't think that alcohol addiction or drug addiction is an occupational hazard of celebrity. I'm pretty sure most of the people doing coke, crack and meth are regular everyday people with problems and continue doing drugs without arrest, until the one day they are arrested.
I see the problem with Lindsey allowed to escalate to this point because her parents suck ass. Her mother is a pathetic hanger on, trying to get her own shows on E!, she club hopped with her daughter before Lindsey was even 21. Instead of realizing she is not "cool" mom, she is in her 40's and should stop trying to recapture her 20's on the back of her daughter and have boundaries, like hmm gee Linds, you're not 21 yet so as your mom I'm going to advise you to stop drinking in clubs until you're legal, does she do that? Apparently not. Just like Jade Barrymore would take Drew to Hollywood parties and then not watch her so she could try and jumpstart her career again off of Drew's successes. Leaving a young girl left to her own devices with an addictive prone family blood line. I also hear that Corey Feldmens parents weren't too hot either, beating him if he didn't say his lines right. Liz Taylor also apparently had a controlling abusive mother.
Then there is Lindsey's dad, an ex-con and I think he got caught with drugs too, who calls his daughter, not in private but on an entertainment show.
So I think Lindsey is more likely to have a drug addiction, than say Hillary Duff or the Olsen Twins, because their parents seemed to be more responsible about setting boundaries.
But the stupidity of these starlets is amazing, have none of these morons heard of a chauffer service? If I was wealthy, I would totally have a private driver to escort my ass everywhere, especially on a club night. They are like household staff, expected to keep their mouths shut about what their clients do in the back seat. I never drove to clubs, I took cabs!