You, Me, and Mental Illness Killed Heath Ledger.
Let me explain. Yes, Heath Ledger took pills that ended his life. But what really killed him was you, me, and mental illness.
No one is prepared for fame.
Fame is a form of mental illness in which everyone else knows everything you've ever felt, thought, said, or done. Where money is made on the aforementioned things. Where to some extent you make your living banking on those aforementioned things.
For the already mentally-ill, which is a sizeable portion of our population, the added disease of fame is one that few celebrities can manage without succumbing to addiction, compulsion, cults, meltdowns, or slow creative decline. Not to mention that a desperate longing for attention is indicative of mental disorder on its own. Few people imagine how much worse it is for those who long to make art that resonates with people, to have that dream come true many times over - but in the process realize that you are now solely a commodity.
Heath Ledger went from playing mindless teen heartthrob roles in crappy movies to seriously dedicated, fucking intense artistic performances in beautifully told films made by some of the master storytellers of our time. He was an actor, among mindlessly clapping seals. There are more fingers on my hands than there are male actors of his age with more talent.
If I "want" anything to be clear in the wake of something truly as shocking and sad as this, it's the following: drugs did NOT kill this man. Heath was clearly, obviously, mentally ill. Drugs are not a demon, not a conscious entity of their own accord. Pills didn't leap down Heath Ledger's throat. Nor am I blaming Heath as a person. The true demon, the unmentionable elephant for someone of his caliber and reputation and media saturation, was mental illness. He was obviously depressed.
Britney Spears. How long did it take for people to start mentioning Britney Spears? About 10 minutes after Heath's headline was my first notice of a Britney mention. But think about it. Britney is the living fucking epitome of bipolar disorder. But she's surrounded by yes-men she hires to placate her, and a hungry media that thrives on spectacle. Not just that, but her entire career is sustained by the spectacle of her own slow dessication and destruction. Her externalized mental illness is her career now.
For those with mental illness, there are two courses of action, neither of which you really control - you either externalize your illness, put your problem on display to the world as a cry for help. Or you turn it all inward. Either of these creates a feedback loop when you're the object of fame, and the media feeds you, and you feed the media. Britney's monster pays her bills. Heath's monster obviously made him turn inward, obviously feeling (rightly) as though he had nowhere to turn that wouldn't be scrutinized, profited from, and made light of immediately.
Mental illness was also at the heart of this problem. Drugs were maybe the arm, if you want to continue the metaphor. But we "fans," that disgusting word that really just means "people who fetishize the problems of the famous," fans are also to blame. The people who patronize TMZ and all those websites, websites whose disgusting "reportage" (now including video of Heath's BODY BAG being removed from his apartment building) now dominates mainstream 'news' outlets, are equally as culpable as pills. We act so shocked, as though we didn't know that the steamrollers we built could actually run anyone over. And as I mention this, how many millions of maladjusted kids with undiagnosed emotional problems are making YouTube videos and MySpace songs in the sole hope of getting a chance to jump under that steamroller? And how many other excuses can we make before it becomes clear that the drugs aren't the problem, but the consequence?
I'm disappointed that so many people just don't get it, and are immediately turning to blame drugs like it's Reagan's "Just Say No" 80's all over again. You don't OD on sleeping pills for happy time. You OD on sleeping pills to end yourself, and have a shitty time doing it. The kids aren't all right, and the drugs aren't the reason why.
No one is prepared for fame.
Fame is a form of mental illness in which everyone else knows everything you've ever felt, thought, said, or done. Where money is made on the aforementioned things. Where to some extent you make your living banking on those aforementioned things.
For the already mentally-ill, which is a sizeable portion of our population, the added disease of fame is one that few celebrities can manage without succumbing to addiction, compulsion, cults, meltdowns, or slow creative decline. Not to mention that a desperate longing for attention is indicative of mental disorder on its own. Few people imagine how much worse it is for those who long to make art that resonates with people, to have that dream come true many times over - but in the process realize that you are now solely a commodity.
Heath Ledger went from playing mindless teen heartthrob roles in crappy movies to seriously dedicated, fucking intense artistic performances in beautifully told films made by some of the master storytellers of our time. He was an actor, among mindlessly clapping seals. There are more fingers on my hands than there are male actors of his age with more talent.
If I "want" anything to be clear in the wake of something truly as shocking and sad as this, it's the following: drugs did NOT kill this man. Heath was clearly, obviously, mentally ill. Drugs are not a demon, not a conscious entity of their own accord. Pills didn't leap down Heath Ledger's throat. Nor am I blaming Heath as a person. The true demon, the unmentionable elephant for someone of his caliber and reputation and media saturation, was mental illness. He was obviously depressed.
Britney Spears. How long did it take for people to start mentioning Britney Spears? About 10 minutes after Heath's headline was my first notice of a Britney mention. But think about it. Britney is the living fucking epitome of bipolar disorder. But she's surrounded by yes-men she hires to placate her, and a hungry media that thrives on spectacle. Not just that, but her entire career is sustained by the spectacle of her own slow dessication and destruction. Her externalized mental illness is her career now.
For those with mental illness, there are two courses of action, neither of which you really control - you either externalize your illness, put your problem on display to the world as a cry for help. Or you turn it all inward. Either of these creates a feedback loop when you're the object of fame, and the media feeds you, and you feed the media. Britney's monster pays her bills. Heath's monster obviously made him turn inward, obviously feeling (rightly) as though he had nowhere to turn that wouldn't be scrutinized, profited from, and made light of immediately.
Mental illness was also at the heart of this problem. Drugs were maybe the arm, if you want to continue the metaphor. But we "fans," that disgusting word that really just means "people who fetishize the problems of the famous," fans are also to blame. The people who patronize TMZ and all those websites, websites whose disgusting "reportage" (now including video of Heath's BODY BAG being removed from his apartment building) now dominates mainstream 'news' outlets, are equally as culpable as pills. We act so shocked, as though we didn't know that the steamrollers we built could actually run anyone over. And as I mention this, how many millions of maladjusted kids with undiagnosed emotional problems are making YouTube videos and MySpace songs in the sole hope of getting a chance to jump under that steamroller? And how many other excuses can we make before it becomes clear that the drugs aren't the problem, but the consequence?
I'm disappointed that so many people just don't get it, and are immediately turning to blame drugs like it's Reagan's "Just Say No" 80's all over again. You don't OD on sleeping pills for happy time. You OD on sleeping pills to end yourself, and have a shitty time doing it. The kids aren't all right, and the drugs aren't the reason why.